Sawaddee Ka!,

Sorry i havent written for a few days, i have been sat here in this internet cafe for the past few nights, trying to uplaod my pcitures, but the internet connection here is so bad that it takes about two hours to try and upload, then the internet coneection gets interupted and the upload fails. GRRRRRR. The internet connection is just slightly faster than dial up, and there are loads of little kids playing online games taking up all the bandwidth. So i am going to stop trying to upload now and just write my blog as trying to upload here stops me writing the blog and using Skype. I will try to upload the pictures when i get into Singburi tomorrow in the hope that it might be slightly faster, or otherwise pictures will have to wait to i am back in bangkok. some of the albums i have put on only have some of the pictures that i took because they wouldnt upload, so you will have to keep an eye out for when i update them as there are some good ones.

So on Wednesday we had a Thai language lesson in the morning at the twin House, it has actually proved really useful so far when buying things and trying to ask for toilets etc! Sawaddee Ka means Hello by the way. The thai language is really funny, it is all about how you stress the word, for example the word for 'come', 'nervous', 'horse', 'dog' are all 'mao' but it depends on how you say the word. so when you try and say sentences to the thais they just look at you like you are an alien. We then went to see a war monument in the afternoon and the temple to the reclining buddha, went to singburi department store (which we have been to about five times now! but it has air con and ice creams so it makes us happy), then we went swimming in Singburi pool in the afternoon. In the evening we went to a restuarant and had a barbeque Thai style which we cooked ourselves.

On Thursday we went to a local school for the monring, which i absolutely loved. we got to go into a few different classes of all different ages right from kindergarten to aged 12 and play and practice our Thai on the children. they were so cute and loved practiceing their English on us. The school was obviously a fairly wealthy one, and the headmaster said it was joint private and governemtn school. the headmaster loved us being there and took pictures of us all the round. We helped some of the children with their English lessons, and had the end they all said 'please shake my hand, good bye', it was so cute! We went to another class where one of the children was particulary fuuny, obviously the class clown. he was really fat (you will spot him in the pictures and video when i upload them). They made us do a dance with the children called 'roast chicken' which was hilarious (you will see on the video how stupid we looked and how funny the boy was) basically involved clucking like a chicken really fast and jumping about. We then went to the temple attached to the school (as school just used to be in temples in teh old days) and we meditated with a buddhist monk who taught us a bit about mediating. It is really strange here, you sort of expect monks to only be in temples or on show for tourists, but you see them everywhere talking on their mobile phones, it's weird. After meditating with the monk (which i really enjouyed and am going to try and take forward) we went to the Singburi museuim. After that we had another Thai language lesson, and learned some more practical application. Unfortunatly i left my notes in my room, but next time i come i will say some sentences to you. After that we had a thai cooking lesson, which i really enjoyed. we make Papaya green salad and a noodle dish that i cant remember the name of, but i have the recipe so will have to make it for you when i get home. when it was our turn we decided to omit the sugar from the noodle dish, much to the thai's dismay. it really is shocking just what and how much sugar they put in everything. In the evening we went back to singburi for an ice cream and i managed to find some Mashi maro's (otherwise known to me as Mushi)!!!! Mushi is the white cuddly toy i cuddle everynight at home, and i found some mini ones in the market so i had to buy one. he is now coming with me on tour and no doubt you will see some picutres of him enjoying himslef soon enough.

Today we went to Longburi which is basically a city full of monkeys. We had to take off all our jewellery and sunglasses because they steal anything. They were literatlly all over the place, it was bizarre. It actually freaked me out quite a lot and they were above you, beside you all the time. We then went to a really beautiful buddhist temple which has a monument of the footprint of the Buddha. I have never seen a building like it, it was completely encrusted with jewels, mosaics and gold on the outside. Tonight i am going to a fancy dress party and i bought a kind of vietnamese hat for 1 pound so i am going to go as a vietnamese woman. No doubt more games of s***head will be had tonight (I won a lot last night). People generally go to bed early here and dont drink much because they are so tired. there are people doing all sorts of things, including people here to train in thai boxing (one of the people broke two of their ribs a couple of days ago and has to stop training).
Things i dislike about thailiand: Asian toilets, stray dogs EVEYWHERE (with huge b******s, would beat the dog in van wilder), gekkos keeping me away all night. Mosquitos.
Things essential for thailand: Tiger Balm, Zinc Oxide tape, mini tissue packs, insect repellent, water, a liking for rice (it is served for breakfast, lunch and dinner, apart from on the days when we get onion sandwiches or chips for breakfast as an alternative). We also get watermelon and pineapple at least twice a day.

After going to the school yesterday i have decided to swap working in the orphanage to teaching in a school next week. I am quite nervous about it as i hav eno idea how to plan a lesson, and i saw how hard it was to teach people who just dont know what you are saying. But i would like to give it a go, and if i dont like it i can always go back to the orphanage. It might even inspire me to get into teaching when i get back, so i want to give it ago and see what i think.
I also looked at my visa in my passport yesterday, only to realise that i got my vietnamese visa for the wrong dates! so to make it fit i am going to have to change my plans a bit. After next week i am now going back to bangkok for a few days, then to Ko Samet on the south coast, then across to Cambodia (rather than vietnam first), then to vietname, Ho Chi minh City (saigon) first then travel up towards Hanoi in the north (I was going to fly to hanoi then travel south, so i am just swapping it round).

Anyway, better go and get started on my costume for tonight.

Lots of love,