Yo,

Still in Phuket, heading off in about 30mins to the airport to fly to Bangkok. Not the best place I have been, very commerical. I walked from the hotel to the closest ATM to get some cash and got stopped about 20 times by people trying to give me a taxi, massage, watch, clothes, suit, dvds etc. Big shock to the system after chilling in Phi Phi and Ko Phangan last few weeks.

I have however made the most of my 24 hours in Phuket. Having managed to buy clothes, a Tag watch, new shoes, had a shirt made, got drunk, played connect 4, and went parasailing amongst other stuff.



My new shirt with extra extra large collar and cuffs.

Yo,

Today is my last day on Phi Phi =( really gonna miss this place, definately the most beautiful part of the world I have visited yet. Heading to Phuket in afew hours, sad about leaving but the have a McDonalds in Phuket so that is something to look forward to =).

Just bought my flight from Phuket to Bangkok, really should have done it earlier as most of them were fully booked, so I am gonna end up in Bangkok at 8pm when my flight to Dubai isn't until 1:20am so will have to kill afew hours there.

Wore my new white suit out to the half moon party here the other night. Was great fun as everyone was lovin it. All the English refered to it as "Dapper" and most of the Thai girls just looked and said "Wow!". Couldn't have worn it every night tho as I had to pose for ALOT of photographs for people, which is fun for a while but can get annoying. Alot of people wer very confused as I just looked so out of place. Most people here are either dressed in beach wear or are hippies with baggy colourful clothes and dreadlocks. When people asked me why I was wearing it I told them I had got married that day. They would be really happy and excited and say "Wow, so where is your new wife?" to which I would reply "Ah, she's not here. You see she is a Thai prostitue so has to work tonight". At this point most people realised I was winding them up, but some people just looked confused and walked away.

So I am really gonna miss this place. Would like to come back and spend 6 months to a year here, just relaxing and diving everyday. Will try and do it before I am 30.

Here's some fantasitc pics of stuff I will miss from Phi Phi:


Beautiful beaches and cliffs:

Drinking until sunrise everyday at Hippies Bar:

Feeding the monkeys at Monkey Beach:

Watching beautiful sunsets over Phi Phi from the Diveboat before going for a night dive:

Thai Island Folk, friendliest in the world!

Now I am gonna head for a Thai Massage and some food, next update will probably be from Dubai as it's my last night in Thailand =(

Yo,

Finished Advanced Open Water Diving Course today. Very tired so going to go out drinking and sleep in tomorrow.

Me!A Leopard Shark, resting on the sea bed.A big starfish

On the dive boat

Anyone on this beach when the Tsunami hit wouldn't have made it.

One of the many buildings they haven't managed to repair yet after it was destroyed by the Tsunami.

Another beautiful evening on Koh Phi Phi

Yo,

Made it to Ko Phi Phi. Not an easy task. Ended up drinking on Haad Rin beach until after 5am, then missed taxi to ferry so had to pay for another one but made it to the boat ok. 10 hours later, I was feeling terrible but was in Phi Phi.

I am going to miss Koh Pahngan, but being in Phi Phi feels good. Haad Rin beach was great tho, here are a couple of my favorite pics:

Hawking on Haad Rin

I jumped through a burning ring of fire! And I made it through without burning myself, although some people who were more drunk were not so lucky!

First impressions is that Phi Phi is without a doubt the most beautiful place I have ever been. White beaches, blue sea and huge limestone rocks rising from the ocean. Phi Phi was about the worst place hit by the Tsunami and it still shows. There are signs up at the dock asking for volunteers to help with stuff so I will try and do that for a day or 2 when I finish diving. There is alot of builing work going on to and most of the buildings are all very new and nice which makes a good change.

The place I am staying in luxuary, it has cable TV, air con, tiled floor, hot water and best of all a toilet which flushes!

