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

Belgium - Brugge

Day 15


The final stop

Today was our final port of the holiday, I cant believe the trip has gone so quickly. With it being the last day we got up nice and early had some breakfast. Despite our early rise, we were unable to leave the boat until mid morning and this caused no end of problems. The main problem was everyone else, all 3000 of them had time to get breakfast and get ready to leave the ship. This meant we were all heading to the gang plank at the same time, which caused a queue half way round the ship.


After 2 hours of waiting around we eventually left the ship and onto the shutle bus to Blankenburg. From there we caught a train to brugge and after a 20 minute we were in the city centre.


There were lots of river ways

Old interesting buildings

Eventually we all met in the Brugge town square, where me and my dad had one beer each. Costin approximately £10 per drink this was rather expensive, especially for my dad as I had no money left! However, each drink had nearly 3 pints in it! I had a whole nights drinking in one glass.

After a long hard look round Brugge we headed back to the train station and got absolutely soaked.



In the evening we all went for one final meal together and then off to the planet bar for one last drink.

Sea Day

Day 14


Rubbish Weather


I actually quite like sea days because it gives you time to relax and visit the buffet section mulitple times. However, when the weather is bad there are no outdoor activities such as deck quoits, shuffle board, cricket, football and table tennis to keep you entertained. This can make the day drag along a bit, not that I am complaing or anything. If I had my way I would have a pool competition and bring the table tennis table inside, there are plenty of rooms big enough to hold it.


The Gym (where I have spent loads of time!!!)

Moving on (its not like me to complain or anything), after having a full english breakfast we headed back to the cabin to start the horrible task of packing. After a hour and half stuffing 2 of the 3 cases to braking point we headed to the gym for a good hour and half. After a trip to the steam room and a brief swim, I headed to buffet for some lovely food.


After running out of things to do and far to full to eat anything else, I headed to the planet bar for a afteroon beer.


It is Belgium tomorrow and I am off buy some good quality chocolates

Germany warnemunde and Rostock

Day 13

Surprisingly Very Nice

we woke in the morning and it was gloriously sunny outside, this meant I could work on the old tan as we walked round Germany. We had read the P&O brief on warnemunde and it said there was not much there, so it was best to go stariaght to Rostock on the train. After a 40 minute train and tram ride (absolutely gratis!), we made it into the centre of Rostock.

It was a very pleasent place, quite quiet but with a variety of shops and markets. After ages looking round the city centre taking the standard photos of all the tourist attractions, we headed into a local bar for some local German beer.

After riding around on public transport all day, we decided to go back to Warnemunde via a local ferry. On route to catching the boat we came across a street vendor selling currywurst (curried sausage), trust me it tastes better than it looks.

Eventually the boat reached Warnemunde and we decided to to have a look round the village. The place was amazing and had a real buzz about it, loads of shops, bars, coffee shops and floating markets. We should have stayed here all day, it was so much nicer than Rostock. We can only assume that the P&O brochure had slammed the place because they had wanted to sell Tours to Rostock.

some cool sandsculptures we came across

In the evening we ate at Sindu, this is a Indian restaurant onboard that we had to pay exra for (£15 per head). The food was absolutely amazing, we all had 5 coures and we were absolutely stuffed by the end of it. Even though the food was great, It is only a place you would at once while you are on board.

Sea Day

Day 12

Still no sun


We awoke to find it was cloudy outside, I could almost feel my tan fading by the second. Wth no sunbathing to be done I headed to the gym again!!!!!!!!!! for a very very long workout, followed by a sauna and thena dip in the heated outdoor pool. After feeling very refreshed I headed to the Buffet zone and absolutely stuffed my self full of food.

　
after a quick game of deck quoits, which I won!!!!! In fact I destroyed the opposition. A couple of us headed to the planet bar, where I helped self to couple of beers and typed up the old blog.

