On Thursday the 14th April myself and Maddy shall be setting off for Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, China and then Japan.
Here I will do my best to keep anyone who might be interested up to date!
You can see Maddy's blog at www.madeleineinasia.blogspot.com
I forgot to mention on the previous post - on our way to the border we stopped off at a temple called the White Temple. It was a really beautiful building but seemed to be going through something of an identity crisis. Inside the temple the had the usual Buddha and spiritual stuff on one wall and then on the other a massive graffiti wall with pictures of Spiderman, Batman and Converse shoes, lots more stuff like that. Bizarre! They also had a statue of predator sunk into the ground around the temple. Never seen anything like it!
On to matters more recent; we're now in Cambodia, and are staying at a place with a decent internet connection and free computers - so the photos are constantly uploading and the blogs should be up to date within the next few days (hopefully).
Luang Prabang is a picturesque little town in northern Laos situated where the Mekong River and the Nam Khan River meet. It was the capital of the old Luang Prabang kingdom, which used to be protected by the French. Because of this it has a pretty unique flavour, it seems more like a quaint village somewhere in France than in Southeast Asia. The food was great; baguettes sold on the street, we found a great little Italian restaurant as well as an incredible bakery that sold some great bagels for breakfast. There was also loads to see and do, and it had a completely relaxed vibe about it - we loved Luang Prabang.
We headed out to check out some waterfalls about 30km out of town. Originally the plan was to cycle but we were warned off doing that by the guys at our guesthouse who told us it was all uphill and that it would be too much in the humidity - after the tuk-tuk ride up there i'm pretty thankful for the warning. The waterfalls were incredible, we met some really cool people on our tuk-tuk up there and later on bumped into the guys we had met on the journey to Luang Prabang. The waterfalls were a series of smaller ones all leading up to a huge one - along the way there were some little pools where you could swim - one with a ropeswing too. Lots of fun!
That evening we headed bowling. In Luang Prabang there is an 11.30pm curfew, so that is what time the bars finish and the noise stops. For life after the curfew you have two choices; a gay friendly discoteque, or a bowling alley. It was all a bit bizarre to be honest. So we hit the bowling alley and bought a few bottles of lion whiskey (a local brew), we later bumped into some more people who had stayed behind to catch the slowboat, and the guys we had been with for Koh Phi Phi and Koh Lanta (the southeast asia travelling circuit is smaller than one might think). The bowling was good fun, though it got progressively worse as the whiskey kicked in. I managed to win both games too - great success!
The following day we chartered a private boat to to take a group of 11 of us (the guys we met on the journey) up to Pak Ou Caves, a journey which would allow us to see some of the scenery along the Mekong that we would have seen on the slowboat. The boat was great, and the scenery on the journey was beautiful - I can't really state enough how beautiful Laos is as a country. The caves were a waste of time though, and really not worth the entrance fee, we also got taken to a dodgy little village with people trying to sell us things - we didn't stay there long. That night we got some dinner, went for a massage (I think I got the short straw because mine wasn't very good, everyone else loved theirs) and then crashed pretty early.
On our last day in Luang Prabang we rented bicycles - because it was so quiet it was a pretty easy place to cycle around. We headed to a couple of temples but we were really feeling templed out by this point (to be honest, most of them are pretty much the same) - and everywhere kept trying to make us pay entrance fees all the time which for alot of the places really wasn't worth it. We climbed up to the top of Mount Phoussi (pronounced Mount Pussy, apparently), which gave a spectacular view of Luang Prabang, and generally had a bit of an explore. Finished up by going to a swimming pool and chilling out.
That night we finally got a chance to check out the night market properly - we had been meaning too each night but kept missing it as it started to pack up at 10pm. Got some awesome cozy little slippers and some more hippy baggy trousers. I'm anticipating they will both get rolled out for some lazy sundays.
Forgot to update my reading list but in the meantime I finished Nineteen Eighty Four and Freakanomics. Both good in their own very different ways.
