Rangsit

Rightio, time for the trip back to Rangsit (which is also in the outskirts of Bangkok, but the opposite direction from where we’d be staying). Angie and I asked the agents if we could be dropped off in Rangsit as they were going right through it to drop 3 new teachers off in an area 30 minutes from our school. The consultant we were dealing gave us an excuse and we ended up getting dropped off 5 minutes after getting on the van. Luckily for us, someone translated where we needed to go and before we knew it we were in a van on our way. We were on that van for about 30 minutes, then ended up hopping onto another van. After the second van (or 3^rd if you include the very short trip in the beginning), we got stuck in the pouring rain for 20 minutes (clever me decided to wear slops that day) and had cockroaches crawling on our feet and bags. Fun. We finally managed to get a song thaew to Future Park which was all of 10 minutes away. And now we were at the final leg of the trip and hopped on our last van, both beyond eager to lie down. After having walked about a kilometre from where the last van dropped us, we arrived, feeling rather exhausted. I should also mention that my suitcase was broken and so I had to drag it around on 1 and a third of its original 2 wheels. I was helped in last couple meters of the walk by a Thai man who used some contraption to wheel my bag the last little bit, I was so grateful.  

The next day I signed the contract for the apartment, my first apartment! It’s not much, but its mine. It felt so good to unpack everything! No more suitcases!! Well for the moment in anyway. That night I was keen to skype Tristan, but first had to help Sara out as she was rather worked up about where she was staying. After skyping her for an hour and then Tristan and I skyping her, Tristan and I could finally talk. 5 hours later we decided it’d be best to go to bed. And we’d decided Tristan would visit first, in 3 days’ time.

The next couple days involved shopping with Angie for some apartment essentials, unpacking and just chilling. Oh and Angie also helped me sort out my phone so I was able to use it when I wasn’t connected to wifi, such a relief. On Monday afternoon Angie left for Laos to apply for a work permit, so all I really had to do that day was chill until Tristan arrived, which was at about 10 that night. We’d done so much moving around in the past month, Tristan and I decided to have a relaxing week. The first week in Rangsit involved hospital visits (Tristan needed a check up on his toe), a trip to Terminal 21 in Bangkok and watching the new Captain America movie at Future park. Sadly, the week with Tristan ended all too quickly and before I knew it, we were heading to Future Park so Tristan could catch a van back to Sriracha, the area he was teaching in.

Some amazing cupcakes from Cupcake Love in Terminal 21.

Movie time!

The weather conditions Angie and I were faced with.

Tristan and I exploring Future Park.

Thanks for reading,read the next post to find out how my first week working as a teacher in Thailand went!

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx

Hello Bangkok!

Bangkok! At 6am our train arrived in Bangkok and we met up with the group who’d caught the earlier train. I felt worse for wears and was excited to just get going. We were fetched by our new agents and taken to their offices in Samut Sakhon. The trip was long and tiring and didn’t do much for my nausea. Thankfully though Tristan and Sara were being very helpful and trying to make me feel as comfortable as one could possibly be in a bus full of people. After what felt like an eon, we arrived at the agency.

We were given something to snack on and then came time to sign contracts. There were some queries with the contracts so we ended up spending the whole day at the agents and only got to our accommodation at around 6pm. We all showered (finally) and headed out for some food. It was nice spending some time with people from Chiang Mai and venting about the long day we’d all experienced. After spending 100 baht on French fries (for only a teeny tiny plate full) we walked back to our accommodation, ready for a good night’s rest.

The next day was long and one I’d rather not go into, but when I finally got back at around 7pm, I was eager to chill and needed to talk to someone. Everyone was back at the accommodation so we all headed out to get some food. After eating and showering I felt somewhat refreshed. I then spent a couple hours talking to Tristan about my day and whatnot and was grateful to have a shoulder to lean on.

