My Travelling Adventure

Friday night was interesting. Walking through the bright and colourful Lamai Road we bumped into some girls we had met in Chiang Mai and they persuaded us to come and watch the lady boy cabaret show with them and then we would head out afterwards. Not sure, we nervously said yes and met them at 11pm for the show start. At first we were a little un-nerved by the whole thing.. that was until a Tina Turner wannabe came on and started singing 'Simply the Best!'

Jack still seemed unsure of the whole thing and then the finale turned out to be an Abba medley climaxing in 'Thank you for the music'. His face was truly a picture! After the show we headed to the party district and went to a bar/club for some drinking and dancing. Some boys from Omen promptly started a dance off which I am proud to say I took part. The whole thing was very fun and some people's dancemoves were incredible.

The main club came next and Jack and I danced into the early hours eventually leaving a little after the club closed and decided to call it a night heading back to the hotel to get some sleep as we wanted an early start with the jeep in the morning..

Saturday morning we got up early and yes you guessed it headed to play Samui International Mini Golf stopping off at the unique football golf on the way where I was sadly beaten once more by Jack and again at the mini golf.. however I scored a cracking hole in one on about a 40ft putt! Promising ourselves that our golfing days were over for the rest of the trip we headed back to the hotel as clearly we were exhausted.

The drive back was interesting. We saw a 15ft high steel Predator model so we quickly pulled over and had a few photos taken with the monster. Upon arrival home I headed to the beach for an hour or two or at least until I couldn't take the baking heat any longer. As my foot had not yet properly healed and my money funds were beginning to lessen by the hour I thought I'd stay in and watched some movies with the DVD player we had rented. Jack decided to head out but returned shortly after with a burger king enticed by the films and family guy we had in our possesion.

On sunday morning I managed to get up at 10am and Jack in no mood to get up allowed me to grab the keys for the Jeep and head off on a bit of a road trip. My ipod and speaker system in tow I hit the open road stopping off at one of the many waterfalls on the island determined to get to the top. About 45 minutes later, after seeing a snake and a weird looking crab I was at the top and could see for absolutely miles. I had reached one of the highest points on Samui and it felt good!

After this I was as you can imagine a sweaty mess and so I rolled all the windows down and carried on taking a similar route to the one Jack and I had taken a few days previous stopping for something to eat before finally unwillingly taking the Jeep back and returning to find Jack still asleep. He got up and we went exploring. Night time came and we went to eat on one of the many beach restaurants buying a firework and a home made hot air baloon on the way. We set them both off and felt a little inconsiderate when we turned around and saw we had disturbed the peace in a rather nice looking restaurant.

After the meal we went back and watched yet another movie and decided to get an early and cheap night before having a big one on monday night. Monday came and it was another very hot day. Jack rented a kayak and I did some shopping in the market buying some things that added up to about 3000 baht! We then met up at the hotel and got ready to go out. Eating at a restaurant we'd been to a few days earlier we stocked up on some much needed food and then went to the club we had gone a few nights earlier.

We danced and danced and then the night was over and we were looking where the party was heading next. We bumped into some people who went to Manchester University 4 years older than us; they advised us to go to Solo Bar, which we did! I danced and got to know the girls.. one had an ex-boyfriend that had lived in room 12.11 in the tower in Owens Park which was pretty crazy.

By the time I got home it was 6am and I found Jack watching some family guy. He advised me he had met the Samui Mafia somehow and then we went to bed only to awake 3 hours later to book the ferry to Kho Pha Ngan. Unwillingly Jack got out of bed and went to book it, agreeing for the hotel to let us stay a few more hours to get some much needed sleep. We checked out at 2pm and settled our massive 4000 baht bill and headed to the pier.

The ferry ride was terribly unpleasant for me as I was feeling rather delicate.. almost a mirror image of Jack on the ferry from Ko Tao to Samui a few days previous. Finally we got to Pha Ngan and as Ben had made us reservations at a guest house we headed there and dropped our bags. I then went to the beach to meet Ben and his friend and we headed back to the hotel meeting Jack and then having something to eat before heading to a moutain top bar where we chilled out for a few hours.. meeting some people that went to the high school a few years back (who even knew KEMO!)