At the swimming pool the played this tune, which is probably my favourite by The Cinematic Orchestra. It's got a completely chilled out vibe which fitted the setting perfectly.
The plan: 10am Saturday leave Chiang Mai for Chiang Khong (about 6 hours). Travel across the border into Huay Xai, Laos. Stay the night. 10am leave on the slowboat to Luang Prabang - this takes two days in total with an overnight stay at Pakbeng, arrive in LP at around 5pm on Monday.
The first stretch was pretty horrendous, lots of ridiculously winding roads, but we made it to Chiang Khong to be greeted with lots of confusion as to what was going on. Most of the people we travelled with were spending the evening on the Thai side of the border, but we had to get over to Laos or pay a fine for overstaying on our visa. This was all supposed to be fine when we booked through our hostel but the people here seemed a bit unsure about it. All the travel companies give you a little sticker saying where you are going to, and we were both given stickers saying to Luang Prabang by VIP bus - first off, we didn't even know there was a bus, it turns out it was substantially less than we had paid for the slowboat as the slowboat is supposed to be a bit of an attraction in itself. We explained that we booked the slowboat but he wouldn't give us a sticker for the slowboat, and just kept telling us to see his sister in Laos, show her our ticket and it would all get sorted. We protested, but conviniently he couldn't understand English after that.
We headed over the border (a minute long boat ride across the river) and pais for our Laos visa, with the extra overtime charge for arriving after 4pm etc. When we spoke to the guy from the travel agent in Laos he was trying to get us on the VIP bus. We kept explaining we were on the slowboat, and showed him our ticket, but he protested that if we had the VIP bus sticker then we must go on the VIP bus. We actually considered it for a bit because the VIP bus would have arrived in Luang Prabang the next morning, saving us a day and a half of travelling time. But since we paid the extra we thought we should stick with the slowboat, which also included some free accommodation that evening. Eventually the guy we were speaking to rang his boss and sorted out our accomodation, told us to meet him in front of our accomodation at 8.30am the next day.
Huay Xai, where we stayed, was a complete dump to be honest. I'm not sure if we were just in the wrong part but we walked for about an hour up and down the road with our hostel in search of a bar or restaurant but couldn't find a thing. Eventually we headed back to our hostel and thankfully they had a tv with sports channels so i got to watch the FA cup final which made me pretty happy!
The next morning we were basically waiting around for a couple of hours before anything had happened, eventually some of the guys who we travelled to Chiang Khong showed up having crossed the border that morning. We were taken in a tuk tuk for about 15 minutes to a place near where the slowboats departed - basically a little cafe/shop with a waiting area, where they were charging about 4 times the price of the places up the road. The currency in Laos is seriously confusing and I think they were trying to exploit the people that were new in town (like ourselves). After lots of waiting and more turning up we were finally given a bit of a briefing - the guy from the night before told us a couple of things to watch out for and emphasised his companies commitment to a good service, and hoped we would recommend them to our friends (which after how rude this guy had been was already laughable at this point) - he also encouraged everybody to pay in advance for his hostel at the stop off in Pakbeng .
About five minutes later he came over to us and said that unfortunately due to the rain, the slowboats had all been cancelled and we would either have to wait until tomorrow (and pay for an extra night - he recommended his hostel of course), or he could put us on the bus that evening. I won't labour through the details too much since the day was very long and drawn out - but basically the boats had left, and this guy we're pretty sure had never booked our tickets in the first place. If we all went on the bus then he could pocket the difference between the ticket for the slowboat and the ticket for the bus.
Essentially we all know we were being ripped off but there was absolutely nothing we could do about it, he had our money and we had no tickets, we either left and lost our money or let him rip us off. When we asked him he was just rude and told us if we wanted our money back we had to go back to Thailand where we paid the money (obviously knowing we couldn't do this). Anytime we tried to press on anything he just claimed to not understand - the guy was a complete pirate.
Eventually, not wanting to lose another day, we decided to get the bus to Luang Prabang that evening. Which was especially annoying since we could have done the same last night and already been there at that point. The silver lining was that we met some great people that we have spent the past week with, so I suppose there was something positive to come out of it.
