Sawadee everyone. Hows things at home? Canucks kickin some ass or what? Everything around here is great. Just about got dragged into a bar on the way to the email shop by the most manly lookin woman I've yet to see. *shudder* Her (his) voice was deeper than mine. Startled me... lol Usually I have the girls walking with me which acts as a buffer for the bar girls but I'm on my own tonight. Corina has left for home today. She's been traveling for 7 months and it was time for her to leave. I'll miss her big time but for now I still have Danielle to keep me company. I believe she has got about 20 days left before she leaves. We are heading to Ko Phangan on the 3rd of November and are going to stay there for, I think, 7 - 9 days. A couple of Ryans (little bro) friends from work, Melissa and Mandy, are going to arrive on the island tomorrow evening. I think they are traveling in Thailand for 10 weeks. They are going to be arriving just in time to go out and party for Halloween. The Bauhaus is having a Halloween Foam party which could be fun but they always have a foam party so we can catch it another time. The Reggae Bar on Chewang Beach is also having a big Halloween party with dressing up and prizes and shit so we may do that. Not sure, I think I'll just let the girls decide. With everything that has been going on the last couple of weeks I have quite honestly not thought at all about my birthday. 30 doesn't sound like it is the easiest birthday for people but luckily being here in Thailand I think it will pass just as smooth and painless as can be. Only one full day left till I'm thirty... another shudder. lol Oh well, can't think of another place I'd rather pretend it's not happening.

While we were out today Danielle and I saw a place that has Yorkshire pudding on the menu. I LOVE yorkshire pudding. For 150 baht ($6) I got mashed potatoes, roast potatoes... thats right TWO kinds of potatoes.... half a roasted chicken, yorkshire pudding and a salad. My god did I stuff myself. I had the choice of substituting the chicken for roast beef, roast lamb or roast pork. They were out of the pork so I had the chicken. lol Can't believe I'm going on about my meal. Some english guys about my age owned it. I ate my meal, drank a Calsberg and played pool all at the same time while watching a movie. After dinner Danielle and I walked down the street and watched the new Kill Bill movie. It just came out at home not long ago and I can just sit in a pub here drink beer and watch it. Such fun.

I was thinking I was gonna tell you about the food here but I think it's just something you have to experience. Most of it is soooo good. The stuff that is iffy is, well, it's just that, iffy. Maybe I can get some pics of it for you. Sometimes the meat just don't seem right. A little too chewy or the taste is a little off. Makes you wonder what the hell you're really eating. The thai food is very good, hot, spicy hot, sometimes but very good. If only I liked my veggies there would be so much more for me to eat. I have to admit that I have been to McDonalds a few times. I know I know... halfway around the world to eat McDonalds but sometimes you just need a break. There are venders all over the place. We have fresh fruit damn near every day. Pineapple, watermelon, sweat and sour mango and a bunch of other stuff I don't even know the name to. There are full grown and baby Coconut too that they chop the top off and stick a straw in. The baby coconut has a more sweet flavor and the edible part is softer and sweeter. The other vendors sell fried and grilled meats. From chicken, to any kind of meat on a stick. I love the chicken on a stick. The other night though I thougth I was buying chicken meat but it was fatty chicken skin, grossed me out. There is also the grilled corn on the cob that Danielle loves. Almost every morning I have my scrambled eggs and french toast. They put honey on it here and it's so good. Ok ok, enough about food.

The bungalow that we are staying at now are only 200 baht ($8) a night. I've got a queen size bed nice bathroom with a sit down flushable toilet and hot water for the shower. My moped only cost me 150 baht ($6) a day. I've done a little bit of shopping lately. Some shirts and trinkits and a couple gifts for people back home. I saw a great pair of jeans but it's too hot to wear them and I don't want to add more stuff to my bag that I'm not even going to wear. Anyway, thats all for now. We are going to go and do some swimming at a couple of different waterfalls tomorrow so it's an early night for and early morning. Not too early of course. Bye for now. Don't be afraid to comment you chicken shits. Keep me updated. Back to the adventure.

Some pictures from the trip so far.

This cat looks dead but it's just having a nap.



This was at the border between Malaysia and Thailand.



Danielle and Corina out for pizza.



And heading down into the caves



Father and son on a bike in the rain.

Ok everyone, I know I know. I'm lazy you say. But you have to know, I've tried to post two big long blogs now and I thought both had worked when in fact neither of them did. I got pissed off and decided that I wouldn't do any more blogging. My mom has convinced me to give it another try and instead of posting myself I'm gonna write blogs and send them to her to post for me. I'll see if that works better. Instead of going over everything from the last three weeks I'm going to give you all the address to my cousin Danielle’s blog. She's been travelling with me and will be with me for another two weeks. Her site is here I'll try to write about the everyday things that we do and the adventures that we go through.

