My experience arriving in Thailand with LoveTEFL

Teaching English overseas is an amazing adventure – come with LoveTEFL Thailand intern Matt as he starts out in Ayutthaya.

On the morning of July 30^th 2015, I left the UK behind for the start of a two month adventure on the other side of the world. My name is Matt and this will be the first in a series of blogs documenting my time in Thailand as a LoveTEFL intern.

Sixteen hours, four airports and three flights later I stepped out of Suvarnabhumi airport into a wave of Bangkok heat that takes you by surprise. I had just been greeted by LoveTEFL representatives and was taken straight to our hotel for the next few days in Ayutthaya.

Two things that struck me on the journey were the colourful taxi cabs and the amount of motorbikes on the road. Boy, there are a lot of bikes. The hotel was actually nicer than I’d been expecting, even from the pictures. I met my roommate and his best friend who were doing the internship together, and we set off for a brief exploration of our new surroundings. This included figuring out how to cross roads in Thailand given the traffic rules, or lack thereof. Throughout the day more interns trickled in and that night we all sat down in the hotel restaurant for our first meal together.

Our first full day in Thailand began with a whole morning of orientation with LoveTEFL’s in-country team. We did an icebreaking exercise to give us a chance to learn about our fellow interns (there were about forty of us). We discussed safety, including details like how best to get on and off a motorbike and how we shouldn’t worry about the dogs that you see just roaming the streets. We were told what to expect of our time here and were given some primers on Thai customs and way of life. We were given a fun lesson in some basic, must-know Thai language rules and phrases. After lunch, we all met up and piled into a convoy of songthaews (a vehicle you see a lot of in Thailand with two rows of seats along either side of the back of a truck) and were taken to the ruins of a temple in old Ayutthaya city. Our tour guide showed us around and then let us wander the site on our own for a while where we got to know each other a little more (a lot of names to remember!) and take a whole lot of photos of the beautiful structures. Our songthaews took us back to the hotel to rest for a bit (being out and about in the middle of the day in that heat can leave you drained) and then we prepared for dinner.

Meeting outside the hotel our convoy of songthaews, now blasting a mix of western and Thai dance music and flashing coloured lights, took us to a restaurant for dinner. Being driven through the city streets at night through the crazy Thai traffic with the loud music, bright lights and the smells of food being cooked in the streets is just so surreal, and that was the moment that I realised that this is it, I’m really here and doing this, and it feels great! At the restaurant, each table was provided a pit of hot coals and a metal dome that sits on top which… you know, it’s kinda hard to explain, just image search “Thai barbecue” and you’ll see what I mean! We were given a tray of raw meats, seafood and vegetables to cook ourselves however we liked. It is a unique and communal eating experience which I enjoyed several times during my time in Thailand. After a return trip to the hotel in our party wagons, we decided to all go to a reggae bar just down the street for some drinks. The bar was an instant hit with us, so laid back and cool, it was a great way to end the night.

The next morning, all the Kanchanaburi-bound interns set out on the long bus ride to that city, and after saying our goodbyes, that left eight of us in Ayutthaya. After a short meeting to discuss our assigned schools and the area around which we were all going to be placed (a town called Sena), we had a free day and so we piled into a songthaew and set off on a tour of some of the temples around Ayutthaya. So many beautiful buildings, Buddha statues, a marketplace, elephants… we saw a lot before the heat wore us down and we went back to the hotel. Dinner that night at the hotel was an absolute feast, and we followed it up with another trip to the reggae bar. The next day it would be our turn to go to our schools, and the work would begin…