Better late than never!
Trip Start
Feb 26, 2007
1
17
27
Trip End
Ongoing
Pattaya, Thailand
Saturday, January 31, 2009
So now I've got make 2 more entries to catch myself up to date, this one covers up to around November time.. the rest will follow soon J
Well life's still great, it's 2 years since I was out here as a student training... so 2 years since I had my mid life crisis and decided to turn my life on it's head and move to the other side of the world!!
I really don't know where to start writing this blog as so much time has passed so I'll probably jump around in time a lot and maybe not make sense in parts but tough... it's that or nothing.. J
So here goes..
Have not been anywhere too exciting, not done anything earth moving or record breaking but I have had a good time meeting some fab people over the past few months..
Made really good friends with a Canadian girl called Kaysi who was here for a month with her younger brother who adopted me as his 'dirty aunty lynn' - don't ask! Haha.
We had some laughs and giggles.. some mad nights out and some funny experiences. Pics are attached of our nights out etc. I definitely want to get over to Canada at some point in the future to visit them both, really missed them when they left and they were the first people to leave that made me cry when we said goodbye! Love Ya Kaysi / Grady! Come back soon!
A great guy from the UK was here for 6months - Marc, we have adopted one another as big bro and little sis as we were like inseparable twins for a long time till he went and got himself a Thai girl... damn her! Haha just kidding Marc! Anyways one night during his stay Marc fought in Lumpinee (the most prestigious stadium in Muaythai for those of you who may not know) and so we all went to support him. On the way back the Fairtex bus became 'The Party Bus'.. it all got quite messy.. a night out in Pattaya followed when we got back but unfortunately copious amounts of alcohol got the better of me and bambi legs kicked in and I had to make an early exit home! Rather embarrassing and I was rather gutted the next morning when I realised that not only had one of our new students had to practically carry me home but also that I'd exited quite early on and missed out on a further 5 hours of intense partying by the rest of the group! Marc's back in January for another long period of time so I'm trying to prepare my liver in advance!
Another girl - Emily who has been out here before made a 2nd visit and stayed for a month, we spent plenty of time together, visiting the local haunts of boyztown for some girlie giggles and just being complete girls together which I was well in need of.
Emily and I went with some of the trainers to a province called Rayong about 1.5hours from Pattaya to see some buffalo racing.. which as highly amusing! These guys just hanging on the back of buffalo's with no harness or straps.. we went right into the field where the buffalos were to get a pic close up and one of the buffalos took a diversion from the race track and nearly ran straight into Emily.. very amusing!
We then went to one of the trainers home's in Rayong and visited his friend who owned a 'cock' farm.. Emily and I were quite excited about the prospect of this until we realised it was breeding cockrels for fighting! So we saw how the cockrels lived, are bred and taken care of - and believe me they are taken better care of than us humans! Anyway the guy gave one of our young fighters a cockrel to take home so we had fun transporting it home in a make-shift box with a whole for it's head!
One morning we had a massive buddist ceremony outside Fairtex at 5am for the queens birthday, it's the sort of thing you see once in a blue moon so of course we had to get up bright and early and go check it out.. it was amazing.. there was a sea of orange with the 100's of monks who turned out for the ceremony in honour of the queen... pics attached.
One of many things I have been dragged into at Fairtex was to be in a popular Thai TV comedy chat show on a special 2 part show to promote Fairtex. Suzanne and I had to go along with some of our thai fighters and the boss. They made us up in the make up room with wild bouffant hairdo's, horrendous satin dresses and heavy make up - to the Thai people they all thought we looked so beautiful but Suzanne and I were mortified and felt more like throw backs from the 1980's!!Luckil;y i don't have any pics ni a format i can attach to here! ;-)
Oh.. we had Jean Claude Van Damn out here staying at the hotel as he was shooting his new film and used the hotel for one of the scene's... I swear to god I wouldn't have known it was him if he walked past me in the street, he's 49 now and although still is in good shape his face is looking old and with his glasses on he's hardly recognisable.. but still another claim to fame for me! J
There's a great restaurant out here called 'Cabbages and Condoms' - yes it is a very weird name but it's an amazing restaurant and hotel. The hotel do a lot for promoting awareness to AID's and supporting aids charities, anyways I went there one night for a meal with 5 english girls who came out here.. A bunch of really good girls and good laugh. So we went to cabbages and condoms for a meal, not only was the meal top notch but the location is amazing, you walk through a courtyard of greenery / jungle with streams and bridges where you can feed the fish, you then pass a big garden area where massive fluffy rabbits run around and laze in the grass... crazy! They also have some amazing life size figures of father Christmas, an army man etc where their clothing is made entirely from condoms! Picture attached! The toilets are also amazing.. it doesn't take much to entertain me :-)
We've also had Loy kratong again.,. the water festival where you set a display of flowers afloat on the sea to cleanse yourself of your sins afresh for the new coming year. This year the beach was really busy with stalls and people, I wandered down the full stretch of the beach road with 3 students and we bought a 'kratong' and set it free on the sea, complete with silver coin for good luck in wealth and a piece of our hair to cleanse our sins...! The sea was quite choppy that night so myself and one of the guys Russ decided to wade out almost up to our chests to get our 'kratongs' out further into the sea so they weren't being washed up on the shore.. it was a great idea until we then had to wander home soaking wet... Whilst wandering around we walked by some poor bloke passed out on the pavement.. of course being the kind people we are we decided to take advantage and jump in one at a time for a token picture of this guy asleep on the side of the road! He had no idea what we were doing!
We've started doing a show outside the MBK shopping centre in Bangkok (biggest shopping centre in heart of Bangkok).. we do it twice a month and I have to go work at it to be the PA woman and work the microphone all day announcing whats happening, whats coming up, explaining about muaythai and announcing the fights we have there too... I'm becoming quite a professional at this announcing lark and hosting events!! It's great though as it gets me a change of scenery for a day every couple of weeks, plus I get chance to do some cheeky shopping while I'm there!
Oh and I enjoyed a little but of local culture when I took some students to see the Big Buddha monument here in Pattaya.. it was also my first time seeing it which is quite embarrassing that I've never been yet after 2 years of being out here, especially when it's just down the road!
Well i'll end it there - this takes me up to the end of November and there's another travellog on it's way to cover December and chrimbo!! J
Loads of love to you all, speak soon
Lynn