Bed time came next and we slept until very late before heading to the beach. Our plans tonight are to eat and party at one of the many warm up Full Moon Parties!

As we awoke on our last full day in Koh Tao we wanted to do the one thing that we had come to love the island for.. and that was to play a round of mini golf and to finally conquer the few holes that had caused us independent troubles. We got a taxi down there and the english owner who we had chatted to at length a few days previous was very happy to see us. We sat again for about 30 minutes and allowed the tropical rainstorm to pass before proceeding out to play our final 18 holes.

It started all so well for me getting a hole in one on the first going 2 under par and slipping ahead of Jack (the golfer) for the first time. Don't worry this did not last as I really did not find my form on the rest of the course scoring a few stroke limits and missing a few half decent chances. Saving the castle hole to last I felt I could confidently beat Jack doing it in 2 and 3 in the past, so I put 100 baht on it. Unfortunately it did not go so well and Jack beat me by getting a 4 and I scored a shocking 6!

We decided to eat at the golf course and chatted to our newly adopted Dad for a couple more hours telling him stories and in turn he told us of the stuff he had seen over the years. Secretly we hoped that in a few weeks we would feature in his stories.. or at least we pray in case you're reading this. After the very nice burger we headed back to town to get changed, watch some family guy and head out for our last night. Alex once again came over and off to dinner we went.

We chose to eat on the beach at the seafood restaurant but by the time we got there all the fish had gone and it was closed so we settled for a restaurant on a beach terrace and ate and drank before meeting up with some friends from a night previous. Lotus bar then featured once again in our night as we went over and had a dance or two before Alex and I left leaving Jack to demolish another bucket and giving Koh Tao the send off it truly deserved!

5.30am and a knock at the door came prompting me to open it to find Jack there, who rolled in and passed out. For this reason he was not best pleased when I woke him up at 10am the next day as we needed to pack and check out. He persuaded me to leave him until 10.25am as he needed 3 minutes to pack and 2 minutes to get dressed. I did and he actually managed to get himself together to go and grab some food in town as our boat was not until 3pm.

We met Alex and then went to the beach. Jack was not feeling his best and was sick several times during the day before we got on the boat. Thinking that we were on the same boat Alex and us parted ways at about 2pm with a casual 'see you later'. When we discovered she was on a different one we thought it really was see you later. Next came the 1hr and 45 minute ferry ride and the waves were very choppy leaving Jack feeling very sea sick. Luckily we managed to get an hours sleep before Jack was sick a few more times.

Then at a little after 5pm we arrived at the pier of Koh Samui. We were taken by taxi to the main tourist area which is Chaweng Beach. The taxi man kindly directed us to the Relax Inn (something Jack really wanted to do). We checked in and Jack promptly went to bed leaving me to explore our new area.. he had but one request and that was to score him a McDonald's double cheeseburger which I with great effort achieved.

On my journey back to the hotel I bumped into a rather familiar face.. Alex. She had come into town before flying off to Bangkok and it truly was unbelievable to bump into her again. I dropped Jack's burger off and still in no state to get out of bed, Alex and I headed out for some dinner before I said goodbye and I myself headed to bed for a relatively early night to get a good start the next morning.

As usual we woke up a little before midday so the whole early morning idea had gone out of the window pretty quickly. Determined to still achieve something we got up and headed out. Attracted by a sign we decided it was a necessity to rent an old school Suzuki Jeep. This Jeep is beyond words.. it has a beautiful rust patch on the passenger door, comes in a gorgeous sea salt eroded blue and the gear box is a little worn; but on the plus side it works and it comes with leather seats.

There is just one big road around Samui and if you stick to it you can't really miss anything (but don't worry we still did). On our route around the island we stopped for 50 balls at the driving range, where I lost 200 baht but managed to win it back; a small jungle trek to see a waterfall and then went to an elephant farm with a couple of monkeys knocking around. Our final stop was a shooting range where for 1000 baht you can choose between 6 pistols and a shotgun to shoot two rounds at a target.. a little strapped for cash we hopped back in the Jeep and promised to return tomorrow.

