Ok well ive finally got some time to myself and free internet so ill take this opportunity to do a blog post. Sorry again for been so lazy and taking nearly a month to do a post, you will all have forgotten about this by now anyway.....

So mine and Adam's last few days in Sydney where pretty chilled, couple of nights out, spent a day at the Aquarium and wildlife park which was cool. Managed to meet up with some friends i made on my 1st few days in Sydney for a final send off. Unfortunately that night ended in me breaking my camera, not good when your about to fly out to an amazing country like Thailand.

8 hour flight to Singapore with probably the best airline company ever! Singapore Airlines are awesome! They have Mario and Pokemon on your own Nintendo!!!! How cools that! Oh the food was pretty good too but on demand gaming! Quality! Once in Singapore me and Adam spent 4 hours just walking around the place, it’s a pretty impressive airport, lots of free stuff to do, cinemas, gaming rooms, mini golf, koi gardens etc! So 4 hours flew by. A short 2 hour flight next to Bangkok, then the chaos began, just getting hustled left right and centre for taxi's & hotels. We heard it was bad but not to this extreme. Once we found a taxi and bartered our little hearts out for the 1st time we arrived in the Koha San Road region of Bangkok, the packbackers Mecca of Thailand! Basically every backpacker coming through Asia passes through here at one time or another. Tack central, this place has everything for everyone! Every kind of food been sold for next to nothing, tailors for your suites, bars with drinks going for a quid a gallon! It’s pretty ridiculous and hectic! We spent the night drinking until 4am then hit the hay. Hotel room for 6 pound a night! Expensive or what!

next day we spent traveling around Bangkok in a Tuk Tuk! Probably the scariest thing ive ever done! These guys are freaking crazy drivers! 20 baht for the day (40p) he took us around several buddist temples, to the best tailors in Bangkok for suites, tourist info to book our trips! Basically the whole sha-bang! All because he gets commission for taking us there! There all in it together in Bangkok to make as much money out of tourism as possible! They made there fair share out of us let me tell you that for free at least! It was really cool though going to the Buddhist temples, there very pretty and amazing colours!

So after 2 full days in Bangkok we where ready to leave, we had booked an overnight coach to a small island called Koh Tao, the home of Scuba Diving in Thailand. After a long, cold journey to a town, 1 hour on a bus stop bench at 2am, 30mins in the back of a truck, 3 hours on a ferry terminal bench and a 2 hour ferry crossing we finally arrived in Koh Tao at 9am! VIP travel we booked, I really wonder what economy is like! Gulp! Koh Tao is the smallest of the eastern islands and is still very much the less touristy! 24 hour power is still a rarity on the island! Its a real beautiful place though, reminds me alot of Rarotonga in the cook islands! my kind of place!:-)

I booked a 3 day Open Water PADI course at a dive school which will allow me to dive, anywhere in the world with or without an instructor! After getting the taste for it on the barrier reef I was really looking forward to this. I was staying for 5 nights at Buddha View, a dive resort very much populated and run my British instructors, infact a young 21 year old instructor from Hull works there! So I spent 1 day in the classroom learning about diving stuff then 2 days out on the water diving some of the most amazing dive sights in Thailand. I saw Sharks, Stingrays, huge Groupers, Barracuda, Moray Eels, just some amazing fish really! So after 3 days of adrenalin diving I fancied going a step further and doing my advanced open water, allowing me to dive to 30m and at night! both I did and both where very much unforgettable experiences, especially the night dive, underwater in the pitch black, not knowing whats lurking in the dark depths in front of you!!! I did see some huge barracuda who were using my torchlight to hunt for there food! Pretty amazing seeing a 1.5 metre Barracuda hit a small rabbit fish and eats it in seconds! So as you can see I kind of got a little hooked on diving, Adam the same, we both completed our diving courses and are fully qualified open water advanced divers! We end up spending a total of 11 days on the island..... Oh well, I loved every minute!

During this time on Koh Tao we had the small matter of my brother, Adams brother and one of my best buddies coming out to see us! I was so excited to see them as its been 6 months since ive seen anyone of my family! They had spent 2 days in Bangkok, doing the same as what we did, same tuk tuk tour, same temples, same shops, same food!!!! They had also endured the nightmare VIP travel from Bangkok and where tired out. We took them to a resort I had moved to with Adam called Bans, a huge diving complex geared towards not just divers but also your normal tourist. It’s a beautiful complex down on Sairee Beach. we all hire mopeds for 2 days which turned out to be a bad idea...... 1st Marc my friend from home crashes into a sign and grazes all his foot and damages the bike, 2nd when we where driving to Shark Bay to do a spot of snorkeling Andy, Adams brother slips off his bike too, no harm to him but the bike was a mess...... not good start for the lads, Koh Tao is a real pain to drive around, no real proper roads, just dirt tracks and sand! once all together and limping slightly we arrived at Shark Bay, I had been here 3 times before the lads came and it is quite possibly the nicest beach ive been to on my full travels so far! Its so beautiful, high rock faces, turquoise waters, white sand, little beach bar with a monkey! Heaven! I knew soon as I got there 1st time id want to bring Dan here and I was right, he fell in love with the place straight away! We head out for 2 hours snorkeling and saw probably 16-20 black tip reef sharks! Dan couldn’t believe his eyes, neither could Marc or Andy, infact Andy said he wouldn’t have gone in the water if he knew there where sharks.......Andy, shark bay......there is a give away in the name of the place! We also saw trigger fish, huge shoal of Butterfly Fish, some needle fish and a few baby Barracuda! They all loved it. Marc’s foot was hurting him though, not good.

