THE Beach

Countries : 1
Cities : 4
Massages : 2
Time away : 14 days
Books read: 3

After visiting many beaches in my travels not just in Thailand but various others I have beeen lucky enough to see, I still can't choose between them and say whether one rules them all. Yet the setting of the motion picture The Beach, Maya Bay supposedly ranks as one of the best and as such I like many other vistors felt excited to feel its white powdery soft sand between my feet and gaze at the stunning scenery.

The first stop on the trip after boarding the longboat was to monkey bay, which as it suggests is a bay which indeed houses monkeys. We managed to see quite a few baby monkeys but they only came out when we got back on the boat. Next we went past Viking caves which looked quite daunting and I wished we could go inside, unfortunately it was just gliding past it in our boat. After we swam around a bit in a beautiful setting that I can't remember before being taken to another location to do some snorkeling. Here was one of the best spots I had snorkelled in with brightly coloured fish all around especially the now famous from nemo, clown fish. I managed to get a few pictures with my camera and I look forward to being able to post them up.

After it was off for a 6 hour stay at Maya Bay. Upon arrival it seemed a little crowded but soon enough you could understand why, the sand was deliciously soft cascading through the spaces between my feet and hands, though also getting stuck to my body far to easily and being a little scratchy. The easiest way to get rid of this was a quick dip in the cool sea water, refreshing and subduing any insect bites from the night before, lying back and just trying to soak the image into my mind.

The main gripe with Maya Bay is that with its beauty comes with it the incessant picture taking, now I dont mean of the landscape because you'd be a fool not to capture the beauty surrounding you here, but don't spoil the pictures with yourself  posing after model aspiring pose. In fact its not even having a picture taken with a cheesy smile that gets me, it was the fact some people felt as though this was their modelling shoot and they were Kate Moss and so for the duration of the time they were on Maya Bay they wasted with chest out, hand on hips, lip pouting posing.

In saying this it did seem as though this was an enviable paradise, with those who walked amoung its blistering hot sand having toned bodies to perfection. As if Ali G's immigration dream of only letting in the most beautiful people had come true and I had luckily managed to bypass the borders.

Still I'm not sure if I could say if it was the best beach I've ever visited let alone the best in the world but its definitely up there!

Phi Phi Island and beaches galore

Countries : 1
Cities : 4
Massages : 2
Time away : 13 days
Books read: 3

Phi phi,  what a lovely setting! Arriving by boat, watching the bluey turquoise water split and foam into Colgate white while the searing sun hits the sea happily blinding you and stinging the skin only to be refreshingly washed away with the gentle sea breeze. Contrast this with the cattle farm greeting you receive when you reach the island as thai after thai attempt to gain your interest in their lodging.

Its a complex issue really the westernization of such a beautiful place, it still holds its beauty but if it carries on then phi phi is in danger of losing the greatness nature bestowed upon it.

We found a nice and cheap bungalow to stay in. I say cheap but i mean it only in the context of phi phi as things here cost much more than you would expect in mainland Thailand and especially after coming from the sleepy town of Pai this was a bit of a shock.

This is where I had my second unknown roommate in two weeks, Hassan but luckily for me he was a nice enough guy.

The first night we decided or were kinda forced to go to the beach and party up a bit. I ended up being a bit pleasantly surprised at the drum and bass and dubstep (playing stuff I have in my collection but never heard out like printer jam!) they were blaring out instead of the regulation hip hop and rnb I expected. The night sky started off clear with white beacons lighting the beach as well as a big screen TV showing the liverpool match v birmingham which we won 5 - 0.
Two of my favourite things in the world great music and great football (I use great loosely here as the goals were shocking at times) seemingly fuelled my mood for the night and as lighting flickered in the horizon it held the start of a awesome night. What happened next was a spray of rain, gradually getting heavier until it was monsoonesque. Most clambered to safety under thatched roofing but no, the rain wouldn't stop me and me and the others danced the night away in the rain.

The next morning and thinking maybe the island would have been flooded due to the torrential nature of the rain but nope there was no trace of the storm from the night before, as if it had been imagined.

This day settled for a chill out day and we ended up heading to Long beach, much less heaving with sun tanning bodies and better for swimming, only a short longboat trip away or a 30 minute hike through the mountain foliage. There we sat, swam to cool down and snorkelled. Quality day.

