The Beach

Hua Hin is a much nicer place to holiday than Bangkok. Everything is cheaper and the people are friendlier. There are no go go bars here and lots of westerners, mainly Scandanavians. After watching the football and having a few drinks. I checked my emails and found my house sale had fallen through once again. My larger travel abitions will have to be put on hold once again. I decided to drink myself happy at a local bar called Beer House. Everywhere closes here at 2am - but I was happy to go back to my bed in any case.

My feet have improved greatly and the purchase of some new flip flops has helped too. You would not believe how hard it is to find shoes that fit me out here - or swimming trunks for that matter. I finally found a shop that sold goods intended for the western market at western prices.

Today I finally got to rest. I awoke early and made my way to the beach to read the latest ben elton novel. I was constantly approached by beach vendors who would just stand next to me showing me things until i told them to go away. I was getting irritated - but then realised I could use them to provide me with a little extra shade. My plan was ineffective though as I am a nice lobster colour now. The beach was not as nice as I had imagined although I am told that the best beaches are to be found on the islands and maybe down in Phuket. I had a swim in the particularly warm sea avoiding the jelly fish and found myself a small hermet crab to pester for a few minutes. The water here is not very clear and my camera is useless in such water. Im hoping to get some good photos whilst snorkelling next week. My most promising discovery was monkey mountain ... I could only see it from the distance but after asking around I was told that there is a temple full of monkeys up there. I intend to visit the place on tuesday.

I spent the later part of the day in the pool as David and Carol have turned up for Janets impending birthday party tomorrow and we all went to meet them . No exploring for me tomorrow. Just the pool a BBQ and lots of Singha beer. Perfect.

Unfortunatley several of todays photos have been lost after my xd card failed - I do however have a spare. Lets hope this one holds out on me. Im off to dinner now on the beach for some seafood based Thai cuisine.

Goodbye Bangkok, Hello Hua Hin

Last night was a particularly late night out with cousin Paul looking for bars with travellers & western ladies rather than Thai prostitutes. The problem we encountered was that everywhere seems to close at 2am. I find this particularly strange that in a country where it seems almost anything goes you cannot get a drink anywhere other than your hotel - or an illegal bar after 2am. We asked tuk tuk driver after tuk tuk driver if they could find somewhere for us to drink with fellow travellers - and once again instead of listening to us took us to go go bars. Eventually we settled on an inoffensive go go bar where most of the women had already been sold for the night - and there were a group of western girls standing outside with their boyfriends a little confused as to why the tuk tuk drivers had took them there. We chatted with a few of them and they advised us of locations they had got from the net for late night drinking.

I decided that taxi drivers were more honest chauffeurs and we hopped into one of the electric pink taxis that are plentiful in this city. He tried to find us a bar - but with little luck - after an hour of driving around our taxi driver explained that the no late alcohol law is a recent rule that has only come into force since the coup a little while ago. "That's no good is it!" I explained to the taxi driver..... he gave me a disapproving look I decided to let the matter drop and instead asked him to drive Paul and myself for some authentic Thai McDonald's (Open 24 hours, a third of the price and they deliver). I wasn't too disappointed that i didn't get to stay out all night. After all I was travelling to Hua Hin the next morning - and had to check out early. I also managed to meet some adult elephants this time. Good stuff!

The journey to Hua Hin wasn't too bad. About 2 hours. The hotel is nice and is around £8 per night per person, although it is nothing compared to the place that Pauls late uncle had built. We all had a dip in the pool there a few beers and decided to try out my underwater camera.

I intend to inspect the town tonight. It is immediately clear that it is a million miles away from the cacophony of people cars and animals that is Bangkok. I understand that it is primarily a golf resort and that the king of Thailand plays here regularly. Hua Hin's food and beer prices appear cheaper than Bangkok - I was told this was the case - and it has put my mind at rest that Im not going over budget. It gets very confusing handing over 1000 bhat notes - it seems like it should be more money than it actually is (£16ish). In fact I have only spent £115 so far and have managed to get some clothes. So Im doing well.

Apart from that, I continue to be plagued by problems with my feet. As one is getting better the other is getting worse. I think a day at the beach might be in order tomorrow. Anyway, its time to eat now. Steak and chips for £1.50! Happy days.

Ping Pong in Patpong

True to form, despite claiming to be tired I managed to pull an all night drinking session out of the hat. I have had 2 hours sleep since I got here and am absolutely shattered. Tomorrow its off to Hua Hin for some R & R on the beach.

