Fried grasshoppers and leaping threads of string
Trip Start
Jan 14, 2010
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8
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Trip End
Sep 11, 2010
Ban Phe, Thailand
Sunday, February 7, 2010
At the market every Monday and Thursday a few streets away from here you can pick up all manner of weird and wonderful Asian eccentricities to eat. Fried grasshopper, maggots and a large grub-like creature to name but three. After trying the former, not sure I’ll be trying the latter two. If you like your fish fresh, the market is also the place to shop. Most of the fish are literally breathing their last breath as they get bagged up and handed over.
Last week we had a leaving party for Josh and Georgia at the windsurfing place. You can see the pictures at the end of the blog. A fun time was had by all and I’m missing them a bit already. They were only eighteen and because of this brought a certain fearlessness and fun that miserable twenty-somethings can find hard to muster. All the windsurfing guys turned up and cooked us barbequed fish, pork, mussels and tofu for Rhi.
Yesterday Rhi and I, along with Sara, another volunteer, went to a national park about an hour away from here. We didn’t see any large animals but did come across some of your basic lizards as well as what looked like a crawling, leaping jumble of white thread. (See photo!).
The park is set out so you follow a trail which leads you to eight waterfall areas. We made it to the seventh and I was keen to power on to the eighth, another kilometre away, but the girls wanted to eat. After considering cutting the deadwood loose, I reluctantly returned with them. Waterfalls were great and the water, which we swam in to cool off, was crisp and full of fish. The large ones were fine but the smaller ones had a tendency to nibble at your feet.
We’ve also hired a moped for the final two weeks here so have been scooting off to the nearby nice beach quite regularly. We’ve got some decent (and attempted a few arty) shots of us at the beach in the below pics.
Back to teaching tomorrow. A teacher is supposedly the third most respected position in society, after the king and monks. A few of the 14 year-old kids don’t seem to have received this memo. I’m exaggerating because I thought this was a good line. I’ve nothing really to complain about; the extent of their misbehaviour involves a bit of messing around with mates and not paying attention, which is usually corrected with an icy glance. A world away, I’m sure, from teaching fourteen year-olds in a rough part of London or other big city. The other kids are great. They even made me two friendship bracelets.
~Nathan
Nathan loves telling the locals we’re teachers. He brings it up in every conversation. It’s proving quite beneficial, we even got a free tomato from the woman at the shop! Apparently if you have proof you’re a teacher you can get in to the National Parks for free. Unfortunately we didn’t have any proof on us yesterday so paid 200 baht each (about £4). We had no idea about teachers getting in free so we didn’t mind paying at all.
Noodles again for dinner tonight. (We bought a cheap kettle from the market so we can make coffee and noodles.) Our aim is to eat cheap and spend frugally from Monday to Thursday and treat ourselves to meals out and trips at the weekend. We’re hoping to go to Koh Samet again on Thursday and hopefully explore the south of the island.
I had my first ever massage the other day. It was amazing. I went with a few of the other volunteers, they all went for the Thai massage whereas I opted for the slightly more ‘gentle’ oil massage. Was slightly concerned when the woman led me upstairs away from the others into what looked like a hospital ward with a curtained off section. She then motioned for me to take all my clothes off! I insisted on keeping my knickers on! After the initial embarrassment it was fine, very relaxing. A one hour full body massage for about £5! In London that would cost you at least £30. So overall it was very nice, some parts were a bit weird like the cracking of the fingers and toes and some weird slappy thing she did to my face.
Only 2 weeks of teaching left. I’m really aware of how little time we’ll get with the kids and want to concentrate on teaching them as much useful English as possible.
Rhi
Comments
your moving white string looks like a flatidae nymph which is also supposed to be a local delicacy !! - found it on google. luv u both.