Our bus arrived in Luang Prabang at 4am - nothing was happening, we had nowhere to go, we'd barely slept all night with the bus constantly going down winding roads and the driver playing some awful music really loud. The tuk-tuk drivers ripped us off to take us in to town - again we knew what was going on, but we had no alternative. We pulled up at our hostel which was all locked up - thankfully they had a bed and a chair out the front which we slept on for a couple of hours til we heard some noise - our room was ready so thankfully we could get to bed.
We've been in Laos for a week now - we'd all been told so much about how friendly the people of Laos were, but we're yet to see it. We have just been treated like walking ATMs everywhere we've been. People will smile and be friendly, then as soon as you pay for something they won't look you in the face. Again we had problems with travel when we booked a 12 person minivan from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng, when the bus turned up with 11 seats the guy who booked it didn't want to know unless we paid extra money for an extra minivan. I'm not sure if this is all a result of being in touristy places but it has been getting a little tiring.
Laos itself is beautiful - we have loads of pictures but are really struggling to get up to date, I will post more about some actual places when the photos are up and I get the time. The currency here is crazy though, it's roughly 13,000kip to the pound. The biggest note is 50,000, and it's near impossible to tell 1,000, 2,000 and 10,000 notes apart - things get confusing quickly.
Chiang Mai was great. It was alot more laidback than Bangkok which was exactly what we needed after a few days there. We stayed in a nice little hotel in the old city which was literally right next door to one of the bigger temples. It was really nice and the staff were really friendly.
We spent about half a day walking round and looking at the temples but to be honest at this point we were feeling a bit templed-out, and really alot of them look exactly the same. Got a few good pictures nonetheless. We got hit by rain a few times in Chiang Mai - it's quite strange, you get an hour or so where it rains really, really heavily and then ten minutes later it has cleared and is roasting hot again.
The next day we went and did a cooking course which was loads of fun. We cooked 6 dishes in total which were all really good. Our teacher was a really funny camp Thai guy called Pong. He made it a really fun day and we got a cookbook at the end with everything in, so i'll hopefully be able to show some of you my skills when I get back - the biggest probelm will be finding alot of the ingredients which we picked up fresh from local markets. When we cooked the stir fry we had to add the water to the oil which sets all the oil on fire so there was about 3 feet of fire flying out the pan - utterly terrifying (got some good videos for later). There was far too much food to go around so we took loads of it home too which the hotel heated up for us at night. Good times.
That night we went to see some Thai boxing (Muay Thai). We had wanted to go in Bangkok but the tickets were a bit too much (40 pounds each), here they were only about 8 pounds so we gave it a go. The night was pretty good, the first few fights were with what seemed to be really young children which felt a little bit wrong, but things picked up. The main fight was between an American and a Thai (billed as 'international war'). The American won. The highlight though was definitely the 'special fight'. Was absolutely ridiculous, and stupid but they put four Thai boxers in the right at once, blindfolded them, and them let them loose on each other. It was just carnage, the ref took quite a few blows too. No photos but we got a god video which I will try to upload at some point.
The day after that we visited the Elephant Park (loads of photos up). The day was really great, spent the morning learning about the Mahout (elephant riders), and learning some commands in Thai. We practiced these out on the elephants and spent a bit of time feeding them and such. After some lunch we headed out on a trek with the elephants. We were riding them bareback which was a little uncomfortable at times but great fun. It ended up with us heading to the river to wash the elephants and generally having a bit of a water fight.
Our last day ended up with us having quite alot of bits to sort out and some shopping to do (a trip to Boots before Laos). We planned to go up to another temple which was on top of a big hill (apparently with a great view), but the rain got in the way of that one. That night we got Thai massages which was absolute bliss - we wanted to go back for another one in the morning before our bus journey but unfortunately they weren't open in time. We had a quick look around the night market and then headed back to get a good nights sleep before the journey ahead.