The route back to the hotel should have been relatively easy but several wrong turns later and we found ourselves back in the same place. Managing eventually to decifer the map we found Chaweng Road and found our hotel that luckily had a car parking space outside off where we parked the beautiful car. A quick change of my dressing and a shower for Jack and we headed out to watch the Olympics and have a bite to eat and that all leads me to here. Another early night tonight and then up early to play Samui Mini Golf! So all is well and all the wounds are looking much better, which is a bonus anyday.

I awoke sunday with a more positive mindset. I was in less pain and I could walk much easier on my foot which was good news. Our main plan today was to take the bikes back, which I have to say we were not looking forward to after gazing over the price list for broken parts. Expecting around a 5000 baht bill, when Jack walked through the door and stated I had been charged 14000 baht (230 pounds) I nearly fainted. Jack had even been charged 6000 baht for a few minor scratches he had obtained whilst off road the day previous. We both swore vengence on the shop and on everything Thai. Worried this may ruin a part of my holiday I rang direct line who said I'm covered on insurance so all is not lost.

We then went for a walk around koh tao or as long as I could managed, eventually settling down at a bar to watch the grand prix. The bar resembled an english sports bar and served all the lagers, beers and food you would expect. In the spirit of the place I felt it right to order a pie and chips and it arrived just as the grand prix started. The race was not the best I had seen but there was one hell of a cheer when Massa broke down with 3 laps to go. By this point we had got talking to some people round the table and then after the grand prix I decided to go home to get some rest; leaving Jack to order another tower of beer after already demolishing one.

I got an early night and watched some films on various channels that were available on the TV. At around 4.30am Jack rolled in and proceeded in passing out straight to sleep and I managed to get back to sleep quite easily. We were awoken at about 11.30am the next morning by a loud bang at the door.. it turned out to be a girl that I had met all the way up in Chiang Mai. She had come to dive and so said a quick hello before heading back to start her course.

We then got up and headed to play mini golf where we played a round (Jack won again) and then chatted to the english owner of the place for about an hour who had a story to tell about everything and anything. Promising to return one more time before we left Koh Tao we left the man and headed back to our room to get ready and go out for something to eat.

Before that I had to make another visit to the clinic for some iodine torture. All the wounds looked much better, but the iodine still hurt a great deal leading me to say several expletives in the process. For days now the nurse has been a little strange towards me; touching me, holding my hands and now he said I was beautiful. Right there and then I decided it was probably best I treated myself from now on.. for no particular reason except it just feels right.

Alex met up with us again and we all went to dinner before Jack went to bed and we headed to the beach bars to see a few more friends, where we chilled out on the terraces and watched the world go by. A couple of hours later we returned to find Jack was feeling much better and for about an hour we all watched TV before going our seperate ways and going to bed. This morning we were again woken by a rather excitable Alex who persuaded us to get out of bed, which we did not and so she left to go and have fun! Since then we have eaten and rented a DVD player in an attempt to watch Batman - the DVD copy was terrible and so this lasted around 5 minutes before we turned it off.

I feel the blog has slightly lost a lot of its edge and there really is not much to report. The wounds are around 2 or 3 days off recovery and then I promise the blog will be back to its former full glory! Don't worry though this time there will be no mopeds.

After waking up pretty early the next day I left Jack in bed as it appeared he had a much longer night than me and so would appreciate the rest. I strolled down the beach stopping on one of the many beach terraces to have a good English breakfast (Thai style). I continued to explore the island and eventually decided to rent a kayak and paddle out to sea, with a view to relaxing out there for a few hours before returning back.

Everything started so well and before I knew it the shore looked quite distant. Deciding I was far enough, I put down the paddle and lay back relaxing in the sun and occasionally dipping my feet in the warm bath like ocean. It was very relaxing and then for some reason unknown to me the kayak filled with water and so began to sink partially. Not realising what was happening I tried several times to mount the kayak each time resulting in me being submerged.

Getting very tired by this point I then looked at the distant shore and thought the only way to get back was to swim dragging the kayak behind me to prevent some Thai man having a vendetta against me for losing him his kayak. Eventually after some time I made it back and almost kissed the white sandy beach in delight! As expected the man was not best pleased so I made a quick exit out of there and headed back to the hut.

