The clouds last Sunday morning could not deter us - armed with our "Hakone Free Pass" and 3 friends (Kim, Bel and Anita) we headed West towards Hakone to enjoy mountains, beautiful green forests and amazing views. In theory these views include Mt Fuji - or Fuji-san as it's called here, which translates to Mr/Ms Fuji - but unfortunately the clouds reduced visibility to next to nothing! Initially this upset me a little as we have still yet to see this iconic mountain at all- but the clouds were so low and mist-like that they really added to the experience and made the whole place even more atmospheric.

We started our exploration of Hakone by taking a pituresque but slightly packed train which wound its way up a mountain. About halfway we hoped off to take a look at the "Hakone Open-Air Museum."This ended up being one the highlights of the day for me and Matt, in fact maybe even one of our favourite things in Japan so far. The museum is a breezy sculpture park with views on misty mountains and forests, and which houses works by the likes of Rodin, Moore and Picasso. It also has indoor art galleries, a beautiful tower/work of art whose walls are a glass mosiac, and a foot-bathing area! We highly recommend taking the time to have a wander around this beautiful and refreshing museum if you are in the area.

Next, we continued on the pituresque train-ride (after some confusion that lead to us going back a stop by mistake), then took a "cable car" which was actually a funicular train and then a "ropeway" which to my great relief turned out to be cable car. What a perfect way to spend a Sunday afternoon: floating over misty forested mountains.. until the mist got so think that we could hardly see the cable our car was attached to! And then, just as we cleared the clouds, we looked down to see what appeared to be a mining wasteland on the side of the mountain with steam spewing out of it. This and the slight rotten-egg smell of sulphur told us we were our next destination: an area of volcanic hot springs.

We had a quick wander around the barren hillside - just long enough to take in the bubblihg hot pools of sulphuric water fed by hot springs, but not so long that the sulphuric fumes got the better of us - signs everywhere warned tourists of the potential deadly nature of the steam! All we suffered from was slight nausea beacuse of the smell, and we even survived long enough to buy and eat some black-shelled eggs. These eggs are boiled in the bubbling volcanic water which turns their shells black and also endows them with life-lengthening properties - each black egg that you eat apparently extends your lifespan by 7 years!

Content that our lifes would now be 7 years longer (except for Matt whose egg-allergies mean that eating one of the black eggs could actually shorten his life with immediate effect, or at least make it uncomfortable for a few hours!) we continued our cable car ride down the other side of the mountain. We alighted at a town on the shores of Lake Ashi - a scenic lake set amoung mountains from which you can usually see Fuji-san but the clouds thwarted us again!

Still, we got to cross the lake on a pirate ship!! Kistchy perhaps, but the 45 minute boat trip appealed to the child within! We attempted to spot some red tori in the water (gate -ike Shinto structures) and saw 2, but neither were as impressive as we'd hoped!

Once we got off our pirate ship (complete with a distorted map of the UK with Scotland bigger than England which delighted Matt) we took a short walk down an old "Cedar Grove" and imagined ourselves Samurai back in the day!

I had wanted to try out an onsen (naked hot spring experience - single sex mind) but it was getting late and the others wanted to head home so we hoped back on a funky train - funky because the front is all window - and chatted about how succesful the day had been for the hour-long train ride home!

Hakone remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Just SW of big bustling Tokyo is the beautiful and tranquil coastal town of Kamakura.. tranquil until sunny weekends when hordes of Japanese daytrippers descend on it to enjoy its temples, views and general zen-ness. Last Sunday, a perfect day of clear blue skies and bright sunshine, we joined the Japanese tourists and decided to explore it ourselves.

Kamakura is famous for its many Zen temples set in a stunning background of green forest and Japanese gardens. Highlights include beautiful wooden Zen Buddhist shrines such as those at Kencho-ji, Engaku-ji and Tokei-ji temples. The latter temple used to be a refuge for women who wanted to divorce their husbands - the husbands were not allowed on temple grounds and if the women stayed for 3 years then they were granted a divorce - this was the only way they could get one at the time. We spent the morning wandering around temples, taking in the beautiful structures and carvings, and above all enjoying how green and airy the temple grounds were. It made such a difference from the very urban experience of our everyday life here.

At some point near lunch we bumped into someone who teaches for the same company as we do and whom I'd met at our training days. We had a quick chat and then parted ways because Matt and I went to have lunch at a local Soba restaurant. Soba is a very healthy and very yummy kind of noodle which is made of buckwheat - a particular favourite of Matt's. We then headed to the next temple where we bumped into Marina again while gazing at a Zen garden.

The three of us spent the rest of the afternoon exploring more Zen temples, a museum and a Shinto temple. The Shinto temple was a bit brighter and brasher than the Zen ones, but still magnificent in its own way. One thing I particular love about Shinto temples are the written prayers on wooden tablets. For a small fee you can buy a wooden tablet called an Ema to write a short prayer or wish on, and then hang it up with everyone elses. Apparently the practice originates from the mediveal times when wealthy people would donate a horse to the temple when making a large request to the god of the shrine. If the request was of a smaller nature it was customary to give a picture of a horse, and these pictures evolved into the Ema we see today, many of which still have a horse drawn on them, although pictures of other animals, arrows etc are also popular these days. In any case I always find it touching to see hundreds and hundreds of written prayers hanging together, each and every one representing something very personal and very important to the person who wrote it.

After indulging in some ice-cream we caught a train to the other side of Kamakura to see another famous temple, called Daibatsu, which houses a giant Buddha - and his giant flipflops nearby! While the architectural style in Kamakura (and indeed in all Japan) is very different from Thailand, some of the Buddha statues we saw in Kamakura were very similar to those in Thailand. At one point both Matt and I audibly gasped as we saw a Japanese man rub his hand on the head of a Buddha statue, only to remember we were no longer in Thailand where it would be inconceivable to touch a Buddha statue's head!

By then the clear skies had covered over and it was threatening to rain, but Matt and I decided we wanted to check out a nearby sea-side town called Katase and nearby island called Enoshima before heading home. Katase wasn't all that exciting, but would make a nice trip to the beach in the daytime, and it is perhaps a little exagerrated to call Enoshima an island as it is connected to the mainland by a short big bridge. We did a quick tour of the usual sea-side shops and restaurants, grabbed a bite to eat at very funky hippy cafe and then headed home in time to get a good night's sleep!

Kamakura capers remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The search for the camera began (and indeed ended) in Yodobashi Cameras in Shinjuku, but from there we decided we should see if we could get a better deal in Tokyo's reknowned Akihabara Electric Town which as a short hop, skip and train away! Akihabara is an area which has become famous for its many many electronics shops - ranging from teeny tiny stall-like ventures to big, shiny, neon-lit affairs. In recent years, other areas of Tokyo have also become (smaller) electronic hubs, and internet sales have also added to the competition but Akihabara is still going strong. It has made-up for the short-fall by spreading into the manga market too - now side-by-side with the electronics stores you can find throngs of shops dedicated to comics of all kinds (from the very innocent to the very, erm, not-so-innocent). The sheer volume of comics they house, and the fact that they seemed even busier than the electronics shops, are testament to Japan's love affair with manga.

After checking a few shops we realised the best deal yet was at Yodobashi Camera so we decided we'd pick up the camera on our way home, and in the mean time we headed for Oeno, just one stop away.

Our overall view of Oeno was a pretty pleasant one: it has a bit of a cultural vibe - due to the many museums there - as well as a sort of "pleasant sunday stroll" feel - due to a nice park, a zoo and generally leafiness. We first headed to the Tokyo National Museum which houses the world's largest collection of Japanese Art. The grounds and various buildings of the museum were altogether lovely - though this was probably enhanced by the clear sky and bright sunlight which was causing mini-rainbows by a fountain. There was a temporary Leonardo exhibit and many many Japanese were dutifully queuing for an hour in the blazing sun to get a glimpse of some masterpieces. Being blazed Europeans we skipped the Leonardo extravaganze ("been there, done that.. in Italy no less!" Aren't we brats?) and headed to the permanent collection.

All in all I think it was a perfect museum: floor 2 was titled "Highlights of Japan" and it offered just that - a collection representing the history of Japanese art with just enough pieces for each era to give us a real feel for it without getting to the yawn stage. We saw very early pottery art, Buddhist art, kimonos, armour and swords, woodblock prints, fans, masks and screens - just about everything you imagine when you think of Japanese Art!