So tomorrow I start my Advanced Open Water Diving course, starting with Wreck Diving, Underwater Photography and Night Diving so will post some pics tomorrow night.

Yo,

Just booked my ticket to Koh Phi Phi, heading off tomorrow at 6am! If I don't sleep in or get too drunk and forget to go.

Couldn't go Kiteboarding today =(. The school is closed as the weather isn't windy enough just now. So went over to Samui and picked up my suits instead.

One for business:

And one for pleasure: Although the tailor reckons I could use it for business if I worked for the mafia.

You like the lining don't you! It Dazzles, It Stimulates, It Excites!

The tailor insisted on holding my hand for these photos, not sure why exactly, maybe its part of the "Suit you sir" culture of the tailors guild?

Yo,

Still on Ko Phangan, recovering from the Full Moon Party. Not an easy task, partied too hard on the night and in the days leading up to it. Haven't been able to eat anything for 2 days now, but stayed in last night and slept so feeling a bit better.

The party itself and the night before were fantastic from what I can remember. Partied with a great crowd of people who were staying with Daniel, guy I went diving with.

Emma (Tahiti), George (Australia), Daniel (Wales), Genna & Sam (Liverpool) , after a midnight swin on Haad Rin Beach.

There was alot of buckets of Vodka & Redbull consumed over the last few days. Dangerous stuff as the Red Bull here is like a concentrated syrup that comes in something resembling a medicine bottle.

The full moon involved alot of drinking and dancing. There were afew times that it got a bit too much so I just lay down on the sand and had a nap. When waking up just grabbed another bucket and started partying again. Ended up getting afew hours sleep in one of the bars about 10am, then headed up to see Daniel and the girls, watched a couple of movies, got home about 7pm, then went out for a beer with the girls. Didn't manage more than one beer tho as it all started to catch up with me and I was forced to have an early night.

Today I might go Kite Boarding, but not sure if there is anough wind, might also need to get a ferry over to Samui to collect my Suits.

Next plan it to go to Ko Phi Phi and do the next stage of diving so I can become and advanced open water diver. Phi Phi was hit pretty bad by the Tsunami and there is still alot of work to be done there, so I will probably do a couple of days voulenteering while I am there to.

Hey,

In Ko Phangan now. This this is my favorite place yet. Not sure how to describe it to people who haven't been, but think of Magalluf, with no British drunks in football tops causing trouble, no Spanish, no Lookielookies and a bunch of cool stuff happening all the time. This is the kinda place I could stay for a few months, years.

Went out to Thai boxing the other day here, very entertaining, going again tonight. Met a guy called Sam, from Holland who speaks English with a Brooklyn accent. Got chattin to him for a bit then realised we had the same shoes. When Sam noticed and told me in his New York accent it reminded me of the episode of friends where Joey meets his identical hand twin.

After boxing went out on Haad Rin beach and got messy with some buckets of Thai Whisky. Had a good time so did the same again the next night, lots of drinking, dancing and we jumped through a ring of fire.

Me, Sam (Holland), Kovan (Canana), Naiomi (Holland)

The next day I started a 3 day diving course whch I have just completed. It's the internationally recogised course which allows me to dive anywhere in the world with out an instructor. Was alot of fun and definately worth the money. I can now dive to 18 metres and know how to use all the equiptment and sort out problems if I get in to trouble. So now I have my Open Water certificate the next step is to get my Advanced Open Water which mean I need to do 5 speciality dives, such as a wreck dive, night dive, deep dive etc. Going to try and get the Advanced Open Water finished while I am still in Thailand. That means once I get home I just have to do a Rescue Diving course and a Dive Master course and I will be a Dive Master and can help out with instructing.

So that is my back up plan. If i don't like working with computers any more I will come back to Thailand get a job with a dive shop. Its one of the few jobs europeans get do over here that actually pay ok money.

