Green Lion

Green Lion was the company we did our volunteering with. All their coordinators were very helpful and everything went smoothly. We did two projects with them, we helped out in an elderly home in the mornings and then worked in the slums in the afternoons.

The old people's home was an experience to say the least. I can't say it was fun but we did definitely have many laughs there. There were about 8 of them there, but only three spoke English.

Napoleon was the first, he asked us to call him Nappy. This took a little adjusting to. He used to be a sailor so had many stories to tell us about how he used to get drunk and court the ladies with his fellow sailors. We played a lot of cards with him where taught him cheat, though I'm not entirely sure he got the hang of it. He put down 'two ones' on my three tens, but he seemed to giggle after every move so at least he was having fun. We also played musical chairs and statues with him. I suggested musical bumps also but Tash thought a few too many emergency calls would have to be made as a result. He was great, and looked like an Indian Robin Williams. Good old Nappy.

Next was Flavio. He was a character and a half. Tash had the joy of being cornered by him on the first day and could not escape, she said he asked her many riddles and if she got the answer wrong, he'd slap her. Apparently he also called her his girlfriend and told her all about her menstrual cycle. I thought she must be exaggerating but no no, day two was my turn. He told me how he smoked 100 cigarettes a day, and used to drink a bottle of whiskey a day, until he was put into a mental home. He told me all about his family, how his wife cheated on him and he disowned his son. He told me about how he used to be a teacher but was fired for beating the pupils, but despite all of this he had faith and pulled through. He then asked me many a question, and after I answered I would get a 'WHAAAT?', at least three times before he heard my answer. He then proceeded to predict my future, I've been sworn to secrecy and apparently if I tell anyone about it I will die. Let's just say the outcome to all of the scenarios he predicted was an impending death. He said he was doing me a favour and usually he would charge 10000 rupees (£120) for the predictions. Looks like I owe him one. He was such a character and did indeed slap me and try to kiss me.

The last English speaker was an elderly woman. Her name was Jesus.
Tash: "Hi, I'm Tash, what's your name?"
Her: "Jesus"
Tash: "Jesus Christ, as in the Son of God?"
Her: "Yes"
Tash: "Oh cool, what's it like to be Jesus?"
Her: "It's ok"
Apparently she's been Jesus for about 2 and a half years now and about 100 people know. No biggy. She says she's praying every second of the day and she got very angry at us for playing cards as it's an immortal sin.
Tash and I had the absolute honour of bathing Jesus Christ on the third day...not many people can say that. It was truly an out of body experience.

I'm not going to lie, we did count down the seconds until we could leave each lunchtime but there was entertainment value, and I'd like to think we entertained them for the week.

Our afternoons were filled teaching and playing in the slums. We really enjoyed our time here and wished we could have stayed much longer. We taught them English, mainly just the alphabet and numbers as we had the younger children, for an hour to start with. They were all so eager to learn and laughed at all my attempted drawings of apples, bees, cars, doors, eggs etc! Whenever they got something right they earned a high five, which they took as a challenge to hit our hands as hard as possible.

Then it was break time and we handed out biscuits and fizzy drinks. My favourite child was a little girl (the only girl) called Lakshmir, who had a daily ritual of opening her biscuit, licking out the cream, closing it and then giving me the remains. So thoughtful.

At 4pm each day we would play an hour of football. Let's just say, a whole hour of football, in the blistering heat, against boys from a slum, with no shoes on...is not our forte. But we mucked in, got laughed at and actually scored a few goals. It was surprisingly very fun!

On Friday we took the boys to the beach. It was such an amazing day, most of them had never been in a car before so that was the first excitement, all of them eagerly riding along, sticking their heads out the windows. As soon as we arrived they all ran onto the beach, dumped their stuff and ran into the sea with gusto. We weren't expecting to go in the sea but ended up getting soaked from head to toe. We body surfed, had splashing wars, jumped the waves and attempted to play volley ball. It was an incredible day as they were all so happy, and an amazing way to finish off our week.

We both want to say a massive thank you to everyone at Green Lion for giving us such an experience in just two weeks. Short but sweet. It has been a definite highlight of the trip.

Love from
Two very happy girls XXX

Chennai

Chennai was the city in India we flew into. Everyone we have since told that we landed in Chennai has mentioned how hot it is there... It was unbearably hot!

The city itself is very busy and hot - we didn't explore it hugely so I'm sure there's much more to it but we definitely got to know the train station very well.

