Higgs's blog

The plot

We looked at several plots for the project. Many of them were tempting, but the plot that we went for in Ilminster had everything that we were looking for. Ilminster is a gorgeous market town with excellent transport links. It's just off the A303 and only 10 mins from the M5 (traffic permitting). The town has every kind of shop that you might want - butchers, drapers, fruit and veg, card shop, newsagent, Co-op, delis, cafes, clothes shops, charity shops, bookshop, jewellers and even a doll's house shop! Everyone is very friendly and plenty of people do their regular shop in town.

As you can see from the photos, it does mean that we've taken upon ourselves the label of evil garden-grabbers. In some ways the plot is quite small, and it is someone's garden. Morally, I'd prefer something else, but beggars can't be choosers and it's only a few minutes' walk from town with beautiful views over the valley (from the first floor!).

Our offer went into a closed-bid auction and we won. Sorting the paperwork took the invetible unnecessary amount of time (no-one's fault but the solicitors) but we are now the proud owners of...some grass!

We were lucky enough to find a great 2-bedroomed flat just 5 minutes' walk from the plot and so saved ourselves and our unborn child the challenges of living in a caravan!

The new adventure

Our year of travelling seems an age ago now. We've been home for just over a year and we were trying coming to terms with the mundanity of life in England - cars, jobs, domesticity. But it doesn't really suit us. We're just not the sort of people who opt for an easy life. It seems that we like to make things difficult for ourselves...

Before we came back to the UK, we'd decided that, after getting jobs, our first step was to start looking for plots of land for a self-build project. After exploring a few options, we settled for a great plot in the beautiful market town of Ilminster. Our offer was accepted in a sealed-bid auction and the adventure has begun.

Now, any avid viewer of Grand Designs knows that no self-build project is complete without a baby on the scene. Kevin McCloud would not be disappointed - our first child is due on 21st September!

In order to keep track of the new adventure, the blog has been given a new look and we'll try to do regular posts showing progress (admist the dirty nappies, brick dust and paperwork). Enjoy!

One last journey

Side car taxi

Following on with our theme of collecting different modes of transport during the year, we managed to fit in a ride on one of these side-car taxis. We had a little trip from the mo-ped hire shop in Kanchanaburi to the bus headed for Bangkok (that very nearly left with our luggage on board, but without us!). 

The Bridge Over the River Kwai

Didn't they blow that up? Well, yes, they did, and they then rebuilt it. And now it's a huge tourist attraction. We were pleased to be able to say that we saw it, but the most amazing thing was visiting the JEATH War Museum and taking the time to think about the POWs who built the 258-mile death railway, and the terrible conditions inflicted upon them in these Japanese camps. Being there, in the heat and humidity, suffering from a bit of a headache but with the luxury of being able to drink as much water as I wanted, it was beyond me how they managed. They spent hours and hours in the heat, doing hard labour, many of them seriously ill, all of them hungry and dehydrated. Visiting one of the cemeteries and considering some of the 16,000 POWs that died was certainly humbling.

Mon village

A building in the shape of an elephant (Bangkok) and real elephants along the River Kwai.

The Jungle Rafts were largely run by Mon people who lived just by the rafts. The Mon are a completely separate people group from Thais and I think that most of them originate from the Burmese border. We were free to take a wander round their village - and of course there was plenty for the odd tourist to do. Ben was keen to feed the elephants (as you can see by the delight on his face!).

A slice of paradise

 

We decided to treat ourselves to a little bit of luxury for the last few days of our trip. The intensity of the conference and then spending a little bit of time looking after a British girl who was admitted to hospital with a bacterial infection, had left us feeling quite drained. Also, we wanted some time to ourselves to prepare for going home and to take some time to discuss our future.

The jungle rafts were the most perfect place for this. No electricity, no internet, no mobile phone. Everything was lit at night with parafin lamps. It was just so wonderful to be isolated from all distractions and to be able to spend time reading, reflecting on the year gone by and considering the future.

Much time was spent hanging in that hammock. When we were doing that we were playing card games or floating down the very fast-flowing river in life jackets.

King of the swingers

We had a much-needed afternoon off half way through the conference. Many people went on field trips, but I'm afraid I took the opportunity to have some time to myself and curl up with a book! Ben's energy wasn't quite a zapped as mine and he headed out on the "Flight of the Gibbon" trip. This turned out to be long zip wires, high up in jungle trees - a bit like what we did in Malaysia, but without the rope bridges. Here's what he got up to, in his own words:

 

Zip line

Lending a helping hand

IC leaders

After we finished in Bangkok, we went to volunteer at a conference for Christian charities. Ben spent the week doing all the audio visual stuff with another lad - quite a high-pressured job, with some people dropping off memory sticks containing presentations just a few minutes before they were due to go on.

My role was no less tiring. I helped out with the kids work, helping to run a programme for about forty 4-6 year olds. We were with them from 9am-9pm - with a couple of breaks for meals - so it was pretty intense. All the other guys on the team were American, which was a bit daunting at first (they were all very loud and enthusiastic!). But before long the banter was free-flowing, them teasing me for my accent, me mimicking them for their constant cries of "gooood jaaab" (good job, with an American twang).

I was helping another girl run the games. It was great fun and the kids loved joining in with "oggy, oggy, oggy" calls - an excellent way to wind them up into a frenzy and then instantly quieten them down. I'd make a great teacher if only I could use it in a classroom! A girl called Heather and I led a small group of all girls. They were absolute angels, impeccably behaved (when their minds weren't wandering) and very sweet.

One of the highlights was taking all the kids to the zoo and we got to see the famous pandas that have the whole of Thailand in a panda craze because they've just had a baby.

Ancient City

Our final week wasn't all work and no play. We had a group outing to the Ancient City or Ancient Siam. This is alleged to be the world's largest outdoor museum - but how do you judge? This massive park contains 109 scaled-down replicas of the country's most famous historic sites. They're arranged geographically as they are in the country, so it's like you're touring the whole of Thailand in one day...in a golf buggy! The lily pads in the picture were amazing, they were strong enough to support the weight of a handbag - we didn't try standing on them. The picture of a net is a traditional fishing method - a lever-system lowers and raises the net.

As well as this trip, we had a lovely party on our last night where much food was eaten, presents exchanged (we got beautiful Parker pens with our names inscribe in Thai), many tears shed and prayers prayed.

Finished...at last

Yes, we've been home for nearly a month. No, we're not still in Thailand. But it seems daft not to finish off the blog, to neglect writing about the last couple of weeks of our trip.

The last week in Bangkok was a bit of a slog trying to get all our work finished. With the much appreciated - and needed - help of local ladies and some American visitors, all the books in the library were finally labelled. I managed to write reviews of 72 books so that a new "recommended read" for each category could be displayed every month for a year. It was so exciting to leave with this part of my work finished. Now we just need the Foundation to get its licence so that they can let the kids in!