I havent mentioned much of the food in my blog and I fear if I do when I read this back I'll ache to be on the next flight back here. You see the food is amazing, generally pretty cheap but just incredible and for a Foodie like me a bit dangerous to both wallet and stomach. Who knows what shape I'll end up being when I get back, oblong or pot bellied would be my guess. Try everything there is to offer from phad thai, thai green/red/yellow curry, tom yam soup etc and the various combinations of them with pineapple or cashews or shrimp or duck or chicken etc. And now my mouth is salivating just thinking about the choice of dinner tonight.

Anyway that night we went to the beach again to enjoy ourselves again bearing in mind our trip the next day. It started off a sober affair with us watching a fire show which many of the bars have (which the girls claimed where the equivalent of a guy going to a strip club...hmm). After this they brought out a neon skipping rope which is infact coloured lighting tubes that many used to decorate their homes at Christmas. On completion of this participants were given shots.
Once over the limbo started, again rewarding those successful with shots, then buckets of alcohol then bottles. Now this is where we won a few buckets with mine and Halleys amazing limboing skills and it started off another quality night.

Travels through the nights and one guy down

Countries : 1
Cities : 4
Massages : 2
Time away : 11 days
Books read: 2

Going from Pai which is in the north of Thailand down to Phi Phi Island (in the south) was always going to be long and arduous and the most time on transport since I had left the plane in Bangkok but I hadn't envisaged it to be quite this tiring.

We got a bus from Pai down to Chiang Mai, back through the winding roads and sickening swerves the Thai drivers seem to face on a daily basis. After getting back to Chiang Mai I made the split second decision to jump on a sleeper train to Bangkok and meet the rest of the group at the station. This sleeper train was different to the others as the seats were transformed into beds with ease by the experienced on board staff. It was here I met and talked with two primary school teachers from Thailand with whom, with broken English and lots of hand motions managed to discuss the different schooling of the kids and some of our experiences.

With arrival at Bangkok train station I had two hours before the others arrived so I sat and carried on reading Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas, a very trippy book! All of a sudden during a particularly odd section of the novel amongst the hubbub of noise you'd expect in a train station a loud unfamiliar slightly melodic sound bellowed from the speakers. With that everyone stood to attention and I followed suit not wanting to be rude and tried to lip sync with the rest. I assume it was the national anthem or king's prayer but I can't remember.

About twenty minutes later again whilst I was ploughing through my book a whistle sounded and everyone started to move the chairs into another rectangular formation. Strange I thought but I duly gave my assistance.

Around 9.30am-ish and my decision to get the sleeper train was justified as the others stumbled off the train complaining of the numbness of their botttoms from sitting in one position for the last twelve hours!

We went into Bangkok and put our things in Joes room while we all went our separate ways to deal with visas or presents, two very different jobs. Just before we met a physic who claimed he could tell us our mothers name just by looking at us and then claimed if he got it right we would each have to pay him £30 each, yep not something we were willing to gamble no matter how good his guessing skills were.

Eventually it was time to leave to ge another sleeper train this time to Surat Thani and with this it was time to bid adieu to Joe who was catching a flight back England, back to work and a interview for his Gtp. Although I know that there's many people I'll meet and bid farewell to over my travels he was the first one that Id spent time chatting to over the last week and he was now heading back.

The rest of the journey was pretty uneventful with the exception of a man shouting Phi Phi to us in a loud and high pitched voice as we got off at Surat Thani after we repeatedly had told him we were going to Phi Phi.

On the bus down to Krabi to ferry across to Phi Phi we met a young German guy called Hassan who seemingly tagged in as Joe had tagged out of the two girls and two guys grouping we had.

Chillllllled out

Countries : 1
Cities : 3
Massages : 2
Time away : 9 days
Books read: 1

Pai is one of the most chilled out places I think I may have ever have been too and that's including yhe Caribbean.  Maybe its the way of life, the mountain air or just the hippies it attracts but there's definitely something which takes a bit of a city boy into the country/reggae mentality.