Now 6.30pm Jack had finally managed to come out of his coma like existence and we decided to shower and head out to get something to eat. Now quite strangely Koh Tao has millions of Italian Restaurants so pizza and pasta is pretty much what you've got. After dinner we bumped into two people we met in bangkok and then went for a quick drink with them before retiring to bed at about midnight.

The next day we were able to get up reasonably early and so we went and rented mopeds once again and headed to the south of the island. On the way we passed a mini golf and bowling complex and being the big kids we are could not resist a round of golf and an hour of bowling. Jack was victorious in all things and he did not let me forget this in a hurry. The town was our next port of call where we scheduled some water ski-ing for the next day with a cockney named Rex.

Not satisfied with what we had seen so far we headed to Shark Bay on the most southern tip of the island enjoying a rather off road experience with the mopeds. Eventually reaching the quiet and secret cove we turned around and headed home. On the way we stopped and got something to eat and then headed to the lotus bar to enjoy more fire juggling and a couple of drinks.

When the jugglers had finished we then had a bit of dance on the beach and Jack and I even ventured into the sea at points to cool off in the hot tropical climate.. good times. At 2am we headed home and DISASTER struck. I managed to fall off my moped making a small hole in my foot and taking the skin off both my elbows and knees.. bad times!

We went back to the hut and cleaned me up as best we could with my left over supplies from times gone by and then headed to the 24hr clinic. We got there and the lights were off but two nurses were sleeping on the sofa. We then proceeded in waking one up who clearly very tired lead me to a little room with a bed and some usual hospital junk.

For the next hour Jack watched as I was tortured by iodine. I managed to make a bit of a joke about it saying that I wanted more.. this was not enough; but trust me it was. The hole in the foot is by far the worst of my injuries and I am now subsequently required to walk on crutches for a few days until it heals up.

We got back home at around 5am and I went straight to bed after seeing the biggest lizard outside the front door in the world! That night's sleep as can be imagined was not the best but I managed to sleep until about 1.30pm today in the same position. Jack (the carer) got up a bit earlier and sorted us out with somewhere to stay off the beach as this was now a no go area for me for a few days.

We have since checked into an amazing hotel in town where we have two big beds, airconditioning, hot water and a lounge area complete with TV. Watching some cricket we became quite hungry and so headed out for dinner not before stopping for some more iodine torture at the clinic!

After partying for the first two weeks it looks as if for the next 5 days at least I will have to rest and finish my course of antibiotics before returning to the water! Oh well for the time being there is lots more Koh Tao has to offer.. for one a night in watching Batman is not all that bad!

On what turned out to be our last night in chiang mai we were a little unsure of what to do as Jack's boxing match had been called off (much to his delight). Driving around on the mopeds we suddenly thought of going to the cinema to see the new batman movie. We followed through on this idea and went to see it.. after the movie we headed back to the hotel with the bikes and then decided on going back to the roof top bar. A place that Jack was unsure of whether or not he was welcome after the previous night's antics!

We took a short tuk tuk ride there and ventured up the many stairs, of course taking our shoes off at the bottom. The bar woman did indeed recognise Jack but made it clear there was no hard feelings. When we went to get a seat we bumped into two girls that we had got to know the night before and so we sat with them and drank away. 3 hours later and we found ourselves in a tuk tuk on the way to Chiang Mai's club.. Lucky's! A litte like a club back home.. the music was awesome and everyone was loving it.

We headed home together and I went off to bed.. waking up to find Jack had not been to sleep. Instead he had gone out for a midnight drive on his moped. Obviously the next day I woke up feeling fresh and he didn't really wake up, causing me to have to take both mopeds back seperately across town. When this was all done I managed to get Jack out of bed as we had a flight to catch. The airport was 30 minutes away and we arrived in plenty of time allowing us to check in and get something to eat.

