Day 88 Laos in sight

31/05/13
Today was almost identical as yesterday morning, me ate at the same restaurant then went to the same coffee shop as yesterday (although just normal coffee today). Just after 11.30 we left for the bus station where I said my goodbyes to Rob and George and departed to Chiang Khong, a boarder town, separated from Laos by the mighty Mekong River. I arrive mid-afternoon whilst it was still very hot so I was delightfully sweaty by the time I had arrived at the guesthouse I wanted to stay at (tuktuks are far too expensive). There really isn't much to do here, the highlight of my day wasn't my mediocre dinner, or finishing the harrowing account of Bangkok's prisons by Warren Fellows but a skype call with the family who are enjoying themselves in the Lake District.

The Mekong River with Laos on the left hand side

Day 87 Coffee

30/05/13

All 4 of us got Thai food for breakfast then we said goodbye to Ollie at the bus station because he was going to Laos. Rob, George and I departed to a coffee shop where I had a black Americano and the others had English Breakfast Tea, once these beverages had been consumed Rob and I went halves on a cup of Civet coffee (£11 a cup), a bag of civet coffee costs 50p per gram!! It was unbelievably smooth, with no bitter aftertaste. A book shop was recommended in the Lonely Planet guidebook but it was very hard to find. A ladyboy came up to us and tried to help, whilst she was talking Rob and George ran away, they were actually afraid of her. We did end up finding the shop, no thanks to the ladyboy though, it was totally worth the search, there were rooms full of books, floor to ceiling shelves covered in books, I could've stayed there for so much longer, as it was I bought 2 books, not that I needed them or have space for them. We decided to get a massage, the first place we went to was 300 baht ($10) which is quite expensive and it wasn't until we went upstairs that we realised why, it was definitely a brothel, we made some poor excuse about wanting food and practically ran out the door. The second place was just down the road, it too was almost certainly a brothel but we made sure we were all in the same room together and we weren't offered a happy ending either. I had a young, Thai girl as my masseuse, who weighed no more than 7 stone but that didn't stop her causing me so much pain, especially when she walked up and down my back, even worse was I was paying for my suffering! In the evening we went back to the night market for food and drinks, it was a nice 'Last Supper' with the lads.

Day 86 The story of the jade Buddha and the white temple

29/05/13
We all got up at 05.00 after not nearly enough sleep, within half an hour we were on the minibus, five minutes later Rob was asleep again. Both Ollie and George managed to dozed off but sleep evaded me. We stopped twice, once for early breakfast (06.30) and the second time for elevenses (10.00). Around 11 we arrived in Chiang Rai, the most northern city in Thailand. We caught a tuktuk to our guesthouse, dropped our bags and went for breakfast (for Rob it was anyway). In the afternoon we went to Wat Phra Kaew, where the Emerald Buddha was found hidden 500 years ago (it now resides in Bangkok), in its place now sits a jade Buddha. After this we went to another temple, Wat Rong Khun, the White Temple. Construction of this ancient monument started in 1997. The whole structure (at least what has been completed) has been whitewashed and much of the detailed design has been inlaid with mirrors, making the whole structure shimmer. It was one of my favourite temples I have visited.

The white temple

Day 85 Taking the plunge

28/05/13
I woke before the others and after a shower I went for breakfast. When I got back we returned the bikes from yesterday and whilst the others breakfasted I read in the hammock on our porch. The remainder of the day we spent in and around the local swimming pool (we got free entry with the guesthouse). It was such a refreshing dip, especially after lounging in the sun sweating. Although when I went for lunch it did start pouring it down so I was left to read my book in the restaurant for an hour until it eased up, not that I minded. in the evening we tried to find a restaurant that apparently had a hog roast, but we didn't even smell it, let alone find it. We then headed to a pool party but everyone was sitting down, the pool was an over-sized bathtub and we honestly couldn't even find the bar. We finally got food just before midnight, Rob headed to bed and George, Ollie and I went to another bar but only stayed for a drink as it was pretty dead, plus we were all really looking forward to getting up at 05.00 tomorrow morning!

