(28th may 2009)
This is the " money saving" blog I tried to post in Asia which refused to upload so I kinda shot myself in the foot there, but here it is so you can see what we did for this month of our trip!

Well we invited my mum and dad out to Singapore to see us, then took them to Bangkok and then Phuket, and gave them lots of eye openers as promised. We gave them a couple of nice tourist days in Singapore.. We went to Singapore zoo and then the horse races the day after. Us Waterhouse's didn't have much luck with the betting thing but Clifford won s$217 on one horse which made his day! When we got to Bangkok the first thing we did was barter for a cheap taxi. We walked my rents past the limosines and official taxis to the cheap section. When it pulled up it was an old truck with backed out windows, no taxi sign and it sounded like it was about to fall apart. Obviously being in Africa for 2 months meant me and Clifford were used to all the rubbish cars but my mum and dad didn't look overly impressed. The impression didn't get any better. Our driver didn't speak English but kept trying to have a conversation with my dad in Thai, and seemed to be asking us where to go. In England this car would have been taken off the road 10 years ago. It broke down twice on the way which I found amusing but stressed my rents out as they seemed to think wed be stranded on the pavement somewhere in Bangkok. The driver pulled in to the wrong hotel and got pointed in the right direction by the security guards but couldn't release his handbrake so sat there fighting with it for 5 minutes. When we finally got to our hotel my mum and dad couldn't get out of the car quick enough! The hotel itself was really nice though, we had double rooms with en suite and a mini kitchen. We took a city tour with a guide who took us around a few of the temples and gave us lots of info. She also took us to do river tour where we got to see how the poorer people of Bangkok live. She also stopped off at James Tailor where dad and Clifford has shirts custom made, then dropped us off at a jewellery factory. We had absolutely no idea where we were going most of the time it was a case of 'oh we'll just stop here there really good, good prices etc..' then they follow you around and try to flog anything and everything to you. Even the tour woman was trying to get Clifford to buy me jewellery. When she tried to walk us to her tour office to book another trip we said no and made her get back in the van. The day after that we made my rents get in a TukTuk-you cant come to Bangkok and not go in a TukTuk! We only wanted to go to boots but we ended up agreeing to an hours tour of Bangkok for the same price but never actually got to boots. I

think the driver just wanted an excuse to drive around for a bit. He got his friend to come too so that we had 2 TukTuks between us instead of four of us squeezing into one Tuk (which would have been fine for getting to Boots but not overly comfy for an hour). We had a really ace time racing round Bangkok with our mad drivers. These guys basically took us to the same kind of places as the tour woman the day before but they were the local Tailors and jewellers so they weren't overly expensive like the others. We should have got a Tuk Tuk to a restaurant that night too but instead we got a taxi with the man at the end of the road who had enthusiastically asked us every time we walked by if we wanted a taxi and got the same answer- no- every time. We were feeling nice though and wanted to go to a Thai restaurant and seen as he said he knew a nice one we gave the guy a break and got a taxi with him. He'd asked us if we liked sea food and we had strongly said no-(after my last sea food experience with auntie Jeanie on holiday last year) but the guy dropped us off at a seafood restaurant anyway then we got skanked into buying some big prawns by the waiter. We didn't realise wed been skanked until the bill came and the 4 prawns cost 9000 baht on their own. Only then did they explain they charged per kilo gram so the price on the menu was for 100 grams of the prawns which weren't actually that nice anyway! I was more than annoyed-especially because I had to go to the cash machine to get more money, but more because we paid it. That works out at about £18 for a prawn. A PRAWN! Clifford and my rents have had fun making prawn jokes now though just to annoy me. We ended Bangkok on a bad note but had a good time anyway. The day after we got on a plane to Phuket which is a bit classier and more relaxed. (we didn't decide to leave because of the prawns btw-we had booked the flights before then).

On arrival to phuket we managed to bag ourselves a free airport transfer to our hotel which was 40 minutes away in exchange for going to view the Marriot 5* holiday complex and then getting a free gift for it. We got 4000 baht spending on the day which paid for a nice meal. Our Phuket hotel is really nice-the pools beautiful the spa's lovely. We each got a 10 min Thai massage free with the booking which was interesting.. There not the gentle massages where you could fall asleep, they crack all your joints and pull you around a bit. My mum signed up for and extra hour on top of her 10 mins and came out feeling like shed been in the gym. The oil massages are nicer but again interesting as me and my mum found out- compliments of cliffy boy J . The highlight of phuket by far was the elephant ride we went on. They had little seats on top for two people then the mahout sat on the elephants neck. He picked us flowers on the way round and showed us the rubber trees then half way round be got off and I got to sit on the elephants neck and steer it-well kinda, its a lot harder to keep your balance than it looks! My mum ended up sitting in the mahoots seat on their elephant and when they came across a fallen tree the mahout got the elephant to move it which was amazing to watch but I'm just glad my mum has good balance! The elephant just snapped it like it twig and flung it to the side. It was a really good set up-the elephants eat all day and you can give them as many bananas as you want when you put some money in the donation box. They get baths when they've been ridden, and you cant wear your shoes when your on them. There were gibbons there too which were incredibly cute. They were really inquisitive and you could go right up to the enclosure and touch them. There was a little black one which put its hand out for you to hold and followed you when you walked around the enclosure.

Yesterday we went to a shooting range. We literally walked in, they gave you ear muffs, showed you some guns, you chose one, paid, you got a guide, they got you some bullets, then had a pop at a target. Clifford chose a 9mm handgun, I got a 38 calibre revolver and my mum and dad both got .22 rifles with scopes. My mum beat my dad she got 87% and my dad got 83% but shhh! Clifford loved it- he was like a kid in a candy shop. He even got a bulls eye on his last shot to top off his 90% score. Show off!

Our plan is to now train it down it Singapore but we might look into flying somewhere instead as we've got 8 days. Next update in New Zealand J

Brilliant 2 weeks, thank you for coming out m&d J xxx