Earthoria Travelcasts

Tina discusses the highs and lows of her time in Thailand, as well as her reasons for moving on. We then receive a blessing from a monk at Wat Phratat Doi Suthep, the temple on the mountain overlooking Chiang Mai.

Tina and I did the intensive 4-week CELTA (TEFL) course with ECC in Chiang Mai, Thailand over two consecutive months. CELTA qualifies you to teach English to adults and is recognised as one of the best English teaching qualifications in the world. We made this audio diary along the way.

In Tinas last week in Chiang Mai, we went to Sabai De Ka Thai Massage to do a one day sensual oil massage course with a lovely Thai lady called Kloy. What a way to spend a day....!

Tina and I go on the Wat Suan Dok meditation retreat. The retreat is organised through the Wat Suan Dok Monk Chat program, and it departs from Wat Suan Dok, Chiang Mai, Thailand at about 2pm every Tuesday.

Our Thai cat 'Pudsey' goes into labour in Chiang Mai and makes some extraordinary sounds.

Sounds only. It is coming to the end of the dry season, and Chiang Mai has just been subjected to several weeks of intense heat, hardly relieved at all this year by Songkran, the water festival. It has been so hot that I have started to find it quite difficult living here. A good night’s sleep has become a thing of the past, and you find yourself sweating around the clock - you wake up damp, and go to bed damp. Not very pleasant at all!

Last night the weather finally broke, and the sounds you hear in this audio file are the sounds of the first storm following this build up. I’m happy to say it’s now gray with temperatures probably back around 30 degrees again! Bring on the rainy season!

Sounds only. This was recorded in our street in Chiang Mai, Thailand at about 6pm on a weekday night - in early April. Every night the cicadas start screeching at about the same time, and in the background (if you listen carefully) you can hear the sounds of the local community 'announcer' chatting away through the loud-speakers strategically positioned on lamp posts at the end of our road.

Pai (pronounced 'Bai') is a small town in northern Thailand about 140KM north of Chiang Mai on the main Chiang Mai - Mae Hong Son route. Years ago Pai was a quiet market village, mainly inhabited by Shan people, but nowadays it thrives on tourism thanks to its arrival on the 'backpacker map' of Northern Thailand. Nowadays both Thai and foreign tourists are making their way to Pai in droves - the numbers of Thai tourists has increased dramatically since 2006 after Pai featured in two popular, Thai-made romantic movies. There are also frequent music festivals held in Pai - including the <a href="http://www.paifestival.com/" target='_blank'>Pai Reggae Festival</a> that also features briefly on this podcast.

Sounds only. This was recorded on a Saturday afternoon in Chiang Mai, Thailand. I had gone to the pool to relax and wind down after a hugely stressful month, and this is what I was subjected to....

Tina visits Care for Dogs, a dog shelter based outside Chiang Mai, Thailand.