Joel: Ao nang turned out to be the perfect place to relax for a while. In the two weeks we were away, we ventured out to Ko PhiPhi and Ko Lanta and while the former was too busy and hugely disappointing the latter was deserted with very little to do. Which wouldn’t necessarily have been a bit thing – I only really wanted to relax and get through some books – but we really wanted to stay somewhere with a few different places to eat and a decent beach so we spent most of our break in the coastal town of Ao nang. I really liked it there actually. We found a lovely guest house next to the town’s Irish pub and there were loads of places to choose from for dinner – particularly Thai sea food places. Mmmmmn!

If a picture tells a thousand words I’ll save straining my fingers and post these instead:





So now we’re back in Takhli with only two weeks left of our contracts. We’ve got loads to sort out: selling the bike, pills and jabs, a big clear out of Rakhi’s wardrobe etc. but by the end of next week we should be ready to move on.

Oh, and the English play. Well, to cut a long story short, we set off at five in the morning in order to arrive at the school in Phitsanulok for the start of the competition. It was a terrible day with rain absolutely lashing down and when we got to the school we couldn’t believe the crowds. The finals of many other school competitions were being held in the same place and students from around seventy schools were competing. When we finally found our way though the crowds and rain to the location of our competition we discovered it was a tiny outhouse already packed with people with the first performance underway. The words "brewery" and "piss-up" were beginning to feature prominently in my thinking. As it turned out we were to go on last of seventeen schools…so the long wait began. Some of our students had a nap, I somehow stayed awake through some of the most excrutiating versions of Oliver Twist and Cinderella and such like surely to ever have been witnessed, and by around four it was our turn. It was easily the most interesting of the plays put on and the seven students did an absolutely five-star job. I was beginning to think we had no chance of winning though when the only non-Thai of the judges (an old Canadian guy) stood and went to the lav as our play began and didn’t return till it was finishing. Maybe I was the only person there who was taking this thing at all seriously. Anyway, after little deliberation the results were announced – everyone had won! Well, not quite everyone, sixteen of the seventeen teams had won. Have you ever heard anything like it. And yet, everyone (almost) was celebrating with their fellow students. I really have never come across anything like it. But then the Thais were happy. And surely that’s what mattered. Everyone’s a winner baby! Ooooh yeah!