Its a pretty small town but it has its charm, the best thing to do is to hire out a bike and cycle around. I wanted to check out the hot springs but due to my own laziness and time constraints that never happened but I did manage to visit another waterfall which although unspectacular, the journey and the scenery up until were amazing for differing reasons. We chose to hire out some bikes (nearly persuaded to hire scooters) to make the climb to the waterfall, even though we were advised it wasn't the greatest sight it seemed like a challenge in itself to get to the falls. After cycling for about half an hour in blistering sunlight, drenched in sweat, lactic acid built up in my calves even with a few short pit stops. Whenever I looked around though I saw beautiful mountainous scenery all around me, the kind you see in lanscape photos/drawings with varying shades of jagged greenery highlighted by the setting sun and pinkish sky. Finally after what may have been just over an hour but felt so much more me and Megan reached our destination with a beer in hand as our celebration.
This seemed to me as a great accomplishment as we never saw anyone else on cycles on the way up in the fading sunlight. I had been looking forward to zipping back down the steep roads back to Pai but as of the light deserting us and a young Israeli couple  fortunately offering us a lift back down to Pai I never got to feel the wind rushing through my hair. What we did get was kindness from these strangers and a political talk about their situation, quite a tricky subject at the best of times and moreso when you're knackered!

During my time in Pai, I ended up meeting a lady called Kylie from Melbourne who was a writer and photographer for lonely planet. After flicking through the book a few times earlier and knowing thousands if not millions of backpackers have used the lonely planet at one point or another this was quite strange of a meeting. She told me of her travels and some highlights which aren't to be missed, particularly expressing her fascination with Gibbon's and how she volunteered for a week at a rehabilitation for Gibbon's (no not the Charlie Sheen type of rehab) which ended up being three months.

One of the highlights of Pai along with the chilled out atmosphere was the food. Cheap and some of the best I've had so far id definitely recommend going to Dangs and Witchin well. They have a variety of food on offer not just the Thai delights, the only meal I would advise against is the full English which is neither full or satisfying.

As seen in my pictures on Facebook I had a shack all to myself which was brilliant, but the sounds in the night were quite awkward. Every ten minutes or so I would hear a leaf or something hitting the thatched roofing and tumbling down. Then there was the insects outside which made the loudest noise for about 5 seconds before going mute and then repeating after two minutes, it would certainly be a challenge to sleep if I wasn't such a heavy sleeper.

The oddest thing to happen at Pai just before we left I was starting a new book, Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (much different to Dynasty - which assessed the 50 years of Liverpool since Shankly took over) and I saw our cat. I say our cat but the one that stayed at Pai country hut, the guesthouse we were staying at, who we named Pad Thai or Paddy for short. Anyway the cat had a fairly large lizard in its mouth, that in itself was strange but the lizard had a bright blue head and I think I could see it blink once. I tired to think nothing of it and carry on reading awaiting our bus but the crunching of lizard bones was pretty distracting! Yep the cat went ahead and ate the entire thing... that definitely quelled my appetite.

Piece of Pai

Countries : 1
Cities : 3
Massages : 2
Time away : 7 days

I'm sat in a hammock relaxing again after an early wake up and 5 hour or maybe less drive to Pai.
For the most I was asleep but because of the sharp turns and the sudden pouring rain I felt as though I was in a rally car!

The place we're staying in is lovely, right near the river called Pai coutry hut with little shacks dotted around with wooden benches in the middle with lots of greenery.

Its a stones throw from the centre of Pai which is pretty small anyway. The only thing is there is a lot of insects as yoy would imagine and one huge beetle / wasp thing that makes the loudest buzzing I've heard...might need a few Changs to get to sleep tonight!

Nearly a week away

Countries : 1
Cities : 2
Massages : 2
Time away : 6 days

Excuse the length of this post as it's more for me to remember what happened in an eventful two days than for a short retelling.

9.30am start for trekking...yep trekking, whatever that entailed I didn't really have a clue as I flicked through a few brouchures trying yo gage what we were going to do, triggering off some vague memory of elephants, walking and waterfalls.

Our tour guide for the next two days introduced himself as Rocky and pretty swiftly I got in a few crappy jokes.

Our group consisted of an American guy called Jack from Iowa who was serving for the army in Afghanistan and was on leave, a Dutch family including the father named Bill and two of his four sons one of which was called Joost and the other Pim (who was just finishing his travelling adventures of 5 months, as if he and I were tagging the other in and out of the backpacking game) and lastly Megan, Haley, Joe and myself.

