.1) 1/11/04 - 09/11/04
*NEW PHOTO GALLERIES NOW UPLOADED - ENJOY!** *THE SITE HAS NOW BEEN EXTENDED SO THE WHOLE STORY IS NOW BACK ON LINE! - JUST CLICK ON THE PAGE YOU WANT TO VIEW AT THE BOTTOM**
Well I finally buggered off! Please feel free to check my progress and have a nose through the photo's I Have down-loaded and any stories that can be told over the internet!
Leave me messages if you like the more obscene the better!
Keep me up to date with the going's on in the cold country!
Just for those who i havent bored with it already here's where and roughly when i'm going!
in Bankok from 02/11/04 til I fly out of Singapore on 14/12
then in Melbourne from 15/12 til 24/01/05
Newzealand south Island for 3weeks, Then back to Oz for 3Months before jumping back to Newzealand (North Island this time)for 10days the on to Fiji for 10days before finishing up in L.A, Hollywood and Las Vagas. I Should be home Middle of June!! see u all then, Unless any of you fancy a holiday - just let me know where your Meeting me and when!
01/11/04 Whole day of Flying! yippee!!
02/11/04 (1st day in Bankok)
Well firstly thanks everyone for your guestbook entries and e-mails, its great to hear from you all!
Flight went very well and I cant promote Singapore airlines enough! The food, Service, and time keeping all excellent - not to mention the computer games,Films and tv to watch (which was probably a bad thing as it meant i slept for only about 1/2 hour!!)
When I landed in Singapore I had a mad sprint across what seemed like 2km of airpport to catch the next flight as it was the last call by the time we had got off the damn plane!
Next flight was also really good except for the fact i got to watch all but the last 3 minutes of The Bourne Supremicy,(any one - what did he say to the girl at the end in appartment and how did the bugger finish!! someone gotta know!)
I decided to treat myself so hired a limo taxi to take me to the khao san road - it was a really nice Merc with the all important aircon and it cost me a whopping 7.50 pounds!!!and took about 30 mins.
I booked myself into a B&B the Sawsedee if anyone knows it! it's basic but nice.
My first adventure I happened upon by accident a local started chatting to me (they're all so freindly here!) next thing I know he's called me a tuk tuk (like a moped but three wheels and a bench seat on the back - has been seen in Indianna jones and bond movies!) and has ordered the driver to take me on a tour of the budda temples which were only open to the public today! Simon you were right! these men in tuk tuk's are crazy but i thought you had to throw them a little extra Bhats to wheely!! don't know if the bloke fancied me or was just showing off! we were wheelying and skidding all over the place, bloody mad but reall good fun! My driver Mac wants to go for a drink 2morrow night but think I may skip just incase he wasn't just showwing off his driving skills! At the end of the tour i ended up in a travel agents where I have booked up to go to the tiger temple on 8th Nov, 3 day jungle trekking in Chaing Mai which includes elephant riding, rafting, and waterfall jumping. Next i'm travelingh back to bankok b4 heading to Kho Tao to do a 4Day padi dive course. After this i'm off to other islands - Ko pha Ngan (for the all important full moon party on 26/11) then Ko Samui and a couple of others then on to Krabi and some other islands!!
After keeping Mac waiting for about 1.5 hrs i finally got a lift back to my hotel and the whole load of driving and waiting cost me 50Bhat (70p!!!!!!). I went back to my room showered and went for some food. Next onto the Central bar where I got chatting to a group of English and Americans, stayed in the bar till closing - went upstairs where a band was playing, stayed here till it closed then on to a pool party till 5am!! thats alot of hours now with no sleep so I headed home
03/11/04 (day 2 in Bankok)
All is going well and after finally going to bed at 5am yesterday and waking up at 3.30pm this afternoon i'm feeling much better! Well if i thought the tuk tuk ride was mad what was i doing agreeing to a Moped taxi!! has to be done once i suppose, well these crazy little people cost half as much, go twice as fast and think their bike is 10cm wide including my fat ass!! was good fun though I think if I were a cat i'd be half dead I must have lost about 5 of my 9 lives!!
I've now caught up with my self now and have to go get ready for pat pong (can't spell) tonight with the group i met last night! this should be interesting for those that don't know pat pong is well known for its unusual show's!!!!! Well goodbye!!
