My Christmas

And so, Christmas came and went.
Xmas eve I joined a couple from the States who are volunteering here until the weekend.
We cycled about 45 mins alongside the river to a Sculpture Park that took 20 years to build by a rather eccentric man originally from Laos.
Some of the largest sculptures were more than 7 blocks high, this one was my favourites, Jamie is standing in front of it.

That's me in front of the huge Buddha

It was a nice chilled way of spending the afternoon, and on the way back we stopped for a cheeky beer at a bar owned by a gay (but was once married) guy from Manchester.

He had some great stories including that every year a couple of his 'straight' married friends come out to visit him and love to 'go with 'lady boys...(you never can tell)

On the night of Xmas eve the volunteers and Kirk (the founder) went to a place on the river (owned by Westerners), for about £5.50 we were able to help ourselves to an amazing buffet, consisting of Thai curries, lasagne, fish, grilled pork and chicken steaks, veggie food, salads, rice, noodles, potatoes, fruits and ice cream, this was the most expensive meal I have had in the 2 months of being in Thailand.
The entertainment was a little dull for a Christmas party, it was traditional Thai dance. Most of us left by 10pm, I went back to my bed so I was asleep for when Santa came...
Alas, I awoke Christmas morning and the bugger had completely forgotten me.
Thanks to Lisa and Becky I did at least have 2 e mails to open.
I was able to speak to Mum on skype as she is in Cambodia on the same time zone.
At 12.30 I met with 3 others to go to the not very pretty local park for something to do.
This being a Buddhist country and only a handful of foreigners in the town, there was absolutely nothing to suggest it was Christmas, (apart from a few locals wearing Santa hats that they had bought from 'Tesco Lotus') I am sure they just think its the latest fashion!
By 2pm I was back in my room as the others had to go and meet some one else.
I ate Christmas lunch alone...yes really, this was it!

I sat reminising about the same time last year, I had met Frans on Christmas eve and we had spent Xmas day on the beach and indeed the next 3 and a half months together.
How I wished I could have gone back a year...
As I was having those thoughts he called me on skype!
It was lovely to hear and see him, we had a good chat and both agreed that last Christmas was better than this one. It seems he was on his own too, phew!
All to soon the call ended, leaving me feeling better and worse at the same time.
I left the room straight away and headed for the market. It is nothing like those in Chian Mai, mainly food stalls and second hand clothes. Here is a fruit and a meat stall.

Christmas evening was 'different', the gay bar owner Chris from Manchester, had invited a few of us to his bar from 5.30pm onwards for buffet and drinks and the promise of lady boys.
It seemed like the best (and was the only) option.
The food was good and free!
There were no lady boys, just a few 'couples' English and Thai.
Most of the others went back about 7pm to watch movies-yawn!

I stayed out with 2 others until the dizzy time of 9pm when I asked  Chris, to order me a tuk tuk. He said that one of his staff would take me on the back of his moter bike and promptly summoned the boy over, telling me I was in no danger of being touched up as he only liked men, Hilarious!

On Boxing day I taught at the rural school in the morning and after a lunch of noodle soup with pork and back to the guest house for a shower and change of clothes, it was off to the learning centre from 4-7pm to teach/listen to students read.
Christmas has officially finished and not a brussel sprout in sight, good then!

Volunteering.

I left Chiang Mai early Monday morning and 2 flights later (I couldn't be bothered to go by road or rail) I arrived in Nong Kai and went straight to Isara learning centre (ILC).
I had enrolled to volunteer on line to secure my place and was greeted by Kirk, the American founder of the project.
He set it up 5 years ago and it is growing with the help volunteers and  generous donations
Isara teaches English and computers to students of all ages at the free Learning Center, located in the heart of Nong Khai.
Isara also provides volunteers to local government schools and scholarships to students in the surrounding area.
There are currently 15 volunteers which is a lot, sometimes there are far fewer.
The children come after their school day between 4-7pm at set times according to age and subject and appear to love it.
They don't have to come, but as they really want to learn English for a better future they relish the chance.


This week the theme was Christmas which has been fun.
The smaller children have been very busy making Christmas trees, snow flakes/men, parcels and sticking glitter to just about everything.
I have been helping out, and enjoying it as much as they have, I was a dab hand at the snow men!
The children stuck them all over the windows



3 times a week a few of us go to a local rural school where the education is poor.
I sat with 2 boys teaching them their letter sounds. I have also been listening to some of the others read and generally getting stuck in where needed.
The boy on the left wanted to draw so I asked him to do a picture beginning with a 'b' and then a 'd'  he drew a buffalo and a dinosur, no idea what the bottom pic is!


You are asked to volunteer 15 hours a week but can do as many as you like as there is always something to do at the ILC or one of the other places.
This is 2 of the permanent staff that are paid a amall wage by an Amercan donator.
These girls work all day every day overseeing the volunteers, the office, and they also teach and keep the place running smoothly.
On the 23rd we had a Christmas party at Isara for the children and it was good fun.
Having spent all week making decorations and sticking them every where the scene was set.....

