Ko samui (9th august)

Got to ko samui from pragnagn for 400 bhat including boat ticket leaving praGNAN AT 9:30 in the morning.walked off the ferry in ko samui (In Nathon?) and into the second hotel i saw and got charged 300 bhat for the night, though i probably could have got it for cheaper if i had bothered to barter a little. I saw signs down the street that almost every hotel was 300 bhat per nightThe others ranged from 400 to 1000 bhat.
The town has a tesco lotus, lots of western style resteraunts, and plenty of places to stay but (in the short time ive been here so far) i don think thers much to do. There is no beach and no interesting scenery or temples. tomorow I think i will go to mae nam.
And hopefull not much walking. my feet still hurt like fuck.

James bond Island n ting (8th august)

Left krabi at 8:30 in the morning and was genuinly sad to be leaving but i had already stayed for eight nights and thought i needed to keep moving.got to pagnagna for 70 bhat on a bus.
spent the morning looking around the town. not much there but there was a cool monument.

went on a half day tour to see the james bond island/needle/mangrove swamp/water village/some caves. It costed 500 bhat and was well worth it. the difference between this and some of the other tours is just the time you get to see things.On the longer tours you stop on an island for about an hour but on the half day trip you stop at places for 20-30 minutes. This IMO is more than enough time to see something.The james bond island/needle/mangroves were really cool. The water village was also cool but i felt a little guilty walking past peoples homes as part of a tourist group with loads of cameras. It was really interesting though and some of the kids were keen to teach me the thai for some of the fish the kept in nets.
In the evening i walked down the road to see what looked like a huge market decorated with flashing lights. turns out it was a party for the queens birthday. The queen wasnt there, but the thai people seem to love their monarchy. There was a ferris wheel and a load of ball games, and a show done by some local school childeren. they looked to be about 5 years old.I bought a pad thai, dragon fruit, a beer, and some pastry dough ball type things that were deep fried.

Krabi Aquarium (7th august)

had chinese for breakfast. About 30 bamboo boxes brought to the table containing little bits of fish meat and rice

fossil beach was ok

went to an aquarium and saw more crazy fish and another turtle

went to a mountain in krabi that had a cool cave ruined with fiberglass models

saw another set of fish inc a huge puffer fish and what i think were tuna. they were brootal as fuck.

lady i stayed with beat thed shit out of a huge rat with an umbrella.

Hot springs and emerald/crystal pool (6th august)

went to crystal pool/pondwent to hot springs both were really cool
used only k800i phone because swimming and broken kodak. really pretty.

Krabi Au Nang beach (5th august)

tried to rest my feet again because they were cut to shit but Ended up walking up and down for about two hours.
a taxi boat got washed ashore and i helped push it out to sea.
watched jarhead in thai dubs.
saw a white temple in krabi town.

Tiger temple and waterfall (4th august)

woke up late
went round with one of the employees to swim in a waterfall and climb the tiger temple (1200 steps, or something like that). had candyfloss in a pankake, good stuff.got some sandals for 40 bhat and some "buddah oil"also got a new phone cuz the old one broke due to water damage.

also my kodak broke

Krabi: Reiley beach and lagoon (3rd august)

went to reiley beach and lagoon, It wasnt worth it(is that the joke?). Nahh.. but seriously it was epic as fuck. The climb was easy at first but then got kinda hardcore. it would be easy if the rocks were dry and i had climbing shoes, but the rock was covered with wet clay. I needed to ditch my flat sole shoes that were caked in mud and go bare foot. then went swimming and jumped off a cliff.

I had some epic video of the lagoon but my kodak is now broken. I got the photos off the SD by using my canon, but the videos wont show up.

