Thailand

Day 11

Dinner cruise

After breakfast we headed just down the road to look at a couple of other shopping complexes

Siam Centre and Siam Discovery

Siam Parigon

Both of these places are very posh and full of genuine designer shops, so there were no purchases today.  After looking round for a couple of hours we headed back to the hotel.  We were very tired from the day before, plus we were going out in the evening.

The highlight of the trip so far was the evening dinner cruise, that claire had very kindly booked before we left the uk.  This consisted of a waiter serviced 5 course meal, while sailing down the main river in bangkok.

Watarun

same view at night

Some of the food we ate

a dancer

me in my 1.40 shirt

after a amazing evening we headed back to the hotel at about 830pm for some much needed rest.

Thailand

Day 10

Chatuchak Market

Today we went to Chatuchak Market, this is the biggest outdoor market in the world and there are plenty of bargins on offer.  It took claire all of about 5 minutes to start buying stuff, shoes and countless bags.  To say this place is busy is a understatement, and combined wth 35 plus temerparures it is imperative you stay hydated.  I managed to pick up a few bargains myslf, especially a shirt at 70p and two more at a £1.40 each.

The market is amazing, however it does have one part of the market that is very bad. This is the pet zone. It sells everything from snakes, parrots, puppies, cats, squirrels, chipmonks, fish etc etc and plastered all over this section are signs saying no photos.  The reason for this is the conditions for the vast majority of them were appaling, i.e ten ducks in a cage, about 500 fish in one tank, 50 hens in one cage.  When walking through this section (claire and her mum and dad refused to go through it) I noticed a lot of commotion in one corner, and there was a small concrete pen where two cocks (hens) were fighting, with a load of people watching.

People on route to the market as we were leaving

After spending about six hours there we had enough, the place was geting far too busy! We headed back to the hotel were I chilled out by the pool for a hour or so.

A collection of the stuff I have bought so far.  May I add the reebok trainers are genuine, bought from a official shop, only cost £18

Thailand

Day 9


Transit to Bangkok

After getting up relatively early, we headed to samui airport to catch our 45 min flight to bangkok.  At about 1500 we reached our hotel in heart of the bangkok shopping district, the Pathumwan Princess.

Custom hotel pics

view from room

After some unpacking we headed into the greatest shopping complex in the world, the MBK centre.  It did not take Claire long to sart buying clothes shoes bags etc etc.  where she plans to put all this stuff is beyond me, I have no doubt most of it will end up in my case!  I bought some genuine calvin kleins today!  We also sneaked a sub way back into the hotel room, I had forgoten how good they are!

Thailand

Day 8

Final day on samui


Today we made the most of our final relaxing day before we head for the inevitable bangkok madness. All we did was laze around on the beach and work on the old tan, which is coming along nicely.

The cool bar, literally a shack on the beach.

After lazing around all day we head out for a meal at a local restaurant.  During the meal a huge flying beetle crashed to the earth right next to  us, this made claire and her mum scream.  Claires dad decided he would try hand help the stranded beetle off its back.  However it clung on to his shoe , he panicked and flicked it off his foot towards a couple having a meal on the next table.

a big toad i encountered

after a couple of drinks at the cool bar myself and claire headed home at about 1 am.

Thailand

Day 7


Chaweng

Today we did our usual thing of chilling by the sea and the usual happy hour cocktails.  However in the evening claire and myself headed into the busiest town on samui (chaweng) for a evening meal.  About 7 years ago I had stayed in chaweng and to say it has changed is a understatement.  Today there are literally hundreds of bars and restaurants that line the sea front, six years ago I dont think there were any. Even though the place is much busier, it is still a nice place to visit unlike lami which is very seedy.

Anyway after walking down the main street in samui, we headed to the sea front and found a nice restaurant.  We had a very romantic meal on the beach and a couple of drinks.  After the meal we decided to walk down the sea front (on the sand) to our coach pick up point.  This proved to be a major error, because the sand was really deep and the tide was coming in. It took the best part of a hour to reach the centara grand, just in time for the bus.  We were both covered in sand, and neither of us were in a good mood (claire especially).

Here you go Mark, a picture of me on the blog. Mr Baxendale complained about there being no photos of myself or claire on the blog.  Ps having a photo next to cliare makes my tan look epic!

we arrived back in the hotel for 11 pm, happy hour.  So we had a couple of drinks and stayed up to to our latest night yet 1am!!!!!

