Back to Phu Kradueng…

After Chiang Mai we caught a flight to Kohn Kaen where we were picked up at the airport by Ratchanee, her husband Metee and son Ken. It was SO nice to see her again after so long. You could tell she was so excited! YWe hopped in the car and headed to Phu Kradueng, in Loei province where she lives and where the school is. Before that though we had a quick trip to Tesco lotus where we received our fair share of stares before going to a Korean restaurant. I’d been there before when I went a few years ago but it was Steve’s first experience. The table has a big hole cut out and a massive steel pot/grill thing is placed in with a stove underneath. You can then choose what meat/veg/noodles you want to cook for yourself. It tastes pretty good! On the way back to the house the heavens opened and a big thunderstorm hit. Ratchanee got a phone call saying there was no power back at the house but luckily by the time we got there everything was back up and running. We also picked up Saki from his nanny – it was SO weird to see him. The last time I was here I spent 3 months carrying him around as a tiny baby – only 6 months old when I left him and now he’s a big 2 year old running and screaming about!
The next day we were up early to start our first day at school. It felt so strange to be back – the older kids that I had taught moved on to different high schools and the kindergarten kids that I taught were too young to remember me so it was like starting new! If you remember, last time I spent weeks redecorating and cleaning Ratchanee’s classroom – I knew it would be messy again (the woman is filthy messy!) but the whole place was destroyed which was a bit gutting. Everything ripped off the walls and torn down. Nothing I can do about it I suppose – I tried! We spent the first morning back in kindergarten with Oye who’s now 8 months pregnant and literally looked like she was about to pop any second. We stayed with the little ones who were only 5/6 years old teaching them songs like row row row your boat and helping them with different parts of the body. At lunch time we went to the same restaurant me and Ratchanee always went to and Steve finally found some Thai food he liked! Cashew chicken with rice which is made with onion and all sorts of fish and soy sauces. After lunch we taught with Ratchanee in Mathayom with kids who were 13-15. We started off with teaching them about directions – left, right, turn around etc – and they then had to be blindfolded and direct each other across the classroom. It was fun and they seemed to enjoy it! 

The rest of the week was much the same, teaching and playing games with them. Steve got a chance to play football in the blistering heat and in turn they taught him how to play takrow – a Thai sport where you have to kick/chest/header a small hard ball over a net to the opposite team without using your hands. He really enjoyed it and is even bringing one of the balls home with him! One evening we went to the bat cave which was amazing, even the second time around! Millions of small bats streamed out of the cave in the mountain while we watched down below. It was really fun to show Ste these places like I was the expert in the area!

That weekend Ratchanee, her husband and baby saki took us to Dansai where we visited a temple. It was a long old drive (about a 5/6 hour round trip!) for somewhere we only spent 20 minutes but they wanted to show it to us and it is worth seeing (although again my second time!). On Sunday we didn’t do much but play with Saki and get organised for the next leg of our trip. We have decided to miss out Laos and Cambodia – with the way things have worked out in different places we just don’t have enough time which is such a shame. But we decided we would rather do Vietnam properly than rush through the other countries spending only a few days in each one and miss out some of Vietnam. It is just a few more places we’ll have to add to our list to explore in the future! 

So we’re now in Vietnam and having a great time. I’m unsure whether I’ll split it up into a few blogs or stick it in one big one (probably big one as I’m too lazy) but I will update you at some point! 

Hope you’re all well,

Abby x x