Turning 31!

Just had my first birthday in Thailand! It involved lots of delicious food, cocktails, wine, rooftop bars and birthday cake!

On my actual birthday we went for sushi and a few bars around where I live (there are lots of Japanese restaurants which is great because I love Japanese food!) At the weekend we went to a rooftop bar (on the 64th floor!). It’s famous for being in the film, The Hangover 2. Then we went for dinner, drinks and birthday cake at another rooftop bar. The next day we went shopping at the market and ended up at a Thai bar, the staff found out it was my birthday and gave birthday cake out to everyone in the bar! It ended up being a whole week of celebrating! So turning 31 wasn’t that bad!

Here are some photos.

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Songkran!

Songkran is Thai New Year and the most important event in the Thai calendar. People celebrate for 3- 5 days, April 13th being the main day.  They celebrate by throwing water over each other to wash away any bad luck from the previous year.

I had 2 friends to visit the weekend before Songkran and showed them around Bangkok, including some roof top bars!

After the weekend, Hazel and I flew to Krabi (only an hour and a half away). We spent a night there, before heading to Koh Phi Phi the next day.

The beach at Krabi.

We spent Songkran on Phi Phi, getting involved in the water fights and enjoying the rest of the time relaxing on the beach.

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Phi Phi is a beautiful island and I want to go back!

 

International Day

Had my first International Day at school today. The day involved guiding a group of children around different countries to partake in activities and learn about that country. Everyone dressed up in a country of their choice (I chose Thailand). We learnt about Vietnam (where the hat below came from), Myanmar (where the face paint from the bark of a tree is from) and many others.

 

It was a great day and the food was amazing! Everyone was pretty tired afterwards!

 

Easter in Thailand

I wouldn’t even have known it was Easter and I haven’t seen any Easter Eggs around.

So I spent Easter Sunday looking at 1600 pandas, here is the link to their tour.

It was to raise awareness of the small number of pandas left in the wild.  They were really cute!

 

Met up in the evening with friends for dinner and drinks by the river. You can see the Buddhist temple, Wat Arun in the photo. Shame I had to go to work the next day!

 

Kolour in the Park!

Yesterday, a few of us went to a festival just outside Bangkok.

It was a much nicer festival experience than I’ve ever had before!

The portaloos were clean, there was toilet paper (and a toilet attendant handing it out if there wasn’t any in there) and there was even soap to wash your hands!

There was good food, drink and music!

I had a great day and will definitely go back next year 🙂

Koh Samed

Koh Samed or Ko Samet, it doesn’t matter how you spell it. It’s an island not far from Bangkok which is very popular with people living in BKK to get away to.

A group of us left BKK on Friday evening. We organised a van to take us to the pier and it took about 4 hours (due to Friday night traffic). Then a 10 minute speed boat journey got us to our destination.

We went for dinner and then to some bars. The military stop all the music on the island at 11PM which feels a bit strange but we were still able to have drinks and a chat.

On Saturday we chilled all day at the beach. Some of us were drinking beer, some were doing yoga, others went parasailing. Some of us also hired rubber rings to use in the sea. We relaxed and played games before going out for dinner again and heading out to Naga bar.

 

We had some time on the beach before leaving on Sunday. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get back to Bangkok as there isn’t much traffic on Sundays.

Koh Samed is a great place to get away to for the weekend and i’m sure it won’t be long before I go back there.

Little Tree School Trip

The Thai teachers arranged to take the children on a trip to some gardens to learn about Thai plants and flowers.

We picked Marigolds which we turned into a dye for tie dying. We also planted marigold seeds which we got to take home. Mine are currently growing in my kitchen and I will try not to kill them!