Chris' Travels

Medan - Sumatra

2009-04-02T13:41:00.003+01:00

The problem with reading spy thrillers late at night is the make you have funny dreams. I had a dream that a man was coming through a back door with a gun going to kill me and I was holding the door shut and was trying to scream but could only "HMMMMM". I woke up realizing it was very likely I had indeed been "hmmmmm-ing" in real life and in a cheap hotel with thin walls my neighbors must have been wondering what i was up to. (Why didn't he just shoot through the door??)
Slept pretty roughly the rest of the night. Through heat more than anything else.

Woke up and jumped in a taxi to the Airport. I was going to fly to the northern Sumatra city of Medan. (The original plan had been to go over ground but I balked at the idea of 50+ hours on a bus and decided flying was a better option!)

Flying Air asia as I had to Bali (without incident) I assumed the flight from Jakarta to Medan would be equally normal, and to most extents it was except the passenger.
I can't decide if it's an Indonesian phenomenon, or just something a bout flying but it appeared I was flying in a plane jammed fly of school children. Not literally. They weren't all under the age of 15 (in fact most seemed to be pushing 50 for the record) but they were the most immature bunch of grown adults I've ever been in the presence of. They wouldn't sit in their allocated seats, wouldn't fasten their seat belts, wouldn't put their chair upright, squabbled over who would sit in the window seat (hilarious). Once the insanely patient air stewards/stewardesses had finally sat them down and stuck a dummy in their corporate mouths we took off. So, what would landing be like? Well, exactly the same. The moment the pilot told us we were on final approach - to sit down fasten seat belts etc 70% of passengers were up and about straight away getting their hand luggage out of the lockers. I've never seen anything like it.
They got their comeuppance, oh yes they did. As the pilot made another slightly stronger appeal for calm, this time citing turbulence as the cause to place bums on seats. maybe 40% remained defiantly standing, when, as the pilot had predicted the plane went through the worst turbulence I have ever experienced. The plane jumped up and down, as the standing were treated to a good shaking up they'll never forget as they raced for their seats. I had to smile. I nearly laughed. I just smirked to myself. Silly people.
As we got off the plane realised the reason for the turbulence, we had landed in a great big thunderstorm which had sent the (small) airport into chaos.
The children were equally ill-behaved when it came to baggage reclaim, and this was compounded by the baggage conveyor being 15 meters long, straight, and at the end of which baggage simply drops in a big pile on the floor. Being polite, I got pushed around my an assortment of gentlemen, and oversized ladies, i got annoyed (and nasty) and clobbered some of them back with my 17kg big back pack and marched out of the airport feeling as gloomy as the weather.
Outside the airport was no better where the torrential rain, and I do mean torrential, had started to leak the the airport roof in numerous places. Likewise their was a scrum for taxis, umbrellas everywhere, and silliness as far as the eye could see. I know from Bangkok what to do in situations like this: find a restaurant and sit the storm out.
45 minutes later a relative calm was descending hoped in a taxi and went to a hotel.
Dinner and internet checked: treated myself to an Air con room for the first time in two weeks. Got in the room. Hardly a whiff of cool air. money well wasted I thought. however as I slept that night I found the cumulative effect of a weak but cold A/C unit can result in a room reaching sub zero temperatures, and with a thin thin sheet keeping me "warm" I had an uncomfortable night, in which incidentaly a mosquito decided to bite me once on my left ear, and for good measure, once on the right one too. Woken up at 4.50 by nearby Mosque and couldn't get back to sleep.

Jakarta - Plus 1 day

2009-04-01T08:30:00.002+01:00

Tmrw Jakarta.

That's basically how the last post ended but actually it didn't quite work out like that.

One of the keys to successful travel is having a watch that tells the correct time. I'm pretty good at making sure this is the case even when changing time zones etc (Usually because the nice pilot man always reminds me). The other important factor with a watch is that it tells the correct date. This I'm less inclined to check.
I have a cheap little watch I wear when I'm traveling and somehow since I last put it on and now It has changed the date so when it was telling me it was the 30th, in fact it was the 29th. Get the Idea? My ticket was for the 30th...... Luckily this was all figured out BEFORE I headed to the train station and looked like a fool. It would have been particularly awkward as the train leaves at 11.30 at night. So, Another day to spend (waste) in JogJa.

So we went to the ZOO! Jogja has a zoo. It's pretty good. It has komodo dragons, snakes, monkeys, orangutans and is big. Unfortunately a procession of taxi drivers, and a large percentage of the general population didn't know what "zoo" meant, or maybe couldn't imagine why 3 farangs would be heading there. Well head there we did. It was good.
Got back to central Jogja and I slept, basically for most of the afternoon along with packing my bag for a second time and sending a few emails.
In the evening had a second goodbye meal with my friends, (who, as it happens are also teachers in BKK) and marched off to the train station.
I'd bought an "Executive" train ticket (The best ticket you can get I'll have you know) which basically gives you air con, a big reclining seat and plenty of space. The train lived up to all of these promises. The only annoyance was the man next to me had taken MY window seat and apparently wanted half of the aisle seat I was now meant to be sitting in too. Oh, and he'd stole my blanket and pillow AND filled my magazine holder thingy with rubbish!!! The cheek!! So I shook him awake violently and threw a glass of water in his fac...... I didn't. I politely asked the train guard for a new pillow and blanket, and pushed the cheeky little man back into his (MY) window seat and put the separating arm rest firmly down to stop him coming back at me.
Other than that it was an event less journey. as per normal for night travel I couldn't sleep, but at least I was comfortable.
Rolled into Jakarta an hour late at 8.30 am but as a man in no hurry that didn't bother me at all. Ignored the usual taxi/moto/becak/minivan scuffle that follows me (and any tourist) around at the train station as had memorised the map and knew the way to the area where there are cheap hotels here. Turns out my memory isn't what it once was, so the 15 minute walk took 50 and arrived at hotel, erm, rather sweaty.
Lay on bed fell asleep. woke up for lunch (which was a small, horrible curry), booked onward travel ticket, went to hotel fell asleep. Woke up with a nice line of 8 mosquito bites from my wrist to shoulder. Applied magic potion. Ate dinner (which was a TINY portion of horrible beef) had a beer. went to hotel fell asleep. Not the most exciting day in a new city.
Day 2. I was determined to do something on this my 2nd, and last day in Jakarta. Woke up hungry, decided get breakfast at the old dutch quarter of the city which was where I was heading. Got to dutch quarter, saw the old fort, took a photo. Saw the old cannon that apparently helps with fertility if you sit on/straddle it. There was about 15 kids doing just that..... A teenage pregnancy BOOM is on the way Jakarta.... be warned. Decided to go for a walk and explore the area. There was a problem. I just couldn't cross the roads. Now, I live in Bangkok, I'd like to think I'm quite good at Asian road crossings but there was no way I could do it here. I wandered around the block where the fort was, looking for somewhere I could sneak across. There wasn't. Likewise there wasn't anywhere to eat. Finding the imprisonment somewhat humorous I realised the only way to escape was to jump in a taxi. This I did. I was so hungry in the taxi I considered eating my own arm, but was sure there'd be somewhere to eat at the monument I was going to.
Actually the only thing near the monument was a large political demonstration by a rather fierce looking bunch. Fierce enough that the police had brought the dogs, water cannons and trucks and trucks full of razor wire to control them. Head down, camera firmly in pocket I walked past them staying no more than a few centimetres from each policeman jumping from one to the next. 100 metres away felt brave, took a sly little photo, continued policeman hopping.
Got to the monument which is a big pillar with a flame on (called the Monas) took some photos, decided to go to the top where you get apparently great views across the city. Saw the queue. Felt the temperature and my heavy, sodden wet t-shirt. Decided to give it a miss. SO HUNGRY. MUST EAT and drink!! Went to the train station which was near by, hoping, praying for a McDonald's, nope. But there was a fast food Japanese Bento shop which would just about do. I sat there for 20 - 30 minutes to let myself dry out before going to the next photo op, the largest mosque in south east Asia. Again, my attempts to get there were hampered by heavy traffic and road crossing so I jumped in a ..... I don't know, Motorised Tri shaw? Got there took a photo. thought I'd wander around the area. I couldn't. there was just no pavement, or too much traffic, and no where to cross. Found myself again walking around the block ending up, after another dry out session in dunkin doughnuts, back where I started. At the Mosque.
So I'm afraid to say I've given up. It's just too hot/humid, too difficult to explore on foot here. Bangkok doesn't feel as hot as it is here, and there plenty of exploring opportunities.
So, I'm sorry Jakarta. I'm sure I haven't done you justice today, but there's only so much a boy can take especially sweating till his t-shirt starts dripping. Maybe I'll come back and try again sometime. (Maybe I won't......)
Planning to spend the rest of today relaxing. Got an early start tomorrow and a good few miles to travel.
C.

yogajakarta and the horses effect

2009-03-29T10:59:00.003+01:00

Continued..............

I'll try and write this post better than I wrote the last.

Woke to a stunning view of mt Bromo. Took some photos and had a good western breakfast still sneezing and waited for my bus. Bus arrived and dashed down the mountain. I'm not sure how many feet we descended but it was enough more my water bottle to be crushed by the change. Got chatting to some German and English people and swapped some notes as we we're heading in opposite directions. The driver was mental. we careered down the small mountain round at a fearsome speed.
Reached the bottom. Continued chatting and the sneezing stopped immediately. Pop to a super market and bought some snacks and nearly missed my minibus. It was a brand spanking new bus and there were only 5 people travelling which meant I had the entire back seat to myself. Lay down slept, chatted, read, chatted some more. joked, laughed and generally felt a million times happier than a short 24 hours before.
It was an all day event, but it was a happy journey. I've never had so much space on a long journey before. rolled into Jogjakarta (not to be confused with Jakarta) at 8 pm, found a room. ate. wandered around a bit with my new English pals.
Slept like a baby.
The next day visited the sultans palace here. nice enough but we found WE were the tourist attraction for alot of the Indonesian people visiting. posed for photos and generally were politely harassed and ogled. Also visited the pet market here which sells, well everything the outstanding items sadly being monkeys, snakes, lizards, bats and owls. Sad but interesting to see. Then hope in a rickshaw to go and have a tradition Indonesian lunch at McDonald's. Cheeseburgers never tasted so good. and yes cheeseburgers.
Decided to go and visit a silver smith village outside of town. Jumped in a horse and cart and it happened. again. we managed to go about 1 mile before I was Dying much to the amusement of my friends but I was seriously having an allergic reaction. Sneezing, red eyes and this time I could hardly breath. washed eyes with bottle of water (friends now realising the seriousness of my discomfort) sneezed choked wheezed and generally realised this time for sure all horses should be shot.
Finished the day wandering and the crazy markets here and picked up a souvenir or two. Had dinner at a street side restaurant where you sit on the pavement next to low tables. it was good. had a laugh with the people next to us we tried to order. I ended up with goat satay and a kind of fried rice. As a joke we also ordered the two cheapest items on the menu. one never arrived. One arrived looked horrible (and so i wouldn't touch it) but did bet my friend a beer if he could. he enjoyed it until the whole restaurant was laughing. They then told him it was, and I quote "chicken, erm, what di you call: poo poo". The boy received a beer and a whipping in the local Indonesian pool hall. 4 games to 2. I was on fire.
Wandered the markets some more at night time and I ended staying up way too late talking the to the owner of the hotel over a candle lit table as all the electricity had failed.

TODAY!!!!! after a combination of taxi, bus and rickshaw got to the temple of Borobudur. As were on the bus got mixed in in a procession of motorbikes with passengers all waving flags for a particular political party. It's election time here and there are flags for one party or another EVERYWHERE. there were 2000 motorbikes, quite possibly alot more and made the journey interesting.
Got to the temple. scoffed some very cheap very good chicken noodle soup and headed on up the temple. it's multi tiered and beautiful. got to the top sat down to rest. posed for 30+ photos for Indonesian people (I kid you not) and generally acted like movie stars and it was fun!! why do they complain about paparazzi?? return journey as above but minus motorbikes plus thunder storm.
Now I'm back in my hotel trying to write this as quickly as possible to then go pack my bag rest and generally get ready for an over night train to Jakarta leaving at 11.30 tonight. It's been a busy few days. but I think me and my new Friends have had fun, laughing at each other and generally finding new and inventive way to avoid hawkers, horses and sales people of all types.

Tomorrow the evil that must be faced. Jakarta is the only place I'm heading to I don't particularly want to go to. I'm pretty sure it will turn out to be as safe as Bangkok but I'm taking precautions including sewing my wallet inside my short pockets to avoid pick pockets etc.

Laters.
C.

Probolinggo and the hard times.

2009-03-27T16:04:00.003Z

This post may have to be broken into two or three parts but lets see how I do tonight.

One thing I know is my dislike of night buses. That's what I caught from Lovina to probolinggo and where the trials began.