Krabi/ 4 Islands trip (2nd August)

The day started off with a parade walking past the place i was staying. It appeared to be for the king and it looked like it was an entire school just walking down the road with police escort.some people were in traditional wear, while others were in an american style batton girl costumes with battons.

the four islands trip was good, and i was bitten by one of the bastard blue and yellow tiger fish. They were in a feeding frenzy because people were throwing bread in the water. I guess they thought i was bread.I got some cool video on my kodak though.

met the couple from the netherlands again briefly on a small island.
went round the tiger temple
saw a lizzard crossing the road that was about 3 feet long
ate more real thai food that was like eating fire.

Krabi /Ko phi phi (1st August)

Ko phi phi trip was awesome. The beaches and coastlines smash Patong beach a mile into the ground with a sledge hammer.You know when you see photos of a place and are slightly dissapointed with the reality of the situation? Like when i went to the rome collosium I expected it to be bigger and with fewer scafolding polls.Anyway Ko Phi phi was not like that. Parts of it were like the photo on a perfect postcard in every direction. Honestly it was fucking awesome, and i recomend it to anybody (but do it as part of a tour to get into all the little coves and crevices, the main beach with the hotels isnt as good, they charge you 40bhat just to piss).
As part of the day trip we went snorkeling and i tried out my Kodacs underwater features for the first time. Ive not seen the results on anything other than the screen of the camera but they look reasonably good. the water wasnt totaly clear so over 2-3 meters the water appeared murkey. at short range it still looked good (from what i can tell so far anyway).The camera didnt break due to water damage and bad seals either which is a good thing and my main consern. The battery was ok, i was turning it on and off all day and in total took about 50 photos and 15 minutes of 60fps, 720p HD video footage. If you want to film a sporting event you will be annoyed at the battery length, but for a snorkeling trip with only conservative recording it was good.It still had enough battery left at the end of the day to play back all the videos and look through the photos. Saying that though you could probably get a spare battery for not much money and two batterys would last for plenty of time.
My Thai phone broke today due to water damage. It was safe during all the snorkeling and beach trips, but i had it in my swim short pockets on the way home and took a shower with my swim shorts on. I forgot to take it out. Why dont they make phones waterproof? ....Oh right, so you need to buy another every time it breaks. More money for big buisnesses.
I also got two more trips booked for tomorow and the day after round some of the other islands. These trips are also at local price (half price) thanks to my Thai hosts.
This evening we went out to eat sea food. Clams fish, and some other creature that lives in a snail like shell. I have no idea what it was but it tasted like muscles or something

(pic is a self portrait of my feet on my Kodak)

Krabi: sleeping with the fishes (31 july)

HOLY shitballs, The krabi landscape is amazing! vertical cliffs with trees growing even in the overhangs. I already like it better than phuket.I journey'd into krabi on the bus from puket town for 120bhat (about £2.40) and got into krabi bus station. I met a young couple (21 and 23) on holiday backpacking for a month who were from the netherlands.they were spending a month in thailand and had already been to chaing mai, bangkok and puket within two weeks. anyway we both were hoping krabi was better than puket (and more spesificaly patong).we arived at the bus station and asuumed we wanted to go to krabi town. we got off and walked up and down to get our bearings.we then met a group of russian lads and asked them where the beach was, they said about 10 kilometers. we thought it was best to go to the beach rather than the town and split the cost of a taxi. It turns out the british arent the worst in the world at haggeling, mabie its the dutch. They were impresed by my haggeling skills and the art of walking away to get a better deal. I found it funny how they thought i was the experienced one of the three of us.They said that the best part of their trip so far was trecking near chiang mai.so i will try my best to have that opportunity too. we arived at the beach near reily (spelling?) and parted ways they wanted to find a hotel and i needed to respond to a text. I would have liked to stay with them a little longer but I had a feeling that Something had been aranged for me buy my dads friend andn his wife. youThe text was about a missed call from my dads, friends, wifes, cousins, daughter who lived in Krabi with her mum. I phoned the number and they basicaly came to pick me up to stay with them overnight. The girl is only 12 but speaks very good english and makes me feel very bad about my language skills(I can only speak a few sentences in french badly). Where they live is literaly in the back of a pet shop and the room i'm typing this message in is about 3 meters away from a fish tank about 2mx2m full of goldfish.They seem nice and booked me on a tour of some local islands (ko phi phi) for the local price rather than the tourist price (so almost half price).while we were talking in the evening (well mostly me and the girl, because her mum spoke very little english) the subject of religion was brought up. They were trying to introduce me to their buddist figures and monks and said "you are christian" in the form of a question, mainly to check the pronounciation and i replied "no". Possibly a bad idea as they looked shocked and puzzled. they asked what i was and i tried to explain that i was atheist in the briefest most religious sounding way possible.I hope it doesnt have any negative affects on the way they view me as I know religious politics is a very delicate topic.