The plan: 10am Saturday leave Chiang Mai for Chiang Khong (about 6 hours). Travel across the border into Huay Xai, Laos. Stay the night. 10am leave on the slowboat to Luang Prabang - this takes two days in total with an overnight stay at Pakbeng, arrive in LP at around 5pm on Monday. Things didn't quite turn out that way though.....
Check the Andreya Triana album out. She's great, does the vocals on the latest Bonobo album, but here solo stuff is great too.
Finally got back to Bangkok after a pretty lengthy bus journey. It wasn't so bad but they had the air-con on so high that it was really cold. Too hot outside, too cold inside. Maddy snaked me and decided to take some socks on with her - she didn't tip me off. I remember waking up because my feet were so cold and feeling really bitter about that. Lesson learnt though I suppose!
Bangkok has been really busy for us, we've had loads of things we've needed/wanted to do so it has been a bit non-stop. I've dutifully spent alot of the time shopping, which in all honestly has been quite fun, but tiring. I've hippied it up a little bit and bought some baggy fishermans pants, we've also indulged in some dirty cheap knock off clothes - which is good because I've been running pretty low! We've also got a lot better at bartering now too.
There is a massive shopping centre here called MBK, which is great because it has air-con and some nice shops as well as indoor markets, so we've been there a couple of times. Me and Maddy had a game of wii-bowling on a rooftop bar in Koh Phi Phi and since then she has been goading me about how crap I am at bowling because she destroyed me - she was convinced that she would do the same with real bowling, so fortunately we had the chance to see if she was right! She wasn't, 168-76. I managed 4 strikes in a row at one point too, it was a good moment.
We've been feasting on some crappy fast food/western food in Bangkok while we've had the chance. The menues on all the islands have been basically identical, and we won't be anywhere as built up as Bangkok for quite a while, so had our fill while we were here. Double big mac was good, but absolute filth.
We also had to finish off our tour of the temples in Bangkok (kind of, way to many to see them all). The first day was quite funny. Lots of the tuk tuk drivers in Bangkok offer you a cheaper ride if they can take you to a couple of stops along the way, basically shops where the drivers are given a free bottle of gasoline for bringing the customers. We got a deal with a tuk tuk driver to take us to 4 temples, waiting for us outside each one if we would make a couple of stops, this cost us 10 baht (about 20p). We decided to give it a go. The third temple we stopped at (the only one we didn't ask to go to) was the 'lucky buddha', it was a tiny temple on a pretty small street. While we were there we bumped into a lovely off duty police officer who stopped to chat to us for a little while and seemed really genuine, told us all about his family and that it was his birthday and so on (also spent a while talking about the temples and what Thai people do at them). At the end, almost incidentally he told us about Sup Fashion - the best tailor in all of Asia (apparently), he claimed they make the suits for the Thai military and government, and that all his friends from London love them. He wished us well and went off on his way. After our visit to the lucky buddha, we stopped off at one of the shops the tuk tuk driver took us to. It was Sup Fashion! What a coincidence!!! Being the street savvy travellers that we are we clocked straight away that the guy from the temple was a set up. The seller in the Sup Fashion shop was very pushy and doing his best to get a deposit out of us that day (prices go up tomorrow - of course). We politely decilned and said we might return tomorrow (yeah right). Thought the whole thing was really funny to be honest - a quick google later that day confirmed our suspicions that the whole thing was a scam and other people had been approached by the same guy.
We bumped into some guys we met on the islands later that day, told them the story and one of their faces dropped - he'd put down a deposit for two suits!!
The "lucky buddha"
Giant Buddha
Bangkok has been a bit like that, in the touristy places at least you can't walk anywhere without being hassled constantly, but mixed among the people trying to scam you are alot of genuinely helpful people that have helped us out lots along the way. So I suppose we've tried to keep cautious without being too dismissive - it becomes obvious once people start asking for money or trying to take you places. The most useful phrase i've learnt is 'mai khob' (at least I think that's how you spell it), which means no thankyou - it doesn't matter how many times you say it in English you keep getting hassled, but saying it once in Thai people leave you alone straight away.