And I'm back its now 2am and i'm back to the koh san road, decided i'm going to bed a bit earlier tonight and see if i'm up b4 3.30pm!
Well what can I say about the show?? not alot on a web page to be viewed by all people so all i'll say is, what a wonderful game pingpong is, never accept a bannanna from a thai lady & theres more than one way to blow the candles out on a cake! the rest is far to rude so i'll have to tell in private!
After the show we wondered round the market at phat pong everything is sooo cheap, all rip off's but who cares!!after the market I decided to be really brave and try some real Thai specials, One deep fried Locust & a 1 inch grub later my mission was complete!! (I'm a celebrity get me out of here special!) - dont know what Jordan and kerry were making such a fuss about, they taste a bit like Pork scratching,ok the Grub was a little jucier than your average pork scratching but the taste wasn't too far off.
Just spent the last hour in Central bar again so a little tipsy! they cant serve beer after 1am so its whisky-coke&redbull in a bucket for me - yee ha!
Well its definatly bed time so look out for the next instalment.
4/11/04 (day 3 in Bankok)
Had a really lazy day today, finally got up about 12 and had a wonder about, still burping pork scratching (and i'm sure i was picking locust feet out of my teeth at lunch!) Went to travel connection today its a bar/meeting point/hostel - got chatting to some blokess from america - they're heading off tonight to Cambodia (about 10 hours on a night bus they've been told) should be nice - I've got my long journey (12Hrs)up to Chang Mai on Tuesday after my visit to the tiger temple on monday. After the American Blokes left (5PM) i decided to head back to bed for a couple of Hours.
Finally got back out and into Central bar by 9, had some dinner - pretty much stayed in there and Shamrock till 2.30 (Shamrock is really good for live local bands and I must say even though most of them look about 80 years old and nearly dead those buggers can sing!
5/11/04 - Day 4 (even lazier day today)
Got woken up this morning by some Bugger playing crap music at 9AM in the morning and once your awake and not drunk its hard to sleep with a pillow made of rock. Today I moved to another Hotel (the City Residence) its quite posh and has a pool on the roof so spent most of the day baking round the pool and watching Crap tv. Its a better Hotel with huge comphy bed but coz its right in the center of the city its a bit noisy and not as much to see within walking distance.
SO I've just got a taxi to drop me off at koah San so a few drinks for me then quite early to bed - up early tommorow to visit the huge market at Chatatuk (can't spell that bugger) then off to the great royal palace in the afternoon.
Well i'm off Bye!
Early to bed - yeah right! - finally got in at 3.30am after a night up Gullivers Travel inn then a couple of hours playing find the yank! helping a group of Canadians look for their lost mate - she still hadn't been found by the time I left so I left my e-mail and hopefully I'll hear soon that she has been found safe and well!
6/11/04 (day 5 in Bankok)
Got up quite early this morning - 9.30am to try the hotels breakfast, then off to the market. I know I said huge market yesterday but I had no idea just how huge or confusing it was going to be, this thing was the size of NEWMARKET selling absolutley everything from Electric Eels 4foot long (alive), to parrots that looked like they hatched some time this morning to Buddas standing 10ft tall (Simon you wern't exagerating) though I didn't spy any green chicken's anywhere as you did, I did manage to see a bright luminus blue lobster. After getting hopesly lost within this vast place I finally popped out in the middle of a Cock fight (Cockrells to those filthy minded people), wasn't nice! though they didn't leave them to fight to the death it was going to take a lot of TCP to get the looser feeling better again - and the winner didn't get off scott free either. I finally found what I reconised as where I had entered the maze just 4 hrs after stepping in (I wasn't amused - specially as all I bought was a 100B pair of flipflops!!!!! My Next stop for today was the Great Royal Palace - I arrived about 2.30pm to find it closed at 3.30 so it was to be some what of a rushed visit. To say the truth it look as though there had been a huge explosion in a Golden mirror-ball factory and with no disrespect to the culture here but an hour of this was plenty (10 minutes of which I spent looking for my damn trainers after having to take them off to go and sit in one of the Prayer Temples within the palace - I didn't loose them, someone must have moved them!) By now I was starving - having not eaten since Breakfast, so it was a late lunch/early dinner before heading back to hotel to get ready for a drink tonight. Had to pack tonight also as i'm being picked up at 6.45am tommorow for my trip to the tiger temple. Went for a drink in Gullivers again tonight to see if the missing american had been found but no joy I didn't get to see them - they have my e-mail address so hopefully i'll hear something soon. Got chatting to a man from Newzealand (Jeff) an ozzy but cant remember his name and an english student called vicky (shes 19 and a lone traveller) damn I got a lot of grief about safety before I left so I can't imagine what she got!!! Jeff is at the moment on a two week business trip to the North island of Newzealand (at least thats what his wife and two kids back at home think - the dirty dog) We pretty much stayed in Gullivers till closing then decided food was needed so I settled for some roadside noodles. the Ozzy, Vicky and Jeff were all staying at the same place Koah San Palace - so after the food they went in - all except jeff taht was whoes leaving statment to me was Oh well guess I'd better go make my own entertainmant!!! - so i said my goodbyes and started the mission of the Tuk Tuk ride home to my hotel. Bloody tuk tuks - they know where your staying right up to the part where they start moving and have agreed a price - 40 minutes later and we're down a backstreet with the damn fool trying to read my map in the headlight of the tuk tuk - eventually i convince him to ask a taxi driver - this done I was then in bed within 10 minutes!!!
