Every day, I walk from my hotel to the school which takes around 45 minutes each way. And I am considered crazy for doing that! People just don’t walk here, let alone that distance! Especially in the 34 degree celsius heat and crazy humidity. But I kinda enjoy it in my own strange way! On the way to school at least. I leave for school at 8am and the heat isn’t unbearable yet at that stage so it is quite nice and I actually find it quite relaxing to listen to something, think, and wake up my brain a little before getting there. The locals are also very friendly and always greet you with a sa-wat-dii-ka (hello) and gin kao rue-yang (have you eaten)? We were told in class that that is how Thai people greet. They don’t say how are you. Well sometimes to foreigners, but only because they know that is what we say. The real Thai greeting is to ask if you have eaten yet! And that is just out of care for each other, especially in a small community like the one here at the island. Asking if you have eaten is their way of making sure you are ok. Also Thai people love to share food. So if you answer no, you may just be invited to join them for a meal!

I mentioned that the walk to school was quite nice, but the walk back from class, at 2.30pm in the scorching heat, is very hard!! But I’ve trained myself to get used to it now. Thai people drive motorbikes here, as do most of the foreigners who visit. Even for a journey of just a few meters, they will take a motorbike! The bikes are cheap to rent, and every now and again, I think about getting one. But I haven’t driven a motorbike before and the stories I keep hearing about accidents keep putting me off. It seems that it isn’t a case of if you will have an accident, but when. They even have a name for it – Lanta Tattoo – describing the bruises everyone gets from motorbike accidents on the island!

Here are some pictures of my walk to school which will give you a bit of a feel for the island:

On the Friday evening of my 1st week here, I attended the Laanta Lanta festival – an annual festival which celebrates the ethnic and religious diversity on the island and how everyone lives together in harmony. There is a large Thai Muslim community here as well as Thai-Chinese Buddhists, and even Sea Gypsies! And then us foreigners, or farang as the Thai people refer to us. There was lots of food, people dressed up in their traditional outfits, and then dance and singing performances. It was quite fun but we were all so exhausted after the 1st week of study so headed home early. Here are a few pictures:

After a couple of days, I started at the language school here. I will be doing an intensive Thai language course here. I have signed up for a month initially, and will just see how it goes. The 1st day was fun, but very intense! They weren’t kidding that it was an intensive course! We have 5 classes every day, and homework to do every evening. Our homework for the 1st week is to learn the Thai alphabet by the end of the week. That’s 44 consonants and 32 vowels! I didn’t believe it would be possible but I’m getting there. It sounds like such a lot, but thinking about it, it isn’t so bad. There is just one set of characters, not uppercase and lowercase like we have in English. And for the 32 vowels, although that is so much more than the 5 we have in English, they cover every possible vowel sound which makes reading a lot easier once you learn then. For example, in English where we have cat which has a short ‘a’ sound, car which has a long ‘a’ sound, and ball which actually has more of an ‘o’ sound, in Thai those would all be different vowels. The school has very good teaching methods and they try to help us by giving us words for each letter which describe something that the letter resembles and also has the same sound that the letter makes. That makes it a lot easier.

The actual class is pretty fun. So much more fun than the course I did in Phuket. They focus on listening comprehension as the foundation for learning. So learn how the words sound and learn to associate the word with it’s meaning and then when you eventually speak, it will come more naturally and you will know the correct pronunciation and tone. So the 1st week consisted of the teacher giving us orders in Thai for phrases such as stand up, sit down, pick up your pen, walk to the table, run to the chair, swim to the table, eat your pen, etc, which we had to act out promptly, and sure enough, by the end of the week, we had learnt all the new vocabulary and could pronounce and use it correctly. I would actually wake up hearing her voice giving me orders!

They incorporate a lot of activities and games which makes the time go relatively quickly. Here is a picture of me playing Twister while being told the colour names in Thai!

I got a boat from Phuket to Koh Lanta – one of the Thai Islands. The journey took around 3 hours in total. We all had to pay a 10 baht entry fee on arrival (around 20p!) which goes towards maintaining the island. I checked into my hotel and then went for a walk to explore a bit. It is so different to Phuket!!! Not crowded at all and not very touristy. It is still so unspoilt and I love that. Feels like an authentic Thai island unlike Phuket which was just catered to tourists.

Pictures to follow!