A girl arrives dressed up for the party...











                                                                                                                       Jingle bells







Pretty girls all in a row

All the children and teachers brought a present for 'Secret Santa'

                      I love this picture of Santa and reindeers.


Teacher Lisa and student in their party hats

These 2 little girls were watching the teacher playing Xmas tunes and below pass the parcel

Some of the volunteers
                                                                                                     

                                                                   My favourite picture, a Thai Santa in a t-shirt and no shoes!

Singalong at the piano,          a snowman with antlers!       and 2 little girls in their party dresses.

The pary ended at 7pm after 3 hours of fun and games, it was a fun end to my first week volunteering.

This town is a lot different from Chiang Mai, that is the second largest town in Thailand and alot of the people there speak English. Here there are very few foreigners and so nothing is geared up for them, ie restaurants, bars (apart from girly bars frequented by old, bald, fat Brits and Germans wanting their leg over)

In fact, all the western men over here seem to prefer Thai women, who are mainly half their age and at least half their size!

Its enough to put you off for life, seeing the men with girls young enough to be their daughters and at times grandaughters is just horrible, the most extreme was an 71 yr old English guy called Bill from Portsmouth, recently married to a 28yr old Thai girl who couldnt speak a word of English when they met 2 years ago. Ridiculous!

All the male volunteers here have Thai girlfriends. As I cannot compete with their beauty, age or size, all the time I am in Thailand I think its a dead cert I will remain single.

So the lifestyle is very different, but the work is quite taxing and takes some getting used to and so this week after finishing at around 7.30pm and getting something to eat in a local Thai place on the street, I have gone back to my room.

I rent a nice large double room with tv and fridge and large balcony in a guest house that gives a generous discount to Isara volunteers so I am paying less than £100 a month!

With food and drink only costing £3-£4 a day it's going to to be nice and cheap to stay here and it is right on the Mekong river.
For Christmas day a few of us plan a trip to the park and a gay bar in the evening which should be something fun and a different way to spend Christmas day!

Elephant Sanctuary

It's my final week in Chiang Mai and I have spent much of it going out on trips with my Mum and John.
The highlight was when we went to the Elephant Nature Park.

There are several day trips to see elephants but this one stood out as special, and I chose it as it rescues and cares for misued and injured elephants and gives them a safe home for the rest of their lives.

This elephant had just been bathing in river

The setting was breathtaking, with 2,000 acres of park for the 36 rescued and orphaned Elephants to roam free.

Visiting the park, they told us that elephants were traditionally working animals for logging and clearing land for development. But after logging was abolished in the 80s, most elephants were no longer needed, and the population declined rapidly.



Nowadays, elephants are mainly seen as big sources of income in tourist areas. Many elephants in Thailand are abused, malnourished, and experience harsh treatment. They work strenuous hours for tourists for everything from walking city streets to jungle trips and tourist shows. There is virtually no protection for privately owned elephants, and although it's illegal to bring elephants into cities, it's seldom enforced.
Their mahouts walk them along busy streets with traffic all around and tourists pay for a bag of food and pose for a photo while feeding them. This makes easy money for the mahout but is less than adequate food or life for the elephant.
Luckily, this is where the Elephant Nature Park comes in. It's a place where elephants roam with their adopted families after being abused or mistreated.

Some elephants were abandoned, but many were bought from owners in order to save their lives.  

Our day began with a video about the park. 

It was founded by a passionate Thai woman, Lek, the granddaughter of a hill tribe shaman.
The park's objectives: rehabilitating elephants, restoring natural habitat, educating and involving the local community, educating visitors, and helping make changes to improve the treatment of elephants.

Our first task was to feed the elephants that were old, injured and two of them blind.

This lady decided to help herself.

While others were fed by their mahouts and we were not able to go too near them, however we were able to see and photograph them with ease.

I took this shot from a viewing platform as they were going to the river for the first of their two daily dips.

Others just took it easy.....

And 'hung out' together......

After a wonderful vegetarian buffet lunch we were introduced to some of the elephants and able to have our photos taken with them.

Despite being reassured they wouldn't hurt me, it is still unnerving to be between two of these magnificent beasts (and yes I did change my shorts to go into the river to bathe them)

This one was giving Mum an Elephant kiss

Spending the day in such a wonderful place with these gentle beautiful creatures and learning that their safety and tranquility is all down to one lady is truely amazing and very humbling.

We only spent a day at the park but there is simple but comfortable accomodation so that you could stay for a night or two and also a volunteer programme to stay for a week and help out with the upkeep of the park and food preperation.
It all comes at a price but all goes towards the large sums of money needed for such a project.
A worthwhile cause indeed...

 XXX