After this cultural and educational visit, we decided to go somewhere that appealed more to the children within us: the zoo!!! First stop in Oeno Zoo: the giant panda. He (or she?) is a much loved and very famous inhabitant of the zoo, and we saw him munching away at bamboo inside and away from the sun (clever animal! Do pandas ever get skin cancer? no! now you know why!)

We then wandered around looking at lions, tigers, elephants, birds, monkeys, gorillas, bats, polar bears, sea-lions, penguins, prairie dogs, otters and something called a "lesser mouse deer" - google it, they're very cute! Some of the enclosures seemed a little small but most of them were decent-sized. That said, we reckon one the tigers was clearly going insane from cabin fever, as were the two polar bears, which was very sad to see. But we were cheered up by watching the monkeys and prairie dogs (who seemed very happy and active!) and also two rather cute squirrels!

On our way home we swung by Shinjuku to buy the camera so we are now proud owners of a beautiful and technically exquisite Sony T100! Which means hopefully you'll be getting some fantastic photos of our excursion to Kamakura tomorrow!

Further escapades in Tokyo: Oeno and Akihabara remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The weekend before last had a night out in Machida (city v close to where we live) on Friday and on Sunday we attempted a trip to the beach - I say attempted because we took a rather round about way! We met up in Tokyo with a few fellow teachers (Kim, Bel, Ken - and later we were met by Anthony) only to realise none of us knew exactly where we were headed! So we jumped on a train to Chiba and eventually found our way to a stop that we thought had a beach nearby. At the station we asked our way and eventually wandered down to what was being touted as a beach: it was no more than a slimey bay with a little sand, surrounded by factories and industrial buildings and complete with locals in wellies digging for clams. As none of us particularly wanted clams for dinner (especially clams from toxic water no doubt), we headed one stop furthur down the train line. There, after more wandering, we found a lovely park/beach area sort of place.. which was also housing a day-time rave in a mini-arena area! It was very surreal to see people dressed for clubbing and dancing away to thumping tunes in the middle of the day. After some ramen for a much needed lunch we lay on the beach for a couple of hours chatting no photos though as this park/beach place was where the camera was lost!

This weekend we celebrated another teacher's birthday (Colin) on Friday by going to a yakiniku (absolutely delicious type of restaurant where you grill meat on a small bqq at the table, yum!) and while chowing away on bbq'd beef we decided it was time we sampled some Tokyo night-life. So Saturday night we headed into Shibuya, Tokyo to party the night away with Ken and Bel. We had planned to go to a club called "Ruby Room" but at the last minute we were (easily) convinced by Matt to go to "Womb" instead - more expensive maybe but DJ mag rates it as the 7th best club in the world, it has the largest mirror/disco ball in Japan, and that night 2 well-knowned Djs would be there. We had an absolutely rocking (or should I say techno-ing) night! It was very very packed so we mainly hung out in the "lounge" area, where we enjoyed the mixing of an excellent local DJ, and we were also close to the club's vending machines! That's right, the club had a vending machine that served beer and these amazing fruity drinks - I am particularly fond of the grapefruit variety! We eventually crawled home at about 6am, tired but armed with many an anecdote! Sunday was spent, predictably, sleeping!!

PS If you are wondering how we are taking these photos: using my old 2 megapixel camera.. still does the job

A laid back couple of weeks remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The cybershot is still out there, it's just that somebody else has the use of it. Strange thing is, that the person who took it abandoned the camera case it was in.

Anyway, our blog must go on, so we are already eyeing up the replacement: a Sony T100. Good prices for cameras in Japan!

ps. should you wish to contribute to the "new camera" fund, and thus keep our blog as pretty as can be, please send cash by carrier pigeon to:

"new camera" fund
Pigeon Hole "Matt and Meli"
Japan

CyberShot R.I.P. remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It's 8 am on a Sunday morning, we have been awake for 3 hours already and we are watching fat men stamp their feet and then hurl their immense bodies at eachother. It may not sound like it, but a fantastic day has just begun.

We had woken up ridiculously early in order to queue for some last minute tickets to one of the prime annual sumo tournaments in Japan. One advantage to being there for the time the gates open was that we got to experience sumo wrestling "up close and personal" as most people only arrive for the 1st division fights at about 3; while the ringside seats are empty anyone plonk themselves down and enjoy the best view on the house no matter how cheap their ticket was.

The first fights were "novices" and as the day progressed so did the calibre of sumo wrestlers. With only a handful of spectators at 8 am, we watched the first wrestlers for an hour or so, accustomising ourselves to the various ritual chants, bows and footstamps. We were also surprised at how quickly bouts were decided (literally a few seconds) but once we were used to the pace we began to appreciate it more and more. Sumo is indeed an art, albeit one practiced by fat men in loin cloths. Even that isn't fair actually: they aren't all hugely fat and even those who are pretty wobbley are also incredibly muscled!

We knew that the "big boys" would only be wrestling from 3-ish so we headed back to the subway station to squeeze in a couple of hours of sight-seeing in the mean time. After a few false starts (Matthew's fault mind you) we got on a subway heading to Harajuka. There we wandered around yet another designer shop district (the Japanese can't seem to get enough of them!) and sampled some of the areas more "cultural" offerings. These included the Ota Memorial Art Museum (which is famous for its wood-block prints), the Meiji-Jingu shrine and the infamous "cos-play girls."

At the museum we were treated to an exhibition of some amazing wood block prints (most of them borrowed from the V&A for this special exhibition though) including Hokusai's "Great Wave Off Kanagawa." As a student both Matt and I each a poster of this on our walls - I never thought I'd get to see the original in Japan, or in fact live in Kanagawa!

The Meiji-Jingu shrine is a large Shinto shrine set in a forest in the middle of the city. It was built in memory of Emperor Meiji (of "Meiji-era" fame) and his Emperess and although it was destroyed by bombings in WWII it has been faithfully and beautifully reconstructed. We purified ourselves using the troughs of puridied water outside (although Matt came very close to accidently sullying the water you're meant to wash with) and headed into the shrine. In the central shrine area we performed the customary prayer ritual: throw some money in the donation troughs, bow twice, clap twice (to conjure the gods), say a prayer and then bow again. We will let you know if our prayers are answered, but don't hold your breath!

We then headed back towards Harajuku station, taking a detour by a bridge reknowned for it's "cos-play" girls. These are (social misfit) teenagers who live a life of suburban anonimity during the week but head to Tokyo on Sunday, dressed up in outlandish costumes ranging from goths to little-bo-peep look-alikes.. and they like nothing more than having their photo taken by gawking strangers! To be honest we found them a little disappointing: maybe we'd hyped it up too much but we could have headed to Cockburn Street (Edinburgh) to see goths, there was no need to fly out here!! That said, none of the cockburn street goths hold signs reading "free hugs here!" We decided not to part of the throng of photgraphers snapping away, so no great photos sorry!

After this we headed back to the stadium to watch the current sumo "greats" battle it out for the 7th day of the tournament. The stadium was packed out and we really got into the swing of things (after a little post-lunch sleepiness). Sumo may not seem sophisticated or rivetting at first but there is a lot more to it than either of us expected, and it is certainly very exciting!!! We would highly recommend any visitors to Tokyo make it to a tournament if they are lucky enough to be in town at the right time of year!

All sumo-ed out! remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We were meant to be exploring a mountain that houses flying squirrels, temples, acclaimed Soba restaurants and views of Fuji-san.. however plans sort of fell apart because we were worried it might rain and then missed our train to meet the others and generally weren't too enthusiastic about it when we crawled out of bed.. which may have something to do with our shenanigans last night!!

We had decided to take a rain check on a big night out with lots of other teachers and choose to explore our local "counter pub" as the sign said above the door of a bar 3 minutes walk from our humble abode. We also recruited Ken to join us. After some trepidation upon approaching the place (mainly because it looked closed), Ken bravely reached for the handle and opened the door of the most surreal little bar I have ever been too. It consisted of a very small room with a curved bar running all along it and comfy stools/high seats at the counter. The clientele seemed to be mainly middle-aged Japanese business men - although there was only about 7 people there and once we sat down there were no seats left! We ordered our drinks (Asahi Dry beer for the boys, a tipple known here as a Lemon Sour for me, it's is made from a spirit distilled from sweet potato, very good!). Along with our drinks we were given various nibbles by the 3 lovely middle-aged Japanese ladies who were the sum total of the barstaff. As the night progressed and we befriended them, and some of the other punters too, we were also given some Kyoto sweet pastry things and a few glasses of some delicious pinky red liqueur! I gathered it was made from plums but also had something to do with red leaves, and apparently it is quite rare.

