Surprisingly, I sleep really well. Surprisingly, because the bed is nothing more than a piece of ply-board, and dogs and chickens bark all night. But then I had had a tremendous lack of sleep and generous amount of whisky the night before. I’m eventually awoken by a deafening blare of music at 7:00 from a car with a massive PA system strapped to the roof, driving down the road (I’m told this after having awoken). I’d soon be learning the unique orchestra of the village, which involved many more players, I’m also told.

I greet the others and meet with some of the kids on the field. The volunteers are now saying their goodbyes to the teachers, and soon the children. It is an incredibly emotional scene. Tears from everyone, volunteers and students (though only about one boy). The headmaster also holds back his tears, and relished the opportunity to ‘take pictures of crying children’. Some are quite literally distraught. It seems amazing the bond that they had.

We drive away, leaving the teary scene, so that the others can get to their bus station. We stop off at an all you can eat buffet along the way. Mountains of everything. (Which Japanese and Thai food). All for £3!

Very happy and replete, the others are soon annoyed as they’ve missed the bus. So we head into the centre of Chiang Rai for an hour. This is the first opportunity that I’ve actually seen the centre of a city in Thailand since arriving… up until now has been drives through suburbs. And it’s not quite as I expect. Definitely the feeling of business, without many of the people to fill that feeling, and an odd misplacement of architecture and history. A magnificent temple and golden roundabout are particularly bizarre additions into this otherwise higgledy-piggledy city.

As soon as we drop off the other volunteers, we meet with my new house/ volunteer mate, Sean. We take the hours drive back up to the village and arrive late evening, time for the director to return back home. Together alone, and slightly unsure of what to do, we head for a walk into the village. Greeting more people along the way, we’re soon asked where we’re going. “Food” we say. And they respond, “Ah, food upstairs!”.  Unsure, as this was clearly no restaurant, we head upstairs. Sure enough, their family is sat around a bowl of… something. Whatever it was, was being cut up on the floor next to us. We chat (sort of), we try to learn each others languages and customs. And we drink more whisky; this time home-made.

Not really satisfied from the funny buffalo / cow / zebu curry thing, and vegetable that everyone was picking at with dirty fingernails, we insist we must go elsewhere. We manage to get all the way to their neighbours where fortunately they have beer instead, but still no food which is really edible. We soon get spotted and dragged back into the first house. Food was clearly off the menu for tonight.

A few of them kept going on about somewhere to dance. After several whiskeys, that was definitely a good idea. But as to where in this small village, we were very confused. The question was soon answered as we we led into a small festival, tucked into the depths of the village. The walk into the place was one of the most surreal scenes either of us had experienced. Here we were truely like rock-stars; everyone stared at us, people literally stopped in their steps. Not all were fans though, especially the guys, who would return more of a glare. A wave at a group of girls would start them screaming and giggling.

In general however, an amazingly buzzy crowd of all ages swarmed the field in which it lied. A group of about 5 – 25 of us grabbed a table and some beers (the group size fluctuated with the amount of  beer on the table), and took in the amazing atmosphere. Kids from the school kept coming up to us, saying hello, wondering what we’re up to. We dance on the main stage, drunkly, in front of this new home, our students, and their parents. Fun, yes. Embarrassing, definitely.

Finally, I’m driven back home on a moped; somewhat petrifying but an exhilarating end to another incredible day!