When waiting for the flight a message was read out saying it had been delayed until 7.30pm from 7.05pm. Unfortunately it wasn't until 7pm that I realised that was not our flight they were talking about and so we jumped up.. grabbed our stuff and made a dash for the gate making it in enough time. The flight was a mere 65 minutes, a lot different from the 12 hour coach ride we took to get from bangkok to chiang mai in the first place. When we arrived we took a taxi across town and went to the train station where we got a train to Chumpon.. a 7 hour ride was in front of us

However the train ride wasn't that bad and we both managed to get a little bit of sleep only being disturbed by some Thai policemen who wanted to search people's bags. The man in front of me turned out to have quite a large knife in his possession.. something which the police merely slapped his wrists for. Finally we arrived in Chumpon where at 5.47am I was quite shocked to see life. People jumped on us immediately getting us to buy tickets for the high speed boat to Ko Tao. 550 baht and we got an air conditioned bus to the docks and the 1 hour and 30 minutes ferry ride.

A little after 8.30am we arrived at Ko Tao. The place was truly amazing, a another world entirely from up north. White sandy beaches and clear waters as far as the eye could see. We disembarked the ferry and we were immediately jumped on again by Thai's trying to get us to come and dive at their hotel.. offering free accommodation in the process. We took up the offer of a man I had chatted to on the boat who said we could do a fun dive and he would give us some accommodation. When we got to the resort it turned out that they had overbooked and because we weren't willing to give the guy 9000 baht to do our full course we were turned away.

5 minutes down the beach we managed to find a beach bungalow for rent for bout 1000 baht which in our current state we were more than happy to pay. The bungalow was metres from the sea and the view from the balcony was truly unbelievable. I tried not to sleep as I wanted to be able to sleep well at night. Jack on the other hand crashed out. I explored the island and bumped into a friend from uni in the process who told me the places to go before rushing off to get a boat back to the mainland.

Unable to function properly anymore I grabbed some lunch and headed back where I joined Jack in crashing out for a few hours before getting up and heading to dinner. Tom had told me to head to Lotus Bar where there would be fire dancers and loud music. The place was exactly this and we proceeded to dance the night away even venturing into the sea ankle deep at points. When the music was switched off the people that we had been dancing with knew a club that we could go to... The Castle.

The club was a weird and wonderful place and we both proceeded to dance the night (I managed to break my toe in the process!) away once more before catching a pick up taxi the whole way home. Unfortunately we had failed to get the name of our hotel and so we vaguely remembered the name of the resort we had gone to initially. So we were dropped there and then had to somehow find our bungalow, which much to our joy we did! Hours later I woke up and strolled along the beach on what is another lovely day. I think more fire dancing is in order tonight and we intend on learning the name of our hotel to prevent any future confusion!

Day two in Chiang Mai and we managed to get ourselves out of bed just before midday. We decided that today we would try and experience some Thai culture instead of just letting everything pass by in a drunken haze. We thought it best to rent a moped in order to get around and get to places a little way out of the city! We asked a friendly tuk tuk driver if he knew a place and for 40 baht we were there. 25 minutes later, without showing any type of driving license, we were on the road.. truly an experience! The man in the shop had advised us to head out of the city to the 700 year old temple in the mountains which was about 40 miles away!

We therefore decided to proceed up into the mountains stopping first to fill our tanks up costing us only 100 baht. The road then was pretty much straight all the way and when we arrived at the foot of the mountain a snakey, fun looking road starred us in the face. Surprisingly the mopeds had a lot of life in them and didn't once struggle as we went higher and higher. On the way we stopped a few times and marvelled at the view of Chiang Mai. Higher and higher we got eventually passing through a rather busy village where the temple was located. Not satisfied with this current altitude we decided to head even further up to the King's Winter Palace, which was 1300m high.

We arrived there a short time after and by now the air had got very thin. Jack stopped in what looked like a garage for a chicken and rice dish costing about 30 baht with a coke thrown in. The palace was 50 baht to get in (50 baht for foreigners anyway, 20 baht to the rest!) and then you could pay 300 baht for a guided tour on a golf buggy which we did. The palace was truly unbelievable with every member of the family having their own house in the grounds which was almost as big as a small city. We went to all the spots in the grounds and the tour guide was more than happy to take photos of us. As we went to the reservoir in the grounds Chiang Mai could be seen almost through the clouds - what a view.