It was here that we were meant to be catching our train to Goa, where our charity project was based. I had booked the train two months in advance but I told us on the ticket that we were 'waitlisted'... The company that I booked it through said the train company do not prepare the chart until 4 hours before so we shouldn't worry.
We went to an Internet café to check the website, only to find we were still wait listed. We were both still fairly calm at this point as someone on the plane the day before had told us we would be fine, so naturally we believed him.
We went back to our hostel and spoke to the director who went online and called the company and told us that we would not travel. It was at this point Tash started to worry. I still had some sort of feeling we would get on, who knows why. We ate some food and packed and decided we would go to the station and find some way to get on because at this point we didn't think there was another way of getting across the country unless we flew which we most definitely did not have the money for.
When we got there we spoke to the station manager who was incredibly unhelpful and told us that we could not travel.
The train was on the platform early so we trekked up and down trying to find someone who we could ask/bribe to let us on the train for about an hour.
However we soon discovered we would have no money to use to bribe so I ran across the station to an ATM, and being a white blonde girl I stood out like a sore thumb. Only to find that my card was declined... I think it was this point that I started to worry.
I had been about half an hour and Tash was panicking about where I was, I came back to find her half way up a lamp post trying to search for me.
After some profuse sweating, running and heaving lifting as the train was pulling away, we decided it was time to give up.
We had tried our best, Tash even got on the train 2 minutes before it was due to leave to try and find the conductor. We were picturing her having to jump off.
It was all very slumdog millionaire style. In the end Tash decided, after having been on the train, it was probably best we wouldn't be spending 16 hours on it! (If you know what I mean) Stressful day!

We ended up getting a 20 hour bus to Goa the next day which was surprisingly comfortable - we're getting worryingly used to buses.

From two very well travelled girls

Induction week

After EVENTUALLY arriving in Goa, we met with the co-ordinator of our charity project and drove to the house. We had come up with a best and worst case scenario for what our home for the next two weeks might be like and arriving at the green house we were not disappointed! It was luxury in comparison to the worst case scenario and contained many of the attributes of our best case scenario! We wolfed down the food they provided then thought we should probably introduce ourselves to the other girls (obviously the right order to be doing things!) There were 9 others staying at the green house, all of whom were lovely.

Our first week was spent as an induction, we got to know the culture and history of India as well as learn about our surroundings.

Day 1 - Lesson on Indian religion and culture (have converted from Buddhism to Hinduism) + visit to Mapusa market

Day 2 - 6:00am yoga (with a very fat man who bent and contorted us into various positions leaving me with a bit of my spine poking out my back, no jokes!) + visit to oldest church ruin in Goa + visit to St Xavier church + visit to Goan archialogical museum + foot massage (less pleasant than expected, involving boiling hot steam).

Day 3 - Cooked chipatti + Hindi lesson (now fluent) + visit to Anjuna beach and flea market (where Hannah bought the world).

Day 4 - Visit to fort/prison (where everyone wanted their picture take with us) + lunch in a local restaurant + Bollywood film (very graphic, all in Hindi - Hannah fell asleep)

Day 5 - Visit to hindu temple (where I practiced my new found religion) + visit to waterfalls (nearly fell in) + visit to caves + visit to spice plantation. (Our favourite part of the week).

All in all this week was great, learning about the Indian culture and visiting so many sights!

Can't wait to get started on the charity work now!


Lots of love

Two cultured girlies

Xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Koh Tao

We had been told that Koh Tao was very untouched, very 'old Thailand'. Personally, I think, had we not arrived with thousands of other travellers of a similar agenda as us (Koh Phangan for full moon then Koh Tao for relaxation and back up to Bangkok for more madness) it might have been. However, we did in fact arrive with thousands of other rowdy party animals so didn't quite get the quaint serenity we had been promised. It also felt a lot more touristy than I had initially imagined, still much less commercialised than they other places we had visited in Thailand but the seven eleven, shops selling endless knock offs and multiple tourist bars showed us where it was heading.

Don't get me wrong it was beautiful, as all the islands are, we thoroughly enjoyed our time and desperately wished we had both the time and budget to complete one of the dive courses that were present everywhere we went. Yet again we had a great stay and met some lovely people.. including a friend from back home which was brill! We really did love Koh Tao (despite my initial rant!) and, again, would recommend it to a friend!