Waiting at 5 o'clock pm, 7 O'clock my night bus arrived and had 1 seat left right at the back of the bus which so happened to be raised about 2 feet off the ground so my feet dangeled off the chair towards the ground. It was fun feeling like a small 5 year old for a while but that soon wore off where m calf muscles started to ache. Then the bus stopped to take on cargo of BIG boxes which the conductor piled around me to enclose me in an unofficial cargo section of the bus. luckily severeal boxes where stacked beneth my feet meaning I could touch the ground again. Good. not really. Stopped again to pick up a mum and 2 kids. Girl, 4 years old slept between me and passenger next to me. boy 7 yrsold slept to my right mum slept sitting on stool next to boxes head next to my feet. Waitied hours for the ferry to Java. Safety concious have to stay on bus for 1 hour to Java as not allowed to get off bus. If ferry sinks so do I. I didn't, ferry made it. Next 3 hours are a vague twilight. I start to fall asleep, boy moves, I wake up. I start to fall asleep girl moves I wake. continue this untill 2.30 after brief dinner/breakfast/ twilight meal at 1 .30am. 2.30 I arrive at probolingo No sleep. tired. and dropped at travel agency not the bus station (maybe in hidesight a blessing in disguise). I book a bus to take me up to mount bromo. a live volcanoe and it leaves at 3 am. 5am arrive at bromo for 1 hour trek in dark guided by mobile phone light up to view point for sunrise with malaysian and indonesian people. Now I'm tired. really tired. see sunrise, it's beautiful but I'm too tired to enjoy it. walk back down mountain. get in mini van. get left behind by the friends I'd made and have to walk across 40 minutes of lava desert alone. hot. very hot. catch up with my friends. Get a horse up to summit of volcanoe. May be alergic to horses as start to sneeze like a mad man. go to top on foot. Take photo of live steaming crater. Beautiful. to tired to see the beauty. Loosing the plot take a motorbike ride back to village near volcanoe. Book a hotel room still sneezing but now nose is running. It's cold up in the moutains now out of direct sun. very cold. wrap up in two blankets at 11am and hope to sleep. My nose won't stop running and I can't stop sneezing. stick 2 pieces of tissue up my nostrills and finally fall asleep. I wake up at 15.30 eat a packet of biscuits. still freezing. FREEZING. Remember I'd left bali in 37 degree glourious sunshine. and here it was a chilly 5. sneezed. sneezed. sneezed. Felt so ill. Ready to call it quits for this trip. felt like sobing. DIDN'T!! I'm still a man of sorts. Had a cold shower. (no hot available). thought I could wash the horse off me and feel better I didn't. Tired to wrap up again and get some sleep. Sneezed. Sneezed. Regretting whole trip. If you know me you know a hungry and tired Chris will get annoyed. Stick more tissue up my nose. Fall into rough sleep despite annoying english girls in next room being noisy and singing songs. Wake up. Short of breath feeling like death, walk in freezing cold to restaurant. Eat some amazing fried potatoes and corn soup to try and cheer myself up. Decide that something up here is not agreeing with me so to get down from the mountains the following day. Thinking Jarkarta is the nearest airport to get back to BKK. Have another rough nights sleep. runny nose and constant sneezing. figure the horses may not be to blame. Wake up at 6am feeling slightly happier after a day and a half sleeping. Fancy a cold shower. Is it working. ha ha. of course not so have to throw buckets of cold, and I mean COLD water over myself. Actually find a moment of humour in the silliness. Stand in the bathroom freezing throwing buckets of very cold water over myself hilarious and stand there psychotically laughing. the next room must have though I was a nut job. I thought I was too. Laughing and Laughing, the water felt colder and colder and I laughed harder and harder. Cleaned my teeth smiling. climed back under the blanket for another hour of sleep before breakfast of omlette and toast and waited for my bus back down the mountaim...... It's late where I am now so will comtinue tmrw. Please note these are the abreviated notes of a long 2 days. Felt very low. very low, but as life has a habbit of serving up, the lows are followed by highs. And that how I feel tonight 300 miles away from those woes. and the nose, well it's stopped running and I'll tell you how tmrw. Goodnight!!

You Gitgit

2009-03-24T11:58:00.004Z

The waterfall of GitGit.

What a name. I wish I hadn't been in a packed minibus unable to reach my pockets when we drove by. anyway just so you know. the famous twin waterfall of gitgit exists.

So, The Balinese character. Met me on the main road when my bus dropped me off yesterday. spoke very good English. Gave me a lift to the hotel I wanted to go to and was generally overly helpful. But the eyes. the eyes. the eyes weren't telling me me his mouth was. He "looked" shifty. He showed me a lot of necklaces that he sells. explained that he sells them for 4000000 pounds each and would give me an extra special price. Anyway I arranged a boat trip with him and said goodbye. well that was yesterday.

This morning, my new friend, kutard (custard? I'm not really sure) banged on my door at 545 as arranged: I was off Dolphin hunting. Custard hold told me "100% we'll see them". I was sceptical but see them we did.
Imagine for a moment the end of the rolex/volvo/luis vuitton round the world boat race. The winning boat coming inti port surrounded by a flotilla of small ships welcoming home their heroes. Welcome to dolphin hunting Bali style. 50 or 60 small boats all head out about 6km off shore, and travel up the coast of Bali's north shore looking for dolphins minus the race winning clipper43 class 2.
Surprisingly with this much surface boat action the dolphins still showed up. What was surprising was the first time they showed up was RIGHT next to my boat. I say my as I charted it all on my lonesome. Actually what happened after that was a little bit of an anticlimax. That's because dolphin hunting is not an exact science. Instead it's just an old man steering the boat where he "feels" they may surface next.
It was good. In fact it was awesome. These amazing animals were so close, and where surfacing not for food, and I'm sure it wasn't that they "liked being watched" they were surfacing as they fed as that's what they do au naturel. This wasn't Seaworld, Orlando, this was the world, just off the coast of Bali. The amount of people that were watching made the whole thing a little less personal. Likewise seeing boats miss a head on collision by meters after accelerating full speed towards the surfaced dolphins took away some of the romance. but still it was what it was and we didn't get closer than that first pass. (n.b. My photos of the event are poor but when they pop out of the water for less than a second, you come here and try, in fact I suggest you do).
My friend custard took me to his dads house for breakfast (turned out Custard's dad was the "captain" of the boat. They cooked up some bready ricey coconut milky types of food that was good and then for his generosity I bought 6 of custard's necklaces, at a price significantly less than he was quoting obviously.
His dad's house was right on the beach but sadly had an Aby Ghraib feel to the place. not the chains or torture chambers (though there were some closed doors) but very basic. plain concrete blocks, sheet tin roof. Ill fitting doors. It made me glad I'd help custard and his family even a little after the hospitality they'd shown but the best was still to come.
He was going to pick me up at lunch time to see the traditional slaughter of a pig. (It's Blainsese New Year here right now) Not that exciting you say but it was a chance to See something off the Tourist circuit, and those are the things that make a trip. 12 o'clock came and went as did 1 and 2pm I guessed again that old shifty eyes had done a runner with the money I'd paid for the morning and was in a bar making himself happy. I love having a healthy cynicism.
Actually he'd thought I may not enjoy seeing animal murder so instead picked me up three hours late. fair enough.

So I sat there the only farang at his brothers house eating real Balinese food with my hand (the right one of course, we all know what the left one's for) Chatting to his cousins, cousin's children. cousin's children's aunt's sister's brother's children too. they have big families here, oh and several wives (Custard has 2, his "papa" has 4).
Went home to the hotel. slept. Genuinely tried to ear Balinese food this evening, but ended up with a ver boring fried rice with a large prawn cracker and that was that.

By the way I've added some photo's to flickr, just a few to give a taste.

And so tomorrow a new phase, I'll be moving on and will report back on Friday what's going down. And what going down will hopefully not be the boat I'll be travelling on.

Until next time.

Lovina - Northern Bali

2009-03-23T07:55:00.002Z

This trip I'm finding for more time to blog. it makes a good afternoon filing activity.
So from last time.
Went back to the beach. Chilled out and had a couple of beers with the "bar" owner and Mr Tattoo. They were nice. went home. slept through sunset so popped out for a hearty Balinese meal of Pasta and salad at a balitalian restaurant. Waited an incredibly long time to pay the bill, which finally came, was wrong. Waited for it to be sorted forever. Wandered around and got annoyed by the tourist acting like idiots. Went home and fell asleep.

Up nice and early this morning intending to check out. had asked various people how to get to my next destination efficiently however no one really new so after a hotel breakfast of fresh fruit and an interesting banana toastie jumped in a Taxi to another town close by where the buses leave from. Got totally ripped off. He was a nice guy but went an incredibly long way round. hmmmm.
Got to the bus station. asked around for the right bus. whereas in the tourist town English was the norm here it wasn't. various hand and finger signals (not that kind) where exchanged. I was told it cost 10 times how much it should. found a driver who would take me for double public rate. that sounded ok, but would have to wait 2 hours. hmmm. Finally the next driver to go (these mini buses wait till they're full before they depart.) sold me his last seat for the public price. result. well kind of. the mini bus was design for 10 and 20 people plus luggage were squeezed inside. I had a granny touching my bum on one side and a star struck teenager elbowing my belly on the other. the trip was three hours. through mountain type scenary. nice enough. Progress was slow as theres a hindu type celebration going on currently and there where truck after truck (alongside the usual motorbike after motorbike afer motorbike) of traditionally dressed people heading to the temples.
Finally arrived at a town near wnere I was heading, transfered to pick up truck (15 minutes) then bus to get to final destination (30 minutes).
So here I am. It's an awesome place. a nice beach of black (ish) sand, rows of boats, hoards of hawkers, and about 1/1000th of the silly tourist shops Kuta had.
I've got a great hotel with a pool, nice room that doesn't have a ceiling fan that sounds like a 80 yr old generator (erm as the hotel in Kuta did).

So just popped out. had a great balinese meal of sliced tuna and tomato sauce with chillies in a small restaurant next to the beach.

I've met an interesting Balinese Charecter I'm saving the full story till things pan out but lets say he could make the next couple of days enjoyable.
So think of me. From 6am tmrw i'm going dolphin watching, then got some thing lined up and will let you know about them as and when.
And so now time for a refelction. And I'm trying my best to give a balanced opinion. Bali is quite like thailand. Kuta is especially like Phi Phi island in terms of the people there and their night time activities, i.e. getting seriously drunk. The beaches of Thailand I'm sorry to say do currently pip bali's IMO.
The balinese people are mixture of annoying and wonderful. So far in the scale of nice to nasty it's something like this:

Hotel workers
restaurant staff
hawkers
taxi drivers

Getting ripped off by taxi drivers is so hghly infuriating, but they have been so "nice" about it, chatting away like a long lost friend, that it's just been best to pay and get on with it.

Other than that people have been very nice, even the clingy hawkers, once they understand your not buying but may have a chat and help them with their English. The minute I think the Balinese people are all great a taxi driver ruins it. The minute I start to hate them, they show kindness and a brilliant smile and all that fades away again.

All for now.
C.

Bali

2009-03-22T03:50:00.003Z

Here's a brief update so far. Up at 3am Saturday morning for early flight to Bali. Arrived lunch time. Tired, so tired. Got ripped off by taxi driver which left a bitter taste after me and a random I'd met on the plane had helped him.
Then confusion:
Taxi driver: You have trip.
Me: No but I'm thinking of going to the volcanoe.
Taxi: Trip?
Me: Yes, you know to the famous valcanoe and the lake next to it.
Taxi: Trip for me?
Me: Well sure if you do trip's then you could take me, how much do you charge?
Taxi: Trip for me for helping you find hotel.
Me: ??
Me: Oh a tip. (Having already been RIPPED off to get from airport.
Me: How much.
Taxi: 10000
Me: Hmmmm (DOH) ok. (he knows I've just given him all my small money)
I give him 100,000. He gives me 80,000 change.
Me: GRRRRWWWWWWW
Taxi: Smug smile. Struts off.
Me: Struggle with temptation of rude name calling.

Not a great start. Got a room. It's hot in Bali by the way. Very hot. Turned on the fan fell into a sweaty 1 hour sleep. Go out wandering. Starving. Find a place with a big tv showing a movie. Pop in and have a delicious Balinese late lunch of panini and fries. umm hmm. Watch the movie. Get hassled from the 1 million t-shirt/hat/bracelet/bike helmet/massage shops that line the streets. Maybe I should tell them grabbing my arm and pulling me towards their shop is unlikely to secure a sale. still: there just doing their job I suppose. I Keep wandering through the maze of alleys that is Kuta. I want to go back to my room as I'm still feeling tired. I can't find my room. 1.5 hours later (of hassle and annoyance) I get back. Down a 2 litre bottle of water and fall, again into a sweaty sleep. Wake up at 8. go out and eat a delicious Balinese dinner of some spicy beef dish. Head home exhausted and drink a beet on my balcony wondering if this was a good idea.
Anyway, that was yesterday and todays been better. woke up 7 at the beach at 8. wandered. found a nice place selling drinks and sat there this morning drinking orange juice and chatting to some bali boys. as small shops are annoying on the roads, hawkers are equally so on the beach. I counted 12 different types of product I've been offered this morning. let see if I can remember them all.
Massage
Bracelet
Trip
Tattoo
wooden elephant/magic cigarette dispenser
necklace
pedicure (you don't want to be touching those love: I'm ticklish, I'll Kick you in the face)
T-shirts RESULT sold 3 t-shirts
wallets Good quality. (Oh no they weren't)
Watches
Surf lessons
lucky necklaces
wooden dragon

Thats all I can remember but I'm sure you'll agree thats more than enough. Anyway, the tattoo guy turned out to be nice, so sat around drinking orange juice with him.

So actually despite the above woke up today feeling far more positive after not feeling very optimistic at all yesterday. That all said, I'm at the real surfy beach here in Kuta. Unfortunately I can't and don't want to learn so that mixed with the hassle (and that I'm just not cool enough for this town) means tmrw I'll move to the northern beach of lovina. I'm hoping it is lovely-na. Kuta is growing on me, so maybe I can come back sometime and do the surfing thing/buy some wallets/watches/lucky charms etc etc.

So here I am in the internet shop letting you know if you're interested. Anyway. the belly is rumbling so will now go and eat something. I think I'm after western food again you'll be sad to learn. Got to keep my spirits up!! plenty of places left to visit!
C.

