This time, the photo actually matches where i am. we were even in the night market last night.

so, a few things have happened. we got taken to a rubber tree farm to help fertilise the trees. we basically just walked up and down in between the rows scattering little pellet things which was as fun as it can be. we also met trevor the toad there. the slightly camp lady boy we have made freinds with screamed when he saw it. he also tried to throw the pellets out of a cup so it landed in a circle in front of him but ended up just covering himself in the fertiliser. most amusing.

we then went back to our hosts house, even when she wasnt there, and helped one of the students to pronounce her lines. the secondary school are doing a production of mam mia and she is donna. it was quite funny and we had to go through all the song lyrics as well. this got a bit tediouse when the same line was repeated three times in a row. however, it does mean that whenever we are with the students, we leave singing money money money and i had a dream.

although this was quickly remedied when we went home and watched aladin the day before we came to chiang mai. consequently, we have been singing never had a friends like me for three days in a row.

so we had a 16 hour bus journey here. we had to drive for 2 hours to ubon first. and there were another 2 sets of volunteers getting the same bus as us so 6 altogether which was nice. we left ubon about 6pm and arrived in chaing mai around 10am ish i think. it wasnt as bad as it mght have been. there was lots of leg space and the seats almost fully reclined. so i did actually get quite a lot of sleep. the seat even had little massagers in the back. it was basically sacks of air that filled up and were then let down and filled up again. but it was surprisingly nice.

so we arrived and got a taxi thing to our guest house. the room differ but we definately got one of the worst lay outs. we have to share double bed with one fan and no air con. other rooms have fridges and tv's and more than one bed. oh well, its only for 3 weeks right?

we went to the night market last night as well which was amazing. i just want everything, and i fyou an bargain a good price, it can be quite cheap. there are also a good few stalls that sell pirate dvd's which really excites me so will have to stock up on a good few dvd's before we leave to go back to our project. but you could pretty much get everything you wanted. silk table cloths, souvineers, skirts, lots of clothes, lights, just anything. there is so much i want to take back to the uk with me but it seems a bit early to be buying things that i wont take home for another 10 months.

we have been talking to everyone else about there projects and although not the most rural, we do seem to be one of the rural ones. and thankfully, we are not the only ones bored out our brains with nothing to do. we are all planning a trip to bangkok so go see Harry Potter when it comes out. there is no way in hell i am missing that! apparently you have to stand up and listen to the national anthem before the movie starts.

today we have just walked around, went to the food market which is so much more expensive than our village. but the prices range so much. at one place it will be 45b to buy a kilo of longkon, but accross the road it will only be 10. i dont quite understand.

apart from that i dont really know what to say. we start our language course tomorrow which is four hours a day. shouldnt be too bad although we are supposed to (in theory) do 2 hours of homework a day but i can easily see thats not going to happen.

i shall keep you updated.