Day 84 Motorcross

27/05/13
After a leisurely breakfast we hired bikes and were away by about 11.30. For Ollie it was only his second time on a bike. 7km down the road we paid our entrance fees for the hot springs further up the hill and boy were they hot. When the water surfaces it is 80-100 degrees, the hottest pool claimed to be 37 degrees, we didn't have a thermometer but it felt like 50! We started at '32 degrees' which was hotter than I would have a bath and after we had turned pink we braved the '37 degree' pool. It honestly felt like I was cooking and it took a whole 5 minutes before I submerged myself and it wasn't long before I got out again and headed to the cooling 35 degree water. We went back to Pai for lunch then headed 7km in another direction to a waterfall, it was nothing spectacular but it did drop 20m and had quite a deep plunge pool. I alone swam in the pool and I will admit that it was hardly the same temperature as the hot springs in the morning, it was much closer to the temperature of English river water. On the way to the waterfall we saw a sign for a view point, further along the road so as it was mid-afternoon we decided to make our way to it. The road that led away from the waterfall was switchback after switchback and it wasn't long before this road gave way to a dirt track. It was along these dirt tracks, on our town bikes, that I had the most enjoyable riding experience of my life. I loved the fact that you needed to be totally concentrated, in the zone the whole time and the feel of the when you feathered the accelerator and the back wheel slide about struggling to get grip on the loose surface, or standing up on the pegs, bouncing the bike over a particularly rough section and that's not to mention the momentary 'air' you get as the bike shoots out of a channel, eroded by rain water. After about an hour of this riding we reached a turn off to the view point, opposite it were a couple of bikes, it didn't take long to realise why they were there. This track made the previous one look like a granite work surface. We had crossed a couple of wooden planked bridges on our way here but not any where there were gaps in, gaps big enough to lose a front wheel down, fortunately none of us did. The track was so steep and bumpy that most the time our bikes were stuck in 1st gear and even then we crawled up half the hills, I nearly had to get off the bike at one point because it was struggling so much. Another time my front wheel got caught in a rain water channel and as I didn't want to stop I dropped it down into 1st and the combination of the extra revs and getting out of the ditch led to me popping a wheelie. The surprise of having my front wheel a metre off the ground and being tipped back made me pulled on the accelerator even more meaning I held the wheelie for 4/5 seconds before I came to my senses and eased off the throttle. I was really glad that I chose to do this stunt on a flat, stone free, tarmac road without a 300m drop down one side... The rest of the ride to the top was just as fun riding, pushing both our concentration and the bikes to the max (at the top the engines were easily hot enough to cook on). Rob and I reached the top together and George and Ollie followed 5 minutes later, the view was incredible and totally worth the effort. We didn't want to stay too long on the top and get caught out by the sun and end up descending in the dark so we headed off once again, I was leading. It was 10 times worse on the descent, mainly because the bikes had such little grip, especially on any gravely spots (which were rather frequent). One particular episode was just at the bottom of the turn off I was full breaking and felt the bike slipping out from beneath me so I aided it to the ground. Rob rather arrogantly thought his riding skills far superior to mine and tried doing the same but ended up dropping his bike less gracefully. Even walking the bike down was a big effort as the back end kept sliding all over the shop. Ollie managed the best on his automatic as he could fully break and balance his bike with his feet. There were many more slopes where they were rather treacherous, many which I went down in controlled and not so controlled slides, it was a relief to get back onto the 'flat' dirt track. Was it dangerous? Yes. Could one of us seriously injured ourselves? Yes. Did one of us ride the whole way back with a flat rear tire? Yes (Ollie). Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Yes. Would I do it again? You bet!

George, Ollie, Rob on the 'flat' dirt road

The view from the top!

Day 83 Rastafarian

27/05/13
Pai is the biggest hippie hang out I have ever had the pleasure of visiting. 95% of the restaurants play reggae music, are a tribute to Bob Marley and have a colour theme of yellow, red and green. There also seems to be an infinite number of shops that sell baggy trousers, all sorts of hemp clothing and others with t-shirts with Bob/marijuana/peace on them. All in all it is a very laid back place, but getting there wasn't so much so. The road between Chiang Mai and Pai is 130km long and it has 762 corners, also known as far too many (nearly 6 a km), it wasn't my most enjoyable journey and I think we were all quite relieved when we finally stopped and got out.

Day 82 Burma

26/05/13
An early start as it was time for another visa run, this time it was to the border with Burma (Myanmar). The crossing was actually the most northerly part of Thailand, not surprisingly it took us 4 hours to get there. The Thai drive on the left and the Burmese on the right so in no mans land all the vehicles had to change lane, something that I found very amusing and reminded me strongly of the switch over on a scalextric track. When back in Chiang Mai I met up with Rob, George and another of their friends, Ollie and got some street food curry. Afterwards we hit the Saturday walking market. We spent nearly 3 hours there (Rob a bit more) and I am sure there were plenty of people who took longer, just to walk the length (with nobody getting in your way) it would take half an hour. Afterwards we went to an English pub where we were met by Simon and I have to say that Guinness has never tasted so good, it made me realise how rubbish larger is. We pick Rob up from the hostel and went to a lively bar where we bumped into a girl who we met in Vietnam and the LAds also met in Cambodia. She was rather annoying on every occasion and I think every wishes she didn't keep popping up!

Day 81 Mahout

24/05/13
I was collected at 08.30 and as I climbed into the back of a pickup I joined 7 other English people all of whom were currently travelling together but that didn't stop me being welcomed into their friendship circle. We stopped at a butterfly and orchid farm, it was a total waste of time as there was less than 20 butterflies (I know because I purposely searched the whole enclosure and only counted 12) and most the orchids looked dead. When we arrived we were told a bit about elephants then got changed into some rags that vaguely resembled clothes. We proceeded to spend over an hour feeding the 3 elephants that they currently had there, they eat 200kg+ of food a day so eating takes up a large proportion of the day. Just before lunch we all had a brief bareback ride on one of the elephants, it was slightly unnerving being so high up on an animal you could barely control (even though we had been taught the commands). After lunch we paired up, I went with a big lad called Alex and we were given the only male, a huge beast that had a mind of its own. During the whole ride we were miles behind the others, mainly because our elephant couldn't manage to go 10m without stopping to eat (typical male). We journeyed to a river where we slid off the elephants and were handed buckets so we could wash the elephants, it only took a couple of minutes for me to 'accidentally' miss the elephant and hit Alex with a bucket of water, naturally a water fight across the elephant's back ensued. It somehow managed to involve all 8 Englishmen (and women) and a number of the mahouts, even one or two of the elephants wanted to get involved. After a little while longer scrubbing we swapped positions on the elephant and rode back to camp. There was just time enough to feed more bananas to the elephants and have a shower before heading back to Chiang Mai. It was an awesome day with such a powerful, majestic animal!