Now I am off to eat, drink and watch some Thai boxing. Tomorrow I will maybe go shopping, go Kite Boarding and then head to the Full Moon party, which is the biggest beach party in the world!

Well, I left Luang Prabang on my own and headed to Vang Vieng on the government bus. I was there far to long. It was OK but as I'm pushed for time I wish I had moved on sooner.

Bus journey was ok. I got the cheap governemnt bus which has been a target for terrorsits in recent years. Luckily we had a guy with an AK47 sitting in our bus in case anyone tried anything. It was strange to see someone carrying a gun but not wearing a uniform. I said this to some french girls I was next to on the bus and they had never even seen anyone carry a gun before so it was really strange for them.

The bus took about 5 or 6 hours and arrived soon after dark. I didn't have a clue about Vang Vieng so the french girls from the bus took me to their guest house as they had been there before. After getting settled at the guest house we headed out for dinner and afew drinks and I got my first good look at the place.

I expected it would be biger than Luang Prabang but I was wrong. It much smaller. In fact its only really about 6 streets in the middle of nowhere. By streets I mean arrangements of buildings as the roads really arent up to much. 3 of them are sealed and the other are just rocks. It does however feel like there are more bars in Vang Vieng and definately far less families than in Luang Prabang.

All the bars have exactly the same menu as each other, all photocopied, with the back page having the "special menu". And all the bars have TV's in the which either show movies or episodes of friends. The friends bars are dangerous because if you sit down you get trapped! I sat and watched consecutive episodes of Friends for 9 hours on day. Its easily done, you just sit there all day, eating, drinking and watching season after season of friends. It's really comfortable as all the tables are on raised platforms and you have lots of cusions to sit on.

While I was here I drank with an Irish guy I met in Luang, and a couple of Swiss girls he met in Pai. Drinking and watching Friends is about all there was to do in Vang Vieng, although all the bars close at 23:30 for some reason. There are a coulpe of other bars on a little island which are open until about 3am so thats where everyone goes when the main bars close.

I met up with the Israeli girl I had been travelling with previously while in Vang Vieng, the conversation went something like this:

Me: "Hi!"
Her: "Hello, how are you?"
Me: "Fantastic!"
Her:"Are you sure? I saw you at Island Bar last night but you were unconscious."
Me: "Yeah, it was a good night!"

I think the best thing about Vang Vieng had to be the tubing. This is where you get a lift a couple of miles up the river and are then droped off with nothing to get back with other than and inflated tractor inner tube. There is no organisation as you would expect with something like this back home. They just drop you on the rode and point you in the direction of the river. Some of the guys were holding back, expecting someone to come along and tell them what to do, but I just threw the tube in, swam after it and jumped on.

Along the river there are various bars for the tubers to stop at. I saw bars but they are little more than afew sticks hammered together and a cool box to keep the beers cold, although some had a straw roof to. When you float towads them the staff get really excited and shout "Beer Laos! Beer Laos! Beer Laos! Beer Laos!" and if you wave to indicate you want to stop for a beer they throw a huge bamboo at you with a rope on it and shout "Bamboo! Bamboo! Bamboo! Bamboo!" for you to grab on and get pulled in.

Tubing down the river with afew beers was very relaxing even though it poured with rain most of the time, and the scenery is beautiful. Some of the bars had cliffs you could jump off into the river, about 15 foot high, so that kept us occupied for alot of the day to.

One of the things I have noticed about Laos is that there are some really funny traffic signs.

No Horns

Look out for women crossing the road.

I think my favorite observation about Laos is the way they love to spit. The don't just spit, they really hock the phlegm up from the back of their throats as loudly as possible and gob it on the ground. If you are in a busy place you will probably here someone do this about every 15 minutes. It's funny to think that this is frowned upon in the west but acceptable in Laos, a county where public displays of affection (such as hugging) are considered rude.

