First of all, it’s hot here. Really hot here in fact and I
love it. Even though it is monsoon, most days it is still very warm and when
the downpours of rain come it is very refreshing. This past week I have learned
a lot about Thai people. At the weekend, it is perfectly acceptable to eat and
sleep all day - which left myself and Ocean stuck for things to do when we were
invited to our hosts house for the full weekend – fully expecting a good 2 days’
worth of activities – when in fact the only things planned were eating and
sleeping – and a lot of it! The food here is not always very nice looking but it
is almost always guaranteed to taste amazing. I have tried so many different things already!
We have visited lots of lovely restaurants where you can eat a full meal for
30-40 baht (about 80-90p) – it’s almost cheaper (and easier) to eat out at
these places rather than cook dinner at home.
The majority of people have motorbikes as modes of transport
and it is not uncommon to see 3/4 people on the one motorbike! Ocean and I have
bicycles which allow us to get everywhere we want/around kutchum easily as it is
not very big at all. Most people are farmers here, and cattle and chickens are
often seen in peoples “gardens” and wandering about the road side. The roads
here are very different from in the UK: people drive wherever they like and the hard
shoulder is always used as an extra lane, Zebra crossing - although marked clearly
on the roads - are irrelevant and commonly ignored. There are also a large
number of stray dogs who are free to roam the roads/streets wherever and
whenever they please.
Every Wednesday there is a market, which sells absolutely
everything and anything you could possibly want – it’s probably been the
highlight of these past few weeks.
This week didn't start of that so great – especially for
Ocean who spent the first 3 days ill and in the inside of the rather
interesting kutchum hospital. The rural hospital was where the language barrier
became more apparent than ever. Describing symptoms of sickness and other not so
nice things proved much harder than we had initially thought – the use of
actions didn't seem to help either. After half an hour of finally putting
across what was wrong with her we were finally on the way forward on the road
to her recovery. By Thursday – after a
good food shop at the Tesco - she was as fit as a fiddle, almost anyway. On Thursday
we were taken to the nearest city – Yasothon – to apply for our work permits,
after visiting yet another hospital, to get my blood pressure etc taken, we
were granted our wish of becoming teachers in Thailand and given our permit.
On Saturday, we ventured into Kutchum to do some more exploring
and clothes shopping. Thai people like to remain well presented at all times
and therefore they are very particular about how smart our uniforms are and
even how well ironed our shirts are – yes I can now successfully use an iron! After
a successful shop we are now kitted out with shirts and pencil skirts and ready
to at least look like smart teachers.
The next day, Sunday, was spent doing more exploring – this time
we left the safety of rural, small Kutchum and headed to Yasothon alone. We
successfully managed to find our way around and even found a shopping mall,
where we ate lunch and tried out some of our Thai. The waiter unfortunately didn't
seem to understand much that we were saying and found the whole thing really
funny, we then had to result to pointing to what we wanted and hoping we got
the right thing. The day passed quickly –something that doesn't happen often
here- and we then headed home to Kutchum.
Slowly but surely getting used to Thai culture and
everything that comes with it. Although their lack of having any concept of
time can prove very annoying - who cuts their grass at half five in the
morning!? Thai people believe it or not do, waking me up every morning in the process. It has to be said though, I'm enjoying myself nonetheless
and it’s all part of the experience.