Day 853 - Bangkok Thailand

2009-03-19T16:20:00.002Z

It's been a while since I updated this. Well what can I say. I got a job in Bangkok. Kind of settled down. Have still been travelling: I've been to cambodia, Laos (several times) and now tomorrow it's off to a new country........flying there and then traveling around. Should be interesting. Thinking about documenting here..... let's see.

Day 105 - On when your birthday isn't your birthday anymore....

2007-02-26T08:27:00.000Z

So it was my birthday on friday the 23rd of Feb, I turned 27...or did I? Well, I think if we're using official birthday timing (OBT), I didn't. I'm not saying I'm still 26, no, what I'm saying is, officialy this year, my birthday was the 24th for a change.

Ok stick with me here, I'm not insane. I was born on the 23rd Febraury 6.30 pm in the UK, or something like that. Therefore through into the equation that I'm seven hours ahead of UK time in Thailand and I didn't Officially (using OBT) hit the 27th year of my life untill about 1.30 am on the 24th here, and that dudes, is a first.

Here's how handsome I looked on my birthday. Me and my American buddy Tray.

We all had a really good night out, we went to a bar here called Bed, and it really is the best place to hang out and have a little dance. It's basically a big ovel shaped building, with a dance floor, and walls lined with a big bed. Oh and the music is really good too. Met a friend of a friend who was from liverpool, and spent the rest of the night introducing her to people: "Hi (insert name) this is Lisa, she's from the bad part of england." I was joking. She loved it. It was all in all a pretty chilled out affair, with lots of silly face pulling.

Also for those who are interested this was the view from my apartment as the sun set on what was in previous years, my birthday, pretty nice really.

Finally the world is round(ish) so it's not surprising that you meet people several times. So far I've unintentionally met a few people more than once (some more than I'd like to have). I've also deliberately "bumped" into a few a people a few times, and this week Johanna, a girl friend I met in the first week of travel is back in Bangkok so we're going to catch up which is cool. She was one of the fantastic three that experienced the floating Nun, and that means we'll always be friends. (The floating Nun by the way, is still up there as one of the top three highlights of this trip.)

As for Other friends here, 2 of my closest disappear this week, Tray to America, and Mirco to Switzerland. It's a little sad, but the world is round, and maybe thier planes will forget to land and come right back. you never know.

Finally for the record, I finished my YesMan book today, it was brilliant. I'm giving this copy to a friend...... so depsite what I said, I'm going to go and buy a third. Brilliant.

Happy Pancake Day!

2007-02-20T13:13:00.000Z

Hello, Happy pancake day. I nearly missed it, if it wasn't for a throw away comment from my bro. And I was fully intending to have a pancake, but forgot! I could go and get one now. I'm not going to. I'm lazy, even if it is my 5th favourite national holiday, just behind Christmas, My Birthday, Bonfire night and my half birthday.

And I guess while we're on the topic of celebrations, Happy chinese new year too. I went to China town here in Bangkok to "celebrate" but after standing waiting in front of a stage for 3 hours with nothing happening, hungry tired etc, we gave up and decided to go and eat random fried squid and vegetables from astreet vendor before we died. The only other incident was that the nice large baloon I bought for my friend was "baned" from traveling on the metro, so got given away to an over joyed tuk-0tuk driver. Made his day bless him. The other cool event recently was I "traveled" to go and see one of my thai friends homes (and family that live in it) an hour outside bangkok. It was cool to be out of the city for a day, and the family were lovely, My friends brother has 3 kids and they were too cute. (Dont worry, I'm not feeling broody)

Other than that, the last two weeks slipped by with ease, too much ease really, without event. Today on the other hand I feel alive. I've always loved that expression, feeling alive, and to feel it is great. I'm not sure what snapped me back to enjoying time rather than just using it, in fact I do, and in the absense of anything else to talk about I may as well go for it huh?!
Firstly it was random email from a travel buddy, that said something simple, but inspiring, and it made a difference. I won't say what it was, If i do i may inadvertantly give you a "feeling alive" day, and we wouldn't want that would we.
Secondly, After (no jokes) 4 weeks of looking I found my favourite book here in bangkok: YesMan by Danny Wallace. I gave my first copy to my Dad shortly before I left, and where as I think he didn't enjoy it, I think it simply rocks. So I'm now the proud owner of a second copy. I'm NOT giving this one to Dad (sorry Dad) or to anyone esle for that matter. I started reading it again, and while I dont think I've ever read a book twice EVER, this one is worth it. If you want a feeling alive day, or even few days if you're a slow reader, go and buy it NOW.
Thirdly, I've finished watching the DVD set of "My name is Earl" which I love as much as Yesman. Again, if you've never seen any of them you life is not complete. Go get yourself a treat buy the set, take a sick day off work, and enjoy.

I wish there was a fourthly, but I can't think of one. Oh I guess listening to pumped up Hip Hop on my MP3 has helped too. and eating some brie. that helped. Well thats about all for now. Hope all's well whoever you are, wherever you are....

(There's an important day coming up at the end of the week, which I'm strangely excited about, and if you haven't posted the card yet firstly, it won't arrive on time, and secondly we're not friends anymore.)

Day 86 - GUESS WHERE?!

2007-02-07T06:24:00.000Z

It wasn't easy. It was tough. It was a bit difficult. But I made my decision. It wasn't something many people were behind me doing but......Yesterday I arrived in Cambodia.......and then left again 30 minutes later. My Visa for Thailand was about to expire and to get another I had to leave the country and return again.

That said you can guess that I have decided to stay in BKK for a little while longer. It's not something everyone was behind me doing, I'm not sure if it will turn out to be the best option but here I am, I have an apartment (which is WAY cheaper than a hotel) and I'm adjusting to not having the threat of moving on in the next fews days hanging over my head. So life will continue in the short term as it has been until now. I have a couple of things I'm going to investigate doing here while I'm in Bangkok, but more on that another time.

The trip to Cambodia itself was an event. 6am - 9pm almost entirely sitting on a bus. On the way there the bus had no seats left so I was left sitting on a small plastic stool by the door. I was not too impressed, as we bumped our way down the motor way to the border.
When we got to the border town, the driver (who had collected all of our passports to get the visa sorted) decided to drop us 10 km from the border at his friend's hotel for lunch. I just wanted to get to the border and back as soon as possible but knew these kind of things happened on this route. I sat there feeling sore (from the bus) and miserable that we were wasting time, just as I approached annoyance, one of the guys who was also on the bus cracked. He had had enough. And his way to deal with the frustrations? He dug out a small guitar and pan pipes from his bag and entertained for the next 30 minutes until the hotel felt we weren't going to buy anything else from them. It was Brilliant. The situation need a pressure release, and this guy did just that. I climbed back on the bus, smiling, probably a little too much that we were finally getting there.

The half hour queue to get of Thailand was fine, met a Greek couple who were cool and we ambled into Cambodia together. Poipet, the cambodian border is like a mini Las Vegas, and strangely the border post is reached only after you have walked past several large casinos. As we did this, A "nice police man" came up to us.......
Now before I continue, I don't support corruption. It stinks, but sometimes, just sometimes maybe it's ok......
The standard "Visa run" procedure is this: Leave Thailand, our queue was 30 minutes. Then Queue into Cambodia on this day was about 1 hr. And like wise the queue to exit again: over 1 hour. Total time 2.5 hours.
Our police friend, for the small fee of 4 pounds, would give us a helping hand..... "Fee" paid, the lovely copper escorted past those waiting in the hot humid queues (past several snarling westerners) stamped our visas, and we were safely back in Thailand after no more than 30 minutes. I was pretty happy with this, After my journey here (Guitar playing aside) I could really do without standing in a line for that long. So then only another 4 hours bus journey back to Bangkok, brief rides in a taxi and the skytrain and I was home safe and sound. SO there we go.
Who knows what the next few weeks will bring. I'm going to actively look at trying to not be a bum for too long. But until the next time. See ya soon.

Day 77, Bangkok

2007-01-28T08:32:00.000Z

So these posts are running a risk of getting a bit samey. That's because my life is samey currently. It's a good kind of samey so it's not a problem.

So yes, I've been in Bangkok this time for over two weeks. I'm still having fun, life is pretty straight forwards and runs along the lines of:

10-11.00 Get up, get out.
11.30 - 13.00 Starbucks coffee, with friends and the Newspaper
13.00 - 15.00 Lunch
15.00 - 17.00 Relax/Internet/Siesta
18.00/19.00 Dinner/Movie/Bar/Pool/Chilling.

Just for the record, there's a gang involved with these activities, I'm not a loner here: Trey the American, Mirco the Swiss, Richard the brit, Chelsea, Jinny, beer (really a name) the Thai's, and other clingers. They're a pretty smart bunch of people. Some are travelers, some work, though their "work" seems to allow for an unprecedented amount of time at starbucks! I guess I'm just part of the "Lady's that lunch" gang, only not so much a lady. The only other highlights to report are small fry really.

Seeing a Chinese Albino family at a sky train station.
Seeing an epic 3 hr Thai movie that was, erm, well. Not so good.
Eating lots of sushi.

I did get my hair cut again, The staff of three dedicated to me (A gay guy and 2 girls) decided I looked in need of a pick me up, and took it upon themselves to pay me every compliment possible. It was fun for 10 minutes. Then when it looked like I was going to drown in their collective saliva I started to become a little concerned.

Oh!! And the best thing. I went to a pretty nice bar. So nice in fact the toilet attendants give you a back massage while you use the urinal! I was a little shocked and then realised actually it's pretty hilarious. I struggled not to laugh out loud. (for the record, it was pretty good...but sshhh, don't tell anyone.)

So what am I doing here? Not here on this earth, that's a big question, but here, away from the UK? Well, the honest answer is I'm not too sure anymore. I'm a traveler right, well, I don't see me doing too much travel recently. In fact I'm half contemplating staying in Bangkok for a month. I want to see the world, but I also want to have fun and Bangkok is just that. Anyway, This week is decision time, one way or another. I'm struggling to decide on the next step. It's a tricky decision. I could really use a reality check so if anyone fancies coming and giving me a hard slap, or caning, or good old shake, please, feel free.

Day 65 - Bangkok

2007-01-17T06:52:00.000Z

There is almost nothing to report. It's 4 days since the last post. I'm in the same place. Doing the same thing. I'm actually waiting for a nasty cough I've got to clear before I go to Cambodia. However, alongside that I'm really dragging my feet because Bangkok is just so good at the moment. I've got some Thai friends, met some other randoms, and I like sitting around drinking Starbucks, wandering round, enjoying city life. Ok, so we've all heard all the bad things that happen around Bangkok. And it's true if you want that kind of stuff it's really not difficult find, it trys to find you. What we're not told is... There's actually an amazing city full of very cool people and places that have absolutely nothing to do with the all the other stuff. Dust off those preconceptions friends, Bangkok, Rocks. That's why I'm still here. That's why if I could, I'd stay no questions. Unfortunately, I've got a bit of a journey on my hands. I could so easily stop but I can't. That sucks. I may just stay another week. We'll see.

Day 61 - Bangkok....(This maybe the last time!!)

2007-01-06T13:19:00.000Z

SO It was one of those weeks. And it all started on New years eve.

Day 48.

So I did manage to leave Vientiane. It didn't really help when I got to the bus station I'd lost my ticket I'd bought the day before but lots of hand waving and smiling seem to make the bus guys trust me. No Probs. The bumpy bus took 4 hours to get to Vang Vieng, not alot to report there, Arrived, got a guest house chilled out for a bit. Met some Random tour group with people from the UK Canada, New Zealand, Belgium etc etc got on really well with them and went out for the new years eve celebrations. Now, Vang Vieng is a small place. It's built around two main streets, a mixture of restaurants and bars for westerners. We went and got some food. Had a couple of beer Laos and generally wandered about, there really wasn't that much going on. In fact the most happening place was a very small Laos Karaoke bar, only ALL of the Karaoke was in Laos! One guy stood there singing as 50 or so people from Laos and the rest of the world bobbed around to his singing. He must have been well pleased with his nights work. The New year arrived, Everyone cheered and feeling a little bobbed out we went up the road to another Laos bar, no probs.

Then it happened.

Sitting on my (slightly wobbly) stool at the bar minding my own business, my friend Frazier tapped me on the shoulder. I went to turn round, but actually found myself, picking myself up off the floor. I don't know how it happened. I hadn't had a spectacular amount of beer, I don't normally fall from chairs regularly, I really don't know. Whatever had happened, as I had fallen off the stool, I had hit my head (quite hard) on the table next to me and had sliced my ear up. I was lucky that 1 of the guys I was with was a vet from Canada, and although I'm not very much like a moose, He came along to the (SMALL) hospital in the town to get me stitched up. The photos below probably isn't for those that don't like blood, The expression of pain on my face is not for the camera but genuine discomfort. To be fair the stitches (without anesthetic) were many times more painful than the actual even, but I grimaced my way through like a trooper.

So that was that. Not a good end to the night. One of my friends told me a few days later the ear has no nerves in it at all. I told him, in my humble opinion, and limited experience he was completely and utterly wrong. 2am. Bed.

Day 49. I deserved the lie in I gave myself the next day. It felt like my ear was going to drop off. I'm trying not to talk this whole thing up too much but I cant describe the ache. The Doctor had given me some pain killers and antibiotics so I threw some of those down my neck and headed out. The whole point on Vang Vieng is water type activities, Kayaking, Tubing, Caving. I wasn't allowed to them in case I got an infection. Downer. Big downer. I dragged myself around town telling myself it wasn't all bad. And to be fair it wasn't, but it didn't stop me feeling sorry for myself. In the evening I finally got myself together, went to a bar and watched Pompey on TV. It went some way to relieve my glumness.

Day 50. Having again slept all morning a spent the afternoon watching TV with some of the guys from the tour. It's strangely popular In VV for restaurants to show endless hours of Friends or The simpsons back to back. I didn't mind, I needed something silly to do so hung around, eat a bit. There's actually nothing to tell. I just chilled out.

