Patong Paragon

... When we arrived at our destination I was totally done & felt that nice muscle ache feeling!!! Got my workout!!!




No sunset at the beach to watch tonight as too overcast so had dinner & the best massage. It cost more but was so good & that is the oil massage for 1 hour for 500 B ( $15 Aus). Made me nice & sleepy & ready for bed.

... on that feint flicker of light at the end of the tunnel. Our fingers are crossed. Tight. On the flip-side.. As much as all this is a bit of a dry read it hasn't all been a pear-shaped reality. The last few months have seen some great highlights. Last month in particular saw a timely visit from Crazy Cat up in Bangkok (grrreat fun), the arrival of my old travel buddy Bera - the lairy Hungarian ...

... nearly as fast as Nathan. I was jealous he got the faster one. When we got back to the beach, he said he wasn't even going max speed. I was jealous. After the beach, we headed to a Mexican restaurant because we were craving chips and guac. It was quite possibly the worst guac in the world. We sent it back. We had a few beers and margaritas and came back for a cat nap. We got ready and headed out to the ...

After a few days on Patong Beach we took the ferry over to Koh Phi Phi. The aforementioned is a set of nationally protected islands in the Andaman Sea, and a popular destination for paradise dwellers. The process of getting from Phuket to Phi Phi saw us get ripped off a few times. No matter how much research one can do, you can never truly prepare for the gouging that comes at you from all angles. You think you find a good deal, then discover afterwards that it was in fact a terrible ...

... hell. The previous two months in south america involved little exercise, plenty of food and plenty of beer.. so the training was a big shock to my system. I was also used to cold weather, and although its rainy season here - its still humid and very hot. I'm literally sweating buckets whilst training, and go through at least 3 litres of water a day. Each training session three hours and involves shadow boxing, one on one pad work with a trainer, bag work, weight ...

We flew from KL to Phuket. Out here there are plenty of budget airlines competing for domestic and local travel, driving prices down. So if you want to hop from city to city air travel is a good choice. Although I was gutted to leave my ipod on the plane. Traveling without music is not good. Phuket airport is north of the island and the main areas are Patong beach, Karon ...

... the caves or else you will be hogtied, don't shout in the caves or else you will have your mouth taped shut - don't throw your rubbish in the caves or else you will be thrown in with it etc - all very funny but important too. The weather is beautiful again and we all start applying sunscreen. Dad has put so much on that he looks like a Geisha. Rob mutters something about Dad needing red lipstick. We have a quiet chortle. The 5 kids are ...

... us through Phang Nga Bay National Park to James Bond Island. It took about 40 minutes to get there, cruising past beautiful limestone mountains along the way. There were a lot of market stalls at James Bond Island but they were all selling the same junk, and none of it was very interesting. One aggressive girl tried to get me to buy jewelry. She kept telling me she was cheap and would give me a very good price. But a very good price on junk is still no deal so I ...

Ankunft Phuket in einem neeten 5 sterne Hotel, fuer wenig Geld. Hier ist es super schoen, alles neu, ein klasse modernes und sauberes Zimmer mit Meerblick. Genau das richtige um fuer einen Tag wieder zurueck in eine Welt nach westlichem Standard zu tauchen. Ein riesiger Pool mit Ausblick aufs offenen Meer. Das Hotel scheint sehr neu zu sein. Der Taxifahrer wusste noch nichtmal wo es lang geht. Oder hat er mal wieder nur so getan. Prompt hat er doch wieder an so einem Reisebuero ...

... here by itself). Three of us set out on the 14hr journey via: taxi - boat - taxi - coach - boat - coach - minibus - taxi to Patong which is fairly close to where we had to meet in a couple of day. These journies are done on a "Joint Ticket" - but hte beauty is that at every transition you seem to hand in a ticket in exchange for 2 more tickets and the odd sticker. By the end of the journey you've got a wallet full of the things and look like a ...