Day 80 Chef Edwards

23/05/13
We were picked up an hour late than expected so we had a lot of waiting around to do, an hour of waiting in fact! We were the only people enrolled on the cooking class so we had the undivided attention of a professional chef. He was once a TV chef but he now travels the world teaching people to cook Thai food, so basically we learnt from the best. We cooked 6 meals then ate them all (not sure we will have any dinner), and boy were they good, compliments to the chef.. We did get a recipe book so Tunbridge Wells better watch out!

Working hard in the kitchen!

My attempts at decorating my fish cakes dish...

Day 79 Flying Gibbon

After signing the disclaimer, on yet another stifling hot day, Rob and I got into our full body harnesses and went to the start of the Gibbon experience, along with 5 others in our group and our 2 Tree Rangers (guides to normal people). These 2 guides turned out to be a comical pair who made the day a right laugh. After 3 hours of comedy and 30 odd ziplines we made the final abseil down to the ground. There was a number of double ziplines, 2 lines running parallel to each other  they connect you to them so you travel down together and the guides and everyone else wet themselves when I gave Rob a peck on the cheek (it was called the Honeymoon Zipline), I'm not sure whether Rob laughed or enjoyed it! George did nothing all day, unless you count watching films in the hotel room, a waste of the day and a massive mistake in missing out on a top class day. In the evening we tried getting a massage from some female Thai prisoners (some are trained masseuses) but unfortunately it was shut (probably lockdown at the prison).

Rob with one of our Guides

Day 78 New Journal

21/05/13
Alongside this blog I have been writing a journal/diary/whateveryouwanttocallit and yesterday I filled up the last page so today I started a new one, with crisp clean pages. The day itself started with our arrival in Chiang Mai at 06.30 but only after a sleepless night for me and a worrying couple of minutes when we waited at the traffic lights for 2 sets. Just as I realised that our driver had actually fallen asleep at the wheel he woke up. Thankfully he pulled over almost straight away and I think he got a sugar and caffeine boost. When we arrived the hostel we wanted to stay at was full, so after breakfast we just walked across the road and got ourselves a triple room. The rest of the morning was spent deciding and booking what we are going to do whilst staying here. Just after midday Rob and George went to Tiger Kingdom, where you can cuddle tigers. I felt that it was really cruel as the tigers are clearly heavily drugged so I went for a long wander round the city, longer than I first anticipated as I hadn't looked at the scale on the map. We regrouped at the hostel and after freshening up we went to a street food market. I had 4 courses and a drink for $2 and all the food I had was top draw too. Afterwards we went to a shopping night market which was huge, we only covered half of it. We also went to a bar for a drink and on the way back to our hostel we noticed groups of girls outside nearly every bar, all of them smiling and greeting us as we went past and unless I am very much mistaken they were all prostitutes, which in most cases there were more prostitutes than customers at bars. It wasn't even the red light district, in all honesty I don't know if there is one so this could be their equivelent!

Day 77 Off to The North

20/05/13
Again I breakfasted alone but met the lads around check out time (noon) at their hotel where we left our bags in storage. We went for brunch as Rob and George were hungry and on our return we booked a train to Chiang Mai. At least we tried to. We would've booked one if they hadn't moved the time of departure 2 hours forward, making it impossible to get there before departure. It left us with only one option, to get the bus, because I for one wasn't going to hang around until tomorrow to get a train. It did however mean that we had ages to wait before we needed to leave at 18.30. Rob was happy to fill his afternoon on my laptop but George and I wanted to actually do something. The only suggestion on the table was mine of going to the National Museum. The museum is supposedly the largest in SE Asia so when we got there and it was shut we were slightly disappointed. But fear not because just across the road there was a massive fate on a sports field. It turned out to be a very dull Buddhist celebration, although we did get free entry to a 4D film. We had to wait almost an hour for it so we grabbed a drink in a nearby cafe. On our return we were both thoroughly disappointed as the film was about the life of Buddha and was in Thai, the only good thing was that it wasted 20 minutes. We spent the rest of the afternoon chatting and eating. We caught a taxi, which took 50 minutes, to the bus depot,  giving us 40 minutes to wait. The depot itself was like an airport, certainly I have seen smaller airports, there was a whopping 140+ coach bays spread across 2 massive building. We needn't have got there so early, it turned out we could've been nearly an hour late and still caught the correct bus. There were a few false starts resulting in us almost getting on the wrong bus, including one which was going to Si Chiangmai (400km in the wrong direction) luckily the 'helpful' assistant realised her mistake before it was too late.

Vast waste of space unless you're Buddist.

Day 76 Reunited

19/05/13
This morning started when I went for breakfast and on my return I found George, Rob and Kimberley (a friend of theirs) having breakfast at my hotel. We spent an hour chatting and catching up then caught a taxi to a market. It was easily the largest market I have ever been to, it stretched for miles, just to walk the length of it would've taken quarter of an hour, after just 10 minutes George and I had already lost Rob and Kimberley and only met with them again 5 hours later. The market was a total warren which made it impossible to navigate around, a couple of times we found ourselves in the same alleys as before. If you did happen to know your way around it would've been possible to buy everything you ever dreamed of and more, literally all things were there; from Beatles memorabilia, to puppies, silk underwear, wicker picnic baskets, baseball caps made of drinks cans, drain pipes and there was even a couple of florists that sold only plastic flowers... George and I caught the Metro home, although the station we were told to get off at was an hours walk from where we were staying meaning we had to get a tuk tuk anyway. After dinner with Rob and George we met back up with Kimberley and went for a few drinks, George went back early because he has been feeling pretty rough for the last couple of days.

Some of the wares available..

Rather easy to get lost

Day 75 Farewell

19/05/13
Today I said goodbye to Koh Tao and everyone in the dorm. But this wasn't till after I had spent a couple of hours on the beach and had a farewell lunch with Lorraine and Melanie. At 14.00 I left for Bangkok, it proved to be an extremely boring journey, punctuated by two stops. One for the ferry/coach transfer and one for food.11 hours later we arrived in Bangkok, as I had already been here I knew where I was going. I found where George and Rob were staying but I was informed that they were asleep. As I was very tired and didn't want to wake them I left them a note and found alternative accommodation (as they were full up) and fell asleep at 02.00, after a long day travelling.

Day 74 Shark Point

17/05/13
Yan, Melanie  lorraine and I decided to hire motorbikes and explore the island. Neither of the girls had ridden a motorbike before so rode pillion. The system of hiring a bike here is mad, there is a list of all the bike parts and the cost of replacing them if they get damaged. Nowhere else I have hired a bike has been this anal about renting. We first went to Hin Wang Bay, the roads there were treacherous  they were unbelievably steep, a couple of them were 45+ degrees and I needed to hit them with speed otherwise we would've stop halfway, as it was we crawled up some of them, probably doing the bike no good. When we got there we were the only ones there, it started to rain whilst we were there but as it was warm rain and we were swimming we hardly noticed. We had lunch back at Sairee Beach and left Melanie (who had a sore back) and headed to the Southeast corner and Shark Point. I didn't have a mask but Yan who did didn't see any. At the point we met 2 other English guys who were also staying at the hostel, just in a different dorm. Yan, I and these 2 lads all swam out to Shark Island, seemingly just a short distance away but it still took us half an hour. When there I think all of us cut our feet on the Barnacles etc whilst getting onto the rocks. Naturally we went to explore and found 2 huts perched on the cliffside. To get to them you had to do some sketchy climbing and cross massive crevices on wobbly bamboo bridges then climb equally dodgy bamboo ladders to reach them. The risks taken were totally worth it as the huts were incredible, so well built, I have a lot of respect for whoever built them. I not sure you could find a more secluded spot on/around Koh Tao. By the time we had swum back to the main island I was thoroughly worn out and glad to be on solid ground. We rode to the opposite corner of the island to a viewpoint. On the way back Loraine asked if she could ride the bike, so when I round a suitable flat bit of road (no easy task), I got off and handed her the keys and gave her a few instructions. 5 minutes past and I knew something was up so I went in the direction she had left. When turning the bike round she had over revved and driven the bike into a sign which she had to pay 500 baht (£11) to repair but thankfully she and the bike were fine. Back at the bike shop the owner noticed to small scratches (no longer than an inch). The price to replace the "damaged" parts was 4500 baht (£100). They obviously didn't need replacing, you could only see these scratches if you were physically looking for them. Loraine had to pay 3000 baht ($100) in the end and unsurprisingly she was extremely annoyed and angry at such a blatant ripoff. For dinner we went back to the pizza place and were joined by £ newbies to the dorm, Samantha, Dan and Katie all from England. Yan, Dan, Katie and I stayed at the restaurant 2 hours eating pizza then went to join the others on a pub crawl. As part of the crawl we went to a ladyboy show (men wearing dresses, with fake boobs, wigs and lots of makeup). I hope that it is an experience that I never have to repeat again!

(L to R) Yan, Melanie, Lorraine 

Shark Island from Koh Tao

Day 73 Part of the ship, part of the crew!

16/05/13
I left at 06.20 to get to the dive shop at half past, when I arrived I was assigned my equipment and I met with my instructor Ty and Jasmine, a lady who was just starting her Divemaster course who was also diving with us. We waded out to a longtail and loaded the kit then transferred it all to the dive boat. We were the first boat to arrive at the dive site and our early start was rewarded with perfect visibility and 30 degree water, I have honestly had colder baths. The second site was much busier but even so the sealife wasn't scared off and we saw 3 blue spotted sting rays, I also saw a strange, unidentifiable creature, I guess it must have been rare as it wasn't in the fish guide. After rinsing and storing the kit I met up with Lorraine and Melanie and went to the beach. Early evening I went back to the dive centre to watch a video of the days diving that had been filmed by a photography student. It was a very good movie, almost of a professional quality. It was cool to hang out with the dive guys and I was given free beer and was easily accepted into the  folds of the dive society. I think it is a life I could get used to, living in a hot country, getting paid to dive, certainly beats a desk job!