Day 51. Time to move on. I'd heard enough fun stories from the people coming back from the river, I was a bit jealous that I was missing out, So I wanted to continued North to Luang Prabang in northern Laos.
The journey was long, but absolutely spectacular. It was another twisty road through mountains (A bit like the one a did in Malaysia) but this one was better.
The views where truly amazing. We went though lots small villages were the locals just live in wooden shacks. It's just impossibly basic. It was the poorest area I'd been through and this, together with the mountains just made me stare out of the window for all of the 5 or 6 hours the trip took. It's the kind of road where I started to think I should learn to ride a motorbike and come back and do the whole thing at MY speed. Just incredible.

lung Prabang finally emerged from the mountain scenery. Another town, another guest house to find etc etc etc. I'd met A brit and some Aussies on the way into the town center and we'd started having quite a laugh. we wandered round in the ridiculous heat, got a guest house.
Then phase 2 of my great week began. No sooner Had a closed the door I was hit with the overwhelming sense of sickness. I rushed to the toilet and sure enough, right on cue I produced. This basically carried on in one form or another (nice) for 24 hours. After thinking about it I can only blame myself. I hadn't eaten alot all for the whole of the Bus journey, but I had still taken my pain killers, antibiotics, and malaria tablets all together with not too much water at lunch. I don't think my body liked that too much, and decided to get rid. So that was my first day in Luang Prabang. Bed. Toilet. Bed. Toilet.

Day 52. It seemed that I had finished. I wasn't rushing to the toilet every hour so i took my first nervous steps outside. I didn't feel bad so I carried on. I had a wander
round. Luang prabang is cool. It's hard the explain but the main town is surrounded by two rivers, partly the Mekong again (which I never said before is HUGE) and by another I don't know the name of, It really does have a frenchy feel because of the architecture and in the middle of town is a big hill with a temple on top. More than that it's SO laid back. I know I've said this about lots of places so far on the trip, but the place takes the biscuit. SO I had a wander. Bumped into the vet that helped me back in Vang Vieng and some of the others so we had a chat. In the evening went to a smart little bar with the aussies and while I was wise and didn't drink had a really good laugh with them and a bunch of dutch guys.

Day 53. I was meant to go for a tour of a local cave but didn't get up in time. The whole of the last week I've really been incredibly lazy. I read my book for a bit. Had an incredibly 3D pancake which was extremely good. Wandered. bumped into more people I'd seen in Vientiane and VV. In Laos because most people do the same towns in one direction, you see lots of people time and time again that you've chatted to maybe 3 or 4 days before. It's nice that you really are in a big traveling group of friends. So anyway, Met lots of people again, had the obligatory coffee with them and got ready for a goodbye evening with the Aussies because they were off to Vietnam the next day.
Firstly we went up the Mountain (well hill) in the middle of town. Some nice lady sold me, Andy and Ben some sparrows to release at the top. Jenny (that was the name of my sparrow) and Trevor (the Name of Australian anode's sparrow) were getting on pretty well chatting in their cages. We released them and reckon they've gone off to start a small sparrow family, or maybe just flew down the hill to be captured again. Either way, whatever. The local market provided us with our food: b-q'd Chicken, Pork and fish. It was really pretty good food.
Then we went off to the towns "cinema". A cinema in Luang Prabang is basically someone who has converted their house. You go in and it's a bit like going to Blockbuster. You pick whatever DVD you want to watch from loads and loads on the walls. Then you get your own Viewing room with a big tv and surround sound. It's like hiring a front room for the night. Having enjoyed Napoleon Dynamite, we headed off again to the (1 and only) cool bar in town. Met the dutch and Had a chat. Then someone talking to us said he was off to the bowling alley later. Bowling alley? This is a tiny town really and a bowling alley here just had to be seen. We all hoped in a tuk-tuk, and true enough a bowling alley, there was. It had a colossal 8 lanes, was jammed full of Lao people but we squeezed in a lane. We played 4 games, which cost about 3 pounds, chatted (through mainly hand signals) with the lao guys next to us (who just loved bowling) And although in the second game I scored a MEASLY 62, the next 2 were high scoring and great fun oh, and I won them...Obviously. The computer seemed to have a mind of its own that just added to the craziness, you knock over 5, it gave you a strike. You miss them all, it gave you 3. We didn't argue. Computers Know best after all.

Day 54. Time to go again. I bought a ticket to get a slow boat the next day to the Thai border. Waved the aussies off to the airport (we'll probably meet again in Cambodia) and didn't' do too much else. The highlight of the day was the machete store on the market. Any shape, any size, you want a machete, they had it.

Day 55. Early mornings suck. I got up at 6.30, dragged myself to the boat terminal and got there just in time. The boat had about 8 comfy soft seats the rest were just wooden benches with a rubbish little cushions. The trip takes two days, 8 hours a day on the boat, with a stop in a town halfway.
Just like the journey from Vang Vien to Luang Prabang the boat scenery was just insane. It didn't just last a few minutes either. The mountains and jungle, and rocks sticking out of the Mekong last the entire way. Met a couple from London and we all got on well so a few games of Uno later we'd become friends.

Met another Annoying Australian called Kim, who looked for all the world as though he'd just stepped off a squash court. He was fully attired in a shell suit, Squash t shirt. Squash shoes. All he really wanted to talk about was squash. He was also the most completely disrespectful guy I'd met on the trip, I stayed clear.
The 8 hours past in what felt like 2 hours, we arrived at the halfway town. Small town. Big Mountain. We Scrambled up the rocks next to the river had a brilliant Indian curry, and chatted to another passenger from the boat, the most lovely, tiny, thai woman, the the loudest high pitched voice you've ever heard. she was hilarious and so just friendly. A true nemesis for old Squash boy Kim.

Day 56. Another early morning, and almost a replay of the day before. Perfect scenery. Really nice company (expect for Kim who, well hadn't changed his clothes as far as I could tell). This time the boat had no comfy seat so we sat, slept, and played cards on the floor. Again had a great time chatting to the Thai lady (I never did find out her name). So we arrived at Nong Kai and the sadness hit me. I didn't want to leave Laos. I really was sad to go. Ok so it may have been a difficult couple of weeks physically, but Laos is just the best. I was pretty sure Thailand couldn't be beaten as a cool place, but Laos does just that. Its amazing. The views. The people. And if it was anymore chilled out everyone would stop. Dead. We regularly waited 50 minutes for food at restaurants. Likewise at bars, shops, random bowling alleys, and anywhere. But strangely it just didn't matter. I can't even really say what it is that makes it so good. If you ever get a chance: GO.

Day 57. Can you believe it. 3rd early morning in a row, boat across the Mekong and back for the third and possibly final Thai visa to be stamped in my Passport. The English guys from the boat were still traveling with me, we hoped on a bus for chiang Mai, Thailands second largest city right in the north of the country. I'd like to tell you what the bus journey was like. I can
't really because I was asleep. It seemed to go quickly, that's about all. It was a bit of a late night with the brats at a live rock bar, we knew that tomorrow we could finally have a lie in!!

Day 58. Back to school for the day. Well cooking school at least. Me and the brits were off to a thai cooking course in Chiang Mai. It was really good fun. Basically, First of all they take you to the local market to see learn about all the fresh produce etc... then your shown HOW to cook a dish, COOK the dish, EAT the dish. 7 dishes over 5 hours needless to say we all ended up absolutely stuffed, plus leant a bit about real thai food. The staff were great and a good laugh, even when the oil in the guys next to me's pan nearly burst into flames, they handled it all well. I had a quiet night.

Day 59. Spent the day in Chiang Mai, just potering around having a look. It's ok. It didn't blown me over, if anything I struggled a bit to get used to city life after all the time in relatively small towns and villages in Laos. Caught the night train to Bangkok. Last time I was on a night train i was part of the noisy(ish) crowd, this time I was with the thais, I went to sleep at 9 o'clock. Lovely.

Day 60 and 61. So I'm in Bangkok again. I met up with my friend Trey I met earlier in the trip, I'm staying at his very nice apartment, that still cost a pretty ridiculous price. I've got to go to Cambodia at some point in the next few days though thinking I'm going to spend a bit of time here first. That's all.

Day 47 - WOW, I'm in Laos! (Vientiane)

2006-12-30T08:32:00.000Z

Well this post has taken some getting round to! I've been in Laos since Wednesday (that's the day after boxing day for anyone that's been celebrating Christmas) and it's a great great Place. Vientiane where I am is the capital city. It's got 200,000 people in and is so chilled out it's brilliant. I didn't like it on the first day because it seemed a bit slow, but I've grown to love the place.

Day 43. Firstly before I start I've got a confession. I'm pretty sure this wasn't day 43. BUT it appears I've counted wrong somewhere, and I don't as I don't thing anyone really cares I'm just going to continue from here. It makes more sense.
So with that off my chest: I'd spent Christmas day relaxing in Nong Khai. What I hadn't realized when I wrote the last post I'd booked myself into Hippy central. I'm glad I had. It was a great place to chill, but almost everyone there was on a yoga course, or meditation course, and was on the general course of expanding their mind with whatever they could. I didn't really mind. It was good to laugh at their beards (men and women) over dinner. It also allowed me some "me" time as I wasn't particularly interested in discussing how I should learn to bend both my leg over my head.
It also gave me time to.....go shopping. Not to a local market this time......BUT....TO TESCO!!!! I'd not been in a supermarket since I left the UK. Only small spar type shops and cool Thai/Malay Markets. I didn't realize the tesco trip would be as joyful as it was. I only really needed some super glue to fix my shoe. I ended up spending an hour wandering around the shop. I loved it. I came out with lots of stupid things. Not because I needed them in anyway, just the whole supermarket thing got a little too exciting. Never has anyone enjoyed tesco's quite like I did I doubt.
Then I headed off to a sculpture park. Without all the history, Some guy from Laos moved here and started making sculptures of Buddhist and Hindu God's and things and the (hippy) guy at the guest house told me "not to miss it (man)" so I didn't. Its was weird.

This guy has made HUGE concrete scluptures. I didn't understand what any of it meant, or who the figures were, but it was a sight. You can't really see from the photos but the big sculptures here are 8 stories high, no jokes. This guy took his concrete seriously. I did learn two important things.

Tennis is a Buddhist activity.

Banana boats were popular way before they appeared on the Costa Del blah.

The below is the famous religious scene where a concrete Dog, in a pack of dogs rides a Moped Chasing after a large concrete elephant.

Then it was off to book shop to stock up. I'd finished my last book a few days ago and felt a little empty, So I got some grown up books, had amazing Thai food for dinner and listened to the enlightened ones chatting. So that was Basically Nong Khai finished. In the morning I was off to country number three. I'd heard good and bad reports about Laos. I was going to find out for myself.

Day 44.
Fired up on banana pancakes and rocket fuel coffee, I made a dash for the border. It didn't take long to get there considering I'd been looking over the Mekong at Laos from the guest house for the last two days. It took 2 hours to clear Thai and Laos borders. 2 Minutes at the Thai, 1 hour and 58 At Laos, the other side of the "friendship bridge". No probs, hoped in a taxi, and got straight to downtown Vientiane. Got a guest house (2 pounds a night and its good!) and went for a wander. At first it seemed just too slow. By the river there's a collection of open air restaurants cafes, etc, and people sitting there drinking coffee, or the legendary Beer Lao (the best in S. E. Asia some say) and generally engaging in cafe culture. I wasn't convinced. I got some food, sat by the river as the sun set and dug into my new book papillon.

I had a beer Lao and can officially report it tastes like, well, most other beers I guess. Back at the Guest house I got involved in a fierce game of chess with an Aussie, that went on until late, and, of course I won. It was cool. I was having thoughts I may move on the next day but:

Day 46 - I didn't.

I headed off to the "revolutionary museum" To try and understand a little of Laos History, I didn't quite expect the lesson I got. As ever the tuk-tuk driver took me to the wrong museum first (because it was closer and he assumed I wouldn't know), I did and made him take me to the right one. God bless Tuk-Tuk's.

I had a wander round, I got a basic grasp of what happened even though most of the signs were in Lao. Then One of the workers came over to me and got chatting. He wanted me to have a look over some stuff he'd written in English to be used as he showed people round the museum. So I went to the back office of this museum sat down for a bit re-writing some English. The museum shut So went and finished it at his house, pretty cool. So, I've now almost officially helped the Laos Government in some small way. Around the world: ready to serve. It's my new motto.Day 46 -

So as I said the more time I spend in Vientiane I like it more and more. I Had another relaxing day wandering the city, now I realized it was pretty safe didn't mind having a look. I went to see Laos' main symbol a gold temple. I didn't have a guide but could appriciate the architecture but anything else was a bit beyond me.

Then went to the Laos Arch de triumph. Its Big. It was built using cement the Americans gave to them to build a new airport. (Love it!)

Finally I headed off to a market where the sold everything. from chickens to silk. It was crazy. I HAD to buy a Beer Laos T-shirt (it's what a traveler here has to do) and bought a ticket to leave the next day.

Day 47 -

So that next day is today but I'm still here in Vientiane. I decided this morning I didn't want to leave today so I pushed to ticket onwards for tomorrow, and Slept this morning instead. I've sat at a cafe this afternoon reading my book. Walked by the river, and generally relaxed. I'm not one for the cafe culture normally. If I've drunk my coffee I can't see why I'd sit outside wasting time, but here it just seems right. It's a bit like I'm still trying to go fast, as I would in most of Thailand, but Laos won't allow it. I don't mind that. I'm pretty sure If a carry on spending my days sipping coffee, reading books and wandering around like a lost sheep there is no hope of me even seeing what I want to here, let alone having one last lap of Thailand before Cambodia, but I don't really care anymore. I'm enjoying being slow. It suits me at some deep level. So I'm meant to leave Vientiane tomorrow. We'll see......

