Rain and food!

(Bear with me while I describe my gastronomic experiences, it has been a good week!) On sunday night we were invited round to another volunteers' house, Sunny and Andy, for some serious Thai cuisine. Sunny had gone all out and cooked enough to feed an army, including special chicken and cashewnuts for me, a coconut soup with prawns and chicken, beef soup, starters and to round it off we had shortbread (proper english stuff!) and so much fruit! And special mention must go to Andy for amazing dragon fruit and apple shakes. Monday night involved an all you can eat (yay!) bbq where we were just given the raw meat and a stove to cook it on, amazing! And tuesday I had a strop and demanded pizza, we searched high and wide for pizza that was under a fiver (considered extortionate here!) and finally found a place for three pounds, it was one of the best pizzas I've ever had! And I'll stop raving now (but when you've eaten nothing but rice for 3 weeks pizza takes on a new significance!).

Unfortunately the other overriding theme of the week has been rain rain and more rain. It involved a mad dash from the beach to the nearest restaurant on the motorbike yesterday; finishing the outside lesson early at the orphanage and racing to the truck as we saw the enormous black cloud getting closer and closer; getting rather wet in the back of the pick up truck (and laughing at everyone on their motorbikes) and comedy pantomime horse style running under a mat to try and stay dry!

Teaching has started to get really good which makes me sad to leave but maybe it is better this way. I had just started to get to know some of the kids at the orphanage and some of the locals during the 'Lazy classes': my favourite tour operator looked quite distressed when I said I was leaving (though maybe this is because I haven't bought a tour with her yet despite her offering me a 'special price')! Today and tomorrow we are doing an English Camp at a school about an hour and a half away, a full day of intensive english lessons for the kids with an emphasis on 'fun learning'...a nightmare, who knew fun could be so much hard work?! I am desperately trying to think of fun games you can play to do with the seasons...We have been treated like celebrities there though, food given to us every time we so much as move, all the kids wanting our autographs and peering through the windows at us!

I have my last day of teaching tomorrow and then I am off to do some serious beach hopping. Though if this rain malarky continues I won't be very amused, I need to get my tan going again!The next stop is Krabbi then Kho Phi Phi where 'The Beach' was filmed. Then I have decided to keep heading south through Malaysia for a couple of weeks. Burma was proving to be too much stress and hassle so I think I will save it for another time when they have transport that works and atms (anyone want to come with me?!)...