Last night and this morning

Last night we had a free night to do whatever we wanted; me and Courtney were knackered so we napped from 2 until about 7, then we went with kate and shivani to get some food at a little thai restaurant down the road from our hotel. 

I had thai green curry (I asked for no spice and it still blew my head off) and Courtney had Pad Siew; we shared some deep fried chicken which was dank. 

A dog called Aus followed us and waited for us while we ate then guarded us on the way home, he was really cute but he rolled in poo. 

Before going to bed everyone came out for a drink at a local bar, me and Courtney had lemon juice shakes which were reallllly good- we didn't want to drink as we had to get up at 7am the next day. 

This morning we had to be up early to go back to volunteer with the children. Everyday they are learning more of our names and we all have our own little limpet that will always find us no matter what. I have been given the name "ALOO" because they can't pronounce "Luke" :-( 

The boy on my back is Pusib, he never leaves me alone and he can count to 10 in English! (Bare in mind they can't hardly speak thai because they have their own village language). 

I also found a cat that looks like Finley. 

Recovery!!!!

This morning we both woke up feeling 100% better so we carried on with the normal day that had been planned :-)

We got a taxi truck to the 3 pagoda pass- a shrine at the border between Thailand and Burma where there is also a very cheap market and then we sat in a riverside restaurant to eat lunch...

Me, Arron and Courtney all got coffee :-)

The Nature Club & Food Poisoning

So last night we went out to a bar run by Lee, a Londoner who lives in Thailand. He served food that tasted really nice but unfortunately it must have been prepared in a filthy kitchen because today at least 6 of our group have been violently throwing up due to food poisoning. Me and Courtney included. 

This morning we both woke up feeling a bit under the weather- Courtney immediately started throwing up and felt really terrible; I felt fine at this point so we decided to still go ahead with the day that had been planned (a visit to the nature club, an outdoor activities centre)

When we got there I immediately felt ill and so did Courtney, so we took things easy and I managed to not be sick while we were there, but Courtney wasn't so lucky.

We got back to the hotel about 2 hours ago and since then we both feel much better because we have been violently throwing up the contents of our stomach followed by a long sleep. Hopefully we have seen the last of the food poisoning.  

First day of volunteering

On Thursday we started our 5 day volunteering programme. We will be volunteering tomorrow, Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. The village we are volunteering in ("Mathew") is about 45 mins away from Sangkhlaburi, basically in the middle of the jungle. The village is home to about 200 people, most of whom work on the land around the village during the day, leaving not many to be able to look after the children in the time- which is our job for the rest of the week!

We arrived at around 9am this morning and had a little tour of the village and introduced ourselves to the kids. The kids are ages 2-10 and there is about 35 of them and 12 of us. Straight away everybody got their own little companion child that followed them wherever they went- I had 3... Pusib, Thaotham and one more whose name I have forgotten. The kids are all well and healthy they just need people to play with during the day. We played some games and taught them some English and then went swimming in the river. It was a very tiring but rewarding day! :-) 

^Pusib far right ---->^

Me and Arron feat. The Squad

Temple, Rafting and Pizza

This morning we were up at 9am to go to the second longest wooden bridge in Thailand, followed by a quick market session where we got iced coffees and tickled puppies :-) 

The bridge was a bit boring, and wooden; but we soon went to a small temple which had some really amazing architecture... 

By the time we had finished the temples it was time for lunch- we went back to Sangkhlaburi and had fried chicken from a street stall. 6 nuggets and 1 large chicken piece was 70 Baht (£1.40)!! 

(It was dank)

Then we went on a truck to part of the River Kwai where you can river raft... This was the best thing we have done so far!

Courtney also found another puppy on the way...

Tonight we are all getting pizza at the local bar run by Lee the Ex-West Ham ICF (inner city firm) member!

Stray dogs in Thailand

When we first arrived here we were completely shocked at the amount of stray dogs in Thailand; since then, we have changed from weary and anxious to more understanding of how they actually manage to survive...

It seems that in general, because the Thai attitude towards animals is very good, there seems to be little abuse and starvation and more of a community fashion of raising the strays- almost as if the dogs belong to the community instead of any one owner. 

Whenever we are walking round Sangkhlaburi we always have at least one dog with us, following us and sometimes warning off other dogs. Surprisingly their health isn't that bad, as most of them get fed by the local restaurants and tourists. Our favourites are Ropey, Rusty and Aus... 

^Ropey

The only time we have encountered aggressive dogs is if you accidentally walk into their territory, which is easily remedied by walking away and not running. :-)

Jungle trekking

Yesterday we got a 45 minute truck ride into the Sangkhlaburi jungle. We trekked for 4 hours from the road into the jungle and into some caves...

^ big ass spider.

We had to cross a few small rivers and climb out of some caves too but so far no major injuries. We had to have a guide with a shotgun because we were near the Burma border and sometimes immigrants try to mug people.

^sam being a wasteman 

After the first walk we trekked to a lake to cool off...