Day 42 - Nong Khai HAPPY CHRISTMAS!!!

2006-12-25T08:39:00.000Z

So this is Christmas. As predicated, it's not meaning an awful lot this year. Sure the hotels and that have tinsel a and the odd Christmas tree. but you can't escape the facts. The sun is shining. The weather is hot. I'm with a load of virtual stranger. I didn't receive 1 present! But thats ok. I'm happy.

Day 39

Got up a bit early and wanted to get the bus out of Bangkok to an old capital city called Ayuthaya. Jumped in a cab, Who I soon learnt was determined that rather than take me to the bus station, wanted to take me the whole way. we negotiated a price on the way out the city. Who knows what would have happened if we hadn't reached agreement because we'd left Bangkok far behind. Anyway, so I payed a lot for a 1 hr journey, but I just had no fight left in me against this cabby. I arrived, Went on an evening tour of some of the temples on a long tail boat with a dodgy Canadian couple, went back to guest house, and not being too impressed with the place decided to move on the next day.

Day 40. Got a ridiculously slow, but extremely scenic bus to Lopburi. A city that is over run with monkeys. The bus didnt go near the motorway but in doing that got to see some of the Thai countryside, how people live etc. pretty amazing. Very basic in many cases. Arrive in Lopburi, get a hotel sorted, and go and see the monkeys. They've pretty much have chosen one old temple they like and live on the streets around there. still lots of people have "caged their houses in" because the monkeys are known to cause trouble (who'd have thought it!). The monkeys did their usual, try and steal a bag routine, or jump on someone's back. it was ok. Went to dinner and got chatting to a manager of the restaurant. He was a "nice" bloke and said he was involved in a local HIV clinic and that sometimes he took people to go and see. Initially I thought this sounded interesting, as I wasn't having a traditional Christmas anyway maybe this would hit home some of the problems Thailand really faces behind the tourist trail I'd mainly been on, so I agreed to meet him the next morning.

Day 41. However over breakfast i begin to smell a rat..... Firstly, thinking about the whole thing over night, I felt pretty sure from a personal perspective I didn't want to see someone ill, probably very ill in hospital. Secondly if I was ill, I'm also pretty certain I wouldn't want some tourist staring through my hospital door. It seemed a loose loose situation. Then when my friend lets call him Mr Scam, told me that actually he wanted a fair amount of money to take me and would leave me there for 3 hrs, I carefully but firmly backed out of the deal. Then he started to push me to write my address on an envelope, and put money inside so he could "pass it on" as a donation. Anyway. I was firm. NO NO NO NO NO!!! He still wanted my name and address on the envelope......Now what's my name and address again? Oh yes: Chris Johnson 1537 goldsmith road........ etc. I have no doubt this clinic exists, I saw the leaflets. But My Thai friend was quite possibly not being very honest with me.
SO as he knew what Hotel I was staying at, I got out of town!
Firstly Local bus to a city thats not very touristy, Saraburi. That is: it's not in lonely planet, at all, I had no map, I was the only westerner I saw in town for the whole day, and experienced extreme language barriers at every corner. So managed to book an overnight train to Nong Khai, waste some of the time chatting to my bro online, and then found THE shabbiest hotel I could to get my head down for a couple of hours (still feeling tired!). I'll post some photos when I remember my camera lead, but it was BAD. So that was that, hung around, got the train, arrived this morning at this town which is a border town with Laos. This wasn't the way I was expecting to come, but getting to Chiang Mai in north Thailand would have been a headache, as the westerners on Christmas hols had booked the place, trains and buses up. But that's ok. I'm spending today in a lovely Guest house, right next to the Mekong river, I'll probably spend tmrw here too. I've decided to start my English teaching job in Siem Reap around the 15th of Jan which means what I hoped to do may be a bit of a tight squeeze. We'll see what happens. So thats about it. It's Christmas. I've finally found somewhere I can take a break and catch my breath rather than another bus train motorbike or whatever.

Day 38 - Back to Bangkok

2006-12-21T13:39:00.000Z

So I'm back in Thailand. I'm happy about that. The few days in Malaysia were worth doing, but not so brilliant. And I'm exhausted. I know that's crazy and I'm not working blah blah blah but the last week has been harder, mentally, physically etc. I'm Looking forward to a break, When I find somewhere to take it.

Day 32.

Got up nice and early heading for a place called the Cameron Highlands. Basically its Some mountains near enough halfway back to Thailand from Kuala Lumpur. The unhelpful bus driver who would do nothing but grunt became even less helpful when with 60 km to go, he decided he didn't want to drive up the very narrow twisty road to the top of the mountains and kicked us out onto a Local bus, on which there was no seats and no air con. So I stood, for 25 minutes until a seat became free. Also met the most annoying Australian guy, about 60 ish, Who then decided he wanted to come and sit next to me for the remaining 2 hours of the trip and tell me all things I already knew about, well everything. We arrived at the top and it really was COLD! well compared to Kuala Lumpur which was about 35 degrees when we left. Found a guest house, Got some more naff food from a restaurant and collapsed into bed mid afternoon. Later Went to go and get food and who should I bump into.... The Australian from the bus, and he decided that he would show me a good restaurant. It wasn't . It was rubbish, he carried on giving "great" advice about everything (yawn) and was then sitting in the common room when I got back to Hotel. So a few of us sat around, while the (now quite drunk) Australian carried on and on. Luckily we all saw the funny side (there was about 7 in attendance for the lecture, all my age) in fact at one point I had to walk away. It got too amusing.

Day 33.

Rolled out of bed just in time for an 8 o'clock tour of the local sights. Firstly a butterfly farm which also had insects and stuff. I held some things This Rhino Bug (or whatever it was called) was amazing.

These Scorpions where scary!

And the butterflies were, well butterfly like, Though they had golden Chrysalis which was pretty cool.

Then we were whisked off again on crazy roads to a strawberry farm. Hmmm. We've got those in England so me and Susan (a New Zealand girl) sat around and had a strawberry milkshake to pass the time.

Finally we went to the highlight of the area, A Tea Plantation. The brand was called, no jokes, "Bo" But there was no sign of Craig David or Kes for that matter but it was still good. Pretty amazing views over the plantation, and had a great cuppa and huge chocolate cake to help keep me warm. Nice.
We did stop at a Honey farm where apparently there were bees and stuff, but again we weren't bothered so we eat Fried sweet potato from a stall instead.

And that was that. In the evening had another horrible meal. Susan and Johann a Swede I'd met the night before wanted to have a steamboat: Basically its a big pan put on your table and you put all kinds of fish and stuff they provide into, boil it for a minute and eat it with soup. There was Squid, Fish balls, Cuttle fish, Fish wanton, Pork skin, something they called "beef" but wasn't, and other kinds of fishy stuff. I was not impressed. To be fair I did very well and eat quite a lot, and tried everything, all was well. Until the last mouthful, which was extremely fishy, and made me feel very sick. I was sure I'd die of food poisoning the next day but didn't. We sat around the hotels "camp fire" after that chatting long into the night.

Day 34. Not having enjoyed the cold too much I wanted to get away from the highlands now I'd seen what I'd come to see. I again rolled out of bed, seconds before my bus was leaving, I got there, but Realised I might have to become a little more punctual, for my time in Malaysia at least.
I was going to A place called penang about 5.5 hours north of the highlands. It's an island not far from the Thai Border. The lonely planet says something like it shouldn't be missed. I'd say you can miss it very easily. It was a dump. I'm not going to waste my time talking about it here. I watched some football in a bar, went to bed vowing to get out the next day.

Day 35. And get out I did. It was actually one of the journeys I'd (geekily) been looking forward to. It was a train all the way from Butterworth, Malaysia, all the way back to Bangkok. A cool 22hrs. I thought I'd get a little bored, so saved my mp3 player battery, left some of my book to read etc etc. As it happens I didn't need either of them.

I met another girl from new Zealand and an American Guy called trey at the station before we even climbed aboard. We were all feeling happy about getting back to Thailand, we'd all been in Malaysia for short trips, and hadn't had the best of times. So it was no surprise when we hit the border and cleared customs things improved, IMMEDIATELY. We got served some really good food. We got served beer. The Thai staff knew how to smile unlike their Malay counterparts. The girls got very excited because the guards let them smoke out of the train door despite a sign warning of a 2000 Baht fine for doing so.

It just turned into a brilliant night. We kind of gathered some other western folk around us, I guess because they could hear the noise we were making. Most people went to bed for no good reason at 8.30. We stayed up playing nearly silent charades until 1. It was a relief to be back in Thailand. It's not that I hated Malaysia, the highlands where cool, the rest of the place was ok, it just didn't appeal to me like Thailand does. So there we go. As with Kuala Lumpur vs Bangkok, Thailands wins the "Best country I ever visited" award still.

Day 36.

I had slept pretty. The train had fold down beds that where surprisingly comfortable, I opened the curtains and watched the scenery fly by for a bit. Then had a great breakfast (I kid you not) and chatted to trey for the rest of the journey. Back in Bangkok me and trey went and got a hotel, this time I stayed more in central Bangkok than the tourist ghetto of Kho San road. Food. Bed.

Day 37. Woke up at 2pm. I had been pretty tired as I'd imagined. Did a bit of shopping. Went to a bar again with trey in the evening. He's actually alright. The nicest American I've met on the trip. A pleasant surprise.

Day 38. So today I've felt tired again. Bangkok's great but gets you tired quite quickly. The weather's better than last time I was here, it's 28 degrees today, unlike 35 last time. Wasted most of the day with taxi drivers not taking us where we asked, taking the long route to a place to charge more, dodging touts, getting food I didn't order and generally dealing with the normal nonsense. It was like it had all been saved up while I'd been in Malaysia so on my return every tout, taxi, agency worker were out to get me. I found it more annoying than fun today but take the rough with smooth etc.

And finally. I've found I'm a people magnet. No. Not a babe magnet, just people in general. This is more than paranoia. I've tested my theory scientifically over a number of days, AND 2 different countries. It's a fact. I cannot walk anywhere without people banging into me. Now to be fair I'd noticed it in England before I left, and I know that we all get this occasionally, we go left so does the on-comer, we go right and ditto. But it's serious. People cannot help but wander, with some force directly into me. Sometimes when they're approaching head on they aim for me. I know this because I've watched the pavement grooves as I walk and on-comer,well, swerve for me. The minute they see me they want to bang shoulders, or brush my hand, or better still stop dead without warning so I bump into them. It can't just be because I'm very handsome (as I keep getting told). I've tried different techniques to try and avoid this unnecessary contact. They don't work. Of the things that could be frustrating on this trip, this is the one that bugs me. The only solution: I'm going to take a taxi. Everywhere.

Day 31 - Kuala Lumpa

2006-12-14T09:33:00.000Z

Thats right I've left Thailand behind temporarily. Will be going back soon but for now having a little taste of Malaysia. I really wasn't planning on coming here but saw it advertised and I have so there.

Day 28:

So I'm not going be boring and explain another whole bus journey again. But the basics were:

9am: Phi Phi - Hat Yai (South Thailand) 2 hrs on ferry + 4 hrs on mini bus (with 2, lovely, hilarious Germans for company).
Wait for 3 hrs
Hat Yai -Kuala Lumpa Including stops, customs etc 11hrs.

This time it was all as smooth as a babies bum. Now problems whats so ever. My faith in Bus travel restored. Arrived KL at 5 in the morning.

Day 29.

Got a hotel with the korean Guy I'd spent most of the journey with and got our heads down for 2 hours as didnt sleep brilliantly on the Bus. Then First things first The Petronas towers. These were at one time the tallest buildings in the world. They're pretty impressive. Pretty big and just uber cool.

Then went up a telecoms tower, Proudly advertised as: "The 4th tallest Telecoms tower in the world" (not the most startling of stats I didn't think) and got some great views over the city as a whole.

Then it was Back to the twin towers this time to go up them. It had started the traditional 3pm rain by the time I got there, so couldn't see loads but Still worth doing.
I spent the evening on a tour, Which was basically to feed some moneys and see fireflies.
Mr Korean had disappeared to Borneo by this time but met a girl called danii from Bradford on bus journey to the monkeys. Had a good old natter.
I dont think I've been on a more dangerous bus journey, the driver was lovely guy, and a complete loon of a driver. Seriously crazy.
Went to the monkeys. They were monkey like. Similar to the monkeys on Phi Phi only these ones didn't seem to attack people. And gentler too. I was feeding them green beans, and when i didnt let go easily the monkey gently tried to prise open my hand. Quite funny.

The Driver took us to a dodgy sea food restaurant for dinner (I don't like fish), I picked at a crab, a Shrimp and eat lots of rice with a suprisingly good cat fish sweet and sour. A bit strange but not too bad (AND I've lived to tell the tale).

Then off to see fireflies. This was really what I'd come to see but I had read that they didn't like wet weather too much, and it had rained for most of the afternoon.....I wasn't expecting too much.....BUT
It was amazing. A guy rows you up this deserted river and the bushes were glowing like christmas trees. We were joking that they WERE plugged in and it was big fake but he rows you close and you can see them flying around, flashing just like they've got little LED's taped to their back. I've seen nothing like it before. It was a little wierd, sitting with this (nice enough) random girl on a little rowing boat, for what would have been , a really romantic evening with the right person. But there we go.

This is the only photo I got: that dot on my hand is a real live fireflie. wow.