We spent the night on the beach drinking a few beers watching the sun set over the sea! Pretty amazing day for the guys who 2 days earlier where in dull wet England, they thought they where dreaming......!

Next day was the guys diving experience, up at 9am for a discovery dive and training. Basically a morning in a swimming pool practicing there breathing underwater. Afternoon we head out on the open water, Dan with a waterproof camera in hand. It was so cool to dive with the guys on there 1st ever scuba dive, me and Adam just hung back and enjoyed the experience with them at Mango Bay. Unfortunately Andy had problems with his ears, he couldn’t equalise properly so couldn’t dive! So 2 days on Koh Tao with the new boys was great! They loved it and i just loved seeing them having the time of there lives because this is basically what ive done for the last 6 months! Lived the dream!!!

Morning breaks and hangovers set in, we catch the early morning ferry over to Koh Phangan, the home of the world famous Full Moon party! and yes we timed in specifically so we where there to experience it. We checked into a beach bungalow for 4 nights and prepared ourselves for a full on 24 hour drinking extravaganza!! As we where there 2 days before the party we decided we would warm our selves up with a pool party so we went to Coral Bungalows from 10pm til 6am! Drinking Buckets of Rum, coke and red bull or Vodka Red bull! Yes buckets, for about 4quid! Lethal believe me! however the night didn’t end the way we wished, marc was really suffering with his foot now from the accident so we took him to a hospital where they discovered he had a really had infection. They dressed it immediately and sent him over to another island, Koh Samui for further treatment! This was a real downer, the guy was so up for the party and now he had to spend 3 days in hospital away from us, we all felt crap about it....... so we had a drink for him! Ok maybe 7 or 8!

The day before the Full Moon we chilled and entertained ourselves by going to see some Thai Boxing on the night! It was a real seedy place with maybe 100 people there betting on some real dodgy characters! Great experience though. Saw some 12 year old kids fighting which was kind of wrong!

So the day finally arrived, 10 March, Full Moon! We met back up with a guy from Fraser Island called nick, he is from Hull and traveling for 2 years on his own but decided to come over to Thailand and spent some time with us. He was joining us for the party. We spent the day chilling again, not much else to do when the sun is baking down and you’re on a small island. Once the evening arrived we head to some friends in Haad Rin for a few drinks at around 9pm, got all painted up in fluorescent paint which looks so cool under the UV lights, I went for the Adam ant look! Around midnight we head for Haad Rin Beach, 60,000 other people all dancing away under the biggest full moon on the most beautiful beach! It was serious organised chaos! Fire jugglers lined the beach along with bar after bar and small stalls selling cheap buckets of drink! There is no wonder people get in such a state at these parties. We are all buzzing by now and dancing away, before we knew it the sun was coming up, it was 6:30am, we all go and dive in the sea and watch the beautiful orange sun break over the horizon! It was quite a moment! So another bucket of vodka red bull was called for! We partied on until 8am and even when we left there was people still going for it! Clearly on something else but drink!

11th March.........erm......... BED! Although I did wake up in the afternoon and wanted to go back and see what carnage was left of the party! There were people still passed out on the sand 24 hours after the party started!

12th March we left the party island along with everyone else and traveled to Phuket, the west side of Thailand. We arrived late last night and checked into a rather pimped out hotel for 10 pound a night! Phuket is famous for 2 things, Thai Girls and Thai....... Girls/Guys! It also is there capital of tourism, rather built up and highly populated! Bangkok by the sea I think. Not my kind of place.

Today we all went to do a Bungee, a short 50m jungle bungee which was cool, finally got one done after all the times I missed out in NZ and OZ. Then the guys went to a shooting range, my brother was loving that, got to fire some handguns, machine guns, shot guns etc! Tonight we plan a heavy night out around Phuket to see what kind of delights it has to offer, im sure it’s going to be an eye-opener. We then plan on heading for Koh Phi Phi, a small island just off Phuket and is really beautiful, set in the real heart of the Thailand Indian Ocean. Going to visit James Bond Island, The beach where ‘The Beach’ was filmed etc. Looking forward to it.

9 more days and im home! Mum, get the kettle on!