Transferring kit

Day 72 Pig Out

15/05/13
I went and had a coffee first thing then I picked up some pastries from 7/11. I made a beeline towards a dive centre called Scuba Junction as I had read good reviews and it had small groups, laidback staff and the free use of a dive computer too. I booked a couple of fun dives for tomorrow morning but I went back there twice more during the day to ask about other courses, I hope they didn't get fed up of me. When I wasn't at the dive centre I spent most the rest of the day on the beach with Melanie and Loraine (Swedish and Scottish girls). At one point we went and got ice creams and I realised that it was the first one that I had had since travelling, I think I just hadn't bothered to waste money on such a luxury item when it could have bought me a coffee or 2 cans of sprite with the money. In the evening we went out for a meal to a restaurant that was doing all you can eat pizza for 200 Baht (roughly $6.5/£4) I ate $20+ worth of pizza (2 and a half 12" pizzas). The girls left to start a pub crawl before I was full but I caught up with them at a bar (even though I wasn't drinking because of diving). The staff at the restaurant found the amount of pizza I ate amusing, the lady serving the pizza kept giving me 2 slices whilst everyone else was only graced with one, I am sure they were very thankful when I finally threw in the towel(/napkin) and left. I am not sure I will be welcome back there!

Day 71 Sauna

14/05/13
I searched fruitlessly for a coffee shop this morning (at least for one that was open), I found it atrocious that there wasn't a single coffee shop open at 08.15, by 09.00 still none of them had opened their shutters, not on!  A minibus took me to Krabi, where I picked up a double decker coach took me to Surat Thani. The trip there was a couple of hours long and the last hour was torture. The AC broke/was turned off and regardless of countless people speaking/shouting at the driver it wasn't turned back on, leaving us to slowly cook. It was 40 degrees inside the bus and many people took off their tops because they were so hot, I just sat their and my face was literally streaming. It was the first time that I have ever got out of a vehicle and cooled down in 35 degrees. There were a number of very irate customers, especially one large frenchman, he was at least twice the size of the frightened Thai he was shouting at. I have just written a review on tripadvisor to make my revenge. We then had a ferry ride that stopped off at Koh Samui and Koh Phangan before dropping us off on Koh Tao, the diving capital of the world. There was a mad rush to get a taxi to Sairee Beach the main tourist area along a beach. I shared the rie with 2 Swedish lads and an Aussie who had come to do his Dive Master training. We scouted out a couple of places to stay but all of them were full or shut, the Swedes had had enough so split. Not long after Alex and were found by a hostel owner and taken to a dorm room where we met a couple of other people from the boat. It is the cleanest place I have stayed so far (probably because it has recently been built). 5 of us went out for a meal and a drink on the beach. I have to say that I already love this place and if I didn't have any other plans I would crack on with my Divemaster training!

Day 70 Free again

13/05/13
Free! At least for another 2 weeks. I had set my alarm early and went straight to the bus station. The bus to Satun took 3.5 hours so it was coming up to midday when I arrived, wasting no time I found a motorbike taxi and explained I wanted to go to the border to get my visa stamped, he seemed to understand. He obviously hadn't as he took me to the port where I could wait 3 hours and get a boat across to a Malaysian island get my passport stamped then get a boat back. I asked him where the nearest border crossing was, the one I wanted in the first place. It was 30km away, he charger 10 Baht (23p) per km and I have to say it wasn't worth even half that. It was my worst motorbike experience so far, it even beat me coming off and riding in torrential rain, the reason was that he had never heard of personal space (or if he had then he certainly was gay..). I spent the whole journey sitting on/over the handrail because he was sitting so far back, if I hadn't been his arse would've been in my crotch. The only time when I have seen somebody sit as far back as me was when there was 5 people on a bike, my driver was just being antisocial/gay. The actual visa renewal was very straight forward, just a stamp out, stamp in and out of Malaysia and a stamp back into Thailand. The journey back to Satun was just as uncomfortable as the way and it was a relief to get off the bike. I asked around for a place to pick the bus up from back to Trang but nobody seemed to know/understand, I did find a guy who spoke some English and he pointed down the road at a bus disappearing in the distance, he proceeded to get his phone out and said the bus was coming back after his call ended, 5 minutes later a motorbike taxi turned up and I also found out the bus wasn't coming, in that one action the man totally destroyed the small thread that held Thai humanity in place. I thankfully made it onto the correct bus, with no thanks to any Thai person and I was grateful to get back after such a stressful day. I am very happy that I am leaving this part of the country tomorrow!

Day 69 Trang, terrible for tourists

12/05/13
The diving that I was meant to be doing today was canceled yesterday evening because the weather forecast was so bad for today and would've made diving very dangerous. The first thing I did this morning was change the time of my bus ticket off the island, it had been booked for tomorrow but I didn't want to hang around if I didn't have to, I changed it to 13.00. Afterwards I got a late breakfast and stayed in the cafe for a couple of hours because I didn't want to brave the torrential rain outside. Once it eased up I went back to my bungalow, finished packing and went and waited for the minibus. A 2.5 hour bus ride later I arrived in Trang, a nondescript town. There are 5 hotels here (I know because I went on a search for them), a small handful of restaurants, one of them western and a couple of coffee shops and no bars to be found. I have a room in a backpackers hostel but I am yet to see another white person. I then tried booking a bus to Satun (the nearest town to the border) so I could renew my visa but this exercise was a total waste of time. The 10 Thais at the bus depot spoke terrible English, my French was is better than their total English and that is saying quite something. I tried everything to explain what I wanted, actions and showing them a map failed and when I mentioned tomorrow it made things so much worse, I had to walk away because I was so worked up. Nothing a piece of cake in a cafe couldn't sort out. I just hope that when I turn up tomorrow I will have more success. I bought tomorrows breakfast and retired to my room very early and read as there was nothing else to do because the even the coffee shops were shut by 20.00, I can't wait to move off from this dull town.

