Thai police and helmets...

In Thailand it is 'illegal' to wear helmets; however I would say that about 50% of people don't wear helmets, and the police will cruise about Chiang Mai on their motorbikes (wearing helmets!) and not bat an eyelid when they see you without a helmet. However they have random check points, where a group of Thai police will fine every person not wearing a helmet....So yesterday I was crusing along (I was naughty and was not wearing a helmet) across a sort of courtyard and at the other side there was a check point. Me being in my own world didn't see it until I was about 10 metres away and by then about 4/5 Thai police had seen me. So I suddenly stopped and whipped and my helmet from underneath me and put it on and whilst they were all still staring but then I cruised slowly passed. The police looked like they were about to eat me alive or if not shoot with one of their Thai guns so I wasn't sure what to do so I drove passed giving them a cheecky grin:):):) They were not impressed and I was even going to ask them for a photo to share on this blog (the Thai Police uniform and motorbike are just fabulous) but I thought that was pushing it...

Since I didn't manage a cheeky photo of the Police, instead of I have uploaded some random snaps from Chiang Mai:)

The first photo is at taken at uni, the second one is of my me and my friend Nam (the girl) and also a famous Thai man (don't know who is!but everyone else there seemed to know him) outside an ice cream place that I went to last night and the third one was taken a little bit ago from my balcony:)

Teaching in Thailand

So a few weeks ago my head of department sat me down and asked me if I could help teach Burmese children English in a school nearby. Firstly I wish that everyone reading this could meet this lady as she such a character. She is called Ubonrat and is a very small and conservative and very traditionally Thai with a bum that she swishes when she walks...She refers to me and Sammy 'Noo' which is basically what Thais refer to little children as and means MOUSE. So when Ubes (my nickname for this fabulous teacher, I do genuinely love this slightly intimating teacher) asked me whilst peering at me over her glasses to help I couldn't say no...

So Friday arrived and Sammy and I arrived expecting we'd be a classroom assistant or maybe helping out a few Burmese children but oh no no no the children at this school aren't Burmese and most importantly we were both individually assigned a class (Sammy helped out this one time teaching a class) BUT I was assigned a class to teach. When I was told this I nearly burst into tears as I didn't have a clue what to say or do...so at 1pm on Friday for 2 minutes I just stood in front of a class like HELLO-I was petrified. So I went up to the board and wrote my name on it then introduced myself and asked all the children's names-sadly can't remember any of them now! And then after that I enjoyed every second of my hours teaching. Can hardly remember what I taught them but I do remember dropping my pen and them all laughing and one shouting out FUN and I said oh no its not fun...at this point I think the girl thought I was going to get angry but instead I told her that this was FUNNY and if this happened again, she must say funny not fun...even though I'm sure having a dappy English teacher is fun:)

So was defiantly one of the best and random hours in Thailand so far and we will be teaching this class twice a week! Not sure what to teach next class but quite enjoyed my freestyling and I actually think I make a splendid teacher...I hope:)

So in conclusion I still love Ubes even if she twist the truth that I'd be helping out teaching some Burmese children...and I'm excited to teach again:)

P.s I don't have photos from the school as of yet so instead I've put it more from Loi Krathong festival.

Christmas has potential competition...

Sawadee Ka!

Oh gosh is it just me but are the days/weeks literally flying by? The weekend has been and gone already and now its Monday morning midday and I'm finished for the day:) Sometimes a 8am-10am seems quite tempting!

So this weekend was extremely busy! Where to start...so Friday was a fun night with my friend Luke and my Thai friend Bi which involved eating dinner followed by ice-cream and hours of fun. Bi's English pronunciation is excellent but all I can say is, if you have a Thai friend, try and make them say 'Lyrics':) But then again try and learn the Thai word for snake...

So then Saturday...Bi and I went to a waterfall which is only about 10 mins drive from where I live. It was my first time and it was really beautiful!I forgot to take my camera but I'll be going back again so I will have a photos after next time. Then afterwards we went to a shopping centre called 'Airport Plaza', its pretty big for Thailand but could never be compared to the likes of Westfield for example. We met Bi's friend and at 2pm on a hot afternoon guess what I was doing? I was sat in a Thai karaoke booth attempting to sing Thai songs:) The Thais love it and through the glass booth you actually can spot people singing their heart in a booth by them self!!!!(This is normal) Oh how I adore Thailand and its randomness:)

Saturday night involved having a boogie or two at a nearby bar/club called Warm up. Most nights a band will be playing there and as many of you know I'm not huge fan of live music but Thai bands are actually good and this bar has a huge outside part where the band plays and its oh so lovely to sit outside on a warm evening, drink cocktails,whilst singing along to a bit of Chilli Peppers.

