Ko Samet

About 3 hours south of Bangkok in the Gulf of Thailand is the tropical island of Ko Samet. That is where I had the good fortune to spend the weekend along with about 25 other teachers from RIS.

I joined a group of 13 who left the school on Friday afternoon in a hired minivan with driver, looking forward to getting out of the city for a while. We arrived at the pier and our speedboat for the short hop to the island. Here I am on the pier below.

Ko Samet is your classic tropical island, complete with palm trees down to the water, beautiful white sand and warm water. There are lots of little beaches with a variety of accommodation; I stayed at a place called Tubtim in a little shack amongst the trees.

It was nice to back in the salt water. The weather was hot but a breeze made it more pleasant than Bangkok. The water was incredibly warm - almost too warm! Tubtim village is a cute little place with the restaurant spreading out onto the beach.

Walking around the island we came across lots of beautiful little beaches such as this one

The day was spent enjoying the water, reading under the umbrella on the beach, eating tropical fruit as it was delivered by the local vendors walking along from beach to beach and just dozing on the deck chair. The evenings were spent moving from venue to venue on the island for food and drink and we were entertained by live music and an amazing performance by a group of fire players!

Sunday morning saw a spectacular tropical storm with torrential rain but it cleared up again for another swim before we headed back to Bangkok. This picture shows the last of the stormy sky moving away from the island.

It would have been nice to have spent a few more days on Ko Samet but I won't be surprised if I end up there again.

Life in the Suburbs

My working day starts with the alarm ringing at 5:45am. Outside the daylight is just starting to appear and it is already hot. The view from the main bedroom balcony is shown in the picture to the left. After my Weetbix (only found at one supermarket so far, about 25 minutes away) I head off to school at 6:30am with my neighbours Matt & Gail, fellow teachers at Ruamrudee, who own a car. I have also been ridden to school on the back of Matt's scooter which is a bit of an adventure. The trip takes less than 10 minutes which is a nice change from the past 9 years.

The school day is divided into five 70 minute periods on a four day cycle. I have 6 classes, 2 Year 11 IB Chemistry, a Year 11/12 Environmental Studies and 3 Year 10 Biology. Two days of the four day cycle I teach 4 out of 5 periods and the other two days 3 out of 5 periods. The school day starts at 7:15am with "Homeroom". I have a Year 9 group of 18 kids - the first names that I have completely learned. School ends at 2:45pm, but I have not been getting away that early. I normally go home on a school shuttle van that runs staff and students the 3kms or so to the main road, from where I have a 10 minute walk back home.

The way the housing villages or "moobans" are arranged is quite different. The main road I live off (called Ramkhamhaeng - see picture) runs from down near the city and ends not far past my mooban. Coming off the main road are numbered streets that are the only way in and out of the mooban - they are normally dead ends even if they go for a few kilometers. I am on Ramkhamhaeng 190/1. The school is on 184.

My mooban - Parkway Chalet is quiet and leafy with short side streets (called sois - I am on Soi 17) coming off the single main road. There is a little park just near my house. There are a few school staff members in the mooban but mainly well-off Thais. The entrance gate is shown in the picture. On the gate are security guards that salute you when you go past. They also ride around the mooban on their bicycles constantly, so it is very safe.

Today I played golf for the first time in Thailand, at a course with water on every hole called Pine Golf & Lodge. Golf in Thailand is certainly an experience, with a female caddie (see picture) to carry your bag, give you distances to the flag and advice on how the putts will break. It was incredibly hot, relatively expensive and very slow but it is always good to be on the golf course!

Settling into Bangkok

It has been three weeks since I arrived in Bangkok to start this new phase of my life as a Science Teacher at Ruamrudee International School. All the reading and advice before you move overseas does not really prepare you for coping with everything being so new. New country, city, language, job, house, life, church, friends, food, shops, transport, climate - it's all very exciting but at the same time incredibly overwhelming. How the brain processes it all I don't know!

I am really pleased with the House that I found to rent. It is a Thai style, two storey, three bedroom home in a quiet suburban village called Parkway Chalet in Minburi. I found the place thanks to the Thai maid of another teaching couple and she came with me to see the place and translated between my English and the landlady's Thai. It was a very good deal and is only a five minute drive (with a neighbour who has a car) to the school. There is a country club with pool, gym and tennis courts which I am looking forward to making good use of.

The weather is like a hot summer day in Sydney all the time and it really doesn't cool down much at all at night. The air conditioners get a real workout, although I am trying to not overuse them conscious of my carbon footprint. I do prefer this to the cold and it doesn't take too long to get used to it. You do, however, seem to be sweating all the time. There hasn't been a great deal of rain even though it is still wet season, but the couple of thunderstorms that have occurred have been pretty spectacular with very heavy rain and local flooding!

The language is going to be hard to learn as the sounds are very different. The script is even harder! So far my vocabulary is very basic; Hello (Sawadee Krap), Thank you (Korp Khun) and a few numbers such as my street address. The school is going to run a free Thai Language Course soon which I am keen to attend.

Although Taxis are very cheap compared to Australia, I am mainly using Public Transport to get around. To go to the city I catch my local bus for about 30 minutes for the equivalent of about 30 cents where I pick up a boat to travel into the city centre along the canals (called khlongs in Thai) for another 30 minutes. If there was no traffic you could do the journey by car in 35-45 minutes but there is always traffic every day, every night!

I am enjoying getting to know my colleagues at RIS, especially the fellow new staff and the members of the science department. People are being very friendly and I have been out a lot in the first three weeks, either to restaurants in the area, other people's houses or down to the city. It certainly helps to have people to talk to as you are settling in.