You may well be wondering how exactly we befriended the staff and other drinkers, given that they were Japanese, twice our age and we were unable to speak their language.. well, mainly we owe thanks to Ken who is half Japanese and was our interpreter and representative! But also the guy next to Matt spoke English, and in any case not all communication is based on language - we found that singing did the trick!!! Unlikely as it seems to us, this teeny tiny local bar had fully functional, all singing, all dancing karaoke equipment and we charmed their cotton socks off with renditions of beatles songs and, upon request, Amazing Grace! Needless to say the locals were much better than us but I think they appreciated our efforts - Matt even ended up doing a duet with his English-speaking friend!! Also, there was one old man in the corner, drinking whiskey (I think) from a bottle that was clearing kept aside just for him, who had the most amazing voice ever! He put us to shame!

The night ended when Ken had to catch a train home - though only after many hugs from the bar staff and reassurances on our part that we would come back!! It was an absolutely magic and eye-opening experience for us! No Westerners had ever been there as far as we could tell, and we couldn't have had a more Japanese or a more welcoming experience!

PS I forgot to mention their A/C was offline and it was very hot.. so to remedy this the ladies who worked there passed around free ice lollies (popsicles for you Americans!).. Now that's service!

addendum: I said Ken left to catch his last train.. well, he did catch it and arrived 15 minutes before the connecting train that would deliver him to his doorstep.. and there he sat down and promptly fell asleep only to wake up a few minutes later, just in time to see the train he was meant to catch pulling out of teh station!!!!! it was of course his last connecting train so he had to pay 4000 yen (about 40 US bucks) to get himself taxi-ed home! Ah, the joys of public transport..

A legendary night out at our local... remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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But for today I will just stick to the subjects of trains and toilets.

Toilets here range from the most basic squat toilet (I'll spare you the details) to the rolls-royses of toilets! The more sophisticated kind include heated seats, emergency-call buttons and a whole range of buttons that, judging from the pictures, will pump water or blow air just about any place you can imagine.. and then some. I haven't had the guts to experiment with these. But my absolute favourite is the button which, when pressed, simulates the sound of a toilet flushing. The reason behind this takes some explaining. If you happen to have read "Stupeurs et Tremblements" by Amelie Nothomb, which I reccommend if you haven't, youll know that Japanese women are averse to anyone hearing them pee. So, to avoid this embarrassment, they flush the loo first to mask the noise. But, not content with this arrangement, they've now gone one step further and made a recording of that noise just one push away! Quirky indeed!

Trains here are not so much quirky as almost inhumanly efficient - if we have to wait more than 4 minutes for one it seems like a long time! And there are train lines everywhere around here, and on each line there is a variety of options from local to rapid express trains! From about 7am til 9am, and then again at evening rush hour, the trains are absolutely jam packed with commuters - I swear I have even seen people's faces pressed up against the door's window, looking harrassed but grateful they managed to squeeze on!!! When the doors open at a busy a station, a tidal wave of identical dark suits pours out, only to be replaced by those queuing on the platform. But if you avoid rush hour I have found trains to be the best place to gawk at Japanese, especially young Japanese with their off-beat sense of fashion! And by off-beat I mean a mismatched, OTT combination of pretty much everything the fashion magazines reccommend, but all in one outfit... And, just one last comment, about half the people on a train at any one time are asleep. It doesn't seem to matter that they sat down 10 seconds ago, or indeed that they are standing up, sleeping on trains is a national pastime. Yet despite this they never seem to miss their stop but wake up exactly 10 seconds before the need to get off!! Crazy!

Of Trains and Toilets remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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On Friday night we hopped on a train for 15 mins or so to meet up with some other teachers (and now friends) - and we ended up spending a great evening in an izakaya which are Japan's answer to pubs. They serve yummy japanese nibbles, beer and sake.. all this set in a very japanese background (sitting on the floor etc). One charming quirk was having to put our shoes in lockers as no shoes are allowed on the tatami (Japanese mats in the area where you sit on the floor). The night was unfortunately cut short by us having to catch the last train home just before midnight, though from what we hear of how the night went on we think next time we'll just stay out and get the first train home!!

The next day, Saturday, we hopped on yet another train and headed in Tokyo! Our exact destination was the Imperial Palace and the nearby area called Ginza.

The Imperial Palace, or Kokyo, is closed to the public except for 2 days a year because the imperial family still live there, but a part of the grounds is now a lovely public garden and you can glimpse the palace in places.. We wondered around the garden, amazed at how peaceful it is even though it's in the middle of a bustling city, and then we took the obligatory photos of the palace peeping over Niju-bashi bridge.

We then headed off in the direction of Ginza, which is pretty much Tokyo's version of 5th Avenue (although many other areas of Tokyo seem to offer designer fashion too). We wandered around for a while, gazing into windows of shops we can't afford and checking out some of Sony's gizmos and gadgets at the Sony Building. I got particular excited upon seeing a Long Champs shop, a belgian waffle shop called Manneken and a Pierre Marcolini (v. expensive Belgian chocolatier) cafe/shop all in the space of a few minutes! Big up for Belgians making their mark in Tokyo!!

We had dinner in a very surreal german-style beerhouse purpose built by some Japanese in the early 1900s! People view Japanese as somewhat subdued but give them a drink and watch the inhibitons disappear: we saw groups of business women drinking beer in litre mugs, and an old man chatting up the 20-something waitress!! Also, we ate steak and potatoes-and-sausage with chopsticks!! Only in Japan!

Just as we were heading home we got a call from a friend, David, so we went and joined him for a quick drink in Shinjuku (also in Tokyo). The area we went to had a distinctly studenty vibe and we plan to head back there for further exploration soon..

We had a lazy Sunday, except for a little cleaning - although here cleaning doesn't seem to be always considered a chore: some of my students list cleaning their room as a hobby! Then it was back to work today...

That's all folks..

Tokyo - the Imperial Palace and Ginza remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Food so far has been good, we went to a counter-pub or Izakaya and had dinner there after orientation on Friday. Alas, it was slightly upmarket and even the rice and soup cost about 2.70, which is expensive here! But, we tried quite a few dishes in a kind of Spanish tapas manner and enjoyed ourselves! Most of the other teachers seem like a lot of fun, even the older ones! There is quite a range of ages, although mid to late twenties seems the median.

After orientation on Saturday we got the subway to Shinbuyu station, kind of shopping centre area I think. Anyway its all the bright lights and video screens you often see in films! We had some cheap counter food there, gyu-don or beef on rice, with some Asahi dry beer. It was delish! Then we headed back towards our neck of the woods because we didn't want to miss the last trains and be stuck out all night! We headed to Machida, two stops from our village and a pretty big and bustling place. We managed to find an Irish pub there, where I sampled the local Guinness and Melissa the local Belgian fruit beers. We got the last train home, although one girl, Jo, missed her last train home! It was ridiculously early we found out, something like 9.20, ours was 00.10.

Tomorrow is our first day and it should be very exciting! We'll post more details on the teaching specifics as we see fit. Missing y'all..

Orientation and first sights remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We've only been here 2 days now but so far we love it - although we'll have to get used to not being able to read anything, people cycling on pavements and car parks that whisk cars away instead of people driving to a parking place (watch Tokyo Drift, you'll understand). The campus that we will be working in, along with another guy called Ricky, seems nice enogh. Fairly modern and green.. and it has a resident goat for some random reason. We'll tell you more once we actually start work there on Monday. Tomorrow and Saturday we've got training so we'll have to wait until Sunday to do some more exploring!

J-A-P-A-N remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Our trip back home took us on a quick detour to Sri Lanka - just one night but Sri Lankan Airlines were kind enough to provide us with a room. We arrived late at night and were leaving the next morning at 10am so we just headed straight to bed. When we woke up the next morning we discovered the hotel was right next to a beautiful beach! Unfortunately we didn't have time to explore as we were had to get back to the airport - although the short time we spent there definitely made us want to go back one day (not least because we were charmed by the fake Tescos, Asdas and McDonalds we saw on the way back to the airport). The airport itself was an interesting experience: due to recent airstrikes by the Tamil Tiger there were machine gun emplacements outside, there were soldiers in urban camouflage (purple, grey and green - very cool) and, on a lighter note, the duty-free shops sold things like fridges and ovens!

We made it safely to London where we spent a lovely few days enjoying Damian's hospitality and meeting up with a few other friends too!