07/11/04 (day 6 - to kanchaburi)
I'm rudely awoken by my alarm at 6.15 - pack the last of my bits and head to reception for my 6.45 pickup! at 7.20 i got the receptionist to call the travel agents as no pickup!!! - not a good start to my trip, I eventuially got picked up at 7.30 - the cause for the delay were Rich and Nick (two english lads touring Thailand for a month) We then started the 3hr drive to Kanchaburi - unexpectidly on the way we stopped at the War memorial for all those who lost their life building the river Quai railway. This was a lot more moving than I would ever have thought - thousands of British, American and Australian soldiers all in rows - each with a very small grave stone and short message from loved ones - the youngest i read was 17 - the oldest one i found only 32!!! - Next stop was the Quai Bridge and musiem - musiem interesting but a bit small - the best bit was looking out over to the bridge and seeing a Thai man fall in, he flapped for a while before a boat went out and picked him up. I first thought he had jumped in on purpose but after walking along it my self can see just how easy it was to fall in. we had lunch on a floating cafe -then on to some caves, a ride on a historical railway and a visit to hellfire pass - (another quai railway historical marker). Back to the floating cafe for dinner before being speed-boated up river to our floating hotel - had a wicked night drinking and singing on the floating hotel.(big downer though tonight- discovered i've left my bloody shower gel at my old hotel!!!!!)made friends with two couples - should be meeting up again in Oz hopefully, Cam & Gemma , and Ash & Helen)
08/11/04 (day 7 in Kanchaburi)
Woke up 8.30am - still very dizzy from lastnights drink or two, or was it more?? after breakfast we rafted ourselves back down river, with swimming on the way. We finished at a proper indianna Jones style rope bridge but discovered much more fun to jump off than cross the whole way!! damn good fun about 10 meters above the water!. Next we visited the waterfall then on to the Elephant camp for an hours Ride. Lunch was back at the floating cafe again before the 3.5hr ride back to Bankok. When back i decided i'd eaten enough bland rice and veg so cheated and had a KFC!!!! wow what a treat, though I was punnished by the step on the way out, I kicked the BAS***D and cracked the nail on my big toe (No 1 injury of my travels!) - hurt like buggery to begin with and a lot of blood, but wasn't too long till it was ok, though the travel agent nearlly puked when i showed him He he!!.
I Caught the train to Chang Mai with Ash & Helen at 7.40 - for the 13Hr ride north. Really nice trip as the seats all turn to beds and I slept really well.
9/11/04 (day 8 Chang Mai)
was greeted at the station and taken to my hotel - lovely room with a Huge bed, satelite T.V and a BATH!!! and I thought I was suppost to be roughing it!!at 7pm had a meeting to let us know about the next 3 days trekking. Sounds good, with not too much walkin (or so i thought) we were told we'll be doing about an hour on day 1, 1.5 hrs on day 2 and only about 30mins day 3. Met Helen and Ash for a meal then went to the night Bazaar (market) and bought myself two T-shirts for trekking as the white one's i used on the last trek are now yellow!!got home at about 12 to pack.
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