Day 68 Double Dutch

11/05/13
After breakfast at a french cafe I went to explore on foot (I didn't find much as it is a massive island), I ended up at a beachfront bar watching the waves roll in for over a hour. At lunch I saw the biggest lizard I have ever set my eyes on, some would call it a dragon, I called him Norbert. (S)He was 4-5 feet long and was easily the thickness of my arm, as I tried to get my camera out (s)he flew/dashed away. After coming face to face with this beast I hired a motorbike and rode round the island, keeping my eye out for more spectacular wildlife. I briefly went to an Irish bar where they had Brains on tap so I bought a half, so nice to drink proper beer again! Like last night all the guests came together and had a meal with Hutyee (the owner) and his wife, during it I got chatting to a Dutch couple, Wanda and Casper, who were also on their gap year. After dinner I went to 2 bars with them, the first was a hippie hang out and it sold hash brownies and mushroom shakes, I stuck to the beer. The second place was also hippie themed but drew a large, diverse crowd, Casper and I were challenged to a game of pool and lost spectacularly then narrowly missed a win in the rematch. The bar was also showing the FA cup so I was mightily pleased that at 01.00 Wigan scored, it made the lack of sleep worth it.

Brains!

Day 67 Money Maker

I was at the climbing office by 09.00 and I have to admit that the 3 hours that followed were 3 hours of sweat strain and success. I climbed grades that I thought I wouldn't have been able to as it has been a long time since I last climbed, the hardest climb (Money Maker) was a grade 6b+ and it certainly pushed me to my limit. I got a couple of cut knuckles, a blister on one finger and 10 very sore toes (only women and climbers where shoes too small for them). After a shower and a swim it was time to leave Railay. The long-tail dropped me in Ao Nang where I was picked up by a minibus then dropped at a travel agency then picked up by a car, transferred to another minibus then drove round picking up more passengers. It was 19.30, 5 hours after setting off, when I finally arrived in Koh Lanta, the largest of the southern islands. My accomodation was a bungalow, just a stones throw away from the beach. A meal was provided where I got chatting to 4 lads from Guernsey with whom I spent the rest of the evening just hanging out with.

Day 66 Secret, Secluded, Special

09/05/13
I was up and out of the dorm before 08.30 and before anyone else had woken, my ferry to Krabi left at 09.00. Two hours later we were docking and what followed can only be described as a scrum, there were so many Thai men shouting "where do you want to go", "follow me!" and my least favourite, "hey, mate!". After fighting my way through I found a decent fare rate to Ao Nang, before deciding where to stay I went for much needed breakfast. I then decided to check what times boats left to go to Railay. Railay is part of the island but inaccessible by land due to a few rather large limestone cliffs, giving it the feeling of an island, this and its long beach and the fact that it is a world renowned climbing mecca draw a healthy crowd, most just daytrippers. As it turned out a boat was leaving in 5 minutes so I was rushed aboard a longtail (named because the propeller is on a 4m tong beam/tail), 15 minutes later I was deposited straight onto a sandy beach. I found a nice bungalow to stay in then proceeded round the various climbing shops, finally booking some for tomorrow morning. In all honesty I wish I had more time, so I could stay longer here, although I am sure that the lure of world class diving and climbing will entice me back here and the rest of the islands on the western coast, someday I will be back!

Day 65 Plankton

08/05/13
My morning consisted of breakfast and the beach, on my way back to the room I past a cafe that always plays 'Friends' and I spotted Dan, Simon and Katie so I went and joined them for an hour, whilst I waited for my afternoon tour to start. They as well as most the dorm left today so there were a lot of goodbyes this morning as people went to catch ferries. During my tour we spent about an hour on the beach where 'The Beach' was filmed, we also visited a 20m deep lagoon that was only accessible by boat at high tide, it was odd but impressive. We stopped for a while so we could all go snorkelling, it would have been impressive if I hadn't already been scuba diving in almost identical waters, after this we did a couple of cliff jumps, the highest I did was 12m. By this time it was late afternoon so we chatted whilst we watched the sun set, then we watched a lightning storm whilst waiting to snorkel again. This time it was plankton that we were looking at, if you moved your hand thousands of plankton lit up errily, I have to admit I was like  5 year old kid splashing about getting all excited, it truly was an amazing phenomenon. When I got back to the dorm I was greeted by a whole host of new faces, it was a very odd feeling even though I had known the others just 2 days.

'The Beach'

The jump

The sunset

Day 64 Slinky's

07/05/13
In the morning I climbed the largest hill on the island to reach the viewpoint, surprisingly there was a good view. I spent the rest if the morning on the beach, catching a few rays, on the beach I bumped into Amy and Mel, 2 girls from the dorm. At 13.00 I went to the dive shop to start my afternoon session. On both dives there was a pretty strong undercurrent resulting in a lot of kicking, but they were still two of the best dives I have done. The first one we saw a couple of Blue Spotted Stingrays along with the thousands of reef fish and on the second we saw 3 large turtles which was awesome. Again I went out for a meal with Dan and Katie but we were joined by a cool Swedish guy called Simon. Again we stayed in the dorm as a group and talked and had drinks then at midnight we went out as it was one of the lads birthday. We ended up at a club called Slinky's on the beach front which was great fun as everyone was dancing on the sand. There was also a 4m high pole with a platform on top that myself and a few others thought it would be brilliant to stand on, I have to say that it was probably the first time I have ever seen over a crowd!

