The Passage Samui Resort Ko Samui

... and in Phuket - and Jessica is now 14 years old and becoming a bit of a swimming-champion and their son Jeremy is now 10 years old, and they have moved and now live in Chiang Mai - oh, and Dave is still here and now runs the place mostly by himself! - I think he is even a part-owner now (or so someone told us - I hope I am right). It is really great to walk into a place and find all the great and wonderful people you knew years ago are still there - and better still ...

... itself is fine but once again, every 5 minutes you are disturbed by someone trying to sell you a dress, or a necklace, or henna tattoos, or ice cream, or chicken on sticks, or bracelets, or scarves, or hammocks. The list goes on and on and my peaceful internal disposition turned into one of resentment and frustration as my peace got disturbed.<br><br>Back to my original story. So I decided to venture onto the main tourist street behind Chaweng at 5:30am ...

... I first started teaching back in 1987 while visiting a relative in Australia. I taught EFL to foreign inmates at a high security prison in Sydney, which was a pretty good experience for someone just starting out. I remember teaching a grammar point to a group of Vietnamese and looking out of the barred window and thinking what a great view of the bay they had. The day after I left, somebody escaped!<br>Knowing how English is taught in many ...

... Haad Yuan.<br><br>A two our ferry ride from Ko Tao got us to Thongsala on Ko Phanang then a 15 minute mini van ride across the island to Haad Rin. A 10 minute dingy ride from there brought us to the palm lined beach in a bay between lush jungle covered hills, thus it can only be reached by boat. We got a hut on stilts some way up the hill side nestled among the trees with a wonderful view of the bay. The next morning we were woken by an orange ...

... inherited colour of my hair, a wonderful ginger!! Thanks Dad, do you have any good genes you want to donate???? Anyhow, so we were staying on the Full Moon party beach at the aptly names Paradise Bungalows and our first night was crazy. Being slightly tired i decided that vodka redbull was the best course of action. In future someone remind me its really not! So sitting in our restaurant getting completely smashed we ended up playing several rounds of Ring of Fire ...

... attached to the cinema, to help him out. I worked with him for years but besides liking to sneak in to see the movies and his complaints about the cinema's owner, I don't remember any interactions with him. I don't think we ever had a conversation when I was a child. In later years, after attending the Landmark Forum, I proactively tried to create a new relationship with him, engaging him in conversations. I asked him about his relationship with my mother and why he ...

... I ordered squid with flat noodles and it was very tasty, much like what you would order in a Thai restaurant back home. I had to eat it standing up on the street as I ordered it as take away. Nice. Mango Tree was our Christmas dinner place. Ernie had Thai curry served in a pineapple boat and I had kangong (SE Asian spinach of sorts), soft shell crabs with green mango salad. Ernie loved his food and helped himself to my greens as well as the green mango salad (with fish ...

Yesterday started as any other tropical island day would...with sunshine, sand and palm trees. Little did I know how this amazing day would get even better. After a lazy start to the day Becs and I took our rented scooter and went exploring around the island. We had loads of laughs and saw some really cool beaches. Along the way we stopped for lunch at a local little spot, that even the hardiest of backpackers would skip (Becs' choice) and had an awesome ...

... the islands in the low season; you can see how busy they must get in the high season with all the accommodation around. Before I left Thailand and I also sorted a plane ticket to India. Initially I was planning to hea to Indonesia but I want to reach China around June/July so needed to slow down as I was skipping over Loas, Cambodia and Vietnam as I had already been there. So at the last minute I decided to spend a couple of months in India, which apart from China ...

Alex - By the time we eventually managed to get over to Koh Samui we were both pretty fed up with travelling and so jumped in the closest Songthaew (pickup truck with a cage on the back) for a petrifying journey to our bungalow. The driver was an absolute manic and rarely dipped below 60mph on tiny roads. We were pretty scared in the back with our fellow passengers ...