So after another charge for about 100 miles at about 100 miles an Hour we get back to KL. Danii was staying in a 5 star hotel (lucky!) so went back there for some food because by now I was starving after the fishy debacle, and who walks into the hotel???
ONLY THE (NOW) KING OF MALAYSIA!!!! Malaysia changes king every 5 years (shared between 10 Sultans or something) and the new king (I.e the one who took over at a ceremony today) was staying at that hotel. Security, police, lots of people, all march through on the red carpet.

Quite strange as I sat there watching in a scruffy t-shirt and combats. Then later one of his group (I have no idea who) was sitting at a table behind us having a cup of tea. I Behaved as best I could (that is no burping, farting or picking my nose and the like)..... So I eat my very first and quite possibly ONLY meal of this trip in a 5 star hotel. pretty cool.
The only other thing to report was, that sitting there after my meal, in the lobby of a very nice hotel was the first time a realised it's nearly Christmas. Before last night I'd heard no Christmas songs, saw no trees lights etc, seen no fake snow men, and this hotel provided all of the above. Sorry to say I didn't "feel" Christmassy. Just dawned on me that it's approaching fast and made me glad I'm avoiding the british madness of the whole thing.

Day 30.

So today hung around Chinatown here, bought some clothes and shoes because mine were DYING! had a wander. All in time to get in doors by the usual 3 pm DOWNPOUR! The rain here is manic, and even punctual. Pretty kind of it if you ask me.

So the Big Battle: City against City, Head to head: Bangkok Vs Kuala Lumpur

Bangkok. Bangkok easily in fact. I'm glad I came here but Bangkok is way more fun. It's more mad, There seems to be more to do, and where as I'm really looking forward to going back to Bagkok in a few days, I wouldnt be as excited to return here. It's got a hangover of britishness, people aren't as friendly as BKK, they dont smile as much, things are a little more predictable and thats just boring. So there we go. I'll reserve judgement on Malaysia as a whole untill I return to thailand but I've got a funny feeling I know who's going to win that one too......

Day 27 Koh Phi Phi

2006-12-10T14:11:00.000Z

Only four short days since the last Post, And yet another 4 crazy days.

Day 23. I got ready to leave Koh Tao. As I've totaly made clear in my previous posts
I had a cracking time. It was a home from Home. I'd made pretty good friends with the staff at Tropicanna where I was staying. They were amazing. I Loved them in a friend/family kind of way. I miss them even now. So I sat around in the restaurant. booked some tickets. Was glum. It rained. You get the picture. I sulked around a bit. Bought a big plastic poncho because felt sure this rain was going to follow me around. That was that.

Day 24.

I was off. Finally leaving Tao. I 'd booked a night ferry/bus combo to get me to Krabi. It wasn't in the plan (not that there is much of a plan) but seemed like the next step. Again hung around the hotel. it rained it stopped. it rained. and stopped. I went to sleep in afternoon because I was ready to go. Then....... A bang on the door and Welshy showed up! He was back from the full moon party (minus 2000 Baht, and his gold chain that got nicked and with 5 stiches in his finger where he sliced it nearly off on a sharp door!) So spent my last few hours laughing at him. Clumsy old fool. I said my final goodbyes to the Tropicana gang (a tear in my eye.....) and jumped on the back of a pick up to go to the ferry.

To be fair I had no idea what to expect..... This was what I got.

If you can't see it's about 2.5 foot by 6.5 foot of Bed space for 100 people with no seperation. So it was the first time in my life I shared a bed with about 120 people. Lovely. I was penned in by a self obsessed German (apparently) called AK on one side, and an even MORE self obsessed Australian on the other called Karen on the other. Ans I sat in the middle for 1 hr, listening to their, "conversation". It was more a personal information blast to each other. I sat quietly in the middle smiling (it was actually amazingly good fun to listen to) and drank my bed time beer. Hmmm. But it got worse. The lights went out and it turned out our german friend had even more going for him. Not only personality but BO and bad breath to suit. NICE! I didnt really sleep much. It was hot. it swayed a bit (though I guess boats are meant to) but mostly it STANK.

That hell ended at 5am after 8 Hrs. Its was an experience. Boat Hell behind me, Bus hell began.

Day 25 (The longest day EVER)

We where met from the boat by a mini bus. Excellent I thought. Off to Krabi no problems. It took us about 150 meters around a few corners and dropped us at a travel agency. Hmm. We sat on plastic chairs in the road for 1 hr. Wait over I thought. No. We got in a different Mini bus. we we're taken about 1 km out of town to some run down shelter and dropped off. We sat. baffled. Bored. for another 3 and a half hours, watching the sun come up over a factory. After being told the bus would be here "any minute" for most of 2 hrs it finally arrived. a taty old mini bus, no air conditioning. We climbed aboard. I dont remember much of that journey. I slept in little bursts 5 mins at a time. (smelly german and my austrailian friend had thankfully gone somewhere else....)
3 slow hrs later we arrive in Krabi. I've already decided at this point rather than prolong this madness I should go straight to one of the islands called Koh Phi Phi. So when we finally climed off the rubbish bus at another ramshakle bus depot, I bought another bus and ferry ticket. Rather than get us to the ferry port in plent of time. we sat there. For 4 hours, in what was little more than a cow shed full of (kind of) buses. (This is such a long story and not very exciting!) Anyway, they dropped us at the ferry with 5 minutes to spare, there was a problem with our tickets so almost were'nt allowed on, then we sprinted (with large backpacks) up a 200 meter pier to SQUEEZE onboard. no seats left so we sat with feet dangling over the edge. I got chatting to some israeli's and 2.5 hrs later we arrive. The israelis and i found a room, booked a boat trip and then off to bed. That was one long day. WAY too long. I collapsed into bed and slept like an absolute baby.

Day 26.

The three of us (Me, Karin, and Moran the israelis) Went out on a boat trip. It takes you all the way around Koh Phi Phi which does have some amazing sceneary. Sheer cliffs straight into the sea. I'm no geologist but I found it fasinating. Quite alot better than the white cliffs of dover I found. It Stooped at various beaches and reefs to snorkel/sun bathe. For the first time on the trip I got very sun burnt.

The Boat took us to the world reknown monkey beach where (the literature states) "there are troops of monkey just dying to have their photo taken with you" (or something like that. We turned up. Not a monkey in sight. Nothing. we walked up a very steep jungle path to get a glimpse. Nothing. we'd been there sitting around for about 45 minutes, and then, they arrived. About 15 monkeys just ambled onto to beach. Drinking from empty coke cans, taking crisps from people. They didn't really want to have photos taken but it was cool all the same. Especially when they emptied one guys bag and ran off with his sun cream. I don't know really what they needed that for exactly, but there we go.

At the end of the day We went to Phi Phi Leh, A smaller non developed island that was the set for "The Beach Movie". It was very impressive. Leonardo may have made this whole place too popular (the main island is packed with the normal tourist related agencys, laundry and rubbish) but this place is still beautiful. The lagoon is shallow and warm, we snorkelled there and swam in the middle of shoals of little fish. It was really good.
On the boat back We watched the sun set, I had 10 minutes recapping the trip sp far in my head, the places, the friends, the bus trips and smiled. It was a very happy moment.

I had some reservations about this place just because it's so popular, so busy, so touristy and yet I've enjoyed it alot. I wouldn't hang around here. Besides what I've done there's little else to do except the beach, diving and drinking buts it's nice.
So last night we sat at a beach bar, watching a fire show (they're CRAZY) just chatting. Oh and I had a brain wave about where to go next.....

Day 27. So here I am preparing to move... again tomorrow. So far on this trip I've stuck to a rough plan I had in my head as to what I'm doing. Tommorow I'm not. I'm really excited. It's a new adventure. I'll blog about it when I arrive. I've said bye to the girls who left this morning, I'm going to spend the day having another look round, book my tickets, AVOID the sun, and get some rest. I'm going to need it........

Day 22 Koh Tao

2006-12-06T05:44:00.000Z

The latest news from Thailand is I'm stll on Kho Tao, and I should learn to watch my big mouth.
Day 17.

After day 16's adventures snorkelling, And a little bit of encouragement from my dutch friends Franz and Arjen I decided to sign up for a days introduction to Scuba diving. As I said below swimming is far from my favourite thing. Any did some classroom basics in the morning and went diving in the afternoon, and the first thing I'm asked to do out at sea? Swim twice round the boat!! I made it, just, really only just, and i pulled myself up on the boat absolutely exhausted. I Didn't really master all the stuff from day one, like being underwater, taking goggles off and then putting them back, I kept swollowing gallons of saltwater and having to get to surface for air. It was annoying and began to feel maybe I wouldnt continue onto the 3 day REAL open water course. Then:

(Day 18) was even more nerve wracking. I woke with a start at 5.30, not because I had to but i was so scared. I'd decided that learning to dive was something I didn't really want to miss. So I went for it. We were going to depth today and i really was thinking I would struggle. But I didn't. For some reason all the things I found so hard on the first day I could do....in fact not just do but do easily. it was great! To be fair I think I couldn't have had a better instructor: Alberto (an Italian) was the type of teacher I need, calm, but able to answer all my questions. He did both of these and was a brilliant laugh. I'd like to go to his dive school in italy sometime maybe... That was basically the whole day. Completed 2 dives, Both at about 18 meters for 50 ish minutes. Amazing. I Spent the evening studying the chapters I had to as there was an "exam" on the final days.

Day 19 Just another normal day here, up early, onto boat, sail for 40 mins to some cool dive site. get ready. Dive. I think the thing that has impressed me most (Alongside seeing even more amazing fish etc) these last few days has been the sensation of diving. At times its like there's no up or down. You swim under this huge coral bit, then want to go down the side maybe 7 meters, and its so easy. then you want to come back up. you breath in, you start to rise slowly. Its the best thing. It's like your an explorer, in some wierd world. It's amazing.

In evening went out to a bar (about 10 meters along the beach) with Alberto, his girlfriend, the others from the diving class plus thier side kicks and also the usual suspects dutch, american, and welshy and had a jolly good time.

Day 20. The collapse. I was exhausted. I hadn't had an early night for days. I'd been doing excercise for most of the day for 5 days. I woke up at 12. had lunch, and went back to bed untill 4. It was a semi wasted day but i really needed the rest. I went to bed at 10.30, unheard of on this trip. So that was about all to tell. I did however have the energy to walk to the dive shop and put my name down for another day of diving.

Day 21. We went on possibly the roughest seas I've ever seen to try and get to a dive site where there are often whale sharks. It was so rough we got half way there and turned back. We went to two other sites instead called white rock, and twin peaks. It was a good day. I wanted to go on a proper dive before I forgot all I had learnt on the course. So it was good. I think that will be my last dive on Koh Tao. It's been an amazing few days. There's so much I cant explain here what it's like, what you see, feel etc. It's a shame I couldn't get pictures of the fish, shoals of them swimming around in your face, and hiding in corals, and fighting. but there we go. I think it's another one of those experiences that was just for me.

And Finally my big mouth. (day 22) Last night we had a meal and drink to say farewell to the dutch. (they left this morning, welshy and Ethan the american left yesterday). As we finished the meal I said some words I'll try never to repeat. Something I'd never say in england. I said "I'd really like there to be a proper monsoon rain". It's meant to be monsoon season here at the moment, not that you'd know. The weather has been too good. amazing in fact everyday. But less than 1 hr after those dangerous words were uttered by me, along came the rain. Not spitting rain. Full blown HEAVY rain. That was about 11 last night. It hasn't stopped yet. its 8pm the following day, and its still hammering it down. Not that I really care, I love it. It is after all, what I wanted. but I didnt really realise it got quite like THIS! Anyway. Lets hope I can get some beach time tomorrow or sometime soon because as much as I love the rain now, I think it could get boring quite quickly!

Arjen left his hat behind: Our friend Soung Loved it and hasn't taken it off all day.

I think thats all the news. I'm now going to dash for the restaurant (getting soaked in the process) and do some reading. I'm still trying to figure out where I should go next........

Day 16

2006-11-30T11:24:00.000Z

HI!

I've broken the two week barrier! NICE. Anyway I'm worlds away from where I was on the last post. When I wrote the last post I was Bored. I can't emphasise enough that Hua Hin was horrible. I was so glad to get out. Anyway here's what's happened recently.

Day 14. Thank the Lord I escaped from Hua Hin. Booked an Air-con train to Chumphon (3 hrs further south) It turned up, only just though it was 1.30 late and only had fans that weren't working. WARM is the word. (it was 38 degrees in Chumphon the day before I travelled apparently.) The train also had a mesh over the windows so my plan of watch the scenery change were also shot. the whole thing made me laugh. (I'm yet to be seriously annoyed on this trip)

Thai Oven trainArrived at Chumphon and a very nice tout arranged my (very nice) hotel, free transfer there and transfer to the ferry I was catching and ferry ticket for an absured price. I was scepctical but it all worked out very well. Chumphon is a small thai place, not many travellers. I eat and sept.

Day 15.

Chumphon Sunrise

5.30am. Thats the time I had to get up to catrch my ferry. Considering my average wake up is currenty about 10 it was too early. Jumped In mini bus and ferry. eyes shut. MP3 on. More non chatty travellers. Hate them. 3 hrs later I arrive at Koh Tao Island, the ferry ride in is cool.

The view as you get close is loads of old wooden bungalow's over looking near enough deserted beaches. Get chatting to 2 dutch guys and a welshy at the arrival pier, we go to a hotel and its amazing. Through our stuff down. Go for a swim in the lovely warm sea. Then Hired snorkelling gear. Now I'm no great swimmer. all based on the fact that i nearly drowed to death as a teenager. I Was nervous. not for the first time on this trip. It took 10 minutes of bobbing around to get to grips with not drinking pints salt water. But then I got it (It's not as simple as you think!) We swam around for the best part of an hour seeing Amazing fish just inches away. I have no idea what they were but it was seriously impresive. No photos for obvious reasons, but wow. It's something I'll never forget. feeling good about not drowning only added to the high. I did get well and truely scracthed to pieces on the rocks but no pain no gain. Spent the evening playing some crazy dutch card game ( it was rubbish!) OH! AND Staring at OUR bay and the stars, which are twinkly here.