I left Vang Vieng on my 5th day there, again to long in the one place. After a 6 hour bus trip to the capital Vientiene I was supposed to meet the coach which would take me to Bangkok which I had paid for. This did not go as planned. For some reason, just at the bus reached Vienetiene it stopped, turned around and started driving back the way we had come. It was also driving at a ridiculous speeds and there very nearly some collisions with on coming traffic. After about 20 mins of going back the way we had come, the bus stopped for 10 mins then headed back on course. This ment my bus to Bangkok had left 30 mins ago.

After complaining to the driver for a while who spoke nearly no English they put me on a minibus with 4 Israeli girls (There are alot of them here) and the driver drove to try and catch the coach at the Thai-Laos border. This was even worse than the bus and he was driving the whole way with his horn and and lights flashing, trying to get through the traffic. One time he went the wrong way round a round about in order to beat the traffic in front of us to the last exit.

We did eventually make it to the border and the coach was still there, it taking a while for all the passengers to get stamped out of Laos and into Thailand. Once back in thailand the scenery quickly changed. The dirt roads became tar, cars drove on the left, people had new clothes, all the roads had street lights and the wooden huts of Laos were replaced with the modern stone buildings of Thailand.

10 Hours later I was back where I started, in Bangkok. I decided I didn't want to stick around. The writer of The Beach described Bangkok as a decompression chamber for those who have just entered, or are about to leave Thailand, and this makes alot of sense to me now. So I jumped in a taxi and headed to the airport, with no ticket but the idea that I wanted to be in Ko Samui asap.

I arrived at the airport at 6:40am, and by 7:02am I had found the ticket desk, bought a ticket, checked in, passed security, and boarded the plane. Fantastic! None of the 1 hour before check in nonsense we get back in the UK. No hanging about in the gate buying over priced food and drink. Fast and efficient.

The plane looked very cool and was the first propellor plane I have been on in a long long time. When we got to Ko Samui airport this was even better, the airport building was just some palmtree trunks supporting a straw roof.

So I got to the town and booked in to some very over priced accomodation. I thenhired a motorbike and toured the whole Island. Most of Ko Samui is very beautiful and I headed up to the highest point, 625meteres above sealevel. The map wasn't to be trusted though as the road I was driving on quickly disappeared and I had to take the road bike I had hired off road on some really dodgey roads. It was worth it tough as I got to see most of the island including some massive buddah statues.

So that was it for my travels in Ko Samui. After seeing the island I went to a taylor to enquire about having some suits made. The first guy seemed nice but I wasn't too impressed with his catalouge. Went to afew other places then found an indian gy who did me a good deal on a couple. Had my first measurements today, have to go back on Tuesday for more, then pick up suits afew days after that. Was really good fun as I got to choose all the materials for the suit, trousers, shirt, jacket lining and describe the kind of cuts and fits I wanted in various places. I'm really looking forward to seeing the finished products, if completed to my specifications they should be quite unique!

Tomorrow I am off to Ko Pha Nga to get some good accomodation before the Full Moon Party. Will update again soon!

Cya

Yo,

Sorry for lack of updates recently, haven't had a chance to get to an internet cafe. I am now in the country of Laos, North of Thailand. So what has happened since my last post?

Last couple of days and nights in Chaung Mai were good fun. Went out to a Thai club and dranks lots of whisky, then headed back to the guest house and drank more. Ronit and Tony didn't make it til sunrise but me and Gemma kept drinking and then I woke surrounded by people eatting breakfast.

On my last full day in Chaing Mai I decided to do a bungee jump, something I have been meaning to do for years. Seeing as its about half the price it is in the UK I decided to take the chance.

The jump was great fun, will try and find a higher one next time as 50 metres isn't enough.

I had decided to work my way north and out of Thailand to Laos. They don't have any McDonalds there so I had to crapulate at the McD in Chaing Mai before leaving.

For our last night in Chaing Mai we went to see some Thai boxing at a bar. It was entertaining but I don;t think it was real. The real Thai boxing happens on specific nights and this was just to bring people in to the pub.