One tragedy I can report to everyone though is about the rapid use and impending depletion of my Royal Toilet Paper. My god, nothing but one ply sandpaper from here on out. Either that or a wet bum crack if I use the bum sprayer instead of paper. It sounds easy but I'm not too sure about the squat toilets with the sprayers so I think I'll stick to the sit toilets with the paper.

The girls are right now down at the night market having some great cheap food. I slept a little later than I had planned for my nap so after I send this blog I'm going to head down and meet them at a restaurant where we go to watch movies at night and drink beer. I think I'm addicted to Carlsberg beer. Good stuff that. We are staying at the Cha Guest House right now. I've stayed here many times before and there is a great family who runs the place. They let us have hot water for free (only place so far) so we can go to the super market and buy noodle soups to make. We've been doing more of that lately to try to save money where we can.

Anyway, yesterday was a long day of driving since we did a visa run to the Malaysian border. We were told to be ready and in the lobby of our Guest House at 6:45am to catch a ride to our bus at 7. By 7:30am our mini van showed up to pick us up and take us to our bus. We left from our guest house, picked up some more people to fill the van and then set off on our way. Not for the bus station like we thought but for the City of Hadyai (or Hat Yai). Over four hours in a Mini-Van. Not too bad actually but I thought I would let the ladies on first to be polite and got shafted with the worst seat in the van. 4 hours of sitting straight up with a head rest that bent my head to put my chin on my chest. lol No bullshit.

When we got to Hadyai we rented a taxi for 500 baht ($20) and the nice driver took us 55miles to the border, told us what to do, drove us through the border, did a u-turn and brought us back, then drove us back to Hadyai. It was very smooth and actually a little fun instead of stressful like we thought it would be. Corina even took a picture of Danielle and I with the Border Guard who was all smiles. I'll send the pic in a couple of days. Pretty cheap taxi for all that he did for us.

Then we cruised around the city of Hadyai for a bit, had lunch at Micky D's and then went to the travel agent for our ride back to Krabi in another van. I was first on this time and got a good seat. The van wasn't full anyway and it was pretty peaceful on the ride back. Corina talked with an old couple about their respective travels and Danielle and I tried to sleep and listen to music. We got back to town at about 9:30pm and after hitting the Night Market (bbq pork for my soup for me and rice dishes for the girls) we ate and then after some card off to bed. We slept in this morning and after a good breakfast I bought the tickets for the bus and boat trip to Ko Samui.

About 10 minutes later the lady at the desk came to my room and said that there was a big storm over the island and we wouldn't be able to go for a couple of days. So here I sit. Instead of packing and getting ready for the trip tomorrow I'm writing to you all and thinking of renting a motor scooter for tomorrow. I'm in no hurry to do anything. Danielle is the one with a time limit so she is fretting the rain a little but not much.

Anyway, I'll write more often and email more than I have been. Talk to you all soon and wish you were here. Paradise is amazing but I think with family and friends it would be more so. I'm sure I'll survive though. No hint at thoughts of heading home yet. Keep in touch...