Sunday a few of us went back Airport Plaza again and we had a browsel and I purchased a fabulous pink wig:) I don't normally appreciate fancy dress, but oh this wig is simply amazing! And at least I now know that a short bob and pink hair both suit me:) So yes I purchased that as downstairs in the shopping centre, there was Japanese event going on with hundreds of Thais dressed up in fabulous Japanese crazy costumes:)

Also in the shopping centre there was a HUGE imitation Christmas tree and snowman, bigger than you'd ever see in England. Oh how I love Thailand as it doesn't even celebrate Christmas:)

Then Sunday night was possibly my favourite part of the weekend which involved celebrating Loi Krathong festival. I have to admit that I don't know much about it but it is a Buddhist annual festival which involves making merit. However like Christmas its more about having fun! Luke and I met our Thai friends and went to Thapae gate where there were beautiful decorations, mainly hundreds of lit up lanterns so we took loads of photos then went by the river and did the Loi Kratong tradition of floating a kratong each which is a miniature raft covered in a banana leaves decorated with flowers. So we lit the candles and incense and sent them down the river, making a wish:)

Then we went to uni and did the other Loi Kratong traditional of letting off a couple of giant laterns in the sky together. When you look up in the sky, the sky is literally covered in giant floating lanterns which look stars. If anyone wants to visit Thailand, go during Loi Kratong as its so good, I think it may be better than Christmas...but then again no presents were involved so its a hard decision to make:)

Also another piece of advice for people who decide to go Thailand during Loi Kratong...keep away from Thai people setting off fireworks as they let them left, right and centre even if you are standing right next to them and these fireworks won't go up, they will go straightforward. All I can say is that Thai people+fireworks is a both a hilarious and scary mixture as they have NO sense of danger and if there is trouble, I don't even think that Thailand has a fire service....

And the tales from Thailand begin...

Hello:) This is my first post which is quite frankly about 2 months late. I meant to start this when I first arrived in Thailand but those 2 months have flown by, so here I am on this sunny 'winter' day finally beginning my tales from Thailand. Since I already have so much to say, I will go back in time and share stories and thoughts from the last 2 months as well as updating with new happenings.

So first of all I will give a quick overview of my situation in Thailand. I am currently studying Thai at Leeds, so this is my second year in which I'm studying Thai at Chiang Mai university! I am living in accommodation called Baan Thai. It is ok as my room is a decent size and I have a beautiful view of the mountains. Plus I have a fabulous huge pool which I pretend is my own as it is empty most of the time except some pervy men which lurk. (Yes a weird Japanese man did try to chat me up by telling me I had 'nice proportions'!!!) On the downside though my accommodation is rather boring, like a hotel, and is full of retired male 'ฝรั่ง' ('fa-rangs'= Thai word for foreigner) which have nothing better to do than lurk and bring young Thai girls back home. Oh the joys of Thailand!!!

So yes that's Baan Thai so a quick overview on my day so far...

Today I started uni like most mornings at 8:30 so I hopped my moped which I must add I am growing to hate more and more each day! I bought a secondhand one...why oh why? So its not beautiful but instead a standard boring light blue one when really I should be driving on a beautiful brown one with cream leather!

Anyways so had a two our Thai class which went OK but I really dislike speaking in class...I'm starting to get better with strangers but in such a small class I feel like its an exam every time.

So yes so during the class we were told that we should go outside and 'play games' with the Thai students...this is Thailand all over...no explanation:)

So we were taken over to this group of psychology students and were told to draw a man and a woman. After doing this the psychology students were able to tell us about ourselves and how they could read us from two simple drawings. The description of me was nearly 100% accurate which was impressive but also a bit freaky...

After then doing an IQ test and having lunch, I went to pool for a couple of hours:) As per usual it was empty (except the weird Japanese man sunbathing at the side) so I began by doing some การบ้าน 'gan-baan' (Thai word for homework) but the pool was far too tempting so decided to take a little dip in the pool which ended up being a nice long leisurely swim followed by some more gan-baan:)

So that is my day so far minus the boring trip to the laundrette to do my weekly washing:)

I will be posting regularly so you can all follow my Thailand tales with me:)