After the boxing we were enjoying a quiet drink when an American guy came up to me and said "hey man where you from?"

"Scotland" I replied,
"Gee, I though you were American, you kind look American"

And then he left. Five minutes later he came back and said "So man, are you in the military?"

"No, I work with computers" I replied
"Gee, I just figured with the army shorts you must be in the military. Say how would you like to work in Iraq?" He said, pronouncing Iraq as "Eye Rack"
"Sounds good, tell me more" I said.
"Well if you come over I can get you a job in Logistics. What do you say?"
"Sorry, I have a job to start in London soon" I said. But had it not been for the fact I do have another job to go to I might have taken his offer, although there is a good chance he was just making it up.

So we left Chaing Mai and headed for Chaing Rai, once there we got a bus to Chaing Kong. The bus was fantastic as it had a video karaokee machine, subs and I was the only white guy on it. Unfortunately all the songs were in Thai and they didn't have any Barry Manalow, Ken Dodd or Kate Bush :(

Once in Chang Kong we went to the Bamboo Riverside Guesthouse which was fantastic. Lots of nice little Bamboo huts with hamocks outside and a fantastic mexican menu.

The guy who ran the place seemed abit crazy and reminded me alot of MaryLou in Magalluf. He went on at length about how people who cook by recepies are not chefs and the the same is true with blues music. And when I asked him for directions to the local disco he acted out why I have to be careful.

The next day we headed for the boat across the Mekong river to Laos. We took a speed boat over the river and then checked in a Passport control. I had to pay 1500Baht for my Laos visa but I didn't have a spare passport photo on me. Luckily the border police let me through without a visa or to go to a shop and get my passport photocopied.

When I was filling in the visa application there was a fat american guy sitting across from me. He was wearing an Appocolypse Now T-shirt which was kinda in bad taste seeing as how Laos was the most bombed country during the Vietnam war. He turned to his mate and said "Hey man, do you think I should be using this pen to fill in the visa?"
"What does it say?" His friend replied."
"U.S. Government" he answered.

We then headed for the dock again to get our 2 day slow boat to Luang Prabang.

The boat was over crowded and uncomfortable and not the most fun way to spend two days. But I had my iPod, a copy of Retro Gamer Magazine and a case of Laos Beer so I was happy enough.

So I have now been in Luang Prabang for afew days now and have been financially supported by my travelling companion Ronit because I didn something really stupid. I never thought to check out the situation with ATMs in Laos, and seeing at its pretty much 3rd world they don't have any that work with international bank cards! So tomorrow morning I get some money from Western Union that my family have generously transfered for me. I should have got it on Friday afternoon, but there is only one Western Union machine in the country, and its in the capital, and the office there closed at 3pm so the money couldn't be transfered to the local bank. So tomorrow monring I will hopefully be heading off to Vang Veing, and from there I have no idea yeat, but probably south.

The local currency here is not the easiest. It's called Kip is worth so little its crazy. A 1000 kip note is worth about 7 pence. So this means your pockets are always bulging with notes and when you get change you end up with way too much paper. Also I am now trying to think in UK Pounds, Thai Baht, Laos Kip and U.S. Dollars to as they are used alot here due to the low value of the Kip.

Luang Prabang has been OK, but it is expensive by Thailand standards and Laos is supposed to be cheaper. I mean imagine paying 4 pounds UK per night for an air conditioned room, rip off! =) The highlight of my time in Luang Prabang has probably been jumping off waterfalls. I watched themonks do it first and when I saw was safe gave it ago my self. After that all the westerners followed.

Today visited the Buddha cave. This is a cave were buddish monks go to worship and leave little buddha statues behind. I don't know much about Buddism but it seems to be the only religion which makes any sense, and the monks wear funk orange robes.

Thats all from me for now. I have more stories but they will have to wait until next time =)