We did loads more in Bangkok - there are loads of photos (if you're curious). We visited the Grand Palace which was great, spent lots of time on Khao San Road too (we stayed just around the corner) which was both amazing and chaotic. Also got on an all you can eat sushi buffet - I always overindulge in buffets and feel like crap for the rest of the day - no restraint. I ate until I felt pretty ill and then ate a bit more for good measure. After that had a bit of chocolate ice cream to help keep things down (in my defence we were about to get on the bus, so it was lunch AND dinner).
Sushi time!
Khao San Road
A small part of the Grand Palace
On our last night in Bangkok we wanted to check out the Sky Bar on State Tower - a rooftop bar on the 63rd floor of a Bangkok skyscraper. We'd heard they are pretty harsh with the dresscode so I wore my smartest outfit which was my 3/4 length fishermans pants with my Birkenstocks (I took my trainers along just in case they briks wouldn't do, but they were definitely scruffier). When our taxi pulled up I guessed straight away that they might not let us in - this place was ridiculously upmarket. Sure enough they didn't like my open toe shoes or 3/4 length trousers. I changed into my beat up trainers which was fine, but the trousers were still an issue. We thought it a little strange since i looked much smarter than I would have in jeans - but they wouldn't budge. So we headed back to Patpong market, which was the closest one. We managed to pick up some black linen trousers for 150 baht (about 3 pounds) and head back to the tower - thankfully this time they let us in. It was definitely worth it. The bar was by far the nicest bar i've ever been to in my life. The view was unbelievable. It was pretty expensive, we ended up paying about 1100 baht for two cocktails - which to put it in context, we paid 400baht for a night at our accomodation, but then to put it in perspective you would easily pay more than that in London for much worse places. I suppose with most things the pictures can't really do it justice, but we took quite a few to do our best!!
We've arrived in Chiang Mai this morning (Tuesday) after another 12 hour coach journey - this one was pretty good though, we both slept really well and it was really cheap. Lot's to do here so it will be pretty busy again before heading of to Laos at the weekend. We're trying to keep on top of photos a bit more now the internet is cheaper, so we're updating as we go along. All photos from Bangkok are up now and even a few from Chiang Mai this morning.
In general the travelling is going great. We had been doing pretty well on not spending too much but Bangkok was fairly expensive, and there are a few things we want to do in Chiang Mai (Elephant parks!!!) that look fairly pricey too - but i suppose there is no point in coming all this way and then skimping for the sake of a few pounds. The actual travelling part of travelling is pretty brutal at times, and it is a bit strange getting used to having friends for a couple of days and then leaving people and places. The food has lived up to expectations over here, really great (Mussamun curry is my favourite), but i'm also missing some food from home quite alot too (roast dinners and tortellini particularly). Chang beer is great, cheap and cheerful but it tastes great - I didn't realise for quite a while that it's 6.4% though, heavy going! In many respects it has been a bit of an eye opener (the travelling, not the Chang) but never really been overwhelming - which i suppose is what you want.
Anyway, that's a pretty long post so I will leave it there. I've got a couple of really good soul/funk mixes on the ipod which i've been listening to recently. That era of music is such a massive influence on so much of the music I listen to these days, if for nothing else the samples alone. Lynn Collins - Think, is a good example, the drum breaks have been used in hundreds of hip hop (the good stuff at least, hip hop lost the funk when it lost the breaks in my opinion) and drum and bass tunes. Second tune is one of my all time favourite drum and bass tunes, it samples the drums.
After Koh Phi Phi we took a short ferry ride over to Koh Lanta, which is one of the less built up islands in Thailand. We are staying in a really nice place called Banana Garden Resort. I think other than the first place we stayed in Koh Phangan (Rainbow Bungalows), this has been the nicest in terms of accommodation. For the first time we've got somewhere with air con, which really is incredible, I've been sleeping so well!! Can't get used to this life of luxury though. The owner, Annie, is lovely and keeps on bringing us random little treats throughout the day. So far we've had deep fried banana, banana pancakes and a strange sweet which was barbecued in some kind of leaf, tasty.