The Planet Bar

　
In the evening it was another black tie event, I had to dig out another shirt tie combo. In fact, the clothes situation is getting pretty bad now, especially in the sock department. May have to do some laundry soon, or I could be really really lazy and just buy some more!

Estonia - Tallin

Day 11


Where has the sun gone?
　
After another early start, we headed onto th deck to find we were in the middle of thunderstorm and it was absolutely lashing down. After a full english beakfast we caught the shuttle bus into the old town of Tallin.
　

The Old town was very beautiful, with multiple coloured houses and variety of buildings. Lots of the women were dressed in traditonal dress, trying to tempt you into the local bars. After wandering around for about a hour we ended up in the old town centre.
　

As we passed through the narrow winding streets there were plenty of nice churches and buildings.
　

After stopping for a taste of the local beer saku (really good quality beer and pretty cheap too), we headed to the city view points take some more photos.
　

After several hours looking round the city in pouring rain, it finally ground us down and we headed back to the shuttle bus. As we walked back I came across a local shop selling cheap alcohol and cigarrettes. After purchasing some saku I had a look for some menthol and super king blue smokes for some people at work, however there were none anywhere.

　
In the evening we went to watch another comedian called Peter Piper, he was not my type of comedy. However, everyone else qiute liked him.

Ship Day

Very lazy Day

Day 10

Today we are curently anchored in St Petersberg in the glorious hot sunny weather. Unfortunately not having a visa to get into russia and with no decent tours on offer it meant we all spent the day on the ship.
The hot weather meant it was probably meant it was my lasiest day yet. After a quick trip to the gym in the morning I basically basked in the sun till about 8 and had a couple of beers as well.


In the evening we al headed to the buffet and then on to watch a comedy magician called Manuel Martinez.

Here are some pics of St Petersberg as we sailed from the harbour.

Russia - St Petersberg

Day 9


Midnight Sun

Prior to arriving in St Petersberg you had to book on to a organised tour if you wanted to visit the city. The russians are very tight on visas and they dont let every tom, dick and harry into the country, that is unless you are willing to pay £100 for a visa. Anyway, the whole familiy was booked on a walking tour of St Petersberg. After negotiating customs we all headed to the tour bus.

Military Building

On entering the city we were greeted with typical eastern european high rise flats, that looked very dodgy and somewhat intimidating. As we entered the heart of the city it was getting more and more beautiful and you could see why the city was known as the jewel of the baltic. There are lots of wide open waterways and palaces on every corner.

We began our walking tour at Palace Square . The place was litterally filled with newly married couples in their wedding gear. Apparently it is good marital luck to walk round the various mouments of the city. However, our Russian guide said it was a load of nonesense, because in all marriages there are three rings, the engagment ring, the wedding ring and the suffering!

The Bronze Horseman

　
St Isaacs Cathedral ( Gold Dome)

　
The next place we visited was the Cathedral of Spilt Blood, quite magficicent building full of colour.

　
Not far from the Cathedral was the local flea market. As well as selliing the usual tourist nonesense, it was also full of weaponary ( knives and replica guns)

　
The final place we visited was a old Russian Warship, unfortunately we had just arrived too late to have a look round it.

　




As we headed back to the ship, we thought that th days fun was over however we were wrong. All of a sudden a voice from the middle of the bus (i was sat on the back seats, because I am seriously cool! or more likely the back seats were a far walk for all the elderly on board and they where the only ones left when I got on the bus) said we are on fire!!!! Sure enough there was black smoke billowing from a water machine. My mum was in full blown panic mode and was ready smash the back window of the bus with a hammer. The driver quickly sorted the problem out and we were on our way again, with all the bus windows intact.


During the summer months Russia basks in daylight pretty much all night. Here are some photos of the mdnight sun
　

A couple of hours later here it is rising again.



　

I can honestly say that St Petersbergh is one of the greatest cities that I have ever visited. I just wish I could have explored the city more, I get the feeling you could spend weeks looking round and never getting board. It is definitely somewhere I would like to come again.