organizing thailand

going to thailand was a bit of an impulsive decision. i hadn't saved heaps, but i wanted to get away and have a new adventure so i thought ok, what country is cheap to live, might have work for me and will be a place i'll like....? the answer was thailand! i've heard from many people that thailand is amazing, good to travel, cheap etc etc. i've never been before but part of having an adventure is drowning yourself in the unknown. for the work part, i literally just went to google and typed in 'thailand work'. the first thing that popped up was TEFL (Teaching English as a Foreign Language) and i'd already looked into that so i figured that's what i'm gonna do! english is something i'm actually rather good at, so now let's hope that teaching is something i'm good at too.

i quit my job, booked a flight and prepared my TEFL course. it turned out to be a bit of a hassle. i wanted to start my course aug 27th, but only had about 3 weeks left until my flight. not only did my debit card not work, i also needed a record check in order to be able to work in thailand and had to translate the dutch form, so that the TEFL organization (based in the UK) could fill it in and send it back. i also still had to get my visa and fix my debit card. the last week everything was done and sorted, but looking back i should have probably started out a bit sooner. i was also audited by the tax office, and am still waiting for my tax return, which i'd planned into my budget. right now i'm still managing ok, but i can't really do tours or any other big things until i have my tax money back.

the weekend of my flight to bangkok was gay pride in amsterdam. even though i wasn't gonna be here for the big canal parade, i wanted to have a little taste and went to a girl party in amsterdam. my flight left early in the morning, so my plan was to party, go to the airport and sleep in the airplane: dumb plan. i already had a sore throat and was feeling a bit ill, but i danced laughed drank and had a great night anyway. when we got to the airport i was dying hahaha. i was getting hungover and was so tired, but for some reason i cannot sleep normally on an airplane. i had a stopover in kiev where i found a dutch couple who were also heading to bangkok. the girl asked the lady at the transfer desk if we needed to collect our luggage, but she said it would be placed in the airplane to bangkok, so we went to the gate and got on board. i flew with ukrainian airlines and i had the feeling that the plane was older than me! my table had rust on it, there was no entertainment and not much leg space...and like i said earlier, i can't sleep on planes. 9 hours later and even more exhausted i arrived in bangkok only to find that my backpack wasn't there and had somehow made it's way back to amsterdam...