Hi

Arrived safely to the hotel and thankfully wasnt taken round any the suit fitting shops enroute. The hotel isn't the same as the one I stayed in previously when i was last here (unfortunately). The room is very basic but I suppose I knew that was coming with the class of rooms with the trip I organised. Ill be interested to know if this ranks as one if the better establishments on the trip or worst. The cover picture is from the view of my balcony, I think the room has the entire hotel wiring running in front of it too.

Just met my room mate that I'll have for the next month, he seems sound and is older than me and is called Ray. I think he is Canadian unless he has an obsession with decorating his rucksack in the Canadian flag.

The flights went smoothly and the connections were easy due to the plan not being delayed. The flight from the Manchester to Doha was interesting one until they told me they had ran out of the free beer. I'm not sure if they were telling me the truth, but I wasn't drunk so I'm not sure what the fuss was about. I was sat next to an interesting guy from the Wirral who now lives in thailand, he was a chef on an oil rig. The flight from Doha to Bangkok went alot quicker as I slept through most of it after my beers on the first flight and o suppose the lack of english speaking passengers sat next to may have contributed. Although I had to tell the air hostess to tell the guy in front of me to move his chair from off my legs...he was small as well so I'm not sure why he needed to move his chair so far back.

Just went for a Thai massage at the hotel to see if it would freshen me up after the flight. I don't recall the last time I was here being in so much pain after a massage, I'm not sure if the massage was either a poor massage or a successful one either. I would say about 20% of it was relaxing and the rest of it would prob be considered as mild abuse an it lasted an hour. I wouldn't of minded but i paid her for it and gave her a tip as well, ill be checking for bruises later on i reckon. She was digging her elbows and heels and standing on me everywhere, I thought she was proper winding me up when she started to stand inside my armpit and knead my windpipe. Overall I reckon she knew what she was doing and had been given the proper training, but I just think that if you have a strong grip or weigh more than the average masseuse then maybe performing Thai massage isn't the career for you.

Just about to meet the rest of the group, should be interesting I'm really looking forward to it.

Nokesy