The next day Tristan and I headed to the hospital for a check up on Tristan’s toe. Whilst waiting in line I got a phone call saying I had to go back to the accommodation and get ready for an interview. I had to pack up everything and be ready in half an hour. I wasn’t impressed and was rather suspicious due to the experience I’d had with the agency the day before, but, after being threatened, I made my way back to our accommodation. The next couple hours were tedious and involved being squashed up in a bakkie for a good few hours. When we (myself and a girl called Angie) eventually arrived for our interview. It was late and we were told to come back the next day with a demo lesson prepped. I was nervous and the next 24 hours were a blur but somehow we ended up back at Sabai Sabai. We got the jobs though! We had about 2 and a half weeks until the semester started so we could just chill for a bit. When Angie and I reached Bangkok (well the outskirts of Bangkok), we met up with Tristan and a few other people from the course to go to Bangkok for some stuff and food.

Bangkok was hot but we had some good food and got what was needed and had fun so overall it was a good afternoon. That night Tristan and I watched some movies and snacked and just really relaxed.

The next morning Tristan was supposed to be going off for his interview so we headed down at like 8/9 only to be told his interview was the next day. But that meant we could chill for one more day. And that’s exactly what we did. We ate some pasta with bacon (a rare gem here) and watched movies and chatted for a bit.

The next morning was a bit sad, I was going to miss everyone (a lot of people were going to the Chonburi area for their interviews, which was 2 hours from where I'd be teaching). That just left Sara, Angie and I (and 2 others) from our Chiang Mai group. We wandered around the area and I took the opportunity to repack my suitcase (the same one I’d been living out of for 4 weeks now). It was our last night at Sabai Sabai (yay), I was eager to leave behind the rock hard bed base they called a bed. I enjoyed some of the best fried rice I’ve ever had (for 140 baht), struggling to eat it with chopsticks. I had a rather early night which was a good decision because, unbeknown to me, I was in for quite a roller coaster the next day.

Again Plz (Samut Sakhon): 9/10 food, but absolutely ridiculous prices

Santa Fe (Samut Sakon): 6/10

Sabai Sabai (Samut Sakhon): 6/10, the beds are ridiculously hard

That’s it for now, keep following to find out about a 2-hour trip turned into 5 hours. Thanks for reading!

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx

Final week in Chiang Mai

Hey there, sorry about the delay with posting, it has been a crazy month. I hope you enjoy!

The final week in Chiang Mai had arrived. Time for the final presentations and exam and then the real work would begin. I was very anxious for the presentation so I was grateful to my family back home who were doing all they could to keep me calm. I was ready and had it all planned out to the tee but still couldn’t stop the anxiety from hitting. On the day of our final presentation we were also fortunate enough to visit a children’s home and donate some necessities. Whilst there, we spent some time feeding the children and playing with them. It was a lot of fun and made me excited to start teaching (and made me hope that I would end up teaching primary school). After that it was time for my final presentation. To be honest, most of the presentation was a blur because I was so nervous I could barely think straight, but other than that it was actually okay (well in my opinion). The last couple days of the course were to refine all the skills they’d taught us, in preparation for the final exam and for teaching.

The final exam was long and tedious and wasn’t even used towards our certificate, so overall, a waste of time (especially as it was open book). But I guess it’s all part of the experience. We were all just excited for graduation and to go out and celebrate. We’d all been told where our agency had placed us to work and had been told we had to be in Bangkok that very Sunday. After the exam we headed off to buy train tickets. With that out of the way it was time for some food and to get ready for the night ahead. Not long after 5pm we all headed to the Red Bus Bar for graduation.

The Red Bus Bar was a lovely spot for graduation, perfect for our final night all together. The night started off with a speech and some encouraging words for our future teaching careers and then the graduation ceremony began. We were all given our TEFL certificates, our permission to teach English as a Foreign language basically, and then the farewells began. It was bittersweet night where we were stoked to be finished with the course, but rather bummed the whole experience was over. It was like the last day of high school, where promises of future meet ups were made and the ever ‘true’ statement “We’ll talk all the time” was said countless times. Everyone had good intentions of keeping their promises, but sometimes life just gets in the way no matter how hard we try.