Bangkok chatuchack weekend market (24th july)

Realy good market. I dont normaly care for them, but this one was good. I got lost about three times.

Some guy had a stall outside the market where he was trying to sell pens, old dirty coke bottles, a camera case and a torch. I expect he was a hobo that stumbeled across a table in the canal and was trying to act on his dream of owning a market stall. I'm not sure how much stuff he was selling though.

I bought socks chopsticks and shorts. Also got some fucking awesome vegetable spring rolls, like i had in france about 10 years ago. There was an awesome 1:1 scale model of the alien from the alien films made from metal. loads of smaler models too, like master chief, spider man, predator, transformers,c3po and other stuff, but no photos allowed. the train on the way there was delayed and when everyone got on it was so full it was moving at about 5mph. it was rammed full with no room to move. I was half expecting the whole track to collapse and for the train to land on the road.

Bangkok Grand palice and wat pho (23rd july)

Went to the grand palice and wat pho, but nearly missed the huge lying buddah. They were both really awesome places to see. The Grand palice was a collection of loads of different sculptures and buildings, they were all good but they hardly followed a consistent style.

Taxi driver sucked and asked for extra 100 bhat more than we agreed because of heavy trafic. would have told him to go fuck himself (well not those exact words) if it were in the uk. he was plesant for the whole trip but turned very hostile when asking for more money like the trafic was my fault. Im pretty sure he was trying to milk it too, I think he was trying his best to stay in the heavy trafic.

Bangkok (22 july) "Buy blood for granny!"

looked round town center
"Young girl! Young Girl for you!" yelled at me by some woman
got fake zara socks. probably would have been cheaper to buy authentic unbranded socks, but i couldnt find any.

I got some shity 7/11 food (pork bread bun with mayo) It looked nice but tasted horrible. It was like a mixture of a Big Mac and a fruit bun.

some woman needed me to buy blood for her ill granny, apparently her daughter was at the same uni as me and her hometown was my next visiting location (chiang ri), but then when i changed it to krabi she she said she had a brother who was a diving instructor and could give me free lessons. I declined the offer.

Hua hin: sea life center/duck noodles/monkeys (21st july)

Went to a goverment owned sea life center with only a 40 bhat entry fee. It had an underwater tunnel and a turtle. The enclosiour for the turtle was tiny and it was just swimming back and forth in the same way over and over again. It was very intersesting to see though.

I was taken to a "famous" resteraunt that served duck noodles. It was nice, but far from groundbreaking.

I was then taken to feed monkeys. i was given bags of sweetcorn and tried to see how many the monkeys could catch in a short space of time. Then some of the fat ones got in a strop and started to steal the food from the smaller monkeys. One of them even had a whole pile of food that he was gaurding.

