Trip to Thailand

In June 2007, I jumped on an airplane by myself and headed to Bangkok, Thailand. I had signed up for a teaching English as a foreign language course in Ban Phe, Thailand. I got it off from a site called www.teflintl.com. I did not know how legit it was until I actually was in Thailand. I arrived safely in Bangkok and stayed there for a few days at the 13 coins hotel resort. The course wasn't for a few more days yet, so I had some time to relax. It turned out well though because the time change was very hard for me to get used to. There's a 13 hour difference and it took awhile. I slept for the first couple days. Then I was awake at night. I got used to it though by time I had to leave. I took a few walks around the place and it was kinda smelly. It rained a few times and maybe that brought up the stinky smell down the streets with all the garbage laying around. I did not really do much else. It was then time for me to go back to the airport and meet some of the staff from the TEFL program for a ride to the school. We met some other people at the airport that were taking the course and we headed to Ban Phe. It was about a 3 hour drive but we finally made it. Most of the other students arrived later that day or the next day.
The first day in Ban Phe was fun. School didn't start for another day so I walked into the main area of Ban Phe with all the stores and little shops. They have a 7 eleven and a grocery store. There's also a few markets and a Kodak store plus more. Before you reach Ban Phe, There's a bunch of small open restaurants on the side of the road. The restaurants are all right next to the ocean and they kind of seem like one big restaurant but they are all different ones. After that, I went back to the school and met another classmate and he rented a motorbike. We went the other direction from Ban Phe and road down the street for awhile. It was a much nicer beach the farther you drive. Near Ban Phe, the beach is kinda dirty and I wouldn't really swim there. Anyway, it was a nice drive. We stopped at the beach farther down and I found a cool sand dollar. The tide had just gone out so it was fresh. We ate a nice little restaurant that was on the beach. After that, we went back to Ban Phe and visited the Rayong Aquarium. It was neat. They had some interesting fish.

We headed back to the school and had the orientation. After that the other classmates and I went out for dinner. There were 2 British, 2 Australians, a few Americans, 1 girl from Michigan including myself. Oh and there was another guy from Michigan that had been teaching in South Korea. He also came to take the course. There was also a guy from Sweden and Brazil. Another guy was originally from the USA but had been living in Indonesia. The guy from Brazil was our instructor's son so that was interesting. Most of us were staying at the school except the guy from Indonesia. He rented another place a bit farther away for a few nights. A guy actually died in the cabins he was staying at. The one next door anyway. I heard he used to be a tefl student along time ago and never left. He never accomplished anything though and was always drinking. One of the girls that came over to see him found him dead. After that the guy from Indonesia came back and stayed at the school. The bedrooms in the school are very small. Only thing that really fits in the room is the bed and some space to walk around the bed. There's a closet and a bathroom in the bedroom too. The bathroom is so small though. Its just a toilet and the sink right next to it. There is a shower but there's no bathtub. So everytime you take a shower, everything gets wet. The water is always cold. Sometimes its kind of warm but since its always so hot outside its not that bad. The room is good enough for the tefl course since you're not really in your room alot anyway except at night or when doing homework and even then you can go sit in the classroom and finish it.

Classes start at 9am and end at 5pm. We had two 15 minute breaks and 1 hour and 15 minute lunch. There is plenty of restaurants near the school for example the small chain of restaurants by the ocean before you walk into Ban Phe or there was a restaurant called Sa's Place that sold western food which was pretty good. The walk down to the ocean is only like 3 minutes so either way there's plenty of time for lunch. The food is very cheap so you can easily eat out everyday. I only paid maybe 2usd for a very tasty breakfast at Sa's Place. The Instructors always give you lots of homework after each day but it isn't that bad. It's just writing paragraphs on what you think about topics and reflecting back on yourself for the most part. It usually took me about an hour at the most after school to finish it then you have the rest of the day off. It's pretty easy homework.

On Saturday and Sunday you can do whatever you like. The first weekend we got a free boat ride with the TEFL staff to Koh Somed which is an island not very far from Ban Phe. If you walk downtown, there's a ferry ride that you can pay for and it will take you over to Koh Somed. Only me and the guy from Sweden went with the TEFL staff. Since it was a free boat ride though, we wanted to go with them. Plus, when you get over to the island, you have to pay a fee and since we went with the TEFL staff, we got the fee at half cost. So, it was a good deal to go with them and they knew what they were doing and we did not! The TEFL staff left and went their own way around the island and me and my friend walked around by ourselves which was fun too. It was nice exploring with just the two of us. Koh Somed is a very tourist island and is said to have one of the whitest beaches in the world. It was so very hot though. I even got a heat rash after I drank like 8 bottles of water. The food was great though and I had the best pinacolada! It was made from a real coconut and I even drank it out of a real coconut. It was very good! My friend wanted one after I got one, and I wanted another one. I love pinacoladas. We went swimming after that and it was refreshing. The water was very warm though so not as refreshing as it could've been. It was still fun though. We even climbed around a few rocks and stuff and then we went back to Ban Phe.