On the back of a truck with Rocky and his 7 year old cousin Pom (I think) we went along to a butterfly and orchid farm. Wasn't as dull as you'd think, although the no. of butterflies weren't what I expected their beauty and size more than made up for it. Then there was the orchids, colourful and huge beyond what I had seen before especially since they were actually hanging with tentacle like roots as if witchy fingers desperately aching for the soil beneath them.

We stopped off for a few things at a local market and had lunch, simple fried rice which went down a treat with all. It was here we heard a Rocky classic of he doesn't like beer but beer likes him

Next was a supposed three hour long hike/trek or as Rocky liked to say 2 hours and 59 minutes, a quirk which soon begun to get tiresome and when asked about the reasoning behind always saying 29 minutes or 39 minutes instead of rounding up the numbers he explained 9 was a lucky number in Thailand. Even with that reason the saying would never lose its annoying factor. Especially when half way through the trek with everyone including Action man Jack  (or G.I. Joe as he would have called it) were completely knackered and Rocky would repeat his time 'joke'. By the end of the trek and what seemed like an age though most likely about two hours of continuous steep (30 degrees at points) climbing up or down hills and liters of water taken on board it would be safe to say everyone was serverly shattered. To the extent that when we finally saw the view of Jumbo Elephant Camp none of us truly appreciated it. The huge stone steps down didn't help and by the time we were at the bottom with enormous yet peaceful elephants I couldn't muster up enough energy to even stroke then, I NEEDED the sit down!
Two girls next to me from New Zealand told me about their elephant training program while I recovered.
Eventually everyone got some strength and we fed the elephants bananas and they gave 'kisses' with their trunks.

We played around with them for a while and rested up just watching them and me especially not really realising where I was, just thinking about how surreal this all was.

After hydrating ourselves or some intoxicating themselves with chang beer (elephant piss) we began our elephant riding (elephunting as Hayley named it). It started off well enough, as smooth as you can expect a lumbering beast ride to be, but as we climbed higher the ride seemed more precarious and myself and Hayley hung on to the warm rusting metal chairs. At least we didn't have the naughty elephant which Joe and Megan had, which looked like it was trying to throw them off at times into sharp bamboo and then charged ahead to overtake the group of elephants we were on.

Slightly sore we disembarked and just lazed around what seemed to be our little village, finding out more about each other and swapping stories. The other guys we had in the group really made it the trip despite the awesome activities because of their energy and the way we all seemed to intergrate fairly easily.
There were so many talks revolving around football, music, drugs (they're Dutch, what dya expect lol), religion, war, movies, life in their countries and pretty much everything.

I sat and starred at the view for a while, just enjoying it all trying to soak it in when out of the blue fires started to spring up to the left of me. Luckily they were planned and needed to get rid of the excess elephant dung. During this time Pom and Megan did some arts and crafts, collecting butterflies and creating collages in her journal, his shy exterior seemed to have cracked revealing his childful innocent playfulness.

Thai green curry and vegetables for dinner prepared by Rocky was just what we needed and deserved after that trek which was still taking its toll on us. Then the music came out and we all just enjoyed the rest of the night with Jack enjoying something like 10+ cans of chang with no ill effects (two nights before he had 13 large Chang's the equiv of about 1 and a half pints at least each resulting in a bit of a hangover the next day). The sun went down and with it out came fireflies and lightning in the distance and as we started up a game of poker the rain gave us a warning. I used my headlight for the first time and up we went to our sleeping quarters, one massive room not unlike a treehouse. We played cards for a while lit from my headlight, not poker though we realised we had no chips so we made do with the Dutch version of blackjack (not 21 but uno like) with the music going, beers flowing and the wind and rain beating down on us occasionally catching us since there was no forth wall but more a balcony, I raced to victory on both occasions even without fully understanding the rules and managing to win all of 40 baht, or a quid.

The next morning I hesitantly woke to the sounds of roosters, elephants and Rocky shouting for us. It was well worth it as the view from our shack was truly breathtaking and after making a quick tea and coffee we went down to see the elephants bathing. We ate our breakfast and waited for an age before finally our car came to pick us up, after walking for all of 10 minutes to the car we were sweating and needed some water, that may go as far as to explain the intense heat.