Bangkok is a huge city - that isn't clearly laid out at all. There are several districts specialising in different things such as clothing, electronics etc.. but they are vastly spread out. There is no city centre. This place was definitely not designed with the man on foot in mind.

After speaking with the guys, we decided to check out Patpong - Bangkok's notorious red light district. This is not somewhere you should go if you are easily shocked or looking for a quiet relaxing time.

On arrival the first thing I was encountered by was a young elephant. Great! I'm very fond of elephants and monkeys. This place has both. I asked his owner if he was friendly and if I could touch him. The man agreed and very quickly another man appeared with a bag of food that i had to buy. Oh well, it was only 50p. I held the food behind me and gave the magnificent creature a single piece of exotic looking fruit. The elephant came up to me and started to rub me with his trunk - in way much more intimate than most of the Thai street girls trying to grab your arse/attention. His owner explained that he gets impatient and I shouldn't hold out giving him the food in individual pieces otherwise he will go looking for them. I left with a smile on my face and continued down the Patpong strip. We were immediately homed in on by lots of thai men claiming that they were our friends and that they wanted to want to help us out. I have heard are on a commission if i have a drink in a certain bar or sleep with a certain woman. It started to become very tiresome - and we weren't getting in much drinking. Eventually we decided on a visit to a ping pong show.

Once inside we were shown to our seats by the Mama. our beer was cold the price was right - and in 10 minutes the show was going to be on. The first lady inserted a pair of chopsticks into her private area and proceeded to pick up a series of hoops that were on the ground. Then she wandered round to every man in the bar and dropped one of the hoops over it. I decided at that point to hold onto my beer from then on. The second lady managed to suck up a half litre coke bottle inside her and empty it into an adjacent bottle. Also impressive. Next was the act we had been waiting for. The Mama walked round and handed each person a ping pong bat. I have never seen anything like that in my life before. She could aim it with an accuracy and range that would put even a veteran ping pong player to shame. If you managed to knock it back to her she would re-insert it and fire again. Paul got a nice rally going - i was less successful.

Most of the girls in these places are available for hire and as soon as the act was over we were swarmed by scantily clad Thai girls. Who were willing to tell you whatever you wanted to hear. If the Mama saw one of her girls wasn't having much luck with a man she would either replace her or shout at her in Thai - and the girls attitude would change completely. From flirty, to touchy, even to hostile. I quickly became aware that the exploitation runs both ways here. After having one of the ladies of the night lick my ear, I'd had enough of them sitting with us - expecting drinks. I told the mama that I wasn't interested. She said that if I didn't like girls - she could find me a man. I declined and we decided to check out next door instead. Bar after bar was the same. I was very concerned by how young some of the girls seemed and also how unhappy some of them seemed. After 2am in Bangkok its impossible to go for a drink anywhere other than a go go bar. We finally settled in a bar where the girls were dancing behind the bar with numbers on, seemed all to be old enough and had a smile on their face.

I sat down and looked to my left there was a Scottish lady there with a pair of devil horns on. I asked her what had brought her to one of these places? She explained that she was here with her new husband on honeymoon. "What on earth possessed you to let your husband take you here for your honeymoon" I enquired. "Actually, It was my idea" she replied. Her husband promptly returned to his seat next to her with a Thai girl on each arm. I decided to let the matter drop.

Finally at 6am I gave up the battle to stay up till sunrise and we booked a tuk tuk back to the hotel. I didn't know they were so rapid. As we cleared a flyover I swear we had some lift off. Paul decided to sleep out on the balcony whilst I opted for the luxury of air conditioning. It didn't seem to make much difference though as soon as my head hit the pillow I was being awoken to join people for breakfast.

After breakfast it was clothes and electrical goods shopping. we went to the MBK center and proceeded to look around for cheap imitation clothes and electrical items. In this center there must be 500 shops all selling the same thing - I don't know why they just don't have one big shop. I got some t-shirts for about one pound each and Paul bought a PSP for a little less than you can buy it for in the UK. However, the real treat was that the games are one pound each instead of forty back home. As we left i noticed that this place, much like several of the other malls I have been to do not have automatic sliding doors. Instead opting for door attendants. Either salaries are very low over here or sliding doors are too expensive.