OK OK, I know. I've been slacking a little bit in the blog department. My cousin Danielle is here with me and she is posting blogs too and so I had it in my mind that people could just read what she had written to see what was going on. It only just now occured to me that there are obviously people who read mine who do not read hers. Not to mention I'm just plain lazy. Lazy days on the beachs and all. I think the last I wrote we were going for a bus ride down to Krabi. It was supposed to be from 6pm to 10 am. Our bus didn't actually leave until 8pm, two hours of standing on the side of the road with our backpacks. We arrived in Krabi at 7am, not 10am and it was great to get off the bus. We walked into town and got rooms at the Chan Cha Lay Guest House. It was just being finished the last time I was in Thailand so it's about a year old. The rooms are nice and the ladies who run it are even better. They sometimes let us use the computers for free. The girls and I spent 200 baht ($8) on a room. They wheeled in an extra cot for us so we had three beds. Didn't have to cram two people on a little bed. It's just too hot to be sharing. We rented a couple of motor bikes from down the street for 150 baht ($6) a day. Danielle rode one and I doubled Corina on the back of mine. Danielle did very good and didn't scare me too bad. The second day in Krabi we took the bikes and rode about 40 minutes to Ao Nang. I promised the girls a beautiful beach but by the time we got there the tide was out and we had to walk quite a ways to get out to the water. Even still we went for a nice swim and it felt great. The water was hoter than the air outside but we survived. We spent the rest of the day relaxing on the beach and then went for something to eat. We ended up having some Pizza at an Italian place. Not the pizza you would get at home but still good. We talked and ate and relaxed until around 7pm. By that time it had gotten dark and was raining a little bit. I've been riding these bikes for a while now so I wasn't worried about myself but I kept looking back at Danielle. She did fine though. Even with the wet roads and the pain pelting us in the face we got home ok. We made it home in time to wander down the street and take in a movie at one of the restaurant/guest house places. It's funny because we would go there earlier in the day and pick out the movie that we would watch that night. We had picked out Terminator 3. We thought it was funny the three of us picking out the movie the rest of the people had to watch. I think we did ok though. The next night we picked Final Destination 2. Our third day in Krabi we pretty much did the same think only we had to have the bikes back by just after noon so we hit the beach early. The tide was in and the girls went swimming. Even thought the tide was in the girls could still wander about a 1/4 mile out an still be only up to their waists. That was on Wednesday morning. Brent and his girlfriend Mint showed up that morning but decided to keep moving and took a Mini Van down to Ko Lanta. The girls and I decided to stay for one more night and take the boat down to Lanta. It was a very relaxing ride. The girls got a little burned but not too bad. When we got to the pier Brent and Mint were there with a van from the resort they were staying at to pick us up. It was nice because as soon as you get off the boat people come at you with pictures and bochures of their respective resorts. They are even on the boat with you as you go. Anyway, the place Brent and Mint found is very nice. We are spending 300 baht ($12) a night for our own bungalow for the three of us. It's got it's own bathroom which is nice. We've been swimming and relaxing and have already payed a week in advance. I plan on doing nothing more than relaxing are exploring the island. I think later today we are going to hit the market to look for some food, the restaurant is a little expensive, and after that we are going to visit the tiger caves. No actural tigers there anymore but it is a huge deep scary cave. Lots of fun. At one point you have to crawl on you stomach to get past one part. I'll make sure to take pictures. Anyway, my hands are sore from typing so thats all for me for now. I'm not sure but I dont' think I'm getting any emails that are sent to me. Unless of course you all are not sending any. lol Thats probably it if I know you people. If I remember next time I'll tell you all a funny story about a spider. Corina doesn't think it's funny but Danielle and I did. Bye for now. I'll try to keep a better schedule with this thing. Having fun in Paradise. Think I may not come home for quite a while. Bye all. Oh yeah, how are the Canucks doing?

Well, good morning everyone. It's quarter to 11 on the 5th of October and I've just finished my free two egg and toast breaky. Just right to start the day. The temp. is down today so it's not quite so stifling. I've been able to eat two dishs of food in the last two days. The heat will take some getting used to. It's supposed to be the monsoon season but I haven't felt any rain yet. I'm sure we will get some down south. We've just bought our bus tickets this morning for a 16 hour ride down to Krabi. Brent and his girlfriend are going to meet us down there. From Krabi we can hit a number of Islands and beaches. Anyway, let me tell you about my flights over here. Like most airlines I was told to be at the airport 3 hours before my flight. I was too excited about my trip and couldn't sleep so even though my flight was at 6:30am I was up and ready by 2:30. My dad drove me to the airport and I was there by 3am. I figured that would give me about 1/2 hour to wait before the check in time. Well the people didn't open their boarding gates until 5am. Two hours of sitting on my ass until I could check my bags. The first 3 hour flight was great because I had a row of seat to myself and I could stretch out and sleep. Then 5 hours wait in LA before my 13 hour flight to Korea. 13 hours of sitting straight up with no where to put my legs. I was so tired but couldn't for the life of me fall asleep. The flight out of LAX was delayed for an hour so we were leaving at 2:30 instead of 1:30, then something was wrong with the plane and it took another 40 minutes of sitting on the plane waiting while the maintenance crew did their thing. My layover in Korea that was two hours was now cut down to 20 minutes. I just made it to the plane and was sure that my backpack wasn't going to make it. One white guy holding up a plane full of asian people. Needless to say I was in my seat pretty damn quick. After another 5 hours from Korea to Bangkok I finally made it. 32 hours in transit with at the most 4 hours of sleep. After a 30 minute bus ride I finally made it to Khao San Rd. Yay. As I was walking to my Guest House I heard someone call my name and it was Corina, my girl who I hadn't seen in 6 months. It was very very good to see her. She looks great and is the same girl, thankfully, that I saw last in April. Anyway, we went to our Guest House and my cousin Danielle was already sleeping. Corina and I stayed up and talked until the sun came up. I slept for about an hour and then had a shower (no hot water here) and went downstairs to check emails and have breakfast. I've been able to sleep for about 4 hours at the most. I'm waiting for the jet lag to kick in or something. Corina and I stayed up all night again last night and talked. This is my second full day here now and I'm not tired at all. In the last 4 days I've had about 10 hours sleep. I'm going to have plenty of time to catch up when we hit the beaches. The three of us are getting along great so I don't foresee any problems along the way. Anyway, hopefully that wasn't too boring. I'll keep posting every couple of days or so and keep you all up to date on whats going on. Life is great right now. Don't be shy, pack your bags and join us on our grand adventure.