Paisley Firefly: August 2016

Excursion 2

On Sunday the 17^th of April we were due to head off for another excursion which was expected to be very different from our first excursion. This excursion would involve us exploring the cultural aspect of Thailand a lot more. I was excited for this because one thing I’d always said when someone asked why I chose to go back to Thailand was that I wanted to immerse myself in the culture more than when I’d first visited.

The drive to the hill tribe was really .. interesting. With quite a few hungover passengers, the song thaews were a ticking time bomb. Adding windy, steep roads to that meant it wasn’t too surprising when someone threw up off the back. Anyway, before too long we’d arrived at the hill tribe and were making our way up the stairs to the top of the tribe. There was a lovely garden at the top. After some light shopping (just got some lil coin purses for my friends and family), I made my way back to the song thaews. I quickly grabbed an ice cream (it was a berry cornetto, the best cornetto I’ve ever had, haven’t found it here since then) and teased it in front of the hungover people (unintentionally at first). Then we were off the see the Queen’s gardens which were given to the Queen by the King. The Queen’s gardens were absolutely beautiful and a lovely experience. We wondered around for quite a while and then enjoyed same pad thai and a waffle for lunch.

We finished off the excursion by visiting Wat Prathat Doi Suthep Temple. This was a beautiful temple and was an awesome 300 step walk to the top. Once there we took part in what there was (lighting candles, walking around the main statue and praying or asking for forgiveness) and we also got a blessing. The blessing was pretty cool because you shake a container that has sticks with numbers in them. A stick will fall out and you take a blessing according to the number. My blessing felt quite fitting at the time and will continue to have relevance all throughout my life.

That’s about it for the second excursion, thanks for reading!

The hill tribe we visited.

The Queen's garden.

The Queen's gardens.

The steps to the top of the temple.

At the temple.

Wat Prathat Doi Suthep Temple.

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx

The second week of the course involved our first presentation and a trip to an old age home. The presentation was extremely nerve wrecking. Orals were my least favourite thing at school and here I was meant to do a presentation that was a good 10 minutes long in front of 52 other people, majority of whom were older than me. But I made it through without any major hiccups. And was fortunate enough to only do my presentation after the group of 52 was split into 3.

It was also a very special week because this week was Songkran, the Thai new year. This also meant we got a half day off on Wednesday and Thursday and got the whole of Friday off. On Tuesday we were all fortunate enough to attend a small ceremony at a local old age home. The trip to the old age home was very significant because we got to celebrate the religious part of such an important festival. This involved being blessed by the elderly residents and dancing with them to end off the visit. It was an eye opening experience and I feel truly blessed that I was able to be a part of it. Soon we were off to class and planning our afternoon of watergun hunting (Songkran involves a water festival where everyone sprays or splashes everyone else with water).

A group of us headed to the Big C supermarket on Wednesday afternoon with one of the teachers from the course to find the perfect watergun. The selection was small and the prices were increasing, we had to move fast! I had my heart set on a Stitch gun but, after being told it wouldn’t have much power, settled for a teddy-giraffe hybrid backpack watergun. With that sorted, it was time for the fun to begin. We headed off to the old city with a stop to drop off the stuff we didn’t need and to get splashed by the staff where the TEFL course took place. The drive to the old city was an adventure all on its own because there are only so many places to hide in a songthaew. We made it to the old city and were keen to get our fight on. We walked a lot and left no stone unturned (i.e.: we sprayed everyone). The water was interesting because the buckets people used to refill their guns were either filled with dirty canal water or ice cold water. Best of both worlds I guess. Before we knew it, it was time for us to head to the resort. We were bummed to leave but absolutely exhausted from the day’s madness.

Thursday Songkran day 2: Today involved mostly chilling. I dropped my laundry off at a place across the road to be washed and then spent most of the day in the beautifully air-conditioned room. That night we all planned to go to a foam party and then head to a place called Zoe’s (a really nice club with a pretty cool atmosphere, check it out if you’re ever in Chiang Mai) afterwards. I was keen for the foam party but disappointed because we landed up at the wrong place. On the plus side we did experience some of a Thai concert where we felt like celebrities due to the overwhelming excitement shared by many of the audience. And the staring. The staring made us feel it too. Most of the group were restless and just wanted to go to Zoe’s. Before we knew it we’d arrived at Zoe’s and met up with more of the group from the course. The beginning was good and most of us stuck together but then I branched off to a different part of the group because I was starting to feel like a bit of a third wheel and wasn’t really keen on watching where all the arm touching and flirting would lead to. Then when that was over I was left holding people’s drinks and waiting an hour for them to get back from the toilet. Luckily a guy from the group (the fourth member of my rafting party) offered to stay with me while I waited so I wasn’t completely alone. After over an hour of waiting Sara came back, not fairing so well after 2 buckets and countless sips of other drinks. Tristan appeared and said I should take Sara home and Simone and Thiv (the couple) were nowhere to be seen (I later found out that they had headed home just before Sara and I left). Tristan also told me he needed some disinfectant for his foot (he’d fallen into a scooter), so he’d be knocking on my door when he got back.

After getting ripped off by a tuk tuk Sara and I were safely back at the resort and Sara was off to the showers. I quickly got dressed and soon there was a knock on my door. I grabbed the germiline and headed out to the damage Tristan had caused himself when he fell into a scooter (more to come on the damage in future blogs). The rest of the night was a blur and before I knew it was Friday.

Friday was rather uneventful and just involved more relaxing. That night I wasn’t keen to go out because I still had a sour taste in my mouth from the night before. So while everyone else was turning up, I was Skyping home. Saturday I tried my very best to walk to the Tesco and got dismally lost. I was alone and my phone didn’t work and it was hella hot. I gave up after 45 minutes and made my way back to the resort. Once there I was informed that there was a lot of drama what went down the night before. Sara and I went for coffee so she could fill me in on everything. After hearing everything I was not keen on joining them for the fourth night at Zoe’s and opted for a night in, again. Its not that I don’t enjoy going out and having fun, I just like to know that when I do, I’m with people who won’t leave me for a good portion of the night, especially not when it’s a foreign country with people from here, there and everywhere. Plus, we had our second excursion the next day so I wasn’t amped to risk missing it because I’d overslept.