After requesting to move placements after multiple issues at the school, by Friday I was packed up and ready to start the remaining weeks in a new place with new experiences. Due to the long weekend since it was the queens birthday/mothers day on the Monday,I had to do a 12 hour journey to Khon Kaen - North East of Thailand, to meet with the thai ministry of education to discuss my next move. They were all there because of a huge spelling competition and wanted me to help out. Direct flights were all booked up, so I began the journey with a 6 hour coach trip down to Bangkok. I sat at the window seat with a women's dirty feet slid up the gap between the bus and my chair so that was interesting! The aircon seemed to have been out of order so it was a pretty stuffy coach, but I enjoyed the transition from countryside views to city skyline. When I arrive in the main bus station - Mo Chit - I was hit with a wave of panic. From the tiny place I had been staying in for the last 3 weeks where no one spoke english, to arrive to aggressive business drivers yelling at me for taxi, grabbing my suitcase and harassing me over where I am going.. I felt a little overwhelmed! After having to call a member of the British council to help me find the genuine taxi station, I managed to hop on a taxi in the most efficient 3 lane taxi procedure I've ever seen.. It was all go go go quick quick quick now now now!
The next part of my journey was the hour flight from Donmuang airport (a smaller airport in Bangkok for domestic flights) to Udon Thani airport. Here, I met Brian from the British council who was really nice and supportive of my situation. We managed to have a really good chat about everything, since our flight was delayed because the royal family happened to be flying in so they had to close off the airport! Quite an unusual situation! We flew with Nok Air and although the flight was short they gave us a snack and drink that pleased me immensely. Once we arrived, we hired a car and had to drive for about 120km to Khon Kaen in the dark. During the drive I felt very chatty and got to know Brian a little bit through his tales of his life before Thailand - including living in Vietnam and having to endure bizarre foods and flavoured rice wine.... Flavours being gecko, lizard, squirrel and BEAR. !!!!!
Unfortunately as we were approaching the big city of Khon Kaen, we witnessed a motorbike accident in the lane next to us only a few feet away. After a day of travelling on little sleep, this seemed to top off my emotions and I felt physically sick and paralysed at the incident, especially as we just kept on driving..
We got to the convention centre hotel at about 9pm - in the lobby there was a money tree I've seen frequently, as offerings to Buddha, but right next to it was what I can only describe as a stationary tree.. There were scissors, mugs, highlighter pens all hanging from this tree as offerings! Who knew Buddha fancied doing a bit of arts and crafts. After checking into my room which had an amazing view of the city, I met up with Brian and 2 other members of the British council called Oil and David. They were all friendly and funny and we took a mini bus to this gastro pub at the top of this strange empty building. It had been pouring with rain so it was completely empty but we had great food. Oil has an incredible assertive nature and managed to chop and change the menu into veggie friendly meals, I like her style. We didn't get back to the hotel until just before midnight - at this point I could have fallen asleep standing up so was very happy to see bedtime.
The next morning was crazy. Turns out that the competition was a huge deal - so many important suited and booted people arrived along with 600 students between 10-18 years old. There was an opening ceremony of beautiful Thai dancers, speeches and an ASEAN flag movement. It felt amazing to be a part of it all.. I was briefed on what my role was for the day, so spent the morning as an invigilator with 5 other peace core volunteers from the US in a huge convention room, making sure everyone knew what they were doing and weren't cheating! We then went to a back room to mark all of the papers - it was so funny being on the other side of education and I quite liked the power and red marking pens..!!
After lunch, I met with the thai ministry of education who, after discussion, decided she would be willing to move me to a new school even though we are halfway through the project. She had a few ideas where but had to wait for the long weekend to find out. By 3pm Brian and I had to whisk away for the flight back down to Bangkok, but I managed to squeeze in a delicious takeaway ice cream sundae that I happily ate in the car like a little kid. The flight seemed quick and Brian very kindly escorted me in the taxi to the accommodation the British Council were putting me in for the weekend before I'm moved. I asked Brian in the taxi what the accommodation is like. He said he hasn't been but that he has heard it was "fine".... Turns out it is an executive suite complete with double bed, futon, 2 flat screen TVs and kitchenette/lounge....!?? After so much worrying and travelling this was the most perfect thing to arrive to on Saturday evening. A few hours later, another ETA,Charlie, (mentioned in previous birthday post) came to hang out and stay since she needed to be in Bangkok for Tuesday anyway. We were both overjoyed with the room.. I actually opened the door to her in my complimentary robe and slippers. Charlie the suggested we wander around the corner to grab some Indian food as she had been craving it.. I happily agreed and we stumbled into a vegetarian Indian restaurant only 5 minutes down road. It was so good and we made a point not to order rice, replacing it with stuffed naan, lentil pappadums and chippatis to accompany a lentil Dahl and spicey okra dish. Aroy!
We got back to the apartment by 11.30pm and stayed up chatting and watching hilarious thai TV until the early hours of the morning. A great end to a great day.
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