Everyone left the red bus bar at around 10pm to either go to Zoe’s or wherever else was on offer for the night. After listening to rather chilled music and singing and even some dancing, everyone was excited to let loose. We were only at Zoe’s for a short amount of time (Fun Fact: clubs generally close at 12am because the sale of alcohol is prohibited after midnight) and then it was time to head back to the resort. One very memorable moment from that night was eating one of the most incredible burritos ever, from a street vendor. I’d go back to Chiang Mai just for that. After the burritos, 4 of us (Tristan, Zanru and Sara) walked back from where the song thaew dropped us (where Simone and Thiv were staying) and ended up going into two 711 stores that were just a couple hundred meters apart, just because Zanru wanted to see the cashier at the other 711. It was rather amusing for me to watch everything as basically the only sober person there. The after effects of a night out can also be rather amusing. Not so much in this case though, as the next morning was our final day in Chiang Mai. After getting back to the resort, Zanru and I just chatted for a bit and were there after joined by Tristan to watch a movie. We were all pretty tired and decided to call it quits after 2 of us (not me) fell asleep.

Sara and I had problems with our phones so we wanted to buy a cheap phone to put a Thai sim card in (and to use whatsapp and line). So the last day in Chiang Mai started off with Sara, Tristan and I at Tesco sorting that out, only to find the phones we bought don’t actually use whatsapp as we’d been told they did and having to return the phones all of 5 minutes later. Then we headed back to the resort to pack up everything, which was a mission and a half. Lunch time!! Sara, Tristan and I met up with Thiv, Simone and one of the teachers from the course. We headed to Star Avenue for some Mexican, yum!

Unfortunately, our time in Chiang Mai, much like all good things, had come to an end. I was rather upset the experience was over, it was honestly once in a lifetime. I was, however, excited for the next chapter as I had a good feeling it would change me for the better. So with that feeling, I hopped on an overnight train to Bangkok and, other than the food poisoning I was lucky enough to have for the last 6 hours of the trip, had a rather pleasant experience.
(Sorry about all the pictures and the fact that they're not in order, I hope they give you a little more insight into my time in Chiang Mai).

Some delicious sodas from the coffee shop just down the road from where the course was held. (Yellow: Passionfruit, Purple: Blueberry)

Some Pad Thai Sara and I got for dinner from a street vendor just across the road from Eco.

Really yummy ice cream from Bud's Ice Cream.

Night Bizaar

Night Bizaar

Some tasty duck from a restaurant near the Saturday Market (I think).

Really good coffee from a coffee shop just down the road from Eco.

One of my favourite lunches whilst in Chiang Mai which is a Spicy fried pork and mushroom dish right across the road from the course.

Night Bizaar

Night Bizaar

Night Bizaar

Night Bizaar

Green tea and charcoal ice cream which was actually really nice!

Graduation night: Red Bus Bar

Graduation night: Zoe's

Graduation night: Red Bus Bar

Graduation night: Red Bus Bar

Final presentation

Children's Home

Tristan and I on Graduation night (at Red Bus Bar)

Eco Resort (well the pool)

A rather beautiful sunset in Chiang Mai

Street vendor Mexican food (Chiang Mai, opposite Zoe in Yellow): 9/10

Sunrise Tacos (Chiang Mai, at Star Avenue): 7/10, depending on what you choose

711 toasted sandwhiches (Thailand): 8/10, but obviously not as good as a good ol’ homemade toastie

Eco Resort (Chiang Mai): 6/10 (the pool is nice, but the rooms aren’t worth what we were charged)

Bud's Ice Cream (Chiang Mai): 8/10 

That’s it for the Chiang Mai chapter, thanks for reading!

Happy wandering,

Centaine xx