I knew those socks would come in useful

6 blisters later, a couple of lungfuls of seawater and I'm now allegedly competent enough to go diving without an instructor (ha!)

After a pretty painful (but still enjoyable) first day yesterday, my feet were a mess. Slightly too large flippers, seawater and lots of movement resulted in blister hell. I thought I was safe on the way back until we had to paddle to shore from the pickup boat. As everyone knows, salt on wounds friggin really huuurrrttttsssss. And yes I know I'm not going to get any sympathy :-) Consider this a lesson learnt.

With the aid of my entire supply on bandages used up (note: buy more...), a pair of trainer (sneakers for the US gang) socks and I'm ready to drown/dive again today. Muuuchhh better! Socks and diving are the way forward I feel.

Rather than waffle on about what was seen down there, I'll post some pics when I get my grubby mitts on them tomorrow. (Edit: luckily you can't see the stylish socks, but trust me they are there.)

Beer o'clock over here!

PS. Another fine Leeds loss, keep it up boys... *sigh*

No news is good news

Yes, I'm alive. SCUBA diving starts tomorrow so may not be come tomorrow evening...

No much to report recently other than many many Singhas have been drunk, I may have been drunk, and the sunsets seem to outdo each other every night.

Anyone know the speed limit on the Thai roads?

Sun, sea, sunsets and stars

Welcome to the beach! After picking up a 50-a-day habit from the streets of Bangkok (some of that to follow later on when I have more time) I've now arrived on Ko Lanta with it's fresh fresh air, and have been admiring all it has to offer. It helps to view sunset with a beer or two and some good music in the background I find :-)

When I can figure out how to post some flippin' pics, I will... I don't do I.T. it seems... (Edit: figured...)

Hello again stranger!

A slightly bizarre but nonetheless very enjoyable day.

I figured I'd have a bit of a cruise on the river boats today and started off by heading in the wrong direction (on purpose for a change). About a mile to the north of where I was staying is Victory Monument. As it wasn't mentioned in the guide book and was pretty close to home, I thought I'd head there and have a look. It's basically, a big monument, in the middle of a roundabout. Impressively big, I'll give it that. Anyway, my ulterior motive for going there was that there's a skytrain station that I can use to get down to Saphan Taksin where one of the river boat services stop at.

Foolish old me thought this would bypass some of the Bangkok smog, but nope, the river is pretty much like one of the roads. I eventually get off at the stop for Th. Khao San (where pretty much all the backpack crowd end up at some point) and amble along it. If you want to get pre-made dreadlocks woven into your hair, this is the place to go. A welcome chunk of chilled pineapple keeps me going.

Next up, Golden Mountain. With my inert sense of direction in top gear I get close but end up heading in slightly the wrong direction. At a junction, who should I meet but Mr Friendly Local (turns out he's called 'Sam', i think he said his real name was Somwat, but Sam works too) from yesterday. We have another chat and he points me in the right direction and ends up coming along too. At the Wat on Golden Mountain, he shows me how to use fortune sticks
(I get a number 9, same as my birthday, and a 'yes' for whether it's the right stick or not) and the results were quite interesting - I don't normally believe in this type of rubbish thing but the fortune was scarily accurate (Chris, I'll send you the details, you may find it funny :-).

After this we go on a whirlwind tour of other nearby Wats (complete with monk sweeping up petals while jabbering away on his mobile phone and another young monk being initiated - not the right word but you know what I mean...), Thai boxing gyms, backstreet market alleys complete with running commentary from Sam. I wish I had a GPS tracker to know where on earth we'd actually been to. He eventually deposits me on the main road close to home and I give him a bit of cash to get a beer or 3 (I'm sure that was his plan from the start but he was an amusing guy and gave me a different view of the sights).

Tomorrow I'm flying to Krabi in the south of Thailand and need to be heading to the airport by 8am, so it' an early'ish night for me.

Wat to do, wat to do...

Phew, it ain't half hot mum!

Jet lag seems to be working in my favour for a change and instead of crawling out of bed at the usual 11am or so, getting up at 8am seems remarkably straightforward. First things first, it's straight to the MBK shopping centre to pick up a camera lens (kinda tricky taking snaps of anything without this...). Nowhere in England had the one I was after but seeing as they actually make the stupid thing here it's a piece of pie to acquire a new bit of techno wizardry.

After a green tea frozen drink thing to wake me up a bit more I wandered down to the Royal palace and Wat Pho to see the impressive 40+ metre long Buddha. Not far from this area are streets lined with shops selling either lots of Chinese New Year related stuff (18th Feb) or Buddhas'R'Us stocked with golden Buddhas in every imaginable size and pose. On the way back to the accommodation, I chatted to a friendly local for a while who was recommending some more Wats to go visit - I was pretty much Buddha'ed out by this point (and the smog was starting to eat away at my lungs) so thanked him anyway and made my way home.

In the evening, I ventured down to Sinom, a bit south of central Bangkok, and found myself surrounded by lots of other pasty sun burnt farangs (Westerners) - glad to see I wasn't the only one! :-). A nice bit of spicy soup and a big beer to finish off the day!

Perfect timing

'Heavy snow causes transport chaos'

Edit: Other than the usual ridiculous check-in times these days, no probs. From 0C to 32C in one easy step!

"Will 60 pairs of socks be enough?"

I hate packing. I always forget something crucial. Doesn't help that I need to take 6 months worth of contact lenses... might be time to laser them eyes when I get back.

England is doing it's best to try and tempt me to stay with some unseasonally nice weather - nice try!