Next on the whirlwind tour was home for both of us - Brussels for me and Amsteram for Matt. We both got to spend time with our families as well as friends from back home. I then went to Amsterdam to see Matt and his family, and then we jetted off to Bristol to see my brother Stephen and his fiancee Hasna. We had a wander around Bristol, went for a picnic, played basketball and generally just enjoyed each other's company

From Bristol we headed to Bath just in time for the BUSA Karate Championships so that we could cheer for the Edinburgh Squad and catch up with them too. The squad lived up to our expectations and showed us some awesome performances.. as well as some awesome banter. We then hitched a ride on the "BUSA bus" back up the Edinburgh - you'd think a 9 hour bus ride after a long day of competition wouldn't be much fun, but we ended up having a great time - I guess there are worse things than being cooped up with good friends and a few drinks!

The next few days were spent catching up with more friends and sleeping on various people's spare rooms and floors (a big thank you to H, Ger and Nessa, Sinead and Sarah!).

I won't bore you with all the details of our shenanigans but it was absolutely lovely to spend time with friends in Edinburgh and elsewhere in the UK.. we look forward to seeing you all again as soon as we're back in your neck of the woods!

Matt spent some more time in Edinburgh than me (I headed back home), partly to go his Aunt's birthday party, and then he headed back to Amsterdam. After a few more days in our respective homes, Matt hopped on a train to come see me, and a couple of days later we both got the eurostar to London to catch a plane to continue our TEFL adventure...

An April in Europe remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Travelling by sleeper is so much more civilised than by bus! The bunks are cosy and just about long enough to be completely comfortable to sleep in. Leaving in the evening and arriving in Chiang Mai the next morning we were rested and ready to tackle a new city! Compare this to sitting on a bus for 12 hours (or more) and arriving in the dead of night, and I know which method of transport I prefer.

After checking into our guesthouse, chosen on advice by a very nice American lady in an adjacent bunk, and having lunch, we rented a motorbike to explore the town with.

Chiang Mai is supposedly well known for its hundreds of temples and its walled and moated central area. Oh, and its Night Bazaar. After getting lost for quite a bit in the predominantly one-way traffic system, we made it to one of the alleged highlights of the Chiang Mai province: Wat U Mong. I'm afraid it really wasn't worth the drive out there. We then went to a temple where Melissa wanted to follow a meditation class, only to be disappointed by the fact that the next class wasn't for another week. After this we visited the alleged-most-visited wat in town. Again, it was disappointing!

After all this our spirits were a bit low, and we decided we would leave for somewhere else the next day, and in the evening we engaged in some therapeutic shopping at the famed Chiang Mai Night Bazaar. It's a large collection of shops and stalls selling mostly the same stuff (silk cloth, touristy clothing, various contraband) but with some really nice stuff mixed in if you look carefully. And all at "special prices".

So, the next day we got on a bus to Pai. Pai is a sleepy town in the north, not far from the Burma/Myanmar border. Accommodation there is much more basic (and cheap!) and the tourism industry is much less in your face. We stayed in a nice wooden bungalow, where we finally got to use our mosquito-net! After an unusually cold night (Pai is up in the mountains and gets cold at night!), we went on a two day trek. We drove for a couple hours up a mostly dirt track, bouncing and wobbling all over the place, after which we were to walk the rest of the way. The walk started up-hill in the blistering sun and wasn't the easiest walk I've been on! We stopped for lunch at the Pai river and swam in it's refreshingly cool waters, ignoring the fact a colourful snake had just swum past. We ate fried rice in bowls made on the spot from banana tree leaves (Melissa made one too!).

The rainforest in Thailand is actually very very dry at this time of year. Most of the ground is sandy or covered in dry foliage, and the plant life is not very dense or green at all. Also, the rivers and waterfall we passed were at very low levels. Anyway, at the end of day 1 we traipsed into a Lahu hilltribe village. We were welcomed by curious children and barking dogs. The Lahu grow their own rice (each family providing for themselves) and other vegetables and they sell oxen to raise money for other purchases. They also still do a lot of foraging and hunting. We stayed in a house on stilts and slept on the floor on mats. We were served with some excellent food, and while we were eating, several dead squirrels were brought in and were plucked in front of our eyes! Supposedly dusk is a good time to go squirrel hunting. At this time the attention of the kids had turned away from the white foreigners to the solar powered satellite TV in the adjacent hut. It was quite strange to see satellite dishes in a village where they grow and hunt their own food and don't have telephone lines!

I got up early in the morning (I was too cold to stay lying down any longer!) to sit by the fire and to go for a wander. I watched the Lahu grinding their home-grown rice in a man-powered mechanical pounder that works like a see-saw. They pound the rice to get rid of its shell and then dry it on large shelves above their fires. I went back to wake Melissa and after a breakfast of jam and toast we got to try some curried squirrel, and I thought it smelled like leftover Christmas turkey broth. One thing I will note is that they don't remove the bones, they just kind of mash up the whole thing, so that you are continually picking out bits of ribs from your teeth.

Back on the jungle trail we started the day hunting for food. Our guides were looking for the nests of a certain type of beetle. It digs holes and hibernates in them with its larvae. The larvae are the ones we wanted, as I hear they are good roasted. After a couple nests that had already been ransacked by snakes we found a good one! We were quite surprised by the number of hockeyball sized earth balls that came out of the hole, each with a quite large white larva inside. After this we passed another water-fall and some forest-fires! We walked particularly fast near the latter, while languishing in the cool mist generated by the former. We passed through another village at lunchtime and we all had a well-deserved snooze. We finally made it to our destination and were driven back to Pai.

The next day we ticked off the our final to-do-in-Thailand: the elephant ride. We got to ride an elephant for an hour and a half and half-way through we waded into the river, where the elephant bucked us like a bucking bronco (but on command) and we went flying into the water. We then spent another half our climbing back on and being thrown off. This aquatic fun was slightly offset by the fact that the elephants would do their business in the water right next to us. I would also say that an hour and a half is long enough on an elephant's back! It's quite uncomfortable and it really is high up. While going down a particularly steep hill, our elephant decided to stop every few metres and swing from left-to-right picking out the more juicy greens, with Meli and I hanging on for dear life!

That afternoon we got the bus back to Chiang Mai. In the evening we finished off some of our souvenir shopping at the Night Bazaar and found a really nice jewellery/crafts shop. The next day we mainly updated our blog, did some more shopping at the jewellery shop and walked around town. In the evening we got the sleeper back to Bangkok. A short, but fun time in the north! We would like to go back to Chiang Mai with more time and perhaps more money, because the thing about Chiang Mai is really that there is a lot to do, like cooking courses, meditation classes, massage schools, mountainbiking and other adventure sports. One thing that Melissa really wanted to do was a silver jewellery workshop. Maybe one day!

Chiang Mai & Pai remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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It is located at the town of Siem Reap (which means Siam (Thailand!) Defeated). A $10 luxury bus trip (with hostesses and all) got us there. We managed to find accommodation in this busy tourist town in a hotel that wasn't quite open yet for business. We had to come back 20 minutes later while they put together the beds! The main reason for the droves of tourists that come here is for the sights at Angkor, although Siem Reap isn't too bad itself. We ate some really good food there, but were also reminded by the countries past and its poverty by the many begging land-mine victims and children.

Our swiss hotel owner found us a driver for a whirl-wind 1 day tour of the sights at Angkor. All the guidebooks we consulted said a day was never going to be enough and that at least a week was needed to take it all in! I dunno, I had seen enough ruined temples after a long day in the heat, but some of the more remote jungle ruins are supposed to be amazing and then it is also more about the surroundings and the adventure. The main sites we visited were host to throngs of tourist groups bussed in from all over the world (mainly Japan it seemed at times) who were jostled from site to site after the mandatory photo opportunities. We were disciplined enough to leave our hotel at 5 am, in order to witness the sun rising at the most famous of angkorian attractions, Angkor Wat. I wasn't that impressed, and all my photographs were awful because there was hardly any light, or cluttered with large groups of tourists. The temple is ginormous and I didn't get a sense of size until we got closer and it was quite amazing.

The buildings at Angkor are basically large (some huge!) man-made hills. Because of the lack of various architectural/physical techniques the buildings lacked true three-dimensions. There were no rooms-above rooms or large contained rooms. Here Meli disagrees with me! She says: the point of these structures isn't to have rooms, it's to be visually stunning and they act as giant sculptures themselves very intrictaely sculpted.. not man-made hills anyway!