The other weekends, I would walk into Ban Phe and get a ride on the Song Tao which you can ride for only 20 baht. The Song Tao can take you directly to Rayong if you get on the right one. Rayong is a nearby city and it's fairly huge. There isn't much to do in Ban Phe except get on the internet cafe or walk downtown somewhere to some of the small shops. Ban Phe does have a night market but that's about it. So it's nice that Rayong is nearby. Rayong has a huge market and malls. It's got movie theaters and shops. Everything else any city has in it. They also have night markets which are pretty popular. The TEFL staff took us to one of their night markets during the week and that was fun. The markets sell all kinds of things like food, clothes, movies, cds and well everything!

Back at school, we started to go to other schools and practice teaching kids english. It was interesting. The first school we went to was a monk school. I was nervous at first because they have very strict rules. Especially for the women. We could not come in direct contact with them in any way. We could not tell them to sit down but they knew when to sit down anyway so it wasnt a big deal. If I wanted them to write something on the board, I had to put the chalk on a table and they had to come get it and write on the board. I could not hand it to them directly. All because I was a girl. It turned out well though. In fact, I think they were the best kids I had to practice on. They were well behaved and it was not that bad. Some of the other classes were not as nice as mine was. We also had to observe the other students in the TEFL course practice and I went to another monk class. Those monks were a little more noisy then mine. I got lucky I guess! Most of the schools we went to were pretty nice except the last school we went to. It was higher levels but they were the worst behaved students! It was so bad, we called it the devil school and nobody wanted to go back the next day. The TEFL staff told the school about it and they made sure the kids that were bad the day before weren't there the next day that we came. So, it wasn't bad the rest of the time. I passed the course without any trouble. An Administrative guy from the Course came down to the school. I guess the company sends down guys like him to make sure everything is going well and we're getting what we paid for etc. He offered a teaching job for several people in Bangkok. It was a 3 week summer camp at St. Steven's International School. I decided to take that, but it did not start for another week after the course ended and we had to be out of the school at the end of the day. So, me and another guy from the course took a trip to Singapore and that was pretty fun. I met a few friends in Singapore and walked around some museums. Me and my friend stayed at a youth hostile. It was interesting. Only about 15 dollars a night though so not too bad. I went and saw a few movies in Singapore and went to the mall. There wasn't a whole lot to do there so I did not do a whole lot! Then we came back and 4 of us from the course taught at the summer camp.

The summer camp was interesting. Me and my other 3 friends stayed at a hotel for a month next to the Elephant Building which is pretty famous in Thailand. We always walked a ways because it was easier then taking a taxi from the hotel. We would then take a taxi after walking a ways to the school. We worked from 8 to 3 or so. The first hour or so, I would teach some kind of English lesson. Then we would have snack and after that, I always let the kids play outside for awhile. We would go back inside and work on some kind of project. Then the kids had a dance lesson which was kinda neat to watch. Some of the kids did not like dance much though. Every time I said it was time for dance, they always moaned. I think some of them liked it though. After dance, we had lunch. When lunch was over, I let them play outside again. We came back inside for a little while then went swimming everyday. Some of the kids did not go swimming every day so we played some kind of game with them inside. When swimming was over, it was usually time for snack again. Then I would let them play out side again if they wanted to or we would go back inside and play a game or watch a movie. That was pretty much what we did everyday for the camp. The camp was 3 weeks long. At the end of the camp, Each class did some kind of dance or performance for their parents. I had my kids sing the Star Spangled Banner. They did pretty well considering we only had a few days to practice. None of the administrators told us we had to do a performance for their parents. It all turned out well and we handed out certificates to the kids to show that they took the English camp.

During the camp, We did have the weekends off. Me and my friends went to the Palace in Bangkok during one weekend. Bangkok also had this huge market on Saturdays that was fun to go to. It was one of the biggest markets in Thailand. I went to Lop Buri province in Thailand. Lop Buri is famous for their monkeys. They let them roam around. Wild monkeys too. There's also a temple in Lop Buri. Everyone calls it the Monkey's Temple. They were everywhere. They go in the streets and such. It was pretty interesting. The monkeys actually attack people too. They don't really hurt them but one monkey actually jumped up on my leg and stole my bag of chips although it was empty. I saw the same monkey steal a bag of groceries from an older Thai lady. Creepy monkey! We met some other friends there and went and saw the temples and also got an elephant ride that day. It was fun! I did not do too much the other weekends we had off. I went to the mall a few times and we went out to this fancy french restaurant. That was pretty good food. Oh and me and a few other friends went to the floating market and our boat guide took us to a few temples. We went in one temple and there was a family there. There was 2 guys becoming monks. The family kindly invited us in and let us watch. They were really happy to have us there too! They wanted us in their family picture and even let us get some pictures with the monks. That was pretty cool. After the camp was over, I only had a few days until I was suppose to go home so I did not do anything and I went to the airport and was back home!