I think the British education system has a lot to learn; it was National Teachers' Day here on Friday so all us bringers of knowledge got the day off. Obviously I took full advantage of the long weekend and headed off for the nearby(ish) island of Koh Samet. I very nearly didn't make it owing to being struck down with food poisoning on Thursday and spending all day in bed (I eat at dirty street vendors for three months with no problem and then the one night I go ...

Right, before it gets to February I really ought to actually write about my six-day New Year celebration in the gorgeous Northern city of Chiang Mai. Being all the way in the North meant a very long train journey up there on the night of the 29th, leaving at 9.30pm from the neighbouring province, and arriving there at 7.30am!! Even though I booked way back in mid-November the only space available wasn't even a sleeper but a second-class fan seat. At the time I w...

Sawadee Pi Mai - Happy New Year :)! I've been so busy train-setting over the country the last fortnight or so that I haven't even had chance to write about my Christmas beachy shenanigans until now (today is Wednesday: the day of eight hours with no lessons and wearing of ghastly sports trousers). The last day at school before Christmas holidays was fun, we had a big party with a silly amount of food, lots of fun games, and, more importantly, no lessons. But I d...

Decided to have a lazy weekend in Saraburi seeing as I've got lots of travel coming up in the next fortnight. Got up at a reasonable 9.30 on Saturday morning and took myself off to some local caves in the next province. The bus didn't stop remotely near the caves, so a lovely local Thai girl explained to a motorbike taxi driver where I was going... seemingly a long way away judging by the 80b he wanted to charge, considering it's only 100b to BKK in a minivan, bu...

I spent a lovely sunny weekend in the old capital Ayutthaya with Masha (not a typo, there's no 'r' in her name), a lovely bubbly girl from my orientation. Went into BKK to meet her there as I had to sort out buses down to Koh Chang, which I accepted is impossible to do over the phone. Rushed around like a crazy lady trying to make it to the train station for the 11.40 train to Ayutthaya, got there at about 11.35 and found out she'd booked us onto the 1pm one. Ah ...