China - Day 400

The Sheraton hotel is hidden by the trees and a polluted morning 

When I was a boy I was told it was rude to shlurp. There were three other people in the noodle shop this morning, these two on my right are quietly getting on with their gentle slurping and the guy at the table in front of me has got an honarary degree in slurping from slurpcastle unislurpity

China - Day 399

China - Day 398

China - Day 397

China - Day 396

China - Day 395

Should have stayed in Thailand. Steve took some footage of me snorkelling with his Go Pro camera

China - Day 394

China - Day 393

China - Day 392

China - Day 391

I realise that after I have paid the dowry I will have no more UK savings and I will be dependant on the income I make in the UK on the apartment rentals and the NHS pension, topped up with the money that I can make in China. This is OK as long as the cost of living in China remains low (and maybe I will need to cut down on extravagant holidays a little!). But in the future China will rule the world so I am not sure what happens next........watch this space

China - Day 390

My classes are divided into two. The local teacher goes for 45 minutes and then I go for 45 minutes. The difference in style is quite striking. The local teacher uses the Traditional Grammar Translation Method and the board is usually full of Chinese grammar and phonetic transcription of the English words next to a few words of English and the students are encouraged to repeat the English straight after the teacher says the English - usually the whole group repeats because the class sizes are big. The parents sit at the back of the class, some make notes, some spend their times playing/messaging on their phones In this class, the local teacher went first and I sat in on her session

China - Day 389

Vicky my Chinese teacher slash English student invited me out for dinner tonight and very nice it was too

I took the opportunity to record her speaking for a minute or so. My idea is to use this as a baseline and to repeat the same questions to her in January 2018 to see her level of improvement and to show it to her as the main problem she has is her confidence in her own English which is actually at quite a high standard

China - birthday

China - Day 387 - Valentine's Day!

China - Day 386

China - Day 385

China - Day 384

China - Day 383

China - Day 382

No time to think today let alone take vids

China - Day 381

Back to work - massively over-committed - Joel had a family business to attend to and so he hasnt made it back in time for start of term and Steve and I are picking up his work

China - Day 380

China - Day 379

Flew back to Shenyang (China). The things I noticed...
1. Everything looked grey during the day
2. I didnt know where to look when crossing the road
3. No birds or insects
4. Started coughing again
5. My left arn doesnt hurt any more (it has hurt all year) - must have been one of the Thai massages that did the trick

378 - Bangkok

377 - Koh Mak to Bangkok

376 - Koh Mak diving

375 - Meeting up with Steve and Julie on Koh Mak

Day 374 - Koh Chang to Koh Mak - Wednesday 1st February 2017

The perfect room

The perfect tree

373 - Koh Chang

Connect Four

Sunset on Koh Chang

372 - Koh Chang

Dinner date

371 - Koh Chang

Saturday night on Koh Chang

Sunday lunch on Koh Chang

370 - Trat to Koh Chang

369 - Bangkok to Trat

Left Bangkok this morning and took the plane to Trat (one hour by plane) on the East coast

The birdlife was AMAZING!!!!

368

367

The King of Thailand died a few months ago. Well loved and respected by Thai people

Everywhere across Bangkok are Buddhist shrines

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365

364