It's the hot season....... what's with this rain.... and cold..... I do not own a jumper right now!

The months of April to May are known in Thailand/Laos/Cambodia and Vietnam as the Hot and Dry season, so why, I wanted to know, is it raining constantly and why has the temperature dropped from 40 degrees to 15! I was not prepared for this. It started on the morning when we gave food to the monks. We woke up and it was like an typical English day. Grey, overcast, cold and raining. We just thought, its fine it will only last the morning. When we came back from the monks we were dripping wet though and with me at that point in time I only had flip-flops so my feet were extremely cold and complaining. Still we went for breakfast and went to see a temple and it still didn't stop. I went from two pairs of flip-flops to one pair as one of them actually fell apart. No lie, the sole of the show fell off! Still I had another pair so one they went. My feet weren't too best pleased receiving another pair of flip-flops though instead of some warm socks and trainers but they had to suffer along with me and my lack of jumper. We were then taken into the jungley type area to another hotel were were staying. Once there, it cleared up a little and stopped raining. Sorted. The proper weather would be back tomorrow ready for our elephant ride.

The next morning arrived and it was FREEZING! And raining and grey. Still, we persevered and went to go elephant riding. When we turned up at the place we received a few laughs and chuckles from the people who worked their. We soon discovered that it was because we had been booked in for trekking through the jungle as well and we were all just wearing the good old flip-flops. Myself and Clem had some better shoes back at the hotel but we couldn't go back unfortunately. Instead we went trekking in the jungle wearing flip-flops.

To start with we went on the elephants for an hour and a half. To start with we were just on the seats but near the end we were allowed to sit on the neck behind the ears where the guide usually sits. It was immense! I nearly got thrown off a couple of times when our elephant (Sun) turned her head too quickly for some food but I managed to balance and hold on. The only problem I had was getting off. When we finished, I was still on the neck and she had put her ears against my body basically trapping my legs.

The Laos guides were all telling me to get off and couldn't understand that I couldn't as I couldn't move my leg! Eventually they realised the problem and helped me free. Now for the trekking! I think they though that we would fail miserably and take ages and need a lot of help. We surprised them! Trekking in flip-flops, easy! The only problem was that my feet and shoes got very wet and muddy and while my shoes found grip when walking up a hill, my feet just slid out.It was quite entertaining. Clem took her flip-flops off and did half of the walk barefoot. 

We needed no help at all and were sometimes faster than the guide. At one point I was at the front of the line and guide was at the back. During all this time though, it was raining and cold although the trees sheltered us and the walking warmed us up. When we finished and got back to the hotel, we had warm showers and them huddled in the bed for warmth. To start with I was just on my laptop but as time went on, the cold made my hand really stiff so I had to stop and I was then so cold that I went totally under the covers. Even they couldn't keep us warm. We could hear the rain outside and we were lying there our teeth chattering not being able to understand how it was so cold. It wasn't even this cold in the cold season. It was like we had been thrown into English winter without any heating or warm clothing. We went to dinner with blankets and once we were finished, got straight back into bed. I guess that this was caused by the problems in Japan which somehow affected the weather here but I'm not sure but nothing else makes sense. You would have thought that it stopped there? Well you are wrong.

An Early Morning

Like Thailand, Laos is a Buddhist country so early each morning the monks leave the temple for food. We wanted the experience of giving it to them to we woke up nice and early and went to go feed the monks. We bought some local food and sat down on the mats provided and waiting for them to come. As they came down the street in a mass of orange, their bowls at the ready for food, I couldn't help but just look at the beauty of it all. All the monks were just walking in one long line not speaking or anything. Just walking forward food being put into their bowls. Unfortunately we didn't realise how long the line was and how many monks there were as we ran out of food before we ran out of monks. It was actually quite a sad thing as the higher and older monks went first and got food but by the time the young monks came out, people were running out of food and their bowls were hardly full at all. We believe though that the food is all shared out though once they get back to the temple and I was sure that there were still a lot of people waiting on pother streets. Once it was over and the sea of orange had carried on down another street we went back to freshen up and go for some of our own breakfast.

Laos- The start of our travelling

When we first started travelling, Clem's mum was here so we went travelling with her and her partner to Laos. To start with we had to cross the boarder which meant spending money on visa's and re-entry permits but we finally made it to Laos which even though is just across the Mekong river, is a completely different place. When we arrived in Laos, we waiting for Clem's mum to pick us up and while we were waiting a taxi driver came up to us and asked us were we wanted to go. We said no where as we were waiting for someone. He then said something like 100 Baht to where you want to go. We said no again. Instead of giving up though, he then started to lower the price again and again. “80 Baht. 50 Baht 30 Baht!” He just wouldn't take no for an answer. We were then saved though as Clem's mum turned up and we left the boarder and proceeded into Laos. To start with we stayed with one of their family friends who showed us around where he lived in his immense Jeep! After staying there for a couple of days we went on a 10 hour bus journey to the north of Laos to a hotel we had been booked into. The pick up time for the bus was 7am as the bus left at 8am. At 7.30am nothing had come. We guessed that it was just like Thai time so when it eventually turned up filled with other people and their massive bags we weren't that fussed. Now, that bus journey was not the best thing in the world. It was very small and cramped and the journey took us trough the mountains which gave us a stunning view but it was so windy! I guess that if it was a straight road it would have taken half the time if not less to get to our destination. We finally arrived and left the bus to a guest house where we were staying the night. That evening we went to the local night market which was stunning. Some of the things they sold were completely different to Thailand. The main weird thing though was getting used to the money. In Thailand they use Baht which is around 50 Baht to £1. The currency in Laos is called Kip. I got a bit of a shock when I arrived to find that a things were costing 50,000 and 20,000 kip but I then found out that it was 1,000 to 4 Baht which make it........... 12,500 kip to £1 (I think). I spent all my time changing kip into Baht which I believed has helped my mental math quite well. As well as using this currency, they also accept Baht and Dollars! You could pay for some thing in 3 different currencies or pay in two different currencies, and then get your change back in something completely different. Well there we have it, my first experience in Laos.