The guide took us back to the entrance where we were treated with a tropical storm lasting around 30 seconds and then amazingly it was warm again. Our long journey back down the mountain started and about 25 minutes later we were at the bottom where we decided to see what the mopeds could do and headed to the northern quarter of the city where we found TESCOS. Amazed by this we went inside where I purchased a big 2 litre bottle of coke, a galaxy bar and a big bag of crisps for 89 baht.. as you can imagine the prices were a little different to those in England. After having something to eat we then headed back to the hotel through the hustle and bustle of the streets and I remembered how to get home.

Jack on the other hand couldn't remember and after missing me turn off proceeded on... 45 minutes later he turned up after in fact ending up at the airport, being forced to pay 150 baht to a tuk tuk, which he followed all the way home. From now on he follows me as my Chiang Mai geography is quite impressive. Martin and Gareth said we should head over to a roof top bar about 10pm so we did. They had not got there when we arrived so after following instructions to take our shoes off we sat on the floor with two girls.. one of them turned out to be Jack's sister's flatmate from first year at Warwick.. what a small world. We chatted to them and then Martin and Gareth turned up with the two girls from the night before. We had many a bucket of Sangsom (Whiskey, Coke and Thai Red Bull) and then closing time came and we headed home. The tuk tuk ride home seems a bit of a blur and the next thing I woke up on the floor of the room at 5am.. Jack all tucked up in bed. I then got into bed and knew I had to get up and take the mopeds back by 2pm. 2pm came and we were still in bed.

Jack unable to move persuaded me to jump on the moped and go across town to pay for another day's rental which I did and then got straight back into bed where I stayed until about 45 minutes ago. We are planning to go and watch some more thai boxing tonight where Jack may even don my Union Jack shorts and get in the ring! Lets hope his childhood boxing knowledge will help him out against the Thai boxer he is put against.

Well the second night on Khao San proved to be just as fruitful as the one before! We met up with Iona and Katie and as it was their last night we thought we best give them a send off in style! Therefore we hit a few bars and ended up in a roof top bar with live music.. even persuading the Thai live band to sing happy birthday to Katie as it was fitting for the occasion. After partying on down in Gullivers we headed back to the hotel but stopped by the internet cafe for some reason where we spent about 30p on 30 minutes entertainment.. not quite a ping pong show I must say.

The next day we knew that we had to check out by 12pm at the latest unless we wanted to pay an extra 400 baht. In preparation for this we had set our alarms for about 10am giving us plenty of time to get our stuff together and check out. Unfortunately when we finally woke up we had several messages from Iona saying she had been knocking on our door and there was no response. It was 12.05pm when we woke in fact and the hotel were pestering us to get out of the place which we intended on doing as fast as possible. So.. at 12.35pm we checked out and organised to meet Iona and Katie at MBK before we ventured north and they ventured home.

Not really knowing how to get north we stopped off in the nearest travel agents and proceeded to book a bus to Chiang Mai which was to take 10 hours at a mere cost of 650 baht. The bus was set to leave at around 6pm giving us plenty of time to enjoy another one of those mad moped races across town. 100 baht later and we were at MBK and planned to meet up with the girls in several locations before actually managing to track them down. An hour or so passed and a trip to Dunkin Donuts later and we were set to leave. The traffic had increased substantially by this time and so a moped seemed our only option. So agreeing a 500 baht fee for 4 of us we raced back to Khao San for a last farewell.

Upon arriving we did a bit of last minute shopping and haggling and we all managed to get ourselves into the Thai Education System by featuring on Thai University TV. We had to say a few words in Thai but for the most were interviewed in English by a rather over enthusiastic presenter. When asked, ''Is this your first time on Khao San?'' We replied, ''Yes! We're Thai Virgins!''... not sure how that is going to be recieved back at the university. It was then time to head back and collect our bags saying our goodbyes to Iona and Katie before they jetted off back to Heathrow! It was our turn to get on the bus in order to head north where we intended on then venturing across the border to Laos to do some tubing!

The bus pulled up and 10 minutes later we were in our leather reclining seats and ready to go. The journey seemed long but Jack and I were pretty tired and so intended on getting some sleep which we hoped would take up a fare share of the trip. 1 hour in and we both decided to try and get some sleep. On the verge of falling into a deep sleep I was awoken by a rather vocal Thai man that sat on the chair opposite. For the next 45 minutes I watched the road as everyone around me was sleeping.. and then... BAD NEWS! Laos was flooded and there was 400 mm of rain minimum predicted for the following 5 days. Suddenly tubing didn't sound so fun!