Thailand

Day 6


Resurection

I woke up early this morning and the first thing I did was check out my camera, hoping that it had miraculously mended its self.  Much to my amazement the waterproof camera was now fully operational.

This is a pic of a deserted beach about 500 yards from our hotel complex.

Today we literally hung out in the hotel complex, chilling out in the pool and going in and out of the bar, especially at the 1 pm happy hour.

Despite yesterdays slight failing with camera, I decided to take it back into the sea and took some good  photos and a video.


To help attract the fish I took some bread at breakfast, here is a nice 44 second video.

In the evening we headed to claires parents villa, where we ordered room service.  I was absolutely wrecked and decided to call it a early night.

Thailand

Day 5

waterproof!!!!!!!!!!!!


With my sunburn I decided i was going to take it easy in the sun today, so I was restricted to a t-shirt all day. I decided I would test out my cameras waterproof ability today.  The main reason I bought my camera was because it was waterproof to 3 meters, which meant it would be sand proof (my two previous digital cameras had died through sand), plus it meant I could take some underwater pictures and videos.


The water was a little cloudy

After loungind in the sun all day I decided to hire (it was free) a kyak out for a bit, this was great fun except for the part were I nearly got stuck on some rocks and got overturned by a wave.

In the early evening myself and claire headed back to our private pool, where after about a hour she finally managed to do  a forward and backward roll!!!! this would normally take the average person about 10 min to learn.

In the evening we headed out for a meal and I decided while we waited (it took over a hour to arrive, we were literally 20 seconds from leaving when then food arrived) to check out the days photographs. About 30 seconds after switching on my camera, it would turn its self off saying batery incompatible. After faffing around for ten min or so I took the battery case off and I found a small amount of water was in there! No amount of blowing, switching on or off would solve the problem, Iets just say I was pissed off!

After the meal we headed back to the room, claire was feeling pretty tired this was mainly down to a touch/a lot of sunburn.

Thailand

Day 4

Lami

After a early start we headed down to breakfast for our usual hot breakfast, accompanied with a assortment of pastries (du pain chocolat being my favourite).  Anyway, the weather was a little cloudy so myself and claire decided to take out the free mountain bikes.  No sooner had we go on them, the skies cleared and it turned out to be the hottest day yet.  After a about 40 min on the the bikes , we headed back to the Hotel, which is situated at the top of a short but very sharp hill.  Even though it was about 35c and I was carrying about 2 kg in weight, i decided to be a hero and ride to the top. I am not joking when I say it took every ounce of effort to make it, I was on my knees when I reached the hotel and gasping for breathe.  Even though claire pushed her bike up, she was in a worst state than me and required her inhaler at the hotel , and a few conserned guest soffered her water.  We had both learnt a lesson, dont go out in the the mid day sun.


Classic thia electric wiring system, took in lami. How thailand manages to get any electricity amazes me.

After lounging about by the pool for  couple of hours, we headed to lami for the Sunday evening market. Lami, is not the nicest of places there are lots of dodgy bars and old western men with young thai girls.  Anyway, after looking round the market, via a couple of beers in a Austrailian bar  we headed back to coach pick up point (our hotel is very remote and it lays on a free mini bus service to koh samui's main resorts).

We then headed to the cool bar, this is basically a little beach bar situated about 100m from the hotel. I decided to try and drink their speciality 'the blue drink'.  It is made up of vodka,rum, gin, tequilla and other stuff.  Lets just say I did not finish it, even though claires mum did.  I know I am a total lightweight.

Then on the way back we ran into this little snake, I am not sure if it is poisonous or not.  Claires dad very nearly stood on it, claire spotted the snake at the very last second and overted any potential danger.

Thailand

Day 3

lost in traslation!

After the waterfight the previous day, we decided to chill out by the pool and beach.  The weather was extremely hot, so we were often going in and out of the pool and sea (the sea is extremely warm compared to the med, it is literally bath temperature).

After a couple of drinks at happy hour, I borrowed a snorkel and went out to the coral to look at the fish.  However, constantly dipping in and out of the sea had meant my suntan cream that I applied had literally washed away. This left me looking a little red, so I will definitely be staying out of the sun tomorrow.