I'm going to jump in a taxi now and head back to my hotel as I've managed to quite badly bruise my ankle on a piece of furniture - and want to rest it up. I also need some sleep before I go exploring again tonight. Lets hope its a little less sordid this time.

One Night In Bangkok

I departed Chingford around 2.30pm English time and made my way to the airport for my 9.30pm flight. Everything went well and I slept most of the way there - after requesting an upgrade I got given the seat next to the wing which has no one in front of it, happy days! Sadly, I missed both the in flight meals. On arrival at Suvarnabhumi airport i was very aware the first things I needed to do were check in to my hotel, find something to eat and then freshen up.

We are all staying at the Somerset hotel - and due to a stroke of good fortune I have been upgraded to a suite - I have 2 bathrooms and 3 bedrooms - nice. I put my valuables in the safe took a quick photo from my 15th floor suite and made my way downstairs to enquire about an Internet cafe. It soon became clear that the staff didn't understand my particular brand of English despite claiming to speak it. Not to worry, after a brief game of charades I was back on track and a very helpful man who insisted on holding doors open for me and calling me sir a lot led me to his tuk tuk (a small 6 seater taxi with open sides and a small engine on it.) Traffic in Bangkok is a nightmare - and the drivers are even scarier - if the traffic moved a little faster, I probably wouldn't have got on it. He took me to a place to buy clothes called the Emporium. After walking around Gucci and Armani shops for a bit I realised that I had not conveyed myself correctly to my tuk tuk man - I was looking for a Bangkok street market. Despite being alone in a strange city I decided to go wandering. It didn't feel like the other side of the world. I had his overwhelming feeling of being safe mainly because I am a giant here - and secondly that every 3rd shop is a 7 eleven or Tescos.

The first lesson I learned was how to cross the road. People here don't respect boundaries like pavements or red lights - anything goes. I'd been to a place like this before - Naples! I wandered for 2 miles following the route of the overhead skytrain - on the assumption that the internet cafe I so desperately required would be near a station. It appeared I was wrong. If every third shop is a 7 eleven then every 1st and 2nd shop is a massage parlour or go go bar. Eventually I found a McDonalds and had myself as much as I could eat for around 1.50 UK money - met some helpful Londoners who pointed me in the right direction and made my way to the cafe. As I walked too it - I was very aware of noises and smells coming from everywhere. The trees seem to make noises like maracas being shook very quickly - Im not sure if its an insect or a bird. The smells, come partially from the myriad of food stalls selling things that I wouldn't even touch - let alone put in my mouth and there is also that sewage smell that seems to plague hot poor places. Bangkok is a place of real contrast, parts are very wealthy and affluent - and could compete with any major western city - but then you look to the right of a 50 storey glass skyscraper and there is a shanty town in its shadow. You wouldn't get that on Manhattan island.

The boys want to hit the town tonight - but I'm not sure if I'm up for it. I do have another night here before travelling to Hua Hin - and probably a couple of nights here before I finally return as I have to depart from the same airport. I'm going back to freshen up now - lets see what happens.

Rabies

I awoke this morning to do some last minute packing. I should be excited but feel incredibly feverish after my 2nd rabies vaccination yesterday. The bags are packed now and the paracetamol has started to kick in now.

I have hardly packed any clothes instead hoping to buy most of my clothing out there. I'm told that there are lots of cheap imitation goods. Which should go down well with my chav cousin.

I'm fully prepared with regards to phone and internet services and am bringing along two cameras and a video camera - so i should be able to get some good footage up here.

Ok its off to work now to say a final goodbye to my work colleagues and then off to the airport. Lets hope I can sleep most of the 13 hour flight. I think we land at 9am - so getting a good sleep on the plane is going to be a must. I just hope I feel better soon.

First Post

Hi, as most of you know my name is Garry and tomorrow I set off travelling. I had the plan about a year ago, after becoming somewhat disillusioned with life in London and working in financial services. I have been working towards tomorrow ever since.

This is my blog where I will be keeping everyone up to date with regards to my adventures. Im starting in Bangkok travelling with 10+ members of my friends and family. I should be making my way down to singapore stopping of at many places along the way. Then who knows? Im really excited about going - but a little aprehensive about leaving my house, my friends and my family for so long. The most I have ever been away for before is 2 weeks.

My english phone number is 07970035540 if you need to contact me. I will post my Thai number as soon as I have one. To contact me by email please use the address: garry@mastersofcreation.com.