Bangkok adventure

Well the school came up Trumps. I had offered to help with the Duke of

Edinburgh International Award . I have lots of experience in this sort of stuff but they needed a registered qualified Leader , supervisor and assessor. I said fine but would need some training, on the Friday when I met the Coordinator. Well on Monday he emailed me and said can you fly to Bangkok on Thursday for a 3 day course to be qualified....👍 Well yes of course, booked my fights and hotel and packed my bags and I was off. For me quiet an adventure because its years since I have ever done anything like this on my own before without Liz. 

The International Award training was full on in the amazing Patana British School of Bangkok all the other course members were keen outdoors types and very adventurous. One of the guys an Indian called Rajat also came from Jakarta, so in the evening he and I wet out with a couple who lived in Bangkok. One night we went o quiet a trendy market and I had a beef "soup" without the heart, intestines and brain (Well I think that's what I asked for an got) A disaster for me was losing my phone in the back of the taxi on the way home! The next night we took the sky-train into Siam. Going for a safer option of McDonalds we still hit disaster  when Rajat trod on a street cat that then bit him and drew blood! Our plans suddenly changed to finding a late night hospital that could give him a rabies jab! Ending the evening with me riding pinion on a motorbike taxi. In the dark at high speed all I can say is it was terrifying but it did the job of taking from the sky-train to hotel.  My last night I stayed in the Hotel taking stock of the course , using the gym and being safe..

Morning sightseeing up early planning to return to hotel to pick my bag up and go to the airport for my 3pm check in.

High speed tourism the trick is not to get lost and get back to hotel to get your bag in time to be at the airport on time. Hotel shuttle bus took me to the Sky train which is very impressive. But it stops on the border of the Historic old town. So after a bit of frustration with taxis wants to do "no-meter" rip off trips I worked out he public bus. Took me to he Grand Palace which was closed unless you where a Thai citizen dressed in black to show your respect to the dead king who was lying in state. They take this very seriously and hes been dead for a year! I went to the Buddhist temple next door and saw the largest reclining Buddha in the world.

The sensible thing would have been to quit while I was ahead. But then the crappotours guide in me just wanted to do a few more sights. Yes I took a boat across the river to yet another temple. Then with enough time to return made another wrong choice: I could take he river bus to the skytrain r go back the way I came across the river, and take a bus to he skytrain . Well I choose to retrace my steps but somehow bus stops and numbers never easily are reversible. The Heavens opened and if it wasn't for my cape I would have been totally "drowned rat". The knock on effect was me being on a strange bus route in water soaked jammed roads, on a route back to the skytrain that was a complete act of hope, definite not going to arrive early at the airport. The kindness of the bus conductress and a young student who spoke some English was very reassuring. Though you know they are saying comforting ETA's that have no link to reality. I stuck with it, we arrived at the sky-train, the hotel got me a good taxi I arrived at he airport 30 minutes late but still 30 min before last checkin. Which felt like arriving in heaven, I'd made it...

HOT YOGA this is something I am doing with Liz. Let me rephrase this we go to a class together. We copy the bendable teacher and spend an hour holding unpleasant positions. "HOT YOGA" nothing to do with the costumes or appearance of the participants. It means the Air Conditioning is turned off and you just drip in sweat. Liz is getting more bendy and I am falling over less.

I had a great adventure and proved to myself that left to my own devises I can get into all sorts of scrape and still survive. 

I'm now hard at working checking Bronze D of E students records to access if they have passed. Next I start the mentoring and encouraging young people to stretch themselves , out of there comfort zone and show commitment. So far they all seem amazing on paper.

COMING SOON: Next week is half term holiday. So Liz and I are off to Borneo . Up a river on a boat into the jungle to see Orangutans

Having your cake and eating it! 30 years married yesterday

Last night in time honoured tradition we threw a party, about 20 people came and we had a really nice time with food and drink and of course cake.  Our life has seen many parties to celebrate: birthdays, christenings, anniversaries and just for fun. So now after living in Jakarta for just 9 weeks we were quite pleased to find enough new friends to celebrate our 30th Wedding anniversary.

Its been a few weeks since I've last written this blogg , but that's because we have been quiet busy . Which in this case is a good sign. Next week is half term holiday (tenth week) then it will soon be 100 days (significant if your from the USA). So pretty soon the Blogg title "Just arrived in Jakarta" might have to change.

We have been getting out and about, firstly visiting Batavia the old Dutch colonial capital of Jakarta. Using public transport we made it to Kota station, this involved an ankot (mini bus) and two trains. On our way we passed what can only be described as a shanty town (Kota Kumuh, in Indonesian. Shockingly looking from the train window we saw houses in flames and people leaving carrying there few valuables. The next few hours being tourists we were aware of a billowing cloud of black smoke above the grand roof tops. Cultural tourism cheek by jowl with urban slum destruction.

Aren't we the lucky ones. Now more confident in our ability to get about we took the opportunity to go to the coast. A friend was organising a party to go to the West Coast to a bay to visit the Tanjung Lesung Sailing club. Logistics were complex involving us paying for our driver Bambang to come away with us for the weekend, it was a 4/6 hour trip each way.

Despite the long drive the weekend was a great success, the party of people moved from being acquaintances to friends. We certainly were well away from City life. With some careful help from me Don took me out on his dingy and foolishly let me take the tiller thinking I knew what I was doing. So you can see we practised capsize drill. Strangely there was a Mongolian cultural centre celebrating Genghis Khan. Liz and I sat in the thrones and contemplated the great man sayings: " If your fearful don't do it but do what you do with no fear" and " The job isn't done till its finished". We also had the delight of borrowing some terrible bikes to go for a ride with our 80 year old host. [ nowjakarta.co.id/learning-to-sail-at-tanjung-lesung ] Well worth the visit

Next Blogg: Hear about great volunteering development 
that took Nick to Bangkok and "Hot Yoga". 
Also more travels on public transport to Bogor and driving ourselves!