In the evening we all headed out for a meal at a local restaurant. When ordering my food I was asked how spicey I would like it, I opted for medium strength. I think there must have been something lost in traslation, because my version of medium is no where near the thai version. I was literally sweating, the back of my throught was on fire, it was probably the hotest food i have ever eaten.  I tried my best, but i could not quite finish it. on another note, 4 of us  ate out, we all had a huge starter, main meal and 2 or 3 drinks each and the total cost came to just under £20, amazing value.

Thailand

Day 2

Songkran

The worlds biggest water fight.

April the 13th in thailand is 'Songkran', basically it is the start of  the thai new year. This is the most celebrated event in the thai calendar and to start the new year it is custom to pour water over a friend to cleanse them for the new year. However, this bascially turns into a massive water fight! Imagine everyone in your village, town, city gathering in the street loaded with water pistols, hose pipes, buckets etc and drenching everyone in sight. Literally everyone, people on mopeds were getting buckets of water thrown over them as they were driving. It was total madness, flour and paste were being chucked about as well. Some of the water was freezing cold ice water, it literally sent shivers straight down your spine.  Other water was quite dirty, literally straight out of the river.  So you had to make sure you kept your mouth closed because you do not want to swallow some dirty water.

Some random room pics

our room came with a pool with a sea view

Even though I have a 'waterproof camera' i decided not to take it  (no pics unfortunately), because i am not sure if it could handle the full power of a hosepipe from 2 yards! Looking back I wish i had taken it, because some of sights were literally unbeliveable, secenes that i will never forget. Anybody thinking of going to thailand should try and get there for songkran, a once in a lifetime experience.

One of the pools

After 4 hours in chaweng, my self and claire had enough of the waterfight and headed back to the comfort of our hotel.  After a bit of tea we were exhausted and headed straight to bed.

Thailand

Day 1

Travelling

Two fights one arrest!

Normally flights are pretty uneventful, however yesterdays flight was quite different.  About 3 hours into the flight I could hear some shouting and swearing about 6 rows in front of me.  As I looked over two drunk manchester lads (friends allegedly)  were squaring up to each other in the centre  of the plane.  Both clearly wasted, after a bit of shoving the pair were broken up by the stewards.


No sooner had one drama ended when another started, about 3 rows back a guy in his 30s was being restrained by two stewards.  Apparently this drunk clown thought it would be a god idea to go over to a 14 year girl who was sleeping and kiss her!!! This obviously did not go down well her parents.  One of the stewards had to sit with him for the rest the flight, and when we reached Dubai he was arrested on the plane. I am absolutely certain that Dubai will hand out a tough penalty to this fool, not like the soft UK system.


Because of the idiots mentioned above, alcohol stopped being served to the whole plane.  Thanks a lot guys!  Just because you get free alcohol it does not mean you should get hammered!


Eventually we arrived at our resort, The Centar Beach, Koh Samui

Munich Day 5

Final Day!

As much as I love city weekend trip, they do end far too quickly.  Anyway, after having a bit of lie in we headed down to breakfast and had our usual mix of pastries, sausages and scrambled egg.  After filling up, we headed back to the room to do a final bit of packing.

After finally sorting the train tickets and correct platform out we headed back tot the airport on the highly efficeint german rail system.  However, after half an hour on the train we realised the train split in two and the back end went to the airport, we were sat at the front.  We decided to jump out at the next stop and leg it to the back carriages.  As i said earlier, the network system is highly efficient and we were first out of the carriage, ran 20 yards and before we could get to the door it shut and the train was off! In the uk this would have been a disater (i.e there would not have another train for about 4 hours and it would have been late), however we are in germany, and another train arrived in 15 minutes.



Finally at the self check in at Munich airport, and while booking on we realised there were no seats next to each other.  This for claire is a epic disaster, she hates flying and said she would not get on the plane unless she was sat next to me.  After some waterworks from claire, she was in luck becase the woman at the check in desk took some sympaty with her and a few button touches we were sat next to each other.  Minor disaster avoided!

Munich Day 4

Winter Arrives In Bravaria


Today we awoke to find it snowing, this gave a Munich a nice christmas feel.  The plan today was to do a bit more shopping and have nice traditional German food, rather than pizza hut or mcdonalds.