Ok so maybe I was a bit harsh, a lot of the work was very good and showed hard work, devotion and amazing skill and art. On top of the many large structures you also have to imagine in all the palaces and houses that made up the surrounding city. Building in stone was reserved almost entirely for temples, while everything else was made of wood, and has long since disappeared. Also, we did have a really nice day scrambling all over the buildings! We climbed with difficulty and trepidation up some of the steeper "stairs" leading to the summits, and wondered what on earth you were supposed to do during the rainy season when they would be extremely slippery.

Lucky for us it didn't rain till the night, and boy did it rain! By the morning we were on our way back to Bangkok, but as it turned out, the roads weren't really suitable for wet weather either... The usual 3 hour trip to the border took about 10 hours, all the while slipping and sliding, getting stuck in the mud, waiting for other cars/vans/busses/trucks to come unstuck. We were travelling side-ways for quite a bit of the journey! And all this in an outsized minivan packed with 28 people (and all their luggage!). We were very glad to bet back onto the roads in Thailand.

Pictures up soon.

Cambodia: Siem Reap & Angkor remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Even though it has been weeks since these visits (I'm writing this a little late) I am still unsure of how to write about them. I guess it's best to start with the facts.

The Khmer Rouge, a self-procalimed communist regime that took power in the late 60's after a bloody civil war not helped by blanket bombings by the Americans to flush out the Vietcong, used what had been a high school in Phnom Penh as "Security Prison 21" also called Toul Seng. The words Toul Seng roughly translate to "Poison Hill" or "Hill of the Poisoned/Guilty" and this detention centre was used to detain and torture any suspected subversive citizens. In all between 10,000 and 20,000 prisoners were detained and tortured here, only 7 survived. The average life-span of prisoners once they were detained was between 3 and 6 months, after this they were driven a few miles out of town and killed at what are now called the Killing Fields. The prisoners were usually told to kneel in groups in front of a pre-dug ditch used as a mass grave, and then they were either bludgeoned to death or had their throats slit. This avoided wasting bullets. Their bodies were then doused with DDT to kill those still alive and to avoid the stench of their corpses from alerting the locals. Despite this horrific death it must have been a relief to some extent as their lives at Toul Seng were pretty gruelling. Each prisoner was either locked in a tiny dark individual cell or, more commonly, shackled by their ankles to a metal rod/pole with 4 prisoners attached to each metre of the pole. Unless taken out for torture, or a wash once in a while, the prisoners had to lie there neither moving nor speaking without a guard's permission. I will spare you the details of the tortures, needless to say they were atrocious. The vast majority of the prisoners posed no threat to the Khmer Rouge but this intensively paranoid and controlling government chose to see signs of subterfuge in the simplest of acts such as chatting to one's friends or even writing letters. Many one-time guards of the prisons eventually became prisoners. Even children weren't spared the horrors of Toul Seng.

Given the past of Toul Seng and the Killing Fields you will no doubt understand how chilling and moving visiting them was. Toul Seng looks like your ordinary high school except for the barbed wired. Then you walk inside the classrooms to see hundreds of mug shots of its prisoner - men, women and children, or tiny cells, or instruments of torture. It is a quiet place these days - the signs that discourage visitors from laughing or smiling are not needed as most people seem numb from imagining what happened here. The Killing fields too are peaceful now: just a field of ditches where the mass graves were dug up, and a stupa built in the middle of them to commemorate those who died here. Upon entering the stupa you are confronted, literally centimetres in front of you, and not behind glass, with the 8000 skulls found here. Skulls of real men, women and children who were ruthlessly killed. The thought of these skulls still disgusts me and moves me in equal measures.

When I try to think of one word that describes what happened at these places, all i can come up with is unimagineable. I can't imagine living in constant fear. I can't imagine the pain of being tortured. I can't imagine being so scared of the consequences of refusal that I would obey orders to torture and kill another human being. I can't imagine that anyone could be so twisted as to give those orders. I can't imagine what it is to kneel blindfolded in front of a mass grave, hearing people around me being beaten to death and waiting my turn.

But these things did happen, they happened within the last 30 odd years, and perhaps the saddest thing of all is that similar acts of violence still occur in places today.

Cambodia: Phnom Penh II remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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As time-pressed as we were we even treated ourselves to a flight instead of a bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. We headed out on the 16th of March, the day after Matt finished work. Our first day in Phnom Penh wasn't as productive as we'd planned: we took a nap, walked down to the Royal Palace only to find that it was closed, wandered around a little more and then had a few drinks and a bite to drink a lovely bar/restaurant called the Foreign Correspondents Club. As the name suggests, it's where journalists used to hang out in Phnom Penh (still do in fact). It has a very colonial feel to it, and has great views of both the river on one side and the beautiful National Museum on the other (being on the 3rd floor) and it was the perfect place to relax and reflect on the day.

Although we'd planned to do more that day, it was actually a good idea just to wander around and get a feel for the city before doing some serious sightseeing the next day. Phnom Penh, and indeed Cambodia in general, has a very different vibe from Thailand. Although there is a lot of begging and drink/food/souvenir vendors who are very insistent/agressive, the people seem a lot less jaded than Thais. I guess Thailand has had its fair share of tourism and social-economic stability for a while now whereas both of these are relatively new in Cambodia. The people are warm and welcoming in a very genuine way, much more so than Thais (despite the infamous Thai smile). Phnom Penh also has a lot of funky little shops and places to eat and drink (a few of which support NGOs that work in the area) which makes the centre of the city to explore.

The next day we found ourselves a tuk-tuk driver to show us around. Other than being cheaper than getting individual rides to where we wanted to go, hiring a tuk-tuk for the day meant we benefitted from the local knowledge of our lovely driver, Sal. By the way, a Cambodian tuk-tuk is quite different from a Thai one: it is basically a little carriage pulled by a motorbike!

We started with the Royal Palace. It is similar in style to Bangkok's Grand Palace but is much less glitzy and infinitely quieter.We wandered around the grounds and into the Silver Pagoda (thus named because of the silver tiles that cover the floor) and took in the beautiful architecture and grounds with only a handful of other tourists around.

Afterwards, Sal suggested that it was a good time to go to the Genocide Museum and Killing Fields, both testament to atrocities committed during the Khmer Rouge's reign. Visiting them was a truly harrowing experience, and Matt and I feel that an account of it deserves an entry of its own.

Later that day we also visited the Russian Market - not Russian at all but just where Russians shopped for souvenirs and local specialities in the 80s. To be honest, after some of the Thai markets of the same sort, this one wasn't that impressive and in any case after the Killing Fields we were in no mood for serious shopping.

We then went to the National Museum - a truly beautiful building that houses many statues, carvings and artefacts from the Angkor period - a good taster prior to heading off the Siem Reap the next day to explore Angkor itself!

Cambodia: Phnom Penh I remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Last Friday my boss and colleagues organised a very nice little send-off for myself and Mr. Terry (who was going back to Canada), complete with lots of food! Melissa was also invited which was nice. Ms. Montana (my boss) gave a very nice speech, and I got a really cool silver tie!

Anyway, back onto our travels:
Last Saturday (10-03-07) we finally made it Kanchanaburi. We had been trying to organise a trip there for a while. We decided in the end we would make it a day trip, but that we could stay overnight if we really wanted to or needed more time. We got the 7:45 train from the western railstation, where foreigners pay 100 baht wherever they are going on the Kanchaburi line, Lonely planet's gonna have to mention that!

So, just like the last time, when we got the train to Ayutthaya, our train stood still for almost an hour, for no apparent reason at a station along the way. Still, travelling by rail is the most romantic way to travel, and the scenery along the tracks is often much nicer than along the roads, because the roads are lined with shops and other commercial buildings for most of the way, while the train tracks are flanked by farmland. On this trip we didn't see many rice fields, but I did see lots of corn stalks and banana trees.

Kanchanburi is the capital of the Kanchanaburi province. Our principle reason for going there was because it is the location of the Bridge on the River Kwai, as portrayed in the film (and book) of the same name. Which we watched the night before of course!

The film is about a battalion of British prisoners of war that are put to work on the construction of a railway bridge as part of the railway linking Bangkok to Burma. They were building this railway to link East-Asia to West-Asia, because the seas were too dangerous to navigate. During the war the Japanese used thousands of PoWs and also even more locals to build this and other railways throughout the area. The engineers in charge were cruel and worked only towards completion of their work with no regard for the workers although in their defense they were under immense pressure from their superiors. Many thousands died while working on the railway, be it from disease due to lack of medical supplies and malnutrition, or from physical abuse. The railway and its bridges had to be completed.. In total, the construction of the "Death Railway" claimed the lives of 16000 POWS and aout 90000 locals.

