Going Local

This weekend has been a weekend of "firsts" The first time I've driven an automatic car on Thai roads. The first time I've seen an elephant not in a zoo with someone riding it. The first time I've been to a lady boy show. The first Thai massage I've had.

After an exciting week on the TEFL course learning many different teaching methods and fun games we welcomed in the weekend with a few drinks and a trip to see a Lady boy show. The lady boys were astonishing, you could not tell they were once men. Jess below with our ladyboy waitress!

Saturday morning arrived and after a failed attempt at riding mopeds Jess, Lindsey, Katie and I hired a car for an adventure round the Island. I think this has to be my favourite day so far in the land of Thai. It was so lovely and relaxed, we took our time wandering around stopping whenever we felt like it. We visited two waterfalls, both of them beautiful. It hasn't rained enough here yet so the pools were a bit murky and dry from the summer months so we avoided jumping in for a swim. There were also elephants wandering around giving people treks through the jungle areas.

As the hunger pains kicked in we stopped at a random outdoor market for some lunch. There were knock off sunglasses stalls next to people selling raw pig faces! The food was incredible, for 60 Baht (£1.10) we filled a bowl with the amazing food pictured below. Although extremely spicy it was delicious.

Once our mouths had recovered from the spicy overload we carried on the adventure to visit a giant Buddha followed by some spectacular temples. We randomly bumped into Rungwit (our Thai teacher) on his moped and he joined us at the temples telling us a few traditional Thai stories and myths too.

With love from Thailand xxx