There isn't too much to say about Koh Lanta itself since there is so little going on here, low season has just started and a lot of places have closed up now, there are very few tourists around at all, which after Phi Phi is suiting us just fine. The beaches are lovely - I don't think at any point there have been more than about 7 or 8 people along the 300m or so of beach either side of our accommodation. There is a little bar by the beach run by a native Indian (he's actually Thai, but it's a cool little gimmick all the same) called Pas which is great. He is an Arsenal fan and showed the game against United so that was a great night! That is about the most eventful thing I have to say, we're really just soaking up the chilled out atmosphere are relaxing on the beach - good times. It's incredibly hot here at the moment as well, up to 40 degrees today!!
Pas's Bar
Took my boat for a spin
Our beach
Tomorrow we head back to Bangkok, that will involve a 14 hour trip by minivan and then coach, we arrive at 5am. I'm really looking forward to getting back up to bangkok now (apparently they have double big macs at the McDonalds there, definitely getting involved), after speaking to a few people we have plenty of things we want to go and get on with so it should be pretty hectic. After four days in bangkok we are heading up to Chiang Mai for four days and might have a day in Pai before heading over to Laos. I'm planning on watching El Classico tonight, it will kick off at 1.45am which means it will be a late one, but if I am really tired it should make sleeping on the coach to Bangkok a little easier.
Favourite tune from the latest Massive Attack Album!
After Koh Tao the plan was to come over to some islands on the west side of Thailand, our first stop was Koh Phi Phi. We left Koh Tao at around 9pm and hopped on an overnight boat to the mainland, that was followed by a few hours in a mini van and eventually another ferry from Krabi to Koh Phi Phi, we arrived at about 1pm. Luckily a couple of people on our ferry didn't show up or it would have been pretty cramped, in the end it was really good fun but not the best night sleep I've had!
We'd been warned off Koh Phi Phi by a couple of friends, but heard from some other people that it was incredible so we were a little unsure of what to expect - it's a really small island and it was quite busy so we ended up paying a bit more for accomodation than anywhere else so far, and the room we had was by far our worst. We met some pretty cool guys on the ferry over and ended up staying with them which was nice.
Phi Phi is split into two seperate islands - Koh Phi Phi Don and Koh Phi Phi Leh. The former is the bigger of the two and where all the accomodation for the islands is, the latter is uninhabited and part of a national park, so if you want to visit it, it's by a boat tour of the islands. Phi Phi Leh is where they filmed The Beach.
To be honest, we really weren't fans of Koh Phi Phi at all, the island was pretty run down and smelt really bad, there was rubbish everywhere (it's quite hard to figure out what is a hangover from the tsunami and what is just down to bad infrastructure), but the result was anything but pretty (Maddy caught them in the morning sweeping all the rubbish from the night before into the sea - not cool). The beaches on Phi Phi Don were the first we saw that resembled something you might find at an overvisited Spanish resort - rows upon rows of parasols and built up resorts. The town and nightlife made you feel more like you were in Magaluf than Thailand, it really wasn't what we were hoping for - everything was overpriced and there was nowhere at all to have a chilled drink or two, was all big parties with terrible music. Despite that we still had a few things we wanted to do there so we decided to stay for two nights altogether.
The following day we took our half day trip around the islands by longtail boat to see the infamous beach and some other parts of the islands. This was really good and redeemed the islands somewhat for us both. We saw some monkeys and went swimming and snorkelling in some secluded bays which were really beautiful. The beach from The Beach (Maya Bay) was really nice, but full of tourists like ourselves there to see it which slightly ruined the vibe, that aside it was great. The sand felt more like flour and the water was crystal clear - but the same can be said of most of the beaches we've been to so far. The irony wasn't lost on me that the whole point of the story of The Beach is to avoid the kind of tourist situation that was happening in Maya Bay, still, there we were.