MY Bay.

Not a bad sunset.
It's called cow trading and it's a strange game........

Day 16. (Thats today) Today we've hired Kayaks, and went 1 mile round to the next bay to Shark island. Theres no nasty sharks here. Just Another place to Snorkel. Even more brilliant fish even closer. Shiny rainbow coloured fish. Big long ones. Little shoals of green ones. Crabs on the rocks. (you can tell I enjoyed it right?!). Again took a nice big chunk out of my toes slipping on rocks in flip flops. The rocks were like razor blades. I put a picture here but I dont think you need that kind of detail!!!
By the way: I love it here. Koh Tao is brilliant. we haven't really moved around the island. we dont need to. Our bungalow is near a shop. There is a restaurant and bar next to bungalow. The beach is stunning. It's warm but has sea breeze. We've been joined on our adventure today by Ethan the american who is nice. So tonight we'll do what best to do here: Sit on the beach. Stare at our bay. Look at the twinkly stars. even though really there's nothing to do here, I love it. I thought I'd be bored. I'm not. I love the simplicity. I'm thinking about scrapping plans to go to some of the more touristy islands near here. I think I'd only be disappointed and compare them toMY island which is here. I'm glad I got here now and not in 3 weeks. it goes mad at christmas apparently. So for now. It's mine (well and the dutch and welshy and amercian's) and thats the way it should stay.

Day 13

2006-11-26T05:35:00.000Z

Today as you may guess is day 13 of the trip. That makes yesterday the 12th. And was travel day. left Hotel, got taxi and (late running) train to where I am today, Hua Hin. Just for the record. Day 11 was a pottering around day, sleeping lots etc.
So while I've not got much to report re what I've done I'll tell you a bit about Thailand. The best thing about Thailand is the unpredictability.

Annoyances

So I'll guess the best place to start is with the things that are slightly annoying, but are also the spice of the trip. This really isn't meant to be a moan, the below make life unpredictable and fun. It's more a list of observations.

Rule number one applies generally to restaurants. And it's you should never really expect to get what you ordered. For example. You ordered 3 meals, waiter repeats order perfectly and only two arrive, one has to be re-ordered. Or you ask for a beer and get the bill, or better still order 1 drink get 2! Or you order food:

Waitress: "you want spicy"
Us: "No thanks. NOT spicy"
Waitress: (with big smile) "AHH ok, not spicy"

20 minutes later a plate of possibly the hottest food I have EVER eaten turns up. I sweat and cry as the waitress stands there sniggering at me. Thanks. I'm certain they don't do it on purpose, it's caused by the language barrier, but this kind of thing seriously happens at every single meal. As a matter of fact we're still waiting for 2 cokes and a beer we ordered in Kwai though I've got the strangest feeling I should forget about them.

2. The Smile.

Thailand is rightly known as the land of smiles. They smile (mostly) all the time. It's lovely. It's kind. It also sometimes hides the fact the have absolutely no idea what you want.

Us to taxi "number 3 silom road please"
Driver (with big smile): "Ahh yes number 3 Silom road"
Us: Excellent no problems here.
The driver then drives the entire length of silom road and at the END of the road (a 20 minute drive) turns round beaming: Silom road! We knew we were on right road! But just thought maybe the driver would STOP at number 3 as requested. That he being a local, and us being lost tourists, might have some inside knowledge. As it was turned out to be the other end of the road. Taxi turns round and 30 minutes later we arrive. Taxi driver smiles we do our best to smile back.

One of my favorites was in the train station the other day. I had been feeling illish and needed a toilet. I went and found the ones in the train station, but they were hole in the floor and I didn't want to go there. So we find a very helpful train station member of staff.

Us: "Is there a western toilet here?"
Thai Girl: Toilet, yes yes" and waves a hand in the direction we've just been.
Us: Ah ok. but is there a western toilet, like sit down?
Thai Girl: Frowns and again waves a hand more weakly than before but in the same direction again.
Us: "Yes. but like a sit on toilet." (we vaguely attempt to draw the outline of a western toilet with our fingers and begin to realise this isn't going to plan)
Thai Girl: Begins to smile then Laughs out loud! "AHHH yes! A western toilet!! and smiles at us.
Us: (looking expectantly) smile back.
Thai Girl: Nods and Smiles.
Us: "This isn't going to work out is it." We say Thankyou and leave.

that's all for now. When I experience some more of the above I'll post them here.

Finally. I've found somewhere I don't like. It's Hua Hin. Where I am today. (it's 4 hrs train ride south of Bangkok.) Chatted to a university lecturer on the way down on all things Thai. anyway, Hua Hin is like the costa del sol: full of middle aged German etc tourists. I'm going to get out as soon as possible. At least I got to see the Portsmouth game live on TV here yesterday. Every cloud.....

Day 10

2006-11-24T11:35:00.000Z

Day 8. We hopped in our "tourist" minibus and headed back to BKK. pretty uninspiring but needed to be done. In the evening went by river taxi to see a temple decorated in broken pots (I kind of suffered temple overload, seen one.... The rest are similar. Then headed out to the Saxophone club. It's a jazz club and it was pretty smart. I somehow managed to get the smallest cocktail in the world, about 3 cm high but it made us all laugh (the waitress included).

Day 9.

Got up nice and early to go to a snake farm. I wanted to go here in BKK because it's run by the Red cross to make anti venom for the whole of Thailand. They get all the snakes out "milk" them of the venom and even show you that one of the handlers only has 3 finger (and a thumb) from where he was bit..... NICE! Then I Went to Siam Square, BKK's main shopping district and spent some time having a look, huge malls, full of fake stuff, and nice shops full of good stuff. Managed to get a charger cable for MP3 player MADE (exact length etc which I aked for) erm. boring but necessary) and then basically went to hotel and on the way bumped into both Jon (he'd been doing different stuff today) but also a Spanish friend we had met near Kwai called Alberto so spent the evening with them. Went to a cool bar. That was about it.

Day 10.

Me and Johanna decided to do some simple stuff today before moving tmrw. Spent 1hr with a taxi driver who didn't know what he was doing (I'm going to write a section about Thai annoyances soon....) then went back to some shops and home. I crashed for most of the afternoon. The heat and humidity here is unbelievable. I'm drinking so much and it doesn't seem to make any difference. Hopefully the south near the coast will offer a little respite!! Anyway. Everything is still good. Things will change tomorrow as Jon is off, Johanna goes to Cambodia, and I need to move on but not too sure where to! If I meet people like these guys, then they'll be no probs.... Anyway. There's a red curry with my name on it so I'm off!

Day 7

2006-11-21T04:57:00.000Z

And on the 7th day he rested. Thats what I'm doing today. trying to catch up on emails, sleep etc. But to continue the blog:

Day 5.

We arranged to do a tour of some of the attractions around Kanchanaburi. First we went to an elephant camp and got to ride them. Pretty cool and not too dangerous. waded through a river with them and a little into the jungle! Then we were wisked to float down the river on a baboo raft. again nothing too stressful. Then we were picked up again by our mini bus and headed of to Erawan National park where there's a 7 tier waterfall you can swim in. It was brilliant. The walk to the 7th tier was about 2 km but in the boiling heat took ages, but it made jumping into the waterfall so relaxing to swim! the water was freezing but so nice. It's a shame the moment you get out again you start to sweat buckets again! THEN we got on a train ride which was alright. THEN we went to Kwai bridge again and finally went home.

Day 6.

Today the initial seven of us that were together at Bangkok airport became 2. Kelly and Anna headed south to the beaches, Me and Jon decided to spend a last couple of days here because there was more stuff to do. Us two and Johanna (A maltese girl we met yesterday) got a motorbike with side car taxi to go and see the amazing floating Nun of Kanchanaburi. It was Hillarious. this old bald nun comes out and swims in a small swimming pool for 5 minutes pulling different positions. Because we were there at an odd time the three of us were the only people there. That made sitting in silence so much more difficult. Johanna sniggered all the way, I sat, beaming at the nun with tears in my eyes but determined not to laugh, when we got back on our mototaxi We laughed and laughed and laughed. I Can't really do it justice here but seriously appealed to my love of the bizzare.

Then crawlled through some cavse to see some buddha statues. There were bats and things in the caves but it was cool.

In the afternoon went to the tiger temple where some monks look after some tigers. Not really alot to see but everyone gets a pic with the tigers. there's a rumor that they sedate them.....to stop....accidents...... which would be bad but we followed the crowd along and there you go.

Day 7. And today. I've done not alot. Went to the post office, it was shut. went to internet cafe this morning. got nothing I wanted to done. went to a museum this afternoon. it had the most random collection of rubbish I've ever seen. Just odd clocks panitings and a room dedicated to Miss Thailand Competition with all old clothes worn by them. again. just bizzare. Thats about all. Moving on again tomorrow so its good to feel rested and all that.

Day 4

2006-11-18T13:02:00.000Z

Well 4 of us have escaped Bangkok, for the peace of Kanchanaburi. That's where the bridge over Kwai is. It's ok. You can walk across and theres holes in the bridge which would be easy to fall down.... Then got lost walking back to hotel and NO taxi's to help us but we muddled through and here I am.

So now I have more time here's the run down so far.

Day 1/2. Flying. Airports. Lots of unhappy miserable people going off on holiday. Going to spread there gloom across the planet. Lovely. Meet 7 randoms in the airport and we all got a minibus to our hotel (we were all at the same one). Really good group. 2 crazy scots, 3 south coasters and a Manchester lad.

We went to the hotel and then headed off out and had a few beers etc. A brilliant first night after the worry etc.

Day 3. Just a day of temples, budda's and that kind of thing. Messing around on a boat that was good. I eat what I believe was a cricket, though it was of the generic flyic insect type. Then a bit of shopping, Went to Thai boxing in the evening on a tuk-tuk that was AMAZING. Ok it was scary at first. but then just great fun. we cheered every car he over took and booed when he got over taken! Then on the way home we had two, racing through the centre of bangkok. I LOVED it!.

Day 4. Got woken up by someone knocking on my door because i over slept! We went for a wander. Organized a mini bus to get here, and apart from some Thai guy falling asleep with his head on my shoulder it was a very normal high speed blast for 2 hrs. I never got to say goodbye to the Scots, but if they read this then they we'll possibly forgive me! And now had my nice red Thai curry and coke and rice (cost 1.20) and now here trying to do this. We've lived at 100 mph so far this trip. I haven't had chance to catch my breath. I'm tempted to stay here a few day to catch up with myself but we'll see. Tmrw is a day of swimming in waterfalls, riding elephants and stuff like that. but first I've got to SLEEP and that's where I'm heading now......

Just a short one.

2006-11-17T09:11:00.000Z

OK so the last week has been mental. Too busy and too much sadness saying goodbye. and the news is, I'm gone. I have arrived. This blog is from from Thailand. Bangkok. It's good. I like it. It's hot. It's cheap. Went on river this morning in dodgy boat, eat some insects, saw some temples. Thai food unsuprising is brilliant. we had some amazing pork and Fried rice, and a big beer and it cost 3.20 pounds. Brilliant. Meet 7 cool dudes in the airport and we've all hung out together untill now. Tomorrow we all go our seperate ways, only i dont know which way to go. Beach or mountains, or most likely, mountains, Bridge over kwai and then to the beach. Hope you lot back at home are all well. Anyway must go, going to a thai boxing match tonight. DOnt know what to expect but should be good.

The Leaving Party

2006-11-06T21:39:00.000Z

It was meant to be a super hero themed fancy dressed party but the greedy halloweeners had swallowed up all the decent costumes so we just went for a drink and dance. We had a brilliant night. It made me realise like I hadn't before I was going to miss these guys.
It seems to me when your leaving a place, any barriers drop down and life somehow picks up. Work has been suprisingly good the last couple weeks, I've talked to lots of people there i've never talked to before. Likewise i've meet lots of new cool people literally just a few weeks before i go. It's almost like life is designed to make you regret your decision the minute you decide to leave a place. Well anyway I'M GOING WHATEVER! It's a wierd one. It happened before when I left Swansea to move back to sunny portsmouth.

No matter what you tell some people they want to dress up. these dudes are from resevoir dogs apparently.... err, and rob wanting to get into a picture.

Dougie (left) was determined to buy me champagne, er, so i didn't refuse.

Anyway. I had a great night out. I even got MC hammer "Can't touch this" dedicated to me at the club. How lucky am I huh?!
I'm Sorry to see the temporary back of some of these guys. But there we go. 8 days to go......

If I meet people While I'm away half as good as my friends here then I'll have done well......
And finally. other than flying to thailand.... I've now definately got a job teaching english in Siem Reap, Cambodia (charity work). I'm very happy with that. I applied a good few months ago so had my final interview last weekend and it' all sorted. See the link to SCC on the right of my blog. Another factor to add to my trip. Can't wait.

