Back in good old (cold) blighty!

Merry Xmas, ho ho ho and all that. Weird to be back!

HOW COLD IS IT! Nice to have snow on the ground though, makes the place look nice (going all soft aren't I).

Had a good xmas in Skeggie with Kat and family, being fed and watered from all angles continuously for 3 days..... brilliant! Bored everyone to death with the 727 photo's we had printed out in Bankok - for a wonderful 3p each... result!

Yes, I admit it... I am "Mr. Tight" at the moment. After NZ and especially after Thailand I simply cannot bare spending money! My mind cannot escape the 'Rip off Britain' mode, but I'll get back into things soon enough.... when I get a (da-da-daaaaaaar) JOB.

Right, enough about the working thing. Looking forward to new years in Nottingham before heading down to London for the new year... and the new adventure!

Happy New Year!

Chilled out and ready for some shopping!

I am an advanced open water diver! After 5 days of cancellations due to the windy weather conditions, we finally got to finish the course today... as they had to take us out because it's our last day on the island!

The weather conditions weren't great still (too windy!) so we were the only ones going out, which meant we had the entire boat to ourselves... result! The 1st dive was pants, with <1m vis, but the 2nd and 3rd were pretty cool, lots of nemo-esque fishes and corals to oogle.

So back to Bankok tomorrow to get the xmas pressies before we start the 13hr thai airways slog back to blighty. Thai airways are decent enough, but there's none of that all singing, all dancing screen per person jazz that Cathay and co have these days, just the lonely old single screen in the middle for everyone to rubberneck at!

Koh Chang, Chang Beer and diving!

Sitting in the morning sun....... I'll be sitting when the evein' comes......

Well, we finally made it to Koh Chang, Thailands 2nd biggest island (after Phuket), but it's relatively unspoilt at the mo, although there's a lot of development going on everywhere as usual! We started off staying in Bungalows on 'Lonely beach' (which is anything but), but after 2 nights of partying hard in a pretty damn basic (can't stand up) hut, we moved up the road for some peace and quiet in an upgraded air-con, bug free, shower (cold!) outside amongst the palm trees place. It also has the added bonus of you being able to sleep at night without being hammered, as the place on the beach front was bangin' till 5a.m. - we're getting too old for that sh!t.

MOPEDS BABY YEAH! Alright, a step down from my 600 Bandit, but the 100cc chicken chasers are so much fun to zip around the island on. For 3 quid, you can get one with a full tank and go exploring for the day, which is cool as there's less developed areas on the east of the island. We've met numerous back-packers here with scooter injuries though, so I've avoided trying to pull wheelies (especially with Kat on the back!) and pulling a 'stoppie' (endo) is not an option as the front brake is so crap! When I mentioned this to the renter, they said you can use the back one.... thai style! You really have seen nothing until you've seen a whole family (6!) on one of these things though.... (photo coming later!)

So the other thing we're onto is the 'advanced scuba' diving course. 2 days, 4 (or 5 hopefully) dives and a bit of education. We did the 1st day yesterday and the swell was huge, the boat was all over the show, but once you got underwater it was pretty magic. The 'vis' was pretty bad (5-10m because of the wind), but there was plenty to see and it was a great feeling just to get underwater again. Today was cancelled because of the wind, so fingers crossed for a belter tomorrow. Wish I had an underwater camera case to get some jaws style photo's though (you listening santa?).

Also looks like we'll be booking onto a fishing trip (lets see if it can compare to Stewart Island in NZ) and a day of snorkelling - there's no rest for the wicked! We'll be back in Bankok on the 20th for the last two nights in a luxury hotel..... well luxury in that it has a hot shower and pool anyway! And then of course it's the flight back to blighty.....

Anyone got any new years plans sorted yet?

Pattacake Pattacake, many a single man

Quick stop here in Pataya. Single, old, fat men everywhere... not empty handed ones though! Money gets you lots of 'extra curricular' activities in this town!

So we headed east instead of South in the end, since the weather down there is still 'pants'. Touch wood we'll be on Ko Chang island tomorrow lunchtime for some beach action.

Not long till xmas - send your pressie lists!

Rain rain, go away!

With with just over two weeks to go we're looking at heading south to chill out in the sun................. BUT IT'S RAINING...... everywhere!

Everyone we spoke to coming up from there have seen nothing but rain these last couple of weeks, and indeed it's still monsoon season on the eastern side (Ko Samui etc...) Gonna head down there tomorrow night and check it out anyway.

At the mo we're in Kanuchuburi - where the old 'Bridge over the river Kwai' is. Lots of touristy things to do, we've studied both the museums and learnt about the building of the railway during WWII..... tragic. Pretty powerful stuff. There's a beautiful waterfall here too, where we did some swimming and sliding over the rocks - best quality water we've been in since NZ. You certainly wouldn't want to swim in the river around bankok!

Kat made a funny comment the other day, which all those of you who've been to Thailand will appreciate.

"Why is it that there's so many wild dogs on the street, but no dog s#*t anywhere?"

What Wat is what?

Ok, so we made it back from Laos on the overnight train frm the border... MUCH better than the cramped private coaches, which seem to have bugger all air conditioning, crap DVD movies blasted out by speakers that are only capable of producing bass, and stop ramdomly for breakdowns, shoddy toilet stops or tourist food traps from the drivers brothers-nephews-sisters joint!

So the train is the way, sleeping in a bunk with the legs stretched out - well they would be for anyone but lanky old me anyway! Ear plugs are 'THE BEST' thing a traveller can buy before heading away, and have turned many a potential nights disasterous sleep (roosters all night, early morning monk parades etc.) into zzzzz land. It's only a little bit more than the coaches too.... top tip from the Dazzler.

So Laos was good! Do feel like the total tourist though, doing the 2 day slow boat trip on a cramped old wreck, but we stopped off at Lam Phrabang for a few days, hooked up with a couple of English and a Canadian who we had a good laugh with for the week. The next place was Vang Vieng, which I mentioned before... then off to the capital, Ventiane. The highlight of that was Kat and I 'hangin' with the young monks, who invited us over while we were peering into their temple ('wat'..... the thai word for temple). One was practicing his English on me, querying the old xmas lark and what Santa Claus is all about, which is kinda hard to explain... especially the link between the religious aspect of the festival and the commerical spectacle as it exists today. Not sure whether the poor guy understood or not, especially since his day started at 4 a.m. with a prayer (every day) and ended at 8p.m..... so the 'not everyone' who is Christian goes to church at xmas (never mind every Sunday!) was an interesting idea for him!

Meanwhile, Kat was engaged in a frantic battle of the brains of 5 other monk boys, who were taking her on at a game of draughts. They play the French variant (I think!) - 10x10 squares and 4 rows of pieces. She lost the first game, but obviously won the second (with the aid of the monks)! The monks loved it, taking the pi$$ out of the monk that lost, but all laughing... would've made for a great photo.... but alas, I only have it ready for the obligatory 'wat' photo's!

So what's a wat then? Well today in the old capital of Thailand we've seen about 10 of the things..... ruins this time, but still impressive nontheless. We saw the glorious new shiny ones in Bankok before we headed North, but these almost have more 'character and appeal'.... even if once you've seen one giant budda sitting, lying, reclining etc... you've pretty much seen them all!

So it's back to Bankok at the weekend to drop off the shopping at Amars place, then down South for the last couple of weeks of relaxing on the beach. Bring on the sunshine......