Puket patong Fantasea (30th july)

Slept untill about 11 and stayed in bed until 2. My feet were in pure pain due to too much walking over the last few days. While I had spent most of the last two days at the beach i spent it walking up and down the coast and exploring rather than sitting in the same spot and swimming for 4-5 hoursMy feet were in pain all night and it was actualy affecting my sleep. I found myself waking up in the night with the feeling of being hit in the foot by a hammer. so i'm going to attempt to walk as little as possible over the next few days.
but I couldnt sit in the hotel all day. There was almost nothing interestingh in kathu and i didnt feel like making the effort of going to karon beach via phuket town.I went to patong again and sat on the beach. I also found an awesome food court in the bottom level of (what i think is) the main shopping center in patong. It had a range of thai food cooked just like on the street slalls but with huge variety. The option of over 100 diferent thai dishes for under 100 bhat. I had fried rice with beef, peppers, oyster sauce and a fried egg. fairly basic compared to other things on offer but still very nice. While it still cost more than the real street food It was still much cheaper and probably at least the same standard as the resteraunts above at street level. It was alo far nicer than anything you can get at the chinese takeaway near me back home.

In the evening I went to the puket FantaSea show. It was pricey at 1500 bhat, but it included transport to and from the hotel. It was well presented and the entrance to the stage was impressive with an angor wat style design. the show was good, and featured many many elephants and various other animals running and flying across the stage and over the crowd. However I found the fairy lights on the lead actors jacket to be very underwhelming and out of place compared to the rest of the show. It was such a small part of the experience but i found it so fucking annoying. I wanted to go down and slap the lead prop guy over the head.

Puket patong walking street 29th july (fuck you jeb end)

Kamala beach, A smaller beach that would be plesant on a better day but still showing signs of the tsunami along the front of the shore line shops unlike the main Patong beach.
went to patong in the evening again to see some of the nightlife, the bus was full in the back so i was sat in the front with the monks. It turns out even the monks need to pay the bus fair, I thought they got on for free.Patong at night was little diferent to Patong in the day. one street fills up with bar girls and ladyboys but the rest remains the same. I walked up and down that street at about 22:00 and was hardly blown away. I guess if you want a night out its a good place to be, but as i was solo i stuck to the cherry fanta's.
Fuck you jeb-endOne thing i found amusing is that The street vendors were trying to lure me into their shops by speaking russian to me. From what i overheard of passers by it seems most tourists were ausies and russian. Aparently i look more russian than australian, possibly because i wasnt wearing a baseball cap and basketball vest.but they still insult you in english when you walk past their shop without looking at it.

Phuket patong beach (28th july)

What a difference a day makes. Today was better, Mostly due to the public transport.It was a pain in the balls to get a bus because there didnt seem to be any bus stations and the buses rarely came past. but when they did it was just 20 bhat each way (40p) This was a massive improvement over yesterday when i was taking taxis and mopeds everywhere.the weather was good for most of the day and overcast at worst. No rain all day. It was windy but, it was refreshingly cool rather than just cold like back home.
Patong beach was better than i expected, possibly because i was so depresed the day before and mabie because its only the 3rd beach I have been to so far (1st Rayong just briefly for food, and the 2nd in hua hin). I expect (well i hope) Krabi will put patong to shame.It was very touristy with jet skis and Mc D's up and down the beach, bars all along the back streets but either side of the long strip of beach was nice. on the far south of the beach there is a little cove where a river meets the sea. It was shallow water, shallow enough to walk through and on the other side there was a secluded (well compared to everything else..) buddist shrine and a fewwooden boats stacked against the trees.
In the north there was (what i think is actualy Kalim beach) a rocky landscape. jagged roacks and crab pools everywhere. The tiny little pools of water had a mass of life moving about within. crabs, small fish (but big for the pool at about 5-6 inches) and shrimp like creaturesat one point you could see about 50 crabs all in the same location running into the sea (away from me) symoultaniously. I tried to get a photo on my kodak but most had dispersed before i could turn it on. I still have a shot of about 20 crabs and the sea crashing into them that i may post.ANyway it was a nice little section of coast on an otherwise busy beach.
Crazy fish in the market that i would be scared to touch nevermind eat.
Told off n the bus for scrunching the 20bhat note! It was disrespectfull to the king

puket day 1 (27th july)