Adventures of Spiderman

2006-11-02T18:14:00.000Z

Today I had an Idea. A good or maybe bad idea. It all started as many good things do in burger king. With my trip looming large the talk got on to quirky ways to travel. And I had the brilliant idea……. to go travelling as Spiderman. We’re not talking occasionally dressing up here. We’re talking living the life, taking a backpack with 5 or 6 costumes and being Spiderman around the world. Every day and every night. It’s perfect right?! I’m not going to do it obviously….but I’m not sure why not. The costumes weigh next to nothing, and take up no space in the pack and You’d be given the special VIP treatment everywhere you go (They don’t know its not really Spiderman) But then we had the BIG question. Is it safe? Would anyone really dare to rob Spiderman? To approach with intent to steal and not just have their photo taken? I don’t think they would. Firstly, you’re a superhero they’re going to be scared right? Secondly as far as I know a pick pocket’s job relies on a person having pockets to pick. Spiderman doesn’t. (Though I guess has no zipper either which should be listed as a negative). Anyway, they’d be so many people gathering round as Spiderman ambles through the temple a sneaky thief has no opportunity to try. All those people watching are like your own cctv service you take with you. OK. Hands up, armed robbery maybe a bit different. But then, we’re not stupid, Spiderman would stay away from dark alleys just like the rest of us do. You know what. I reckon there’s good money in it for a brave someone somewhere. Write a book about it. A documentary. Adventures of Spiderman. It’s got quiet a ring too. Anyway, if it happens. It was my idea right?

Back from America

2006-10-24T00:19:00.000+01:00

Hi!!

So obviously I'm back from the USA. All was good and the photos can be seen as below. Pretty amazing really. The highlights were San Francisco which is just an amazing city. If you get the chance go. It's good. Their cable cars are just the best, most risky form of transport ever invented. Vegas is as you'd expect. A city made for entertainment. Yosemite is cold (in October at least) we'd stayed in a tent and froze. Santa Cruz is the most chilled cool city I've been to. We only had a while there but had a hotel over looking the beach and I'd love to go back anytime soon. LA is BIG but good all the same. All in all a very positive experience of California. They have everything. Sun, Ski, Sights. Also I loved a little place we stayed in called Lone Pine. What we British expect of small town America, a bar, 3 restaurants, 2 gas stations. I'd like to live there one day. There or Santa Cruz. Or maybe San Fran. So that's about it. Hopefully the pictures (which aren't all uploaded yet!) tell the story. 2350 miles gets you a long way in Cali. Other than that the final preparations have begun for the big trip. It's scary and exciting. More scary at the moment really. Half of me can't wait. Half is scared this this is a ridiculous pipe dream. We'll soon see. It's less than 3.5 weeks away. So that's it really for now.

From Bishop California.

2006-10-05T05:36:00.000+01:00

So I've been in America for 1 week. LA seems like a long time ago but was brilliant. Hanging out in beverley hills is certainly an experience. Today we've traveled through Death Valley and are halfway to yosemite park. all very exciting and amazing mountain scenery. Left Las Vegas this morning. The two halves of the day could not have ben more different. Vegas is Brilliant in its man made way. Death valley in its complete natural isolation. So it's back to nature or the next 3 days in Yosemite and around before we go on to San Francisco Probably on Sunday. We're hoping tomorrow will be a little calmer after lots of driving today. I''ve put some photos on Flickr. Anyway my time on internet is up.

2 days to go

2006-09-24T16:32:00.000+01:00

2 Days until California Trip. I can't wait. Just two boring days at work, But at least I get to quit my job tomorrow. Then really there's no turning back. 7 1/2 weeks before I leave. 2 1/2 in Cali. Leaving UK on November 15th. Brilliant.

Backpack:

Check.

A Fist full of dollars:

Check.

Round the World Tickets for the real trip for November:

Check.

I'm Planning to update my Flickr Photo account with Cali photos as I go. Click Below.
Traveler Bacon

Another day another forum......

2006-09-12T22:41:00.000+01:00

So no update for a while.
I've been busy with the hum drum of normal life. I've sat down tonight to read ANOTHER travel forum (www.gapyear.com) only this one is turning out to be better than the thorn tree (Lonely planet) Useful info re money belts, size of backpack (I'm thinking I'll buy one online later tonight) and how to reassure parents that everything is going to be OK (though feeling this is a long shot!).
The bottom line re packs is , Some people travel light (40 litrePack), and take virtually nothing with them. If my trip consisted of just SE Asia I may go the same route, but as some of south America could be potentially cold when I get there, a larger 65L pack seems more sensible, for fleeces or whatever. I've always said I don't travel light particularly well, though I'm going to have to, to some degree for this trip but if I take a small pack how am I going to bring home a stuffed llama for all my friends. Impossible. So a large pack is it.
Re Malaria, It looks like I'll go for Doxycyline. Firstly it cost 25p a day rather than the £2.50 for malarone I was recommended by a nurse (Killer!!). TheAmerican CDC Website seems to think this will be fine. So do I. The most useful Malaria tip seems to be avoid getting bitten! Needlesss to say I'll be taking that advice.

Did have a bit of a downer today. Nationwide won't give me the freewithdrawal's account I wanted, mainly because I'm good and haven't had credit cards for 5 years. That's kind of left me scratching head!There other options so going down investigating those routes as quickly as possible.

The California trip is 2 weeks away. The first 2 nights Hotels are booked. Very exciting re visiting six flags magic moutain Theme Park. Oh..... and visiting Hollywoodd San Fran, Vegas etc. Hoping to catch a baseball game in Anaheim too. and a slim chance we'll get to see San Fran 49ers (American Football) but tickets are looking a little steep... we'll just wait and see.
The new photos on Flickr are of Sunday afternoon working on routes etc, oh and trying to fire sunflower seeds from my nose over the neighbour's fence. Try it. It's fun.

I'm not really going am I?

2006-09-03T23:31:00.000+01:00

Ok. So too much to tell. Firstly. I have a Thai Visa. That means I can at least start the journey even if Australia are stupid enough to refuse me a working visa. Here it is....

Secondly Siobhan's Wedding was brilliant. Siobhan is one of my best friends from work. She's crossed the line from friend to adopted family. We have days where we're true family and properly argue. Then there are days when there is ultimate respect for each other.
If you ever read this Sio, Thanks for being a brilliant friend Sis.
The ceremony was nice and HOT! In the Afternoon I was the Quiz master for a quiz (obviously) and I dressed as a... Chihuahua. It was so funny and brilliant, I even sang a chihuahua song, the key lyrics being:

"I'm a a ch ch ch chihuahua, I'm the smallest dog in town,
I never have to walk as they carry me around,
When I am I puppy I'm no bigger than a Cup,
and I am no bigger even when I am grown up."

Ermm. You had to be there I guess! Photo's to follow on my flickr.

Then spent the evening dancing around... Key songs for the evening? Well, Chesney Hawkes: I am the one and only, House of Pain: jump around, Queen: bohemian rhapsody and Bryan Adams: Summer of 69. just the usual....a room full of people, hands in the air, singing along.... I am just a small boy from a small family......

The gangster next to me in the photos is Jake, Siobhan's best man. Despite his looks he too is a good bloke! The dark photos are my friends Paul and Steve tearing up the dance floor!!

And Finally some news. I'm not going traveling. Well I am, but it doesn't feel like it. I've got to pay for my flights this week. Wednesday in fact. I'm handing my notice in at work on Friday. I've spent money getting the Thai Visa, other bits and pieces, horrible jabs, and yet still it hasn't hit me. Maybe it's just that after a week of being busy I'm really excited right now. Maybe it won't hit me till I'm on the plane to Bangkok. Its weird I can't explain it. I've done more things this week getting ready and yet...that feeling is still not there. I should be worried that I'll have no job when I get back. I'm not. I should be worried that I've spent a lot of money to go and may hate it. I'm not. I've even layed the foundations for my leaving party. When will it hit me? Anyway. We'll see what happens. A bit of a long (boring) post I know.

My Third Bicep.....

2006-09-02T00:46:00.000+01:00

So I haven't posted for a while. The Bank Holiday and a busy week working have meant haven't got on here in a while.
Sooo.....
The news is other than buying stuff from list below this week, yesterday I had three jabs that made me feel horrible, administered by a HORRIBLE nurse (her name was beverley go figure) and left me very sleepy and ill. I realised that my bicep has doubled in size (good!) though I could hardly move my arm (bad!) This afternoon I could literally feel heat rising through my face, as I started to feel better. A very strange sensation. Tomorrow I'm at one of my best friends weddings (read civil Partnerships) which is exciting and should be fun. Photos to be posted here shortly. That's all really. And I think my Thai visa has been done as there's something at the post office waiting for my signature. All good. I've been feeling nervous this week re travel. That's normal I guess. I have excited 5 minutes and nervous 5 minutes normally. This week has been generally nervous, I guess mainly as I've been to busy to focus on it and make progress. At least I've still got some stuff sorted. Plus spent a few hours in the pub planning the Cali trip which is getting closer and closer. Mustn't grumble.

A Shopping list of sorts

2006-08-25T22:45:00.000+01:00

So I've decided I'm going to buy a couple of the below each week until I go. Some are essential, some aren't so essential but cool all the same. If there's anything you think I'm missing please let me know!!

A Back pack. Something like This. Simple but effective.
A Lock. so my pack stays where I put it.
A couple of combi locks. So I can lock the pack's pockets and not lose the keys.
A Day Pack. Just something simple will be fine.
Dry Bags. Keeps electronic things Dry.
A Clever Money belt. Just like this.
A little Torch. But not like this, that would just be overkill.
An MP3 player..... Cheaper in America so I'll pick one up there.
A Plug adapter. Us English have strange plugs.
A new Pompey Football Shirt. To represent the hood wherever I end up.
Ear Plugs. Because things get too noisy.
A cheap watch. So I don't look like I'm ready to be robbed.
A Sun Hat. Not quiet like what my friend called the best hat in the world I bought a few weeks ago but a bit more functional.
Some light walking boots. So I can walk. (too many options!)
Long sleeve T-shirts. So I don't get eating by Mosquito's in the evening.
Some kind of blade. So I can cut things I guess, my toe nails mainly.
Guide Books. I've got a lounge full of them already thanks.
Malaria tablets. Obviously.
Insurance. In case I break.

I guess that's all I can think of for now. That with the things I need to arrange in the list posted earlier should keep me going for now.

Rabies, Visas, The big clear out.....and...........

2006-08-22T21:27:00.000+01:00

So I've had my normal rushed Monday and Tuesday working like a clown. Just finding some time at lunch and evenings to sort travel type things...

Jabs

I'm (kind of) half way through having a great regime of Jabs (yuck). There are not many things I don't like but a scary nurse sticking needles in my arm is not one of my favorite things. From about 3 weeks ago to shortly before I leave I'm having 3 Rabies jabs (2 down 1 to go), 2 Hepatitis B, 1 Hep A, 1 Yellow fever jab, some others I can't remember what the names are! These are my 3 Rabies babies, two of which have been making there way around my body in the last week making me feel a little ill. They cost more than my digital camera! But...You can't put a price of health so they say....

Visas

So the only places I need to get visas sorted for before Leave the UK are Thailand and Australia. I've checked with the Thai consulate and there fine with me entering on a 2 month visa without any real evidence of onward travel, that's a relief otherwise would have had to juggle flights to fit in with stuff. The Aus visa is more tricky, Have decided to get a working visa so if funds are low before S America I can maybe earn a little money ermm... picking fruit or whatever, and could be a laugh I guess. Needs a little more research and maybe a trip to London to apply.

The Clear Out

Something I Hadn't mentioned here before was that I have moved house. 2 weeks ago, and it makes sense while I'm unpacking to get rid of a load of rubbish I've accumulated in the last few years. After a lot of thought I'm losing my college and University notes. I haven't really touched them since leaving Uni and can't see that I'm ever going to use them again so, say goodbye.
RIP University. Nice knowing you.

Finally

Squat Toilets. Yum. Read More!!! I Can't wait!

Where am I Going?!!

2006-08-20T00:30:00.000+01:00

2nd Post for the day. I Feel like I'm geting into this blog stuff. I was invited yeterday to go to the V festival today to see radiohead etc but knowing i've got loads to do I didn't go and had a productive day that was badly needed. I've now bought the digi Cam, nothing special but it will do, and applyed for credit cards etc etc.

Also here is the map of the intended trip, Flights to be finalised and Payed for in full on September 6th which is approaching way too fast.

(Red lines flights, Blue Overland)
But before all that while we're on the topic of maps.......

California!

Before the Great Escape there's a road trip through California with my best mate Gary at the end of september!! Can't wait. And where will it take us? Well Somewhere roughly like the map below shows, though we may drop the Day in mexico seeing as we're optimistically planning to complete the whole trip in 2 1/2 weeks! Anyway, more about this as the time approaches.

Origins......

2006-08-19T13:09:00.000+01:00

I thought I'd better put some explaination here of the name of my blog. It comes from a post on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree Forum linked to here: Poptotheshop Basically poking fun at the whole travel forum thing. Firstly it made me laugh, and secondly I love the thought that travel, even to far away places can be as simple, or complicated of going to your local store. I'm not sure how realistic this is......I feel it cant be that easy... but this is something I'm going find out about shortly!

In The beginning.........

2006-08-15T23:25:00.000+01:00

So I guess all Blogs have to start and here is the start of Mine. This is the blog to record my upcoming trip hopefully as far around the world as possible. So the flight Deposit is Paid, I'm well into the process of having a nurse stab me with needles just about every week at the moment and with three months to go today decided is about time to get this Blog going. The following is a list to myself of things I need to sort ASAP. A Bit boring, but a list on here wont get lost, thrown away etc.

Real Priorities

Sort Credit Cards
Change Bank to Nationwide as don't charge of foreign withdrawals.
Sort visas for Australia and Thailand, Move flight from Manila to Sydney to comply with visa regs (To complicated to bother to explain here)

Important Things to buy/sort out:

Back Pack
Digi Cam
MP3 player (not essential but how can I cope without music?!)
Check insurance with Agency is best.
Decide on amount of malaria drugs to take (useful link) (Way too complicated)

Lots of other things to do, buy etc but they can wait, a while at least.

Websites:

Travel Forums
Back Packs etc
Jabs Etc
More Jabs etc
Aus Working Visa
Thai Embassy

Anyway that's enough for now.