Teacher Beth

So I've officially been a teacher for 2 weeks now (how grown up does that sound?) and been loving every second of it. I work for a company called Speakez, and I live about a 20 min walk from our office in Bangkok. So the commute is nice and easy each morning. Everyday I go to a different school, but my schedule is the same each week. So every Monday I go to the same school and teach the same classes, so still get to know the students, its great as it's a bit of variation each day.

I teach from Kindergarten all the way to P6, which are the oldest students in Primary school. The kindergarten students are adorable and always want to give you a hug, however they can be very hard work as their English is at a very basic level, and it is hard to get them to remember words. P4-6 can be a bit more fun as you can play games which they understand and have a bit of a laugh with them.

(Sorry this photo is from the summer camp I

 taught at not got any photos of me teaching yet)

Each lesson I introduce new vocab and get them speaking it as much as possible throughout the lesson through the use of games and activities, they then get to do a fun worksheet at the end. The lessons fly by and by the end of the day I'm shattered, but still finding it so much fun.

I think my biggest struggle so far as been trying to get them to say my name correctly. Thai's can't pronounce the TH sound, so I'm either Bet or Bes. Thanks Mum and Dad for not giving me a universal name!


With love from Thailand xxx

Escaping Bangkok

We left the beautiful island of Koh Samui after 3 weeks of our TEFL course and making some best friends for life. It was time to go back to busy Bangkok and go our separate ways off to our placements. Some people were up off north, some down south, some a 10 hour drive away some only an hour. A few of us, myself included are staying in Bangkok to teach.

Between finishing the course and finding an apartment in Bangkok, I had about a week off, so instead of stressing that I couldn't move in to an apartment and rather than staying in the city, Jess (who was in a similar position) and I decided to escape Bangkok and go to Koh Samet.

Koh Samet is a small tranquil island about 4 hours drive on a bus and a short ferry away from Bangkok to the south! The perfect get away for a few days. We decided the night before to go and booked a random room in a hotel. Well I'm not sure you could call it a hotel, it was more of a block of rooms, the reception area was in a shed next to it. We turned up on the last ferry on Thursday evening and had no idea how to get to the hotel. Luckily it was next to the pier we landed on and Jess recognised it from the photos! The hotel/room was basic but was great for what we needed, a bed, shower and air con!

We spent 2 relaxing days just chilling, sunbathing and reading our books on the beach. It was so nice to just not do anything for the first time since arriving in Thailand. Unfortunately I was not very well one night we were on the island, but then the next night we made up for it and went out for a lovely meal on the beach. Although the meal wasn't that lovely.....we ordered fired noodles with chicken, Jess had hers with sea food and we ended up getting those fat, slimy, jelly like noodles, that neither of us could eat. The chicken and veg it was with was good though! We then went on to some other beach bars and shared a few buckets of cocktails. While sipping are cocktails and having a good girl night we were wondering where the best place to go dancing on the island was or even if there was a place to go dancing when we got chatting to two foreigners also living in Bangkok. They showed us one very cool and busy bar/club at the end of the beach were we danced the night away!!

The next day with a slight hangover we had to make the dreaded trek back to Bangkok to face the reality of starting to teach!

With love from Thailand xxx

I guess I should do some teaching.....

After doing the TEFL course for a few weeks it was about time we put our teaching skills to practice in front of real kids. We spent two days in the south of Koh Samui at a school doing a English camp for two days. Despite there being no air conditioning in the school in was a lot of fun.

We all taught a lesson each on our own and then in a pair two. The rest of the days were filled with group activities and games all leading up to a sports day at the end of the camp. The school was right next to a gorgeous beach so after sweating for the day we all chilled in the sea. We also found an amazing sideways growing coconut tree over the water which made for some great photos.

With love from Thailand xxx

Just keep swimming......

Koh Tao

After the sunburn had gone down and we had recovered from the exhausting hike the previous day we took another boat trip to Koh Tao and Koh Nangyuan for some amazing snorkelling. First we stopped at Koh Nangyuan, which is two small islands joined together by a strip of sand. Some of the group walked up to the top for an awesome view (thanks again Jess for the photos- she did bring 4 different types of cameras to Thailand so bound to have good photos!) but I was to lazy to do this today and just chilled watching the fishes swim past my nose, bobbing up and down. I've never properly snorkelled before so was completely mesmerized by the under water world, the beautiful coral and colourful fishes!

We also got lunch included in the trip which was a delicious buffet of Thai food with lots of salad, which strangely I had been craving after three weeks of rice and noodles! After lunch and a bit more snorkelling we crossed a small stretch of water and jumped off the speed boat in to a bay of Koh Tao. The fish here were even more beautiful and there were big schools of them too. It was then time to head home after not being able to find Nemo.


With love from Thailand xxx

500m of hell for the most beautiful view ever!

Angthong National Park

After a week of TEFL training and 2 days at the summer camp, we boarded a boat to adventure off to Angthong National Park which is a scattering of beautiful islands. We stopped to jump in to kayaks for a paddle closer to the islands. The water was crystal clear and the sky was a gorgeous blue (which can only mean one thing......despite the repeated application of sun cream I did burn by the end of the day). We paddled in to an empty bay which just had one little stall on it selling shakes (my new favourite thing is a fresh banana shake, and is great for a hangover!!), and a short climb up some very steep steps for a lovely view down into a mesmerizing lagoon.

The next hike after lunch on board the boat was just a bit more strenuous..... 500m of sheer rock climbing with just a rope to pull yourself up on. The rocks were sharp, jagged and baking hot from the sun. I don't think I've sweated that much in all my life. Hanisha's first comment when she saw us once we had returned "Oh you've already been in the sea" Nope we're just wet from sweat....lovely! Luckily I packed my trainers to climb......unlike some silly people in flip flops....Tom! We stopped at each view point and the view progressively got more and more breathtaking until the top.

After a real dip in the sea we headed back to Koh Samui to crash for the evening and apply copious amounts of after sun to the burn!



With love from Thailand xxx

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

Koh Samui Craziness

After a 12 hour overnight bus journey VIP style, with a ferry trip included, we arrived at the gorgeous Island of Koh Samui. Our accommodation (which has Air Con!!!!) is lovely with a pool and our classes each day are in the training room here so we don't have to travel far each morning!!

We all chilled by the pool catching some rays of sun (don't worry Mum I had factor 50 sun cream on) on the first day before experiencing our first Thai night out on the Island. We all had a few drinks getting to know each other in the hotel before heading to a few bars to dance the night away! Ark Bar the first bar we went to which was on the beach.......providing a temptation for a dip in the sea which most of us resisted......

On Sunday after sleeping off the hangover, I got to meet up with an old friend who i lived with at Uni, Miss Pipkin, who I had not seen for a year. Ellie had been living in Australia working and was slowly travelling back to the UK via Asia and with some major luck our paths crossed!! It was so lovely to see her after such a long time.

With love from Thailand xxx