Temples and waterfalls.

This weekend, after a dodgy start, turned out to be quite nice. We rented out a clapped out jeep and went into Phuket town to see the Vegitarian Festival. It was CRAZY. The locals dress up in white and line the streets watching the makeshift floats go by with mini shrines and holy men and women sitting on top of them flicking 'blessed' water on to the crowd with leaves and branches and add to the mix men and women parading with them with swords, massive needles, toy golf clubs and at one point even a bmx bike inserted through their cheeks, tounge and more often than not both body parts. One monk was swinging an axe back and forth over his head whilst the blade hit his back. It wasnt the most plesent thing ive ever seen to say the least but it was kind of like a car crash, difficult not to stare!  It was such a hot day though and after a couple of hours we got back into the jeep and tryed to find our way to the 402 road to the waterfalls.  A random Thai said he would take us there for free, we should have known better, he ended up taking us to a lovely temple first of all and we had a look around. The view was amazing and worth going to see, but then he took us to all thses places that cost a fortune and we just kept on saying No We Just Want To Get To The 402 and as a last ditch attempt on his part he led us to a 'jem factory' at which point we just said Can He Point Us In The Right Direction, he looked peed off but he led us to the 402 and let us get on our way. I was doing the driving and managed to find us a national park to look around that had a beautiful waterfall that was surounded by jungle and butterflies. We all ended up swimming in the waterfall fully clothed, as no one had brought swim stuff with them, with some local kids and we had such a blast! The kids were just dive bombing us and we were chasing them around throwing them in the water whist their parents looked on laughing as the funny white people played with their kids. We much have been there for about 3 hours and we were all exauseded by the end of it and so planned to drive home but got caught up in traffic as yet another random village vegitarian festival was taking place. So we stopped to check that out and went on our merry way yet again, back to Patong (Via a KFC, which we were all excited about finding! Little things!) Driving in Patong is crazy as there are so many Moto Drivers about (Scooter Taxis) and they never look at what is coming when they drive, but i must have been driving like a foreigner as everyone gave me a wide berth! We all made it back in one piece (even the jeep, surprisingly) which was a blessed relief. I tell you, when i start driving on the M25 when i get home, im going to epreciate it a whole lot more!
Sunday was an uber lazy day spent doing a little left over homework and watching countless movies and eating cookies, the best way to spend a sunday.  We all met up for dinner in the evening at our fav diner and played some board games and had a well deserved early night. So now here i am typing this for you all at 10.20 in the morning waiting to start this weeks teaching practice with a group of new students. I have already met them and went out for lunch with one of them last week so i think it will be a fun 5 days.  Mariera is from Argentina, Akiyo is from Japan and Dwan is from Thailand. They are all super lovely and good fun. So wish me luck and i will let you know how it goes.


Carrie xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx