Matt’s Travel Blog

Hey everyone..

Thailand still treats me well! Im in to my second week of teaching.. which is totally awesome. The kids are generally good.. except every once in a while you get a class of only 18 year old Thai boys. Then I just do Kung fu moves for like 50 minutes and they love it.

My english camp was awesome. It was really more like pretend your a Rockstar camp then anything else. I had my picture taken 100’s of times, and everytime someone goes to take your picture atleast 10 Thai girls run at you screaming and crowd around to be in the picture. I also had to sign autographs.. whats up with that?!?! But they want it.. they run at you with pens sceaming sign your name!!!!! Yikes.. Also I was completely taken care of all the time. In Thailand you will never be hungry.. every 5 minutes someone offers your food or refills your drink. In the end when we left the camp all the students were hanging out the windows yelling ‘I love you” and ‘we will miss you’.. which is really weird.. its like the end of a movie

Other that my allstar fame weekend.. all is well. Spent some time in the hills of the Cambodian Thailand boarder on a fruit farm. Spectacular.. when i find a fast connection.. (in 2 or 3 weeks.. aka when im back in Bangkok) ill upload. Till them dream your dreams of Matt

oi my ego is going to need a serious smack down… no worries.. I saw a Muai Thai camp the other day that im going to train at.. looks like im in for a serious ass kickin.. So much for being good at Martial arts

Dig it!
Keepin it real… Matt a.k.a Romchat!

Sa wai dee khrap! (Hello)

I was given a Thai name by this older women.. it’s Pom cheu Romchat khrap.(my name is Romchat) which means “That which protects the emperor”.. in Thai this is a pretty kickass name. So now everyone calles me Romchat.. or Arjan Matthew (Teacher )

Thailand is still an adventure… I taught my frist couple of days at the school. It was good and also difficult. The students don’t talk much because they don’t know how to ask the questions and they are also very shy. Since im volunteering i only see each class once..except the extra smart english class which i see twice. In the end I will have taught over 2000 students in one month! Which is alot. Today i only worked 3 hrs but i was at the school all day. Somedays i will teach as much as 5 or 6 hrs. The school is not far from my home… and I ride a bike to get there.. although somedays i ride on the back of a motorbike .. no helmets.. no gloves.. all balls. .. rippin down thailand streets on a bike is pretty awesome.

Everyone..from the age of 13 and up ..drives motorbikes.. which of
course you can get most of your family on plus a few big bags of
rice.. while talking on a cell phone. I ride on the back of one to get
to school or i ride my own bicycle.. which is pretty dangerous but
none the less fun. And no matter what i do the kids laugh at me… mai pen rai! (nevermind)

This weeked im off to Si Saket province to teach an english camp..
which should be good.

The adventure continues.. i feel fine.. teaching is fun and challenging and tireing.

Matt

Just arrived in Korat.. which is where my organizations head building is. Its like paradise here.. chillin out in palm trees and sunshine..soft Bob Dylan song in the background and hangin in barefeet.

The bus ride up from Bangkok took like 4 hrs and was really awesome. Saw some elephants, and lots of rice paddies and jungle hills. I think im only about 4 or 5 hrs from Cambodia.. which makes me think of Vietnam war movies.. go Joe! Which reminds me.. they sell so many camoflage clothes here. Everywhere i go there are massive stores of it. The clothes here are actually really great, surfs up for matt! I bought 2 pairs of pants and a shirt yesturday for about $11 canadian.. and this stuff would have cost me more like 250 back home.

Haven’t seen much of Korat yet, but I already know nobody speaks english. Which is hard cause you can’t even tell them where you wanna go … one can really help you. Tommorow i’m off to teach at a school … i wonder what the hell i will do? Nothing to do but go with the flow.. then after that I get put on a bus and sent to Choke Chai (i think) to teach there.. how i find where im supposed to go there is beyond me right now.. so whatever.

I find my body wants to feel alot of apprehension at being on the other side of the world and alone with people who cant understand you at all. But I just keep relaxing and going with it, theres alot of fear and overcoming it and not panicing. It feels like if i can just mesh with how things naturally are over here then ill come out the other side ok. I have to believe that people are good and if im a good person then things that happen to me will be for the best. The thought of something bad happening makes me nervous but i try not to attach my mind to those thoughts and they pass and something new comes along, or i see something i have never seen before… which tells me that I wouldnt want to pass up this opportunity ever.

So heres to life.. and living it free ..

Don’t know when ill be back on the net, I may be very isolated for the next month or so.
Matt

Hey guys… heres some pics from bangkok.. not all of them though. I wish i could make thumbnails of them , but alas it is not working. I’ve spent the last 3-4 days zipping around on tuk tuks and river boats seeing all kinds of temples and markets.. ohh the markets. I actually found Thai punk rockers.. they wear AFI shirts..

Bangkok is really well conected .. everywhere i go i hear Avril Lavigne ..blarg!.. and there is westren stuff all over the place. This could easily be Toronto.. in fact if you wait till its 35 degrees + humidity and go stand at the smelliest part of china town in Toronto you pretty much get a good idea of what it physically feels like to be here. But there is obviously much more to it than that.

n e ways .. heres some pics.. im off to drink beers on sidewalks.. by the by.. Thai beer is good stuff and you can drink it while you walk down the sidewalk. HA!

Just geting the hang of stuff here.. not going to change the layout, no time and i have better things to do in Thailand than screw with how this thing looks. Function over fasion..

Thanks lukeyboy for the hook ups.

word.