We drove past what seemed like a conoeist dream river and kept going. When we stopped we walked for about an hour, had lunch again simple noodles wrapped in a banana leaf that was what the dr ordered and carried on with our trek. After worrying about dropping my camera in the stream whilst jumping from rock to rock we finally made it to the waterfall. It really was the most refreshing way to rid the sweat we had built up and cure and itchy bites. The view of the waterfall, towering trees and dancing butterflies was spectacular coupled with the fact that most of the other tourists were leaving as we arrived.

Later we went to do something I hadn't even thought I would do, white water rafting! It was actually fairly simple but again a pleasure to do as it cooled as right down from the heat, then we jumped straight onto a bamboo raft to float down the rest of the river...lovely!

We then went onto a little tribal village but to be honest we could have quite easily done without this as we didn't really see many people, it was mainly for them to sell a few knick knacks. The highlight was the cute lil kids running rings arohnd us like they were in some cartoon.

After we came back to Chiang Mai we all were in need of some food and a massage. I got my fix of cheese which I was craving for after near a week without it at a really good pizza place and then had an awesome thai massage which pokes and prodes you in all the right places, add to that the conversation with the masseuse and owner it was really worth the money. They even zapped any mozzies near me and put on mozzie spray which was a really nice gesture.

Now I thought a lot about the people I was with and learnt lots but the bits that come to mind now are that the Dutch say crazy loads normally as a substitute for strange, those new to English swear a helluva lot and each country stereotypes others to a degree...even hatred of some countries still run through the viens of some.

It really was a quality trip and all for 1200 baht or under 25 quid you can't really ask for more.

Now I'm back in Julie's guesthouse and I tried to chose the sensible option of not drinking with those upstairs even though they were a good laugh mainly be because we have a bus to Pai at 8.30am! And it's past 2.15am all because I wanted to get this written...ah well, sweet dreams world!

My first day of nothing!

Countries : 1
Cities : 2
Massages : 1
Time away : 4 days

Saturday was a pretty chilled out day of reading and just wandering around by myself basically getting rid of my headache / mini hangover by eating some huge shrimp for about 50p. After not seeing the others for the whole day I was about to nod off before Joe and Hayley came knocking and telling me about their day lazing around in a swimming pool and visiting a nearby temple, making me kinda jealous and as if I'd wasted a bit of time bt cest la vie. Anyway we had to be up early the next morning for the start of our trekking adventure ... though the allure of the excitable hubbub from all of 10 metres from my room at near 1am drew me in to watch the FA cup semi final between united and city. As a Liverpool fan it was made all the more sweeter that United lost and that the majority of the fans were scum supporters too coupled with the fact we had recently demolished both of them!
This allowed for a pretty awesome footballing lullaby and into a sweet slumber.

First few days

So far so good I suppose, everything has been pretty easy to sort out and going from one place to anothetlr hasn't really been a hassel.

Planning on going trekking tomorrow so for now I think I'll try and sort out my visas. Being this care free at the moment makes me forget to sort out the things I need to but ah well.

Keeping a track of everything and living out of a bag is probably the hardest thing to do, its the constant opening of locks, the feeling of being a bank robber whilst turning the dials on my number locks whenever I need to get something and then again because I've forgotten something. Its a pain but a necessary one if you want to keep your things safe.

Being in a Guesthouse / youth hostel really brings a mix of music out, I've been hearing Nirvana, linkin park, james blunt, Natalie imbrulia, Metallica and tons of house music.
It was really strange hearing dubstep yesterday whilst on top of building in a reggae bar, weird right? And then when we moved on to the square where loads of backpackers where enjoying the rest of their night we stumbled across a live band doing covers of classic rock and indie tracks. There was a European singer who was really bad but once he and his rendition of all the small things - blink 182 finished it was time for a local Thai man, who had a rocker edgy look to him, step up to the mic and had you closed your eyes you woulda been forgiven thinking that he was an American or even Kurt Cobain himself. And then there was the drummer who was simply amazing, myself and Joe (the boyfriend of the Hailey and friend of Megan, people I'd been hanging out with) exchanged compliments of awe about the drummer so much so we thought it only right to go and shake his hand!