Night bus to phuket (26-27 july):The seats were what I would expect from buisness class if it were a plane journey, but they were still uncomftorble compared to a real bed.The journey was fairly uneventfull,bar a complimentary meal at 2am in the morning.This was a night bus, It started at 19:30they played a film for two hours and then the lights went out to allow people to sleep/rest. the last thing i expected was to be awoken by trumpets as part of a prerecorded mesage to anounce a meal!How about, instead of a complimentary meal, we could have a complimentary shuting the fuck up? Its nice to have food included but mabie they could serve it at a more reasonable hour (22:00?). I can understand that they do it on planes but, plane journeys are blured by diferences in time zones and they are alot more descreet.If they are going to serve food they move from person to person and ask individualy, letting people continue to sleep if they are sleeping.But Anyway, the trip was about 650 bhat (13 quid) and fairly efficient. I would recomend it to people that dont NEED a full nights sleep.
phuket town - Kathu - Phuket town - kathu (27th july)
Arived in Phuket town at 7:00. Had a Hotel "booked" and went to get a taxi Knew the name of the location on paper but had no idea where it was on the island as I wasnt the one to book it.Got asked to pay 450bhat (9quid) which i now think was way too high (for the distance i expect i would pay a little less in england). I still dont know what i ought to be paying. Though At that point I didnt know where i was going anyway or how far it was.Got to the hotel and got asked how long i wanted to stay, the booking didnt seem nesaseryat this point because there was no mention of it. The price per night was what i expected though (500bhat).It was a miserable start to the day, First impresions were poor as the hotel semed to be in the middle of nowhere, neither town nor beach. along the rout there was nothing but a handfull of small shacks and food stands. the roads were buisy, but it looked like cars just getting from one coast to anotherIt was raining and the sky was gray. I slept for the first 4 hours on arival. After that I went out for a walk to see how far i could get towards Phuket town. It was still drizzling, but I couldnt be arsed to spend the whole day in the hotel even if the weather was crap. I was met by a couple of dogs who became hostile towards me for some reason.Most dogs seem to ignore you and let you walk past withou issue. These two dogs started growling as i came close. I slowly backed away, they lost interest so i crosed the street to continue my journey. On this side of the street there was more dog trouble, though it didnt affect me. Two dogs were fighting inside a small cafe, about another 4/5 dogs had been attracted to the noise and were watchingThis was about 50 meters away from me and the cafe owner was hitting the dogs with a long handeled brush in an attempt to stop the fighting, or at least move them away from her property.I walked a little further And hailed a bike just because i couldnt be bothered anymore. He didnt speak a word of english and I dont speak any usefull thai, so i was standing at the side of the road pointing at a map, And then getting 20bhat notes out my wallet one at a time until he seemed happy. The journey cost me 140bhat, about 300 less than the same journey earlier that day, but it was by bike rather than car.My impresions of phuket town were also poor, Even though it was low season and there were few tourists abot you could still see the influence.So far I had spent 600 bhat on transport and had seen almost nothing, so i was a little depresed. I went to try and relocate the bus terminalI had arived at just to try and scout out how to get to krabi. I couldnt find it just by walking about as I had no knowlege of the town.I asked a young couple walking past that looked like tourists if they knew where it was, they were spanish, but spoke good english. They didnt know where it was though. But they were kind enough to give mew a map of the island with scaled up versions of the main town and beaches.
This gave me a better sence of scale as i knew where i was compared to the key features of the island and roughly how long it would take to get there. I still hadnt seen anything interesting at this point, but At least I knew the island was smaller than i first thought.I expect I could walk to Patong beach in less than an hour or get there for about 150 bhat (3 quid) in a taxi and mabie a little less on a moped (if the map I have is to scale and not a stupid cartoon map like some places have).Transport could still end up being a pain though. I have spent about 750 bhat (15 quid) in one day on transport to nowhere in particular. some places on this map are a little further.a slightly more expencive hotel in phuket town or the beach could work out better overall.Lets just see how this turns out.
No photos today