Jack awoke a few minutes later and when I delivered the message we both considered the fact that we were about to waste the next 10 hours of our life going to a place that we didn't really want to go. As there was little we could do about it we allowed the journey to continue and after about 5 hours we stopped at a Thai Service Station.. not quite the Moto's we are used to in the UK. This was a open barn with a few stalls, a small shop and some rather interesting toilets. We were to be allowed 40 minutes in this interesting place in which time we bought a bottle of the Thai Red Bull (M-150) and I purchased two cans of fanta that pretty much caused me to play BrickBreaker on my phone for the next two hours! NOT COOL! After the two hours I attempted to sleep again.. but the vocal Thai Man was not going to let that happen. He was persistent in making his rather weird and wonderful noises!

50km to Chiang Mai and 11 hours in we began to see the true beauty of the untouched north. With every intention of stepping off the bus and getting straight on a plane to Ko Samui we did not really have high hopes. However upon arriving at our drop off point a number of taxis picked us up and provided free transport to our hotel that we were to stay in. As Jack and I were extremely tired and were in desperate need of a shower we accepted the invitation and head to the Thana Hotel.. a mistake! When we arrived we inspected a room which at first glance was very nice and we were both on the verge of saying..''We'll take it'' UNTIL a lizard decided to show up and run across the wall, at which point we picked up our bags and headed out of there. Completely lost we stumbled upon two backpackers who were heading to a hostel called Julies that apparently was better than The Thana! We arrived at Julies and then had to wait until 8am (7.15am currently) to try and get a room.

During this time we contemplated going to the airport and getting a flight out of here as the mosquito concentration in the toilets did not compliment the hostel in any way. Finally 8am came and there was 'unfortunately' no rooms to be rented which brought a small smile to both our faces! We then hopped in a tuk tuk and headed to the bigger hotels in town. 50 baht later and we were there; the hotel proved to be 2000 baht a night, which was just outside our price bracket so once again we flagged down a tuk tuk driver and asked him to take us somewhere else. He took us to the CM Bazaar which was 750 baht a night but has TV, En Suite, Mini Bar and no bloody lizards crawling over the walls. We promptly took the room and then proceeded to sleep from 9am until 6pm catching up on some much needed rest. When we awoke I had a text from Martin (a person we had met in Bangkok who was in Chiang Mai) who invited us to go and have something to eat with them. We quickly showered and headed out meeting up with him and his friend as well as two american travellers. After eating and playing some good old drinking games we headed to see some Thai Boxing. After paying a small fee to get in we sat down and watched some pretty brutal boxing, which was then followed by some Cock Fighting! However for our friend Gareth this was not enough. He proceeded to pay 300 baht to actually step in the ring with a Thai Boxer. Of course they took his money and accepted which prompted him to strip to his boxers and step into the ring. Of course he did not come off well against the professional but it was a great laugh.

In search of another drink we then hopped in another tuk tuk who promised to take us to this roof top bar. Instead he took us to a brothel that was not too inviting. We jumped straight back in the tuk tuk and parted ways promising to meet up tomorrow. The tuk tuk driver then took around 30 minutes to find our hotel taking us to three seperate locations first! Alas we arrived home and are now preparing ourselves for some jungle trekking tomorrow! After our initial bad start in Chiang Mai things have turned out for the best and we now intend on staying here until Monday when we want to fly down south for some SUN!

After managing to arrive at Khao San Road a little after 1pm we were greeted with the hustle and bustle of a thriving street that in parts doesn't appear real. We had been advised to head for the Rambruttri Inn which was just off the main road so we asked a tuk tuk driver whether he knew where it was. Instead he suggested we go to the tourist office across town and he would be happy to take us for a mere 20 Baht so we decided to hop in.

When we arrived at the office we were met by a rather chubby, cheerful character who then sat us down and began to tell us what we can do whilst in thailand and how to get to Laos. However as time went on we became more and more aware that we might have fallen for one of the common cons with minutes of arriving on Khao San road. The chubby man then began to price everything up and was willing to book everything for 18000 Baht and couldn't understand why we didnt want to do it.