Peace and love

Xxxxxxxxxxx

The Full Moon Party

As we sat on the beach eating our supper, the stunning full moon sneaked through the clouds. We heard the cries of the werewolfs. We knew it was time.

The full moon party was upon us.

We will spare you from the details because we think it's best for you not to know but what we will say is that we had the time of our lives.

When people describe an atmosphere as being electric I had never really known what they meant, until now. Haad Rin beach was truly electric. Seas of fluorescent clothing and UV paint greeted us, as did copious amounts of sand and alcohol. It was the craziest most exciting scene.

We met up with some other girls from Bath so there was six of us hopping, skipping, rolling, dancing and singing along the beach.

I can safely say it is a once in a lifetime thing, you hear horror stories about it but we truly had an incredible, safe experience. So as long as you're sensible it's an absolute must if you're island hopping in Thailand.

Lots of love

Two UV covered gals

Ko Phangan

Gorgeous, Ko Phangan was absolutely stunning. Our resort, The Coco Gardens was on the beach and the views were simply spectacular. Going from the hustle and bustle of Bangkok to the calm peaceful serenity that the beautiful island held was just what we needed.

The main town area was very simple, as you'd expect. And being home to the full moon parties there were mountains of luminous amenities in every shop. To be honest we didn't exactly do a lot on the island but thoroughly enjoyed this.. doing nothing thing! It was great, sunbathing, eating and mooching round town! We met some lovely people and would recommend our resort to anyone taking a trip to Ko Phangan!

Lots of love

Two Beach Babes

Xxxxxxxxxx

The Terrible Tuk-Tuk Trip

Our bus to Koh Phangan was at 6pm.
We were in MBK (a large shopping centre in Bangkok) until 3.45 when we decided it was time to go back to the hostel to retrieve our bags.

It takes precisely 13.2 minutes to get from MBK to our hostel and precisely 30.3 minutes to get to the bus station from our hostel.

We were in plenty of time and thought we could have a shower and get a drink before a long bus journey to Koh Phangan.

So, we hail a tuk tuk outside MBK and ask to go to Saphai Pae (our hostel). He didn't know where this was so asked a local security guard who gave him some directions in Thai. He proceeded to exit the car park and joined the main road - whilst on the phone. He was obviously having a rather stressful conversation. We drove around for half an hour and we were getting slightly worried he didn't know where he was going, to then find ourselves two minutes later back in MBK.
Tash at this point stepped in 'Excuse me Mr but we're in rather a hurry so if you could get going we would appreciate it'. He did a vague hand gesture indicating he would hurry up. We thought he had understood. After another half an hour had passed we could confirm he definitely hadn't understood...
Until he stopped and told us to get out. We were most definitely not at our hostel, so we got out the name of the hostel, the address and the directions once again hoping he would understand. 'Ah Silom Silom! Yes, ok, we go'.
I would like to add that this is like saying 'Ah Bath Bath'. Silom is not a small place.

After an hour of driving round and him stopping to ask various people, passing them Tash's iPhone 5 with the directions (worrying) - we decided enough was enough and jumped out of this tuk tuk paying him pittance. We had jumped out on the Thai equivalent of a dual carriage way and were hopscotching between cars and tuk tuks asking whether they knew where our hostel was. We finally found someone who promised he knew and it would take 15 minutes... Bearing in mind it was now 5.15. At 5.31 we were still not there and copious amounts of sweat was being secreted and our mosquito bites were becoming increasingly itchy. For someone who is relaxed in most situations and doesn't get stressed at many thing I can safely say I was PANICKING. We pulled up to the hostel shortly after, told the tuk tuk driver to wait and sprinted in to get our bags. We came back out and had turned the tuk tuk round ready to go we threw the bags on and shouted Khao San Road at him (this is where our bus was coming). He hadn't yet got in the tuk tuk... 'So you want hostel, or restaurant? I can get you good price'... At this point I lost it:
"JUST GET IN THE TUK TUK AND FLIPPING DRIVE US TO KHAO SAN ROAD BECAUSE WE HAVE A BUS TO CATCH IN 20 MINUTES".
During the drive Tash apologised on my behalf and explained our bus was at 6pm...
He got us there for 5.55 - clearly the other tuk tuks we had been getting from there had taken us a long way and horribly overcharged us.
We ran to where the bus was picking us up from...
We were the first ones there...
We didn't leave until 7.30pm.

Lesson learnt from this journey: Thai timing is worse than mine.

From two panicked ladies.
XXX