'The Beach'
The following morning I went diving again, I was a little unsure whether to go or not because it was relatively expensive but I really wanted to see some Sharks and had been told by my previous instructor that there was a very good chance over here (the sharks around Phi Phi are Reef Sharks and Leopard Sharks, neither of which are dangerous). I figured it might be my last chance for a while so went for it anyway. Sadly the visibility wasn't great on the morning we went but the diving was incredible anyway. The marine life here was much more diverse than in Koh Tao so I saw a lot more stuff than I did the last time. Unfortunately no Sharks, but I saw loads of Hawksbill Turtles, a White Banded Sea Snake, a Cuttlefish, loads more Blue Spotted Stingray and a few massive Eels, there were also loads more fish I don't know the names of. The Sea Snake is apparently the second most venomous snake on the planet, but it has a really small bite so it can't actually get you. The Turtles more than made up for the lack of Sharks, I was swimming around about two feet away from them which was incredible. Still hoping I might get the chance to see a Shark somewhere, apparently the diving is good in Vietnam, and possibly Cambodia, so if my budget allows then hopefully I can go again there.
After the diving we headed straight to the ferry to leave Koh Phi Phi, I ended up with mixed feelings about it. Pretty much hated Phi Phi Don where we stayed, there wasn't really anything to like about that place for me. However the boat tour and the diving showed a completely different side to it. I could see myself heading back to Phi Phi for the diving alone, especially since I went on a day where the visibility wasn't great, i'd love to go back when it was!!
For Phi Phi related tunes, this one from Moby is in the soundtrack to the film, great chillout tune. Most of Koh Phi Phi was anything but chilled out, but it seems appropriate nonetheless.
Sorry the blog posts dried up a little bit - this was partly from a hectic schedule and partly from not wanting to spend much time on the computers while they were charging so much for the (crappy) internet. We're staying at a place with free internet at the moment (Wahey) so a few updates will follow - as well as loads of pictures, all will be on Maddy's stream though, we're sharing a camera at the moment so the new photos will alternate between mine and hers.
So, I completed my Open Water Diving certification. The diving was incredible, probably my highlight of travelling so far. I did four dives altogether as part of the course, the first one was okay, just to ease us in it was at a pretty easy spot but there wasn't so much to see there, a place called Mango Bay. That said it was still a really good experience, but it had nothing on White Rock which is where we did the next two dives. So many fish of all different kinds of shapes and sizes - I have no idea what most of them are called. I found a couple of Nemo fish there though, and we saw a Blue Spotted Stingray too. The diving itself I found okay, if you keep calm there isn't alot that can really go wrong under the water. On the first dive in the sea, as soon as we got to the bottom I needed to change my mask which was a little unnerving, and on the third dive my air tank fell off my back too - but both were pretty easily rectified, was smooth sailing apart from that. As soon as we finished the course I was really tempted to do the Advanced Open Water course too, but having already spent more time and money on Koh Tao than we had planned I decided against it - I can definitely see myself coming back to Thailand with the intention of doing more courses and dives in the future though, was lots of fun.
This was the whole of my group and the instructor on the right
Koh Tao itself was beautiful too, after the first night we were both a little unconvinced but by the end of the four nights neither of us really wanted to leave. For me it had about the perfect balance of being laid-back but not too quiet - if you wanted to party you could, but there were plenty of places to just have a couple of quiet drinks and listen to some live music or watch some fire dancers. The food was really great too, loads of places had fresh fish barbecues - we had some Barracuda steaks which were incredible, definitely a highlight for me!
Sunset on Koh Tao
One of the many fire dancers
I finished my first book on Koh Tao too which was called An Evil Cradling by Brain Keenan. It's about a lecturer who was kidnapped and held prisoner for four and a half years in Beirut in 1986. Was pretty dark but a really good read. It finishes pretty abruptly after he is released, I felt it would have probably benefited from a little bit of reflection towards the end. Big thanks to my friend Toby who bought me the book as a going away present.
Been listening to a fair bit of James Blake lately, his self titled album hasn't long been out and is well worth checking out. He's another good example of someone who is pushing the boundaries of electronic music and trying some really cool stuff.