The view

Day 63 I need a Phi Phi...

06/05/13
I was still very tired from the previous night when I got up at 06.30 but nether the less I was waiting diligently outside the tour shop at 07.00.At 07.20 a minibus pulled up to take me to the marina. We joined about 100 other people getting on the same ferry to take us to Koh Phi Phi, somehow I managed to land myself with a whole 4 chairs to myself so I laid down and tried to sleep, after failing I decided to watch Mr Bean as it was showing on a big tv. When we arrived it was every (wo)man for themself, I was especially put out as my bag was at the bottom of a pile of luggage which consisted of every other passenger's bags too. Koh Phi Phi itself is a pretty big island although there are no cars which is nice and the streets are all relatively narrow with the shops spilling out onto them. Once again I didn't find the place I wanted to stay but found another dorm room to stay in. I m sharing with 15 other people and they seem a pretty sound bunch. I booked yet more diving for tomorrow although I'm not sure my bank balance enjoys it as much as I do. I headed to one of the islands many beaches which was a nice way to chill and while away some time. After a couple of hours I noticed black clouds so I decided to call it a day, not a minute too soon as it did indeed start raining just after I had left, so I sheltered in a cafe for it to ease up. Once back at the hostel I got travelling to some of the other travellers. I went for a drink with two of them Dan and Katie, friends from St Albans. Dan is an actor and was an extra in the last couple of Harry Potter movies and currently works at the studio tour so it was really interesting talking to him. They are both currently doing their advanced open water diving training so we spent ages talking about diving too. Once they had left for their night dive I grab some food then returned to the room where I met some more of the room and we spent the next 5 hours chatting along with everyone else in the dorm, a really nice way to spend the evening.

Day 62 Caught Out

05/05/13
Our wake up call was at 06.00 because our first dive was at 06.30. It was a good dive, very similar to yesterdays. Breakfast followed, which had some semblance to a full english, although the only item that tasted how it should was the bacon, but beggars can't be choosers so I went for seconds. For the 2nd dive we were joined by a Canadian couple. They took an age and a half to get ready because they were faffing with their cameras, even once we were in the water we were always waiting for them because they took so many photos. Lunch was an odd affair, there was rice then 4 different curries, not really sure which one I wanted I went for the lot, not sure it is very socially acceptable. The last dive was the best of the day, mainly because we saw an octopus, close up and swimming away (it was probably scared of the camera flash). After a shower and a (free) drink it was back on the speed boat for the return journey, and what a journey it was. There was 13 of us, plus 3 crew on the boat, all just about fitting in, with a pile of luggage in the middle. For half the journey it was blazing sunshine then the captain shouted something so I looked up from my book and saw a wall of black cloud. Everyone's hand luggage was stowed away and people tried covering themselves, I resigned myself to the fact I was going to get wet so took my top off to save it getting soaked. The storm started so suddenly, it was literally like someone had flicked a switch! The storm had increased the pitch of the waves so we were forced to go slower, meaning more time in the rain. Within 5 minutes my shorts were soaked, I totally regretted changing out of my swim shorts earlier in the day. There was free transport to Phuket, provided by the dive centre, there was 2 going to different parts, I didn't really know where I wanted to go so I got on the same bus as an American guy I had befriended. I was dropped in the centre on the town and started my search, I asked about 10 different places about prices and even after bartering with the cheapest place I still ended up paying more than I had anywhere else on my travels. After I had laid out my damp clothes on my bed I began walking the streets, every single shop had a neon sign, I didn't quite know where to look. As usual I couldn't walk 5m without being offered a massage or another product/service but the touts here are some of the worst I have come across, one masseuse pinched my bum, when I turned around the perpetrator looked a lot like a ladyboy.. Later on I was sitting in a bar watching the Liverpool derby when a girl came up and asked if I wanted to join her and her friend for a drink, as I am always happy for company I agreed. They were a Lesbian couple from Australia and spent the first half hour ranting about gay rights etc. in Australia. We then went to another bar where we spent the rest of the night, by the time I left both the girls were behind the bar serving customers, the Thai owners didn't seem to care.

