Green Hotel Chaweng

... them back at 1/2 price the next week. but since I have my Kindle, I don't really need any.

Some lady from Andrew Bigg's Language school in Bangkok called me for an interview. Although she spoke Engrish (I think) I could not understand one word she said. So I pulled my classic trick - "Please explain to my friend so she can tell me the directions." Then I hand the phone to a Thai girl, who listens intently, says "ka, ka" several times, then writes ...

... Thais are mostly shy, and mostly you need to approach them in order to get to know them or get help, in that matter. The language is crucial, but with a help of the phone translation (talkinthai), I could manage to make friends with many locals down there. 

Anyway, looking at the rubber tree plantation of Chantaburi, it makes me think of all the trips I've been throughout Thailand, and probably spent a lot of money on hotels, fancy food ...

... mishearing. Hang on one second, [Dree cover your eyes for this bit].. spent nearly 1000 baht on a couple of sandwiches and chips. Thats nearly 20 quid.... ooops.

Stopped raining eventually and we hired a kayak to head to one of the islands in the bay. The water was crystal and we could could see that it wasn't too deep. Rowing does knacker you out though. Especially in that heat. We did a bit of a circle of the bay, and at times we had to get out and walk it (only a ...

... to be messing me around! We were lucky though and a songthaew came by after not much walking. The songthaew took us back to the pier to change to a different songthaew which took us to Trat bus station. We had to wait till 3pm for the bus so we had chance to get something to eat and buy some snacks and drinks for the journey. We arrived in Ban Phe at 6pm but we got dropped off on the main road. The only way to get ...

... to travel. It's massively expensive & the most beautiful spots are being ruined by over development! That said we still had a lot of fun! Would I return? Only to do Changmai on my way to Laos on a future holiday (I hear North Thailand's still nice) but other than that & in the words I wrote to the Thai Immigration Bureau in my Victor meldrew-esqu letter...... 'I'll take my money to a country that wants it'!

... minimum wage in England was 370 baht an hour, he was amazed. He had travelled on his from Burma to Thailand when he was 15 with nothing, had his passport confiscated at the airport and for 7 years he had been working all round Thailand trying to earn a living. Felt sorry for him, but it didnt propel me into buying a 10,000 baht suit from him, despite him offering me a free Armani suit if I buy one. Wonder why... Continued watching Wimbledon late into the night until 2am-ish ...

Sorry that there have not been any updates in the last few days. We have been on Ko Samet Island for the past 4 days, and we left our laptop behind with our friend Danielle. We left early Monday morning for the bus station, with Hal and Carl. We had to take a bus to Ban Phe, which was about 3 or 4 hours from Bangkok. It was only $4 each for the bus, which ended up being pretty bumpy with hardly any leg room. We arrived at Ban Phe and ...

... a shot oops no, two shots and some antibiotics. "The Master", who cringes (loudly) at the sound of the word syringe, was no longer in control. As tears started to pool in his beautiful sea blue eyes, two nurses immediately came to his side to rub his hair and console him. His shots were administered, I paid for the antibiotics. The hospital staff even arranged for an air-conditioned taxi to take us back to our hotel. From ...

... would be easy and I would have not problem. I first had to find a place to stay cause I need a single room and Katie and I were staying in a double. I got out my handy Thailand book.. I found some places that I wanted to stay that would be low cost and close to the skytrain. I decided to get a taxi this time cause it was pretty much hell trying to get my bags up and down the skytrain stair on Saturday. My taxi driver however did not know where he was going and ...

Hi everyone! Sorry I haven't seen any bears yet :( at the moment I am doing mapping work in the field as a prerequisite to building a pre-release test enclosure. A French vet-tech girl is coming on Tuesday I believe, but I haven't the foggiest whether she'll want to do field stuff or animal stuff. Hopefully I will get to go to Mae Hong Son or Banglamung (where the animals are) soon though! I went on my 3rd river walking trip yesterday, which ...