We managed to finally get out of there and the tuk tuk price had shot up to 250 Baht so instead we got in a taxi and paid about 150 Baht and upon arriving back on Khao San for the second time we realised we had indeed fell for a con as every tuk tuk driver came up to us suggesting we go to the tourist office for a small fee of 20 Baht... oh well we've learnt our lesson and it didn't cost us that much.

We finally found the Rambruttri Inn which comes complete with air con, en suite and a roof top swimming for the small sum of 800 Baht a night for two of us. We booked ourselves in and headed up to the room where we dumped our stuff and then decided to go and do some exploring. So we walked around for an hour or so looking at all the stalls and marvelling at the sights before deciding to head to MBK shopping centre on the other side of town. We enlisted the help of a moped taxi and on we went.

The two mopeds went their seperate ways and we raced through the manic streets of Bangkok weaving in and out of cars and running several red lights on the way. At one point I managed to get my camera out and record some of the journey and it has to be seen to be believd. We then spent a few hours at MBK looking at things and haggling with shop owners and then after Jack destroyed a double Big Mac we headed home.

By the time we got home it was dark and Khao San Road had completely transformed into a party central so we hurried back to the room, had a quick shower and heading out hitting a street side bar which promised 'Extra Strong' Cocktails for 80 Baht. After having this we then walked across the road where we drank a couple of buckets full of cocktail. As you can imagine we were feeling pretty merry after this. We then got chatting to these two guys who were from england and started drinking with them before moving on...

The next stop was to be a ping pong show.. something again which has to be seen to be believed! By this point we had met two girls as well and so we divided into pairs and rode tuk tuks there persuading the driver it was a race which he seemed to listen to and continued to run reds, weave in and out and drive in a mental type of way. The show was a little strange (i've never seen candles on a cake be blown out in such a way). Afterwards we headed back home and again raced through the streets and Gareth and were then crowned champions of tuk tuk racing!

We then had another couple of hours drinking and chatting and then went our seperate ways promising we would get up early and go see some sights. 3pm the next day we woke up with a knock on the door saying we have to check out so in no fit state to move we both agreed to stay another night. Promptly after this we got up, had something to eat and then walked around. Eventually we bumped into a thai man who we walked with to the temple on the other side of town and then went to sit in a park which was very busy with people exercising.

A short tuk tuk ride later we were back at the hotel and we parted ways with the old man and that is it for day 2!

After one mammoth journey we finally arrived in Bangkok a little before 8.30pm local time (1.30pm GMT). Our journey had seen us stop in Sri Lanka for a brief spell of about 7 hours and after not managing to sleep much on the flight from Heathrow to Colombo and Jack taking full advantage of the free bar this felt like an eternity. Therefore from before we took off in Colombo to a short tmie before we landed in Bangkok, Jack and I were flat out - unable unfortunately to take advantage of the fantastic and unexpected hospitality of Sri Lankan Airlines.

Upon arriving in Bangkok we knew we had reservations at probably one of the nicest hotels in Bangkok (if not Thailand) - The Marriot Spa & Resort. However, little did we know, Bangkok does in fact have two Marriott hotels and so after rather hastily jumping into a taxi and asking for J W Marriott we were taken there. Four hundred Baht later and we realised we were in the wrong hotel and our reservation was at the one across town.

Luckily for us we were able to get a taxi for a further 200 Baht and at about 10.30pm we finally arrived at our hotel. It was a wonderful hotel - luxury that we probably wouldn't see again on this holiday. After a quick swim, a homemade pizza and a poolside beer we ventured off to bed and promised ourselves to be up early the next morning to take advanatge of the spa, pool and all english breakfast - however upon waking up it turned out to be 10.50am and it would appear that we had missed our opportunity as we had to check out at 12pm. Therefore we quickly put on swimming shorts and had a swim and a cocktail poolside; then rushing back up to the room and managing to check out early.

Our next move is likely to head into Bangkok centre and book into a hotel for this evening. Once checked in we intend on heading to see some sights of the busy and vibrant city!

A mere 12 hours before my flight to thailand and I'm all packed and ready to go. Keep coming back to check on my progress through the far east! x