Day 61 No time like the present

04/05/13
The bus left late, unsurprisingly, and drove through the night, depositing me, after no sleep, just after 7, in the middle of nowhere. I walked up the stretch of road that had a few shops on, certainly there was nowhere to stay so I went down another road in the direction of the coast. After a couple of km a bloke on a motorbike, with a homemade sidecar slowed and gave me a ride 500m down the road, another couple of kilometres further on an empty minibus stopped and let me climb in, the driver took me the remainder of the way to the port, the only thing at the end of the road, 6km from where I was dropped. Thankfully there was a couple of dive centres which I had been hoping, but there wasn't anywhere to sleep... At the second place I asked for prices I also asked if I could join a liveaboard dive trip today, the answer was yes but it left in 10 minutes, true to his word, I had just finished paying and I was whisked off to the boat. So by 08.30 I was on a speed boat heading off for 2 days diving with 12 strangers. It took an hour and a half to reach the main boat, where our first dive of the day was. The first dive was odd because I used my air much slower than the others in my group, 2 Russians went up after half an hour then 10 minutes later the guide took a French lady and an American lad to the surface and spooned me off on another group who had come down later, I didn't complain as it gave me more time below, although I still didn't see anything special. The second and third dive were as good as the first, all three we had exceptional visibility and the water was very warm (29 degrees), we saw Giant Moray Eels and a number of Stingrays which was cool, plus thousands of interesting fish. The fourth dive of the day was a night dive, the first one I have done, it felt very special forces as we drove to the site in the dark then rolled off the side. One of the best things was the free food and drink, I haven't eaten so well in a long time, I think tomorrow I will try and stock up and maybe save myself a meal!

Day 60 Livin' on a prayer

03/05/13
Yes I am half way there and to celebrate this landmark day I thought I would spend it relaxing. So after a very slow laidback breakfast I hit the beach, where I remained until 3 when my hunger got the better of me. I ordered fried rice, hoping it would feel me but as it didn't I had to reorder (who knew sunbathing used so many calories?). I went back to the beach but not to lay down again, I walked along the shoreline, 4km there and 4km back. It was a very chilled walk, just splashing up the surf, watching the sun ebb away. A drink on a restaurant veranda and a quick shower and change then an evening spent in a cafe, waiting for a bus concluded my day.

The beach at its best!

Day 59 5/16

02/05/13
My curtains didn't cover the windows completely so I woke at 3 because the streetlight was shining through. At 8 I woke again and got up, I headed to a cafe that I had spotted yesterday, which opened at half 8. I arrived on the dot but it was shut, after hanging around for 10 minutes I gave it up as a bad job and went to my backup  which I hadn't realised oped at 09.00. So it was back to the first place, which did open shortly after I got there at 08.50. I spent an hour there then went and hired a motorbike and rode to Pala-U Waterfall. On the way I was stopped at a police checkpoint and told that my UK driving licence isn't suitable to ride a bike in Thailand, apparently the tax disc was also out of date and I was fined 200 Baht (£4 or food and drink for a day). I went back and picked up my UK motorbike licence hoping it would suffice if I was stopped again, but thankfully I wasn't stopped on either journey. The waterfall is broken down into 16 major steps, although tourists can only get to the first 5 with (relative) ease, so that is how far I went. On the way down I plunged into one of the pools to cool off then sat in the sun to dry. Back at Hua Hin I went to the beach for a couple of hours again. I also spent some time trying to organise a bus further south, for about 10 minutes I was trying to explain where I wanted to go, pointing at various maps but each time the attendant said the another town. It turned out the province had the same name as the other town and that was what he was saying and I was saying the town, but eventually we got it sorted, thankfully.
Here is the link to a montage of my time in Cambodia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNnPlC0q_Io&feature=youtu.be

Hua Hin night market

Day 58 The Lost Diadem

01/05/13
I arrived at the travel agency at 09.00, as I was instructed to because the bus left at 09.30 and we needed to get to the depot. I went into the shop and asked the woman if the minibus was here, she looked at me blankly and said my bus didn't exist.. after a quick phone call she told me to wait outside. At a quarter past some bloke turned up and escorted me 100m down the road and told me to wait for him to come back. At some time after 09.30 he came back, accompanying a German couple who were also going to Hua Hin. We walked down a couple of alleyways and came out onto the main road, where we waited for an hour for the minibus to come and pick us up (plus a few others). At the depot we had to wait further, meaning it wasn't until 11.12 that we actually left. It took us 3 hours to get to Hua Hin, where I yet again started the hunt for a bed. The one place I had scouted out from the guidebook was fully booked, I then went to 2 other guesthouses, both with spaces but charging too much for me. The 4th place I went was the gem, the pearl on the seafloor, the diadem in the room of requirement (you get the picture). It was hidden down a back alley, one that I had randomly decided to go down. I spoke to the Dutch owner called John, he told me the room prices, the cheapest being £10 and as I got my bag to go he casually mentioned the treehouse. Not strictly true as it wasn't in a tree but on the side of the house, but it was up a ladder through a trap door, where you found just enough room for a mattress and little else, I of course agreed straight away without hesitation. I spent the afternoon on the beach, even though there wasn't much sun.

Day 57 Bimbling in Bangkok

30/04/13
Today was the first day in some time that I wasn't woken by my alarm. After breakfast I started my wandering. I was following a walking tour from my guidebook, the best sight was the Grand Palace and Wat Phra, they were both rather impressive in both architecture and design. In one of the main temples if you were inappropriately dressed you were given bright green dressing gowns so everyone could point you out.  Having completed the circuit it was late afternoon so by the time I had had a shower and changed it was just about time for dinner. So I went to Khao San road for street food again then spent some time looking at stalls and hopped between a coffee shop, a bar and another coffee house. The last place was hidden down a side street and was something else, it was quite retro with good music and even better coffee, the only downside was I tried ordering a hot chocolate and was told I couldn't have it but I could have it cold if I wanted.. All in all I won't be sad to move on tomorrow.

Temple guardian

Palace guard

Can you spot her?

Khao San road sunset