Iyara Beach Hotel and Plaza Surat Thani

... Then i fell asleep on the bus on the way over and crocked up my neck. The additional back and neck pain was a wonderful treat.<br><br>Although each day is broken up into different sessions such as sitting meditation, walking meditation, chanting, Dharma talks, meals times etc, the entire day is essentially spent in meditation. One does not need to sit on the ground in lotus posture to meditate, it can be done in any situation, especially the method taught in this retreat, called ...

... derrière nous, nous arrivons a Bangkok pour y passer la journée avant de prendre le train le soir même direction le Sud de la Thailande. Arrivés à la station de bus, nous montons dans deux taxis et nous demandons au second taxi , comme il est si courant dans ces films américains, " de suivre le taxi de devant!". Hélas, à cause d'un feu rouge nous perdons la trace de Johanna et Rémi. Du coup le chauffeur a fait de son mieux pour les rattraper et s ...

... that there was a public bus system that ran through here. It turned out that we were able to get a bus to the train station for like 50 baht. On the upside of the place was pretty cool and the bars were the open air garden type you find in Thailand. Our hotel had a pink lacey mosquito net over the bed and lime green curtains in the window. It was up on stilts like 20 feet in the air and afforded a ...

Khao Sok has been an absolute haven for the last 3 days- a sleepy little place in the middle of stunning tropical rainforest, pretty much deserted what with low season and the majority of backpackers having made a bee-line for the full moon party on Kho Pha Ngan! Quite a few of the trails in the National Park are closed to independent trekkers at the minute due to ...

... lobby and so I went across and killed a few hours surfing the web and catching up with all the email and news I had missed the last 4 days of not being online. I came out at 8:15 and was surprised to find that the same cab driver I had talked to when I had gotten off the bus was still waiting for me. Though I was pretty sure he was ripping me off, the amount of money wasn't so great that I was willing to spend the energy fighting it and so I ...

... feet. People were also letting off Chinese lanterns on the beack to which lit up the sky and looked pretty amazing! The romance ended there though as we then moved up into Bophut village to watch yet another football match (aaaaaarrrgggh!) in a bar called The Crows Nest. It was run by an English fella and his Thai wife and when Andy got talking to him, it turns out he supported Newcastle, was from Whitley Bay and used to live about 5 or ...

... its eyes moving ever so slowly, the hike is un-eventful, humid and trying. Then, Steve notices a widening area of blood on the back of Julie's leg and the leech adventure begins. Leeches are, according to Klaus..."wondrous." Their "bite" contains anesthesia, antiseptic and an ingredient to prevent blood from clotting. Thus, when one is dined upon, as we both were, they don't know it, they don't feel it and ...

... on the lake. :o) we all had little huts in a row made of bamboo, connected by bamboo walkways, with bamboo floor, and ceilings and seats... We had a really good lunch - nodles and rice obviously! And loads of fruit - some I'd never even seen before: pineapple, mango and watermelon I knew, plus mangosteen and lychees, and some others I couldnt name - yum! Anyways after lunch we set off for the cave. It was 5 mins in the boat and then a 2 hour trek, but it passed ...

10-11th February 2004 Day 9-10 Heyyy, well the last two days have been filled with excitment!!! When we finished our trek we went out for a few beers with our swedish friends, not paying much attention to the clock we had to leg it into a tuk- tuk a crazy 3 wheeled taxi and then back to Mr Whiskeys to get one other taxi to take us to the bus terminal, just making the 9pm bus! The whole of the night was spent on a ...

... a very straggly mop that had certainly seen better days and attempted to wipe up the last remaining moisture with a thoroughly inadequate tool. We passed slowly through Bangkok, not speeding up until we had been travelling for 45 minutes. I'm sure that this is because the train tracks are another variant of footpath for the locals. Earlier in the day when hesitant about crossing the train tracks I noticed many people strolling casually down the middle of the tracks. I ...