After arriving in Kanchanaburi and avoiding the usual taxi touts, we walked over to the very close (but un-sign-posted) Thailand-Burma Railway museum. There we read about the history of the railway and about the conditions the PoWs lived in. They were horrible and it was a little unsettling, especially with the many pictures of emaciated and dying soldiers and the war cemetery across the street.

After this we walked down the street and we rented a motorbike (yes I can't get enough of them!). We drove down to the actual bridge over the river Kwai. For 50 eurocents we got a 15 min. train ride across and back over the bridge. It wasn't very impressive. It must have been a different sight back then. Most of the rainforest and difficult terrain has been cleared, and the backdrop isn't a lush humid forest, but a small tourist trap.

Anyway, we then drove 40 km down Highway 323. Although, I don't quite know what that is supposed to signify, as there was the odd motorbike going down the wrong side of the road! (no it wasn't us)

At the end of the road was Wat Pa Luangta Bua Yannasampanno Forest Monastery, also known as the Tiger Temple. The story of the place is that hunters killed a tigress and a rich Bangkok couple bought its cub to have it stuffed. The stuffing was botched and even though the cub was injected with formalin, it survived! It then ended up at the monastery where it lived to 7 months before dying of heart palpitations. A few weeks later two male cubs (just a week old!), intercepted from poachers, were brought to the monastery. Then two more males were presented by local villagers. Finally border police contributed four female cubs, also intercepted. You can find the full story on the website. Just go to www.tigertemple.org .

What attracted us to the place is that you can walk around with the tigers and touch them! Supposedly they have just grown used to captivity and being around humans and are not drugged, however they seemed very groggy and unresponsive! When it was time for them to go back to their cages in the evening, they had to be pushed and pulled off the ground! They are nocturnal animals though, so maybe they just wanted to sleep! Other animals adapt to living during the day, so I don't see how the tigers would more easily adapt to captivity and change their instincts than change their sleeping habits! The pictures should speak for themselves. There were also a whole host of other animals, all with no sort of barriers or cages, just running around. At feeding time you had to dodge oxen, wild boar and deer. The tiny little boar piglets were very cuddly!

Anyway, we are coming to the end of our time here. We have two trips planned before we leave. This Friday we leave for Cambodia, and the following week we will visit the Chiang-Mai in the north. More of that as it happens!

Finishing up and Kanchanaburi remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Last weekend saw us pack a shared backpack and head off to tropical paradise.

We were heading for Koh Samui partly just to enjoy the sun, sea and cocktails and partly because a full moon party was scheduled for last Sunday. There are quite a few full moon parties (basically massive parties on the beach every full moon) in Thailand but we wanted to experience the original one on Koh Phangan (an island next to Koh Samui - Koh means island by the way).

Anyway, as we are saving for more adventures later this month we decided to get a cheap bus-boat combo. We spent a total of 4 days (3 nights) on Samui, and a total of 46 hours travelling!!!!! With retrospect we realised it was like us going home for a weekend (minus jetlag) but it was worth it!

We arrived tired and stiff after an overnight bus trip followed by a boat trip that took 5 hours instead of 2 and a half (due to a broken motor)! Koh Samui is very very beautiful especially if you find one of the less busy beaches (though busy here is relative, nothing like French or Spanish beaches). We found ourself a basic but adequate bungalow on the Southern part of Lamai beach. The beach was all white sand, palm trees and clear turquoise waters, just as you'd expect from a tropical island! We spent the rest of the day relaxing and making plans for the rest of the weekend. We also hired ourselves a harley davidson so that we could explore the island a little more independently. Ok, I lied, it was more of a scooter than harley but it did the job. After an evening ride on the bike to a neighbouring beach, as well as a lovely walk down a full-moon lit beach, we collapsed in our bed for some much needed sleep!

This may have confused you a little as I said we went to the full moon party. Well, many Buddhist festivals fall on full-moons and out of respect for them the full-moon party is sometimes a day early or late. Our full moon party was actually a full moon + 1.

We woke up the next day and wandered down to the beach for breakfast: banana pancake and mango juice for me, and rice porridge with chicken for Matt (it's a Thai thing!).

Plans for that day involved finding a waterfull during the day and then catching a speedboat to Koh Phangan for the party at night.
One of the advantages of having the bike was that we could explore on our own and get sidetracked when the fancy took us. While on our way to find the waterfall, we took an unexpected detour via the undecomposed remains of a monk - he died 35 years ago and apparently didn't decompose so his family stuck him in a large glass display case.. with sunglasses on!! On the way back we followed a series of signs to a butterfly farm; it ended up being a very serene enchanting little place with beautiful views.

Back to the waterfull adventure: we eventually found a promising turn-off and headed down it.. a kilometre or so down the dirt track we came to a skidding halt as an elephant emerged from the surrounding forest. It was a pretty breathtaking experience to suddenly be so close to the gentle giant (even though it wasn't wild and was part of a jungle trek). We eventually got to the not-so-quiet waterfall: we had reached the easily accessed lower falls and there were quite a few tourists around. Undeterred, we got back on the bike to find the path to the upper falls, after a quick lunch break consisting of the world's best bbq'd chicken ever!!

We eventually found the path and set out on the short trek up. At first it was pretty easy going but by the end we were sometimes scrambling on hands and knees!! Walking uphill along a waterfall/stream through a jungle in the heat was definitely worth the views.. And at the top we reached a lovely waterfall fed pool which we took a dip in to cool down!!

That night we jumped on (or rather waded to) an overcrowded speedboat - the scum of all water travel as far as I'm concerned but at least it was fast. We arrived at Hat Rin (on Koh Phangan) as it was beginning to fill with party-goers from all across the island and neighbouring islands too. Hat Rin is a funky little beach town and in retrospect we'd have liked to stay there but by the time we decided to go the party it was too late to book a room (accommodation books up days in advance!). The full moon party was as mental as we'd expected: up to 10,000 revellers partying on the beach with music blaring out from the beachside bars, people getting their bodies painted with flourescent paint and fire jugglers wowing everyone just to mention some of the highlights! Oh, and I nearly forgot one of the defining elements: the "buckets." These are small buckets which cost almost nothing (from 180 baht, or 3 quid) in which are emptied a bottle of local rum, a can of coke and a small bottle of red bull. For slightly more you can buy a bucket with foreign spirits (usually smirnoff, sometimes JD or gin).

The only trouble was getting back to Koh Samui: all the speed boat companies have boats scheduled for the same time and literally hundreds of people are crowded at a tiny harbour trying to get on them. Once you've located the right boat you have to push past everyone else trying to get on it or past it to the other boats! I think I personally elbowed at least 3 people and trampled on countless toes! But we made it on the boat and back safely.. and spent the next day taking it easy. The night we wrapped up our long-weekend with a delicious meal of barbequed fresh fish, including shark, which we got to pick out ourself from a selection of fresh local seafood. The restaurant was right on the beach (we were about 2m from the water!) and lit up by countless laterns and fairy lights. A low-key but magical affair which pretty much summed up our trip to Koh Samui!

All that was left was another night in the bungalow and a mammoth trip home!!!

Koh Samui and the full moon party! remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We've had a busy few days recently - a lot to write about and a lot of photos too

But I'm getting a little ahead of myself! Best to start at the beginning, or at least where we last left off. We haven't got up to anything too interesting since the Muay Thai night - just the usual BKK fun (eating out, cheap DVDs, chilling, markets etc). We did spend a hot but fascinating day at the mother of all markets: Chatuchak (or JJ to the locals). It's bigger than anything you can possibly imagine; you need a map to navigate around it and it is impossible to see it all in one day. Still, we attempted the impossible and wandered for hours in dark tiny alleyways and bigger brighter pedestrian roads around thousands and thousands of stalls. We saw everything from clothes (jeans, shoes, bags, funky one-offs, 2nd hand hippy stuff, mass produced fakes, jewellery, hats, sunglasses, you name it!) to furniture, from books to pets (fish, puppies, squirrels, rabbits, turtles, etc) and from food stalls to sticker stalls. In fact it was all so overwhelming that the only we bought weresome stickers to bribe our students with (for the record, they worked wonders!) No photos though as we forgot the camera!