We headed to the underground and bought a zone one ticket, which is all we needed for today.  The munich subway is very strange, you do not need a ticket to get on the train (no barriers), there are no ticket inspectors and no barriers when you get off at your stop!!! How it makes any money I am not sure.  Lets just say, we got the maximum out of our zone 1, oneway ticket!!!

After about 2 hours of shopping, I realised I had made a footware and clothing error.  My trainers were leaking due to the slushy conditions and my t-shirt and jacket combination were not exactly keeping me warm!  After abusing the underground ticket, we eventually got back to the hotel and after quick change of clothing we headed back out.

Claire spent a bit more cash in the shops, and then we headed to a traditional german pub for some traditional food.  After eating pork snitchel (claire) and some sort of traditional beef dish, we headed back out into in the cold and slowly made our way back to the hotel (the conrad de ville, I highly recommend it!)

Garmisch Day 3

The German Alps

Myself and claire headed off to the German Alps today, this did however involve a 1 and half our train ride. Are initial plans were to head up in the cable car, to the summit of Zugspitz, however this would have cost another £100 so we decided against it.  Unfortunately, due to the lack of snow the other cablecarts were not in operation as they were mainly used be skiers.  So we decided for a look around the very nice town of Garmisch instead.  We did get lost, which was not to claires amusement!  However, she made up for the disappointment by spending some more money in the shops!

After another long train journey we were shattered and headed back to the hotel.  As we were still feeling hungry, Claire decided it would be a good idea to buy a Mcdonalds and sneek it into the room. This turned out to be a genuis idea as we were starving and we were too tired to go out for a proper meal.  So we ate our burgers and watched Hangover 2 (nowhere near as good as the first!!!!!)

Munich Day 2

Bus Tour

After rising early we both headed for a sightseeing tour of munich, a roughly £19.00 each we thought it would be worh while.   We saw a variety of sights

churches

Palaces

 Surfers

 After seeing the BMW (Bravarian Motor Factory!), the olympic stadium and other wonders we came across surfers in the English Garden. yes thats right surfers, In the heart of Munich some mad germans surf on this bit of river!  unfortunately, they were having a few problems when we arrived so i did not get a snap of them in action.

After a thoroughly exhausting day we headed back to the hotel and after some rest we went to pizza hut!!!

Munich Day 1

Travel Day

Travelling

After waking up at 0530 with only about 4 hours sleep from the night before, myself and claire were shattered. We were soon on our way to the train station, and on then our way to the airport.


After a 1 and a half hour flight with lufthansana ( there was some dodgy on flight food!) we arrived in munich. After whizzing through passportport control, we were on another train ride to central munich. The weather had taken a turn for the worst, it was absolutely chucking it down. We then caught the shortest taxi ride in history, about 500 yards!



We arrived at the hotel, quickly unpacked and headed into central munich (marienplatz christmas markets). The weather however was horrendous and was seriously hampering our first look round the markets. The day was about to get even worse, as i entered the sub way I slipped on the top step of the escalator and went down about four steps. With everyone turning round and looking, I played it cool like nothing had happened.

As we were both shatered we headed back to the hotel at about 630pm, and off to bed about 7pm!

Inverness

It has been ages since my last blog update, so I thought it was about time I uploaded something.  On September 23rd myself and claire headed up to Inverness for her best friends wedding (Helen).  After a epic 6 hour train ride we arrived in Inverness.  My first impressions of the place was it was a quiet place, with a couple of highstreet stores.  Infact it is the only place to have a decent supermarket for over a 100 miles!  Anyway we caught a taxi up to the Best Western hotel on the outskirts of Inverness were the wedding was being held.

Our Room

View from window

After a meal in the hotel we headed to bed so we could be ready for the big day tommorrow.  Claire was a bridesmade, so she had more to worry about than me.

The wedding was a short but sweet affair and the main surprise was the brides mum married her own daughter.  After the wedding it was outside for a some photographs.

After the meal and speeches it was party time, however before that could start we had to watch the first dance.

After a evening of drinking and dancing we headed to bed at a respectable 1 am.  The following morining we all met up for breakfast and discussed the day before.  However, we soon had to head off for another epic 6 hour train ride.  After a brief stop in Edinburgh for a couple of beers, we eventually got home at 9pm