Anyway enough from me... speak soon!

First night in Bangkok /sangkrong

Okay so my first night travelling along was spent with a northern girl called Meagan. We went and visited the local shops and bazaars just to see the local atmosphere, quickly we realised it was the new year celebration of sarong which is basically a massive water fight. After this we got some food and chilled with an elephant...yes an elephant whom Megan had never seen before let alone touched!  The food I had cost under a pound and was beautiful!

We then went to a nearby tavern which served the best bucket  alcohol I've had and after more buckets and beers and the conversation with the other backpackers flowed which included invites to area's of interest for me, we then realized we should head back.

However on the return home I had a huge bout of deja vu...of first year all over again with ensuring my flatmate got back okay, not being sick and just making sure she was okay.

Anyway regardless my first night travelling by myself will be one I remember for years to come!

Missing you

Just in case you guys don't realise because I've not mentioned it much thus far I will miss each and everyone of you.

I've loved the last month and more of goodbye stuff
But I'm looking forward to swapping five months worth of stories when I'm back and you can always email, facebook and whatsapp me.

And remember its not goodbye its till we meet again...

Airport

I'm sitting here at the airport just waiting...

I've said all my goodbyes, some teary and bleary eyed, some heartfelt, some with a touch of nonchalence but now I'm here ready for it to all begin.

I've got tons of time on my hands now, though the first hour and a half flew by.

Check in and then a random police stop even though I did shave off my beard! Then through security, looking at random shops, getting some more money out and on a cash passport and buying another memory card just in case.

Others around me rushing around, or sitting patiently waiting with similar feelings of just wanting to be at their destination already.

I'm just sitting thinking I'm in an episode of come fly with me and that Taj will comw round the corner in his 'pussy wagon with his bitches'. Or a guy will say happy flytings to me...
But who I most keep thinking I'm seeing out the corner of my eye is Precious, in fact on that note I'm gonna get me a coffee, lets just hope they've got water or sugar or coffee
:)

One day to go

And its the day before I leave, the day really has crept up on me even though I have been talking about it for ages to the extent I should have written a speech down answering the faqs ive had and given it to people to read instead of regurgitating it all again.

I have realised that there's so much im going to miss and yet so much to look forward to and that's exactky how my mood has been either really excited or slightly down because of the things I'm gonna miss.

Ah well at least Im finally packed with a vague itinerary in mind,  but then again who knows what or who I may come across when I'm out there.  In fact I hear its the new year on thr 15th which consists of throwing water balloons which will be loadsa fun... :)

Something I realized in the run up to my departure is how I referred to the trip. I used to say/think your going to be travelling soon or your going to be all alone in another country, essentially talking about it in third person which took a lot of thought out of things because of the less personal way in which I addressed things.
Yet now I'm saying/thinking I will be in another country and I will do this or that and although this change is slight it has changed my feelings about the trip and that it is happening to me. Weird right?

Less than a week to go!

So you've all heard me go on about this trip for ages...for maybe the last two years and yet now its only a week away and it still doesn't seem real to me.

Last Friday I was preparing myself for my leaving do (coincidentally on April fools) and I had no idea where we were going to go. I had people telling me about a ridiculous number of bars and clubs but as usual I didn't really listen and went where the river flowed. Now that's pretty much how I've lived my life thus far (no matter how much I tell myself that I'm organised) and it's been a pretty crazy journey.

I'm expecting that this way of life continues and will do so in Thailand and the other countries I look to visit, I just hope that it works out when I'm there. Though I suppose that's the beauty of it all, the not knowing, the lack of security, the feeling of adventure that awaits.

Sometimes it gets a bit nonsense to the extent where I don't even know what I'm going to do once I step off the plane in Bangkok...well apart from doing a little dance, maybe sing a bit of Bob Marley!

Obviously because of this I am a little apprehensive about the whole trip, most probably due to the fact I'm going by myself, ye I know...all alone right! But I think within the next few days I'll sort myself out and find a way to sort my life and feelings out since if there’s one thing I know this is the start of a whole new chapter.

Who knows what's going to happen? Who knows the answers to a myriad of different questions floating around in my head but one answer that I would bet my life on is that regardless of anything by the time the morning of April 12th 2011 comes everything will be fine!