Also, I took a day off from the brat pack (I loved them dearly, honest!) and went on a cooking course taught by the lovely (if slightly camp) Nusie from the Silom Thai Cooking School. I had a very laid-back morning which started with a trip to a food market to buy the ingredients and get a lesson in the differences between various kinds of ginger, limes and basil! Then Nusie, the two other people taking the class and myself headed down a Soi (small road/alley) to a house where we were to be drilled in the art of Thai cuisine. Well, not so much drilled as gently lead through the making of 5 delicious but simple dishes: Pad Thai (a typical Thai noodle dish), Tom Yam Goon (another typical Thai dish that goes under the name of Hot and Sour Shrimp soup I believe), Green curry paste and consequently Green Curry with Chicken, Laab Gai (a spicy North-Eastern Thai chicken salad - a favourite of Matt and I) and for dessert something called Rubies in Coconut milk. The dessert was the only thing I didn't paricularly like; it's made from dyed and parboiled turnip (covered in tapioca flour which goes see-through and slimy during the parboiling) and served in sweetened coconut milk!

We spent the morning washing, peeling, dicing, pounding, mixing and chatting while sitting on the floor in the prep room, and then going next door to the woks for cooking. Once each dish was ready we ate it and everything (bar the aforementioned dessert) was delicious! All in all I had a lovely relaxed time, ate freshly cooked amazing dishes which I can now make for myself and learnt all sorts of exciting things like how to make coconut milk or cream and tamarind paste, and the differences between the main kinds of Thai rice

Anyway, that was the Monday of my last week at school. The rest of it was fairly relaxed as I just had to supervise and mark and few exams and say my good byes to my kiddiewinkles (which was very sad indeed!). I won't bore you with all the photos I took of them but here's a photo of the rather primitive cafe us foreign teachers usually ate at, as well as a photo of part of the foreign teacher gang on one of the days we escaped to a nearby Au Bon Pain for a more Western (and hygienic) lunch!

I finished work on the Thursday, and by a collosal stroke of luck Laurent Garnier was to be DJing that night at Bed Supper Club which is where Bangkok's rich and trendy hang out. The club itself is like a giant pod decorated in all white with beds instead of seats and tables! LG played a typically eclectic but fantastic 3 hour set. It was an awesome night and a great way to celebrate my last day (as well as me and Matt a friend from work, Lou, was there too).

Matt on the other hand had to get up to work on Friday, though school's out and he has very little to do so it didn't matter that he arrived late. Also, it meant he could take Monday and Tuesday off so we could head to a tropical island for the weekend! But that's a whole story in itself so I think I will leave that for a new entry!

February fun: markets, cooking and Laurent Garnier remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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This entry has taken weeks to finish again, sorry!

As far as school goes, February was filled with reviewing with the kids, writing, grading and supervising exams and writing reports.. In 2 weeks school finishes!

I'm done with work and Matt has only got a week left today. Then we'll be travelling for a couple of weeks before heading back to Europe (via Sri Lanka for one night) at the very end of the month! We'll be back ifor the whole of April and we'll try to see as many of you as we can! Then it seems we're off to continue our TEFL adventure in Japan for 3 months

Anyway, this entry is meant to be about Muay Thai (Thai boxing) so I'd better get to the point! On the 13th of February Matt and I headed off to Lumpini stadium for some Muay Thai action. Watching, not doing. And stadium is perhaps a bit of a generous name as it's not that big and a wee bit dingy. But that just adds to the atmosphere: along with the Thais betting left right and centre!

I'll hand over to Matt for more details as I've been doing a lot of the writing!

So, our taxi finally makes it to the stadium, which I hardly noticed from the street. As soon as we got out of the taxi touts try to sell us cheap tickets for good seats, and are showing us various pictures. Taking advice from our Lonely Planet we ignored them and went straight to the ticket booth for Farang (white foreigners). It was way more expensive than the LP said but our romantic pre-valentine's day outing was not going to be spoilt! So, our tickets in hand we are ushered to our seats (next to the other farang), while walking past a number of policemen, and our luxurious wooden benches hovering over a bottomless pit of rubbish (definitely) and rats (probably). The second fight of seven was already under way.

Our first impression was that the two competitors looked about 13. They weighed about 100 pounds I believe (which is near 50 kg) according to the program, which almost confirmed our thoughts. They were having great fun though, wacking away at each other. As the bouts continued the weight generally increased, and up to the main event, so did the skill. They still looked like teenagers though. The second thing that was imprinted upon us, was the crazy betting going on in the 3rd class standing seats. It was packed with thais all waving their hands. Melissa in her wisdom told me that the ones at the front were taking bets, with their hand and arm movements signifying odds and such. I had heard before about the amazing ability of those taking bets to remember what odds they gave and how much was bet. It is slightly strange though, I thought gambling was illegal in Thailand? In my school, even playing cards are banned! The large police presence at the entrance might suggest some official interest, but I wouldn't want to anymore than that.

Anyway, before the main event, we got a little information on muay thai and the stadium. The minimum requirements for contestants to our surprise was a minimum age of 16 and completion of junior high. We were also assured they were all physically checked out before the fights. After that we got a demonstration of old or traditional muay thai. If you've seen Kickboxer (with Van Damme), you would have recognised the hand raps Anyway, we got a demonstration of a number of techniques in a mock-fight. It was pretty good, they weren't pulling the hits very much and it flowed nicely. A lot of it reminded me of stuff you see in Ongbak (a Thai film about a young man sent to Bangkok to reclaim their stolen sacred buddha, who happens to be a muay thai expert (old style)), with spinning elbows, jumping knees and one or two nice throws.

The main event was obviously a bit more professional with more hits, and visible red marks, but the fights were clean and the referees took care of the fighters and the contestants seemed to enjoy themselves too. As did the croud and so did we!

Check out the photos (they are only thumbnails so you'll have to click on them to get a good view - they aren't photoshopped yet so are pretty dark!) The first one is of the ceremony they do before the fight...

... or better still check out the video!

More soon..

Muay Thai remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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Ayyuthaya proved to be a lovely break from bustling Bangkok. It is quiet, beautiful and very relaxing. We rented bikes and cycled amongst all the ruins and statues. We were a little creeped out by all the beheaded Buddha statues but apparently the Burmese cut their heads off to check they weren’t made of gold and just covered in plaster (a common dissimulation technique), or so said the French tour guide I was eavesdropping on!

All in all it was a lovely day, marred only by a disgusting lunch (Thais make some of the best food in the world, but as we unfortunately discovered they also make the worst!).

School resumed the next day and the next few weeks held all sorts of fun such as a 3 day scout camp for Melissa (not much scouting but lots of fun activities) and being the judge of a speech competition for Matthew. Until you've taught at a school you have no idea how demanding it can be!!!

Hope you are well, take care!
xxx

Ayuthayya Adventures remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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New Years Eve seems like ages ago now.. we had a good one despite the bombs.
It was all a bit surreal to be in a city that had had 7 explosions go off, partly because it seemed to have very little effect on
the population here. We were at Matt's Thai boss' party when we found out (it was on Thai news) and the person who told us casually said "I think 4 bombs have gone off, one at victory monument.. not too sure what's going on.. right, time for some party games"
The people in the streets seemed none too concerned either (though there was a strong police/military presence). The bomb at victory monument was the one closest to us, about a 10 min bus ride from our flat. It's where we get the skytrain too as it's the closest skytrain stop to us, and we figured out a couple of days later that we were at a busstop at victory monument quite literally minutes before the blast.. maybe 2 or 3 minutes..

But as I said, people seem remarkable unscared by it all. Maybe it's because Thais believe more in kharma/fate than we do, so they aren't so fazed by what we would see as unnecessary random deaths..
in any case we headed to khao san road around 9pm and it was busy as we'd expected it to be before we knew about the bombs. We had some food, a few drinks at a petrol-station-turned-bar (only in Thailand!) and then went to a bar/club.. pretty much new year's eve as per usual.. Clubbing was cut short as everything closed at 1am (we found out later is was because police were evacuating the area as they had just diffused a bomb nearby!)..

Since then there has been very little progress regarding the bombs.. politicians in power are blaming Thaksin & co (those ousted by the coup) by they deny it.. this is one whodunnit mystery that seems like it will remain unsolved. And life seems to go on as usual..

After new year we had a couple of days off and decided to use one of them for some tourism. So we packed our bags with suncream and hats on a very hot day and headed about 15 mins down the river to the Grand Palace and its adjoining temple (Wat Phra Keao) which houses the most revered buddha image in Thailand: the emerald buddha (which is actually made of jade). As you can see from the photos it's all very beautiful and incredibly bling-bling, though we couldn't take pictures of the emerald buddha who was dressed in a gold-chain mail tunic!! It's his winter dress apparently.

Incidently the King doesn't live at that Grand Palace, he lives in a palace down the road from us which you can't visit (that's right, we share our postcode with the King himself!)

