Hat Yai - Homestay

As part of my volunteer teaching with Xplore Asia, I was offered the opportunity to do a homestay in Hat Yai. I'd never done a homestay before or even considered doing one as part of my trip, but as this was my year of embracing new adventures, naturally I said yes. 

After twelve hours on an overnight bus, I arrived in Hat Yai, a city located in the far south of Thailand, not far from the Malaysian border. I was met by an agent who drove me just outside the city to meet my new Thai family who I would be spending the next week with. 

As soon as I arrived I could sense their excitement of having me stay in their home. I was shown to my room and Coach, the 13 year old son, had me hooked up to the wifi within ten minutes. No time for a nap after my long journey (good job I was on the VIP bus with reclining chairs) we headed straight out for food and a tour of the city. What do you do when a western girl turns up at your house and tells you she's a vegetarian? Take her for pizza of course! 

We drove to Songkhla city where we had pizza at the mall followed by ice cream in a small shop in the city. The coconut ice cream in Thailand is so good but I was a little surprised when this one arrived with a raw egg on top! 

After our ice creams we drove out of Songkhla city and took a car ferry over to a temple. Unfortunately it was raining when we arrived so I didn't get to go in the temple. We decided to head back to Sohngkhla, stopping at a restaurant on the lake for more food.

The father, Somchoke, is a director of a school about an hour outside of the city in the middle of the countryside. His wife Portar is a science teacher at a school in Hat Yai city. They live in a house just outside of the city. They wanted a western teacher to come and live with them so that they could improve their English and also spend time teaching English in their schools.

I had a great time visiting both of their schools during my week but I particularly enjoyed going into school with the father. The first time I walked into the school, the kids all just stared at me. They had never had an Englsih person visit their school before. The school was very small with only 150 students age 13-17. When I arrived they were in the middle of their morning assembly and were all sat in rows with their eyes closed meditating. It was so peaceful. One of the teachers told me that this was done every morning to give the students time to reflect before they start the day.

As usual, when a western teacher visits a school you are thrown in front of the whole school and expected to speak, finally I got to do my speech! I was then told I was teaching a lesson. I didn't have anything prepared so I talked about what I was doing in Thailand and let them ask me questions. I noticed some students at the back who weren't in the class but wanted to join in. I would never consider teaching this age at home but these kids were the happiest teenagers I have met. 

During one of my days at this school, Choke decided to take me to the beach for the afternoon. It's still the rainy season in the south and it had been raining most days since I arrived so we made the most of the sunshine and blue skies. We left school at lunchtime and headed over to Songkhla beach.

He called one of his friends who came to meet us and we enjoyed papaya salad and beers under a tree.

Then they showed me around Songkhla.

We stopped for a fresh coconut in a beach shack before heading back to the house. I love my car journeys with Choke, he always has the same playlist on which is mostly English music. He turns up the volume when his favourite songs come on, usually the power ballads!

The rest of my week was spent at Hatyaiwittayalai school with Portar. This school is the fourth biggest in Thailand and has over 3000 students. Portha is a science teacher so I joined in with some of her lessons and helped her teach the lesson in English.

I also spent some time having conversations with kids and let them ask me questions about England and what I'm doing in Thialnd. The questions I'm asked the most by Thai kids are usually...How old are you? Do you have a boyfriend? Can we take a selfie?

Thai children love music and singing and always want you to sing for them. During one lesson, the students wanted to sing for me. They all got out their song sheets and started singing 'Rocking around the Christmas tree' they were incredible. I managed to film some of it too.

Neither of the parents could speak great English, which is why they wanted a westerner to live with them. No matter how long it took, we always managed to communicate eventually, and if they were really struggling they used an app on their phone.

Their son Coach speaks great English and would often help his parents when they were struggling. He has lessons everyday at school, like most Thai children and he told me he watches videos online to help him with his English. Coach is also learning how to speak french and dreams of going to university in England. He loves playing computer games and has tomato ketchup with everything! He is a lovely boy and I hope that one day he gets to visit England. I told him he could come and stay with me but he said I would be really old then. Thanks Coach, just like a little brother!

During the week I also got to go and meet some of Portar's family in her home village, Khao Nam Khang. None of her family could speak English but we still smiled, laughed and shared food together.

I had such an amazing time in Hat Yai and was sad to leave them at the end of my week. They made me feel so welcome in their home and I'm grateful for everything they did for me. They are the kindest and sweetest family.

Doing a homestay gave me the chance to experience living in a city and new culture from a totally different perspective. I would definitely recommend doing one if you want to experience living like a local and escape the tourists trap. I didn't see one single westerner the whole time I was there.

Thank you, my new Thai family.

Namaste x