Patong Beach

Picked up at 8.15am for the Northern Trail Bike Ride with BikeTours Thailand. Was 2800 baht for the day ( $86 Aus). Only me & another couple from Singapore, Joseph & Stella. When we picked them up they were fully decked out in all the bike riding gear & I was feeling a bit intimidated that I wouldn't be able to keep up ( with my very little bike ...

... most of today (9 to 5), so with us having no windows in our room, we had to get dressed in the light we managed from my mobile and Hattie fag lighter, which soon gave up the ghost. Overall, Patong = a dump, enough said. But the highlight was playing Connect 4, which drinking beer with Bui and Chili at the bar in the market. PS We found out today that it is illegal to play cards in public in Thailand, even for no money. So that killed off our idea for killing a few hours.

... you go up to a better seat. The theater was large and very nice. However it smelled as if we were on top of a sewage plant.. yuck! One thing interesting before they movie started they played what I believe to be their national anthem and had pictures of the king and queen and you stood up for it. Different, but we did. The prices on things in the mall seem pretty cheap too so I may go check it out and see if there are any good buys. Until the next one! Nathan

... sand, but was packed with people as all the tour groups take the same route and stop the same islands at the same time. This made it feel a bit commercial but it was still a nice place to visit. Next stop was Viking Cove where there are some caves that the Vikings used which still have some of the Viking stuff there. We weren't allowed to get off here but we could take photos. Same with Monkey Island. Here there are loads of monkeys living ...

... rash itches like mosquito bites, except I don't know when it will go away. I got some shady "steroid cream" from a pharmacy for the rash. I will come back to Phuket sometime though - maybe for a dive trip to the world-renowned Similan Islands for an encounter with a whale shark or one of those "tsunami is coming and we're all gonna die" kind of nites. I'm going back to Bangkok today for some quick side trips before Cambodia. Wish me luck on the coral rash.

... their own. We've all spent some time around the campfire listening to people tell stories... Now it's just a matter of making the dialog not only interesting but downright engrossing. I've never had a problem giving actors too much dialog. Giving them truly interesting dialog? That's tough. So now my big challenge is to: 1. Reveal characters and relationships of the characters in dialog. 2. Advance the plot with dialog. 3. Find a happy medium between "on ...

... sweden, sent us this link for photos from the dive trip. try it out http://www.flickr.com/welcome/8222775/6 13064/ back on the island we saw plenty of lady boys---guys that dress as women. you can hardly tell with some of them. they are just about beautiful and better make up artists and hair stylists than half of los angeles. we see plenty of ladies walking around with a pole loaded on either side with a heavy load of things to sell from t shirts to a hot charcoal ...

... is crazy...full of bars, restaurants and night clubs. It's a little too glitzy and commercial but that also means it's a good place to have a business. So I have found myself helping out here to get the restaurant open. Carlos has employed me as a painter and I've been spending the last week painting a Mexican mural on one of the restaurant walls and a Real Mexican Food sign ...

... happy about there not being many people around, but what can you do? Wolfgang made these pina coladas last night and I don't know what he put in them, but they were some powerful stuff... Next time he makes them I'll know to be more careful! I think I heard someone say something about getting the recipe from him. So tonight we leave for our overnight sail up to Burma which I'm very excited about. We just put the boat on autopilot and then take turns in two hour shifts all night manning ...