Anyway, our tickets also got us a guided tour of Vinanmek Teak Palace (a palace/mansion built by one of the Thai kings, it's made entirely of teak wood and very beautiful).. as it's only a 5 minute trot there from our place, the following saturday saw us back on the tourist trail to visit this much more chilled palace.. unfortunately we couldn't take photos so you'll have to come visit it if you want to see it for yourself.

I'v finally managed to uplaod the photos for this entry so you'll be hearing about our Ayutthaya adventure next...

xxx

New Year's Eve and the Grand Palace remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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The day started off with Matt giving me a stocking at 8am (he'd had to pick up some laundry before 8) and just as I was drifting off to sleep again the phone jolted me awake.. but despite the initial shock it was lovely to get a call from Euan (who had to deal with my morning grogginess) who was calling us at 1:30am his time to wish us merry christmas.. and throughout the day we got calls and texts from friends and family. Maybe age is making me sentimental, or maybe it's being far away from you all, but the calls and texts were almost better than getting gifts..

We decided not to "do the expat thing" here (go to a 5 star hotel for a Christmas buffet.. or even a britsih/irish pub) and celebrated just the two of us in our flat.
As we have no oven we couldn't roast a turkey so ordered one (complete with veg and mash) from a posh super market here, and it was amazing! Far too much for two of us, so it'll turkey sarnies all week!! So the day was spent opening gifts, picking up the food and eating, eating, eating. Santa was good to us this year. Presents included: chocs and candles and a wee book from bxl (meli's mum), a lovely hamper of biscuits and fruits ordered all the way from Amsterdam (matt's parents), a kicking pad and skipping ropes etc to get us fit again (from matt), a cocktail shaker and all the accesories (from meli) and the usual array of random gifts (an ipod cover, a dvd, socks, a language cd to help us learn Thai, a boardgame). Clearly we have behaved well this year.

It's a little odd to be so far away from everyone at this time of year, but we're looking after eachother and have had a pretty great Christmas day Hope you have all have a very merry Christmas.. it's almost over for us as we hve to be in bed relatively early because of work tomorrow (we were both lucky to get Christmas off at all!)

take care xxx Matt and Meli

Merry Christmas remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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We're settling in to life and work in Bangkok, the temperature has dropped (not that it gets under 20 degrees! it's just a bit chilly at 7am, and we haven't sweated in about a week!) and our first Christmas away from our families is fast approaching. This also means that school has been a bit interrupted by Christmas rehearsals, concerts and other such fun! Oh, and my school had sports day today (very little sport, a LOT of parading/dance choreographs done mainly by girls in teeeny weeeny skirts and very provocative clothes, even the ickle kindergarten kids.. WEIRD!!). Matt was also a little freaked out by some of the kids' costumes at his school's xmas show. But that's not the bizarrest thing i've got to tell you. My school was divided into 4 teams (red, yellow, blue, green) for sports day and each team had decorated their section of the bleachers in coloured banners etc. And team red choose (in what has to be the biggest display of ignorance i have EVER encountered) to decorate their section with the theme..wait for it..NAZISM!!
They had a big swastika (albeit the buddhist version, not the nazi one), cut outs of skull-and-cross-bones and machine guns, a machine gun emplacement made of tires and last but not least, a gold sign reading NAZI. Oh, and as part of the red teams' parade they had kids marching with fake guns and nazi banners. It's hard to explain how very creepy and disconcerting it is to see kids looking like hitler youths. (Thankfully, there were none of the kids from our part of the school or I might have freaked out at them). All the foreign staff were left pretty much speechless. But criticising is not part of Thai culture at all so there wasn't much we could do. Also I should explain, they weren't just being offensive, they're just ignorant. For them, nazism is something that happened far away, they are not taught about it (or so it would seem) and they might as well have chosen the roman army in their eyes. But, in any case, some teacher must have authorised it (if not come up with it) and surely the teachers should know better!! It was all very disturbing anyway.
On a lighter note, the xmas concert at my school was ace: they sang carols and the older kids did some "cool" songs - including linkin park, natalia imbruglia and some rap - they rocked!!

Anyway, we hope we'll be getting emails from everyone wishing us a merry Christmas as we're a wee bit homesick. But we've ordered our turkey and our tiny fake christmas tree is getting more and more presents under it.. and i bought the world's worst Christmas cd today!

Matt says: the Christmas mass at my private catholic girls school wasn't quite as outrageous as melissa's sports day.. apart from the kindergarten kids gyrating in slinky red santa outfits with make-up and hairspray to boot! Some of the singing was really good, some really good solos although the remaining 2 hours of the service went over my head as they were in Thai! I'm almost settled into my new job although I havent done much proper teaching with all the holidays, exams and festivities. The staff are really nice but the girls stuff their faces with all sorts of unhealthy sweets, drinks, icecream and snacks at every oppurtunity. And apart from being ridiculously hyperactive and naughty, the teachers don't seem to understand why the kids are getting "stouter." Also half of the students have gold plated teeth! But they are still so cute especially when they babble away to me in Thai oblivious to the fact I don't understand so just smile and nod

I feel like his secretary now! Take care!

xxx meli and matt

Note (added later): Just for the record, I did bring up my concerns about the Nazi-themed team with my boss (not a Thai). He effectivly said that there was nothing he could do about it.

Bizarre Thailand! remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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I've just finished what felt like the longest week of my life: 6 days in a row at a new job and sick as a dog.

I started work on Monday but started feeling ill on Sunday. By Monday morning my throat felt as though a cheese grater had had a go at it, and from there it only got worse.. I developed a full blown cold with the sore throat, which then developed into a cough as well. Oh, and to add insult to injury, I lost my voice too so the students were treated to a huskier version of myself, except for when I tried to raise my voice: I'd just end up squeaking! Thankfully, I'm actually enjoying my work and having survived this week it can only get better!!!

I'm teaching at a very big private thai school (Thew Phaingnarm - I think the spelling's right!) but it has a smaller section call TSEP (Thew Phaingnarm School English Program) which has about 150 Thai kids who learn pretty much all their subjects in English. It has a kindergarten section, Prathom section (primary) and so far the first 3 grades of Mathiom (secondary). And now it has me too!!

Teacher Melissa, as I am called, teaches maths and science to primary 6 and social studies to primary 2. All my kids are a good bunch, but grade 2 are just adorable - the cutest 7 year olds ever. And all the kids have the best names; Thais do have official names but they all use nicknames, even as adults. So my kids are called things like Mild, Dew, King, Boss, Benz, Dow, (which means doll in Thai) and even Garfield!! I also have a little boy in grade 2 called Book, and he is the sweetest kid with a tiny round face and round glasses (a bit of a geek really!) and he's very shy! He has Asperger's Syndrome apparently, which makes me want to look after him even more!! Lol..

Grade 6 aren't quite as cute and can be a bit unruly (especially 6B) but nothing I can't handle yet. I think they quite like me actually (apparently they didn't like the last guy so not exactly a hard act to follow I guess). I've got a few photos of some of them as on Thursday grades 4-6 went on a field trip on Thursday and as homeroom teacher of 6B I went along too. The trip was to a place called the Ancient City and I was quite excited about it. Turns out it isn't actually ancient at all but slightly scaled down replicas of lots and lots Thai monuments and buildings set in 32 acres of land. But it was actually quite well done, not as tacky as it sounds, and the kids liked it.

Friday was back to school as usual (we start at 7:30!!!) but we got to leave an hour earlier than normal (at 3:30 instead of 4:30) which was especially good for me as I was croaking instead of talking by then.. But Saturday school was on too, nightmare!!! You see, Tuesday is the King's Birthday here so a day off. So admin kindly decided to give us Monday off too but make us work Saturday instead so the kids don't miss too many days or something! It was ok in the end as the kids wanted to work even less than I did (only half of them turned up!) so we just played games all day. And now I'm super happy about having 3 days off!!!

Talking about the King's birthday, instead of wearing yellow shirts just on Mondays to show our respect (which is the norm) we have to wear them every day from last Monday til the 15th of Dec!!!!!!

Matt started work on Friday but will be working tomorrow as he didn't have to work on Saturday.. He's working at a very prestigious all girl's Catholic school here, but I'll let him tell you all about it probably once he's been there a few days.

We also think we have found an ace apartment and, fingers crossed, will be moving in Tuesday. But we don't want to jinx it so we'll tell you about it once we're in it!!

Take care and keep in touch

xxx meli

Teaching at TSEP remains copyright of the author meli1984, a member of the travel community Travellerspoint.

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