Lam Duann Festival

At the end of April each year when the Lam Duann flowers are in bloom, Si Saket and I believe most if not all other provinces celebrate the Lam Duann festival. Unfortunately due to our holiday we were only able to experience some of it but what we saw was amazing. For 4 evenings teachers and students from all the colleges and schools performed a play of the history of Si Saket. It was so beautiful as everyone wore Thai Dress and even though they were all speaking in Thai, we were able to understand it all. It involved funny scenes and a large number of different Thai dances. My favourite part was at the end when a God was shown at the temple as the music was epic and the dance was so peaceful. There was a row of girls standing in the entrance to the temple. You could see the first girl but then only the arms of the others so it looked like the first person a had around 10 arms which then did this amazing dance. They also used elephants in the play to show how villagers moved them away form their villages years ago. They even had a little elephant baby which was so cute as it just kept on wondering around with no clue as to what was going on, it was just following its mother around.

Clem ad myself went to see it twice. First on the rehearsal day as it was free entry and then again with our friends where we were served food and drink. There was also a parade during the day after the performances had finished but we had left by then to go travelling so we didn't get a chance to see that unfortunately.

Departure

As well as us two volunteers from England, there are also two volunteers from China who stayed for around 9 months and they left in March.
It was sad to see them go as they had helped us loads when we first got here as I had no idea when it came to the culture and stuff.
They left in the morning as one of the colleges vans was going to take them to Bangkok. I must admit I would have preferred to take a night bus as then I can sleep in the 9 hour journey. Now that they have left its weird to have 2 less people as the new volunteers don't come until May and the start of teaching.
I wonder what the new volunteers are going to be like as I know that I will compare the new volunteers to Yok Soyai and Fah Sai.

Brightly Coloured Trousers

Even though its the summer holidays, there was a volunteers camp around 30km away to help sort out a local school by doing some painting and decorating. P-Aim went for all the days and we really wanted to go as well but we were too busy. Luckily, we had one free day and P-Aim and her Dad took us up to help. Before we left though, we changed into some absolutely amazing trousers! As you can see from the pictures they are so bright and really good to wear in the hot weather. The choices were purple, orange and pink. I went for the purple (no surprise there). It was quite funny to see us all in matching trousers.

So we went to the school and first went to help with some young kids folding banana leaves into different shapes. Sound easy right? Nope.

To start with I just couldn't get it. Every time I one of the kids showed me what to do, I did the exactly the same thing and it turned out rubbish! We gave up after a but and went to go and help with the painting. That didn't go so well either. Clem was painting the ceiling and accidentally walking into a bucket of paint and she was looking up and got a small bit of paint on P-Aim's trousers!

A quick dash to the toilets though and it was all sorted. Next we tried helping out in the kitchen and this time we managed to get along fine by chopping up vegetables. Well, I say we, but Clem chopped the vegetables and I took pictures.

Just before lunch, P-Aim asked us to teach something to the kids. We weren't to sure but the kids we up for it. We taught them the rainbow song (red and yellow and pink and green). After teaching teenagers for so long who don't want to learn, I forgot how much kids like to repeat songs and such. Our time was up so quickly but the kids had fun which was good. 

After lunch I went back to try and help out with the leaf folding again and somehow, I'm not sure how, I got the hang of it! I actually made some which were good enough to be put into the pot for the next stage!

Unfortunately the day finished too quickly and we had to go back. It would have been so much fun to have been there for all the days but I'm glad I got to go that one time as it was so much fun.

Silk Silk Silk

One of the English teachers in the college offered to take us (Clem, Yok Soyai, Fah Sai and myself) to Surin to see silk being made and the elephants. Surin is the province next door to Si Saket and is famous for elephants, silk and silver so we all jumped at the chance and said 'hell yeah!'

We were going to have an early morning of around 6am but thankfully that was changed to around 9am. We set off on the long journey crammed in the car. Two in the front and four in the back. Lets just say by the end of the two hour journey, I was pretty uncomfortable.

The first stop was at a silk weaving place which was beautiful. What was good as well was that there were these two looms set apart from everything else and on them was silk being made for the king and queen of Thailand. We even sneakily touched it! We touched silk for the royal family! We found out that it takes around one day make 5 inches! Talk about order in advance. Afterwards we looked at the dying of the silk. It was a bit weird to hear that they get the blue colour from a leaf as I always thought that blue was such an unnatural colour to find in tree's leaves or berries.

Next came the elephants. Unfortunately we missed the show but we were able to ride one around the elephant village which was good. Each elephant has their own keeper who looks after them and feeds them so all the houses were made up with two floors. The top for the person who looks after the elephant and the ground floor, which was a sheltered area, for their elephant. 

It was a really good day as instead of being tourists and just going to the touristy areas, we were able to go to a place which is more of the 'Thai scene' (if that even makes any sense).