So, Thailand, huh?

Well after a flight with no drama (apart from the drama of Voldemort getting the elder wand at the end of harry potter during the in flight film) I got to Bangkok and went to meet the volunteer pick up person.  Turns out they didn't know I was arriving that day, good news.  So got a taxi over to the volunteer house where th in country coordinator told me I had been ripped off.  Maybe next time I go to a far away country I will go with a volunteer company that will pick me up at the airport and help me get my bearing a bit... Wait...

So after a bottle of water and a little sleepy we all piled into a van to the bus station for a 12 hour bus journey to Chaing Rai, were we will be teaching.  We stopped for food at the bus station, were I bought something that I was told was chicken but looked like somethings insides... or possibly genetials...  Not for me.  Was presented with a box of cake a short while into the journey so all was well.  Apart from perhaps the film that was on (Bruce Willis and Tracy Jordon being policemen, dubbed into Thai, anyone?  No.)  Huge bus with huge seats, defiantly better than a mega bus and cost roughly the same. Woke up to watch early morning rural Thailand passing by in a misty haze.  Lots of street side selling or ornamental garden alters and saw some monks leading pray just on the side of the road.

The School diector picked us up from the bus station at the other end and we squinted through the rain at Chaing Rai (thinking that he had an amzing mix cd on in his car - turns out it was just my MP3 player, on in my bag...) Went up to visit the school, were the kids were all in sweeping up.  Classes start back on Wednesday, so they were making it ready for then.  Imagine asking a p3 from home to go in to school 2 days early to clean...


Cause we aren't starting classes until Wednesday the director and in country co-ordinator took us out and about a bit. We went to a called 'The White Temple' Which is made of lots of bits of glass cemented together so shimmers in the sunlight.  Next to it is what looks like a smaller golden temple... but is actually a toilet...

The bottom had lots of creepy statues, illustrating EVIL, the idea is that you walk up the hill into the temple itself traveling away from sin and getting closer to enlightenment.  Everything got whiter and more ornate until you went inside to a massive gold Buddha statue.  And a mural depicting why wars happen - which had Buddha at the top looking enlightened while underneath him were all the things that cause wars - including a demon which had a portrait of Osama Bin Laden in one eye and George Bush in the other.  And bat man and super man a bit further down.

It was so amazing.  And nearby there is a gallery of work of the guy who designed the temple, he lives in a flat above it.  We didn't see him though.
 

So a day in Chaing Rai and then off up the Hills to School.  Hopefully it will stop raining soon.  Not convinced by this 'pre Monsoon season' stuff.  Seems rather full on monsoon-y to me...