Luckily, it didn’t stop working completely, so i was still able to take some pics…however, there are lots which didn’t quite come out – and not sure if that’s worse than not having taken the pictures at all! My lens has a funtion called VR (Vibration Reduction) which stabilises the image to allow you to take pictures at slower shutter speeds, without camera shake. This somehow broke, so most of the pictures i was taking at high zooms are slightly blurred.

On arriving back in Bangkok…i went straight to the Nikon shop to see about getting it fixed…and have just put it in for repair…and found out it’ll cost me £80! However, a quick phone call to my lovely Mam today should hopefully secure a faxed copy of the warranty and it should all be free.

While, walking outside the Nikon shop…i had a really cool experience. Lots of office workers were out for lunch and the pavement was a sea of yellow. Yellow is the colour of the King and the royal family, and to show their love and devotion (which is really second to none!!) a lot of Thai people wear yellow t-shirts with the royal emblem on them. What i didn’t realise…is that many people wear them to work. Nearly everybody on the street (and it was a busy road) was wearing black trousers and a bright yellow t-shirt! It was really quite cool…so i reached into my bag to snap away a few pictures and…oh yeah…that’s right…i just handed my lens in to get repaired! D’oh!

Sadly, we never quite made it…and now i’m back in Bangkok after over 30 hours on trains!

Click pic for more photos…

However, the good news is that we had a wicked time with Helen and Emma, and met some other cool dudes on the island too. We met a cool Canadian couple – Riley and Maggie, and Jasmine who made us lovely crepes everyday was a good crack. Bit sad to leave, but with full moon coming, the island was getting busier everyday and it attracts quite a mixed crowd. Pyscadelic wall hangings and English football fans by the barrellfull.

Speaking of which…the world cup has indeed started, and i haven’t written a pip about it…to be honest i haven’t seen many games as i’ve been travelling or partying most of the days…however…there may be something to come sometime soon.

The sun is shining, the sand is glistening and the water is oh so warm.

Will report more soon…

However, the other side of Bangkok, and the much more infamous side, is the dirty side. It’s almost like a step into a shifted dimension, virtual reality. Everything is just slightly different, and it’s quite hard to pinpoint exactly what that difference is. I don’t think there is anywhere else in the world where you can play pool in a bar with as many women as men, who are all gorgeous and dressed up to the nines (and they’re pretty good at pool!). Of course, they are all hookers, and this is not unusual. It’s not like you go to the red light district and there are a few girls lined up at the side of the road, this is in whole neighbourhoods, areas…districts of the city!

It gives you a strange attitude towards women here, and them a strange attitude towards you. They make you feel like they want you – even though they want your wallet, and it makes you inclined to think you can have any one you want. It gives me a little insight to what it must be like for many women – the shift in power to be able to have any guy you want.

Although it’s great and all that…it’s a little strange and i can’t help but feel myself slipping into the alternate reality and thinking it’s OK. However, a life of playing pool in a bar everynight may indeed be fantastic – being fantastically good and the fact that it’s winner stays on certainly adds to the enjoyment (and the totty aint too bad to look at either) – i don’t really think that it’s the life for me. It’s a great city and it’s fun being here, but i think the levels of depravity are a bit too much to handle for everyday life. The Thai’s are truly lovely people though, and life outside the seedyness is pretty darn cool.

Last night i met up with my big bro, his mate Roland, Erik and Ruby, Bernard, Jon and my cousin Darren and his mate for one stonking night out on the town. Good times were had by all, but sore heads were also had this morning…oh and clothes that needed to be put straight into the washing machine after getting all the lumps off with a hose!

Suzy, Lyndsey and Al arrive at 6am tomorrow so better get some kip before an early rise!

Would love to show you all some very funny photos from last night…but Callum lost his camera…

The city has a huge river through it, so we jumped on a longboat river taxi and went for a tour – a bit surreal feeling a bit like you are in Venice, with a mix of new, and not-so-new, houses and jungle at the river side!

We asked a few locals and found out that the place to be on a Friday night is a club called Hollywood. What a place! There are like a hundred guys wearing overalls that go and get your drinks for you while you sit/stand and stare at the lovely Thai ladies dancing and singing on the stage. A massive club, with a massive stage with singers performing (not too badly) all kinds of music. We managed to get two tuk-tuks to take us there for only 20baht each – about 30 pence – and were pleasantly surprised when we found out it was like 20 mins away! FYI – of course our tuk-tuk won the race….would i really side with the losing team?? Anyway, a great day and a great night ended in the bar as the sun rose, trying (not so well) to hold a pool cue – at some points just holding it was doing well….never mind actually hitting a ball!

Saturday night we headed off to Pat Pong for some more ‘in-depth’ shows (pun intended)
After getting balsed around by the stupid tuk-tuk drivers trying to take us to some dodgy sex show, we eventually found the red light district. Lines of bars with their doors open and absolutely gorgeous woman wearing matching bikinis dancing on the bar. Getting badly hassled to go and see a ping pong show we decided to check it out before we paid anything – to our shock we were greeted, with what i’m sure is the ugliest woman in the whole of Thailand, if not Asia, dancing on the stage and looking at us rather strangely. We got shown to another two ‘parlours’ which were no better so decided not to waste our money – my dreams of finding the next female table tennis champion who doesn’t need a bat was drowned.

A few beers, yet another dodgy fight in the street between some drunkards, and some slightly more pool-like pool and off to bed.
Definately a place worth visiting – so far the first place i’ve been to that really has some vibe and feeling – and come one…getting chatted up by a ladyboy has to be flattering in some way!

Had a great time in redang diving…saw loads of cool fish…even 3 or 4 sharks! For all those Nemo lovers, yes i played with them too – they are really cool!
Unfortunately although i bought a camera from the states to be delivered before i left – it didn’t arrive, so stuck with an underwater case and no camera…i decided to leave it in singapore!
James had his camera with him and an underwater case so will get some of his photos up soon…

After Redang we jumped on a bus to Hat Yai in southern Thailand after meeting up with Ouissem and Tom (some guys from uni) and spent a night there before getting an 18 hour train to Bangkok!! – thankfully a sleeper and not third class bare wood seats!

Bangkok is great so far – managed to stroll into a buddhist temple and get invited to sit and watch about 25 monks practice chanting – amazing!!
There are so many cool stalls selling cool stuff, with a good bit of bartarting necessary. Handmade suits for about £30 which aint too bad! Although, we jumped on a wee three-wheeler scooter type thing for a guided tour of the city for 1 hour 10pence for 3 of us – yes too good to be true, they take you to suit shops and try and sell you all sorts before taking you where you actually want to go…which by then most of the hour is up! lol
We managed to get taken in by the temple and ‘forget’ to go back to pay him anyway so it wasn’t too bad…

Today we went to see ‘Wat Traimit’ – the cement buddha that was broken while being moved and they found a 5.5 ton, 3.5 m high solid gold buddha inside!! Absolutely amazing also….followed by a nice walk around food markets and onto a Chinese buddhist temple with an even bigger gold buddha (not real gold!). While being blown away by the beauty of the buildings and surroundings (including roughly 100 sitting buddhas roughly 2m high each, sitting around the main temple), we were lucky enough to watch a young guy, just back from studying in England, join the temple and become a monk.

So far, Bangkok has been much better than KL – not too sure why as it is even dirtier, even busier and you absolutely cannot walk more than 3 1/2 cms without being hassled by some guys asking if you want a taxi, some postcards, tuk tuk (3 wheel scooter things), ping pong, buy this, buy that…aaahhhh
We have turned it into a bit of game and a chance to practice our wit by coming up with terribly funny things to say to them. My personal favourite – when told they will sell you something for only 100baht, tell them “really…wow, ok it’s a deal – i’ll give you 200″ ha ha ha ha ha ha

Mums look away now….off to Pat Pong tonight to see how women can play ping pong…..without using bats, without using their hands…..hhhmmmm without even using their feet……gosh…..what do they use then?? How do they fire those ping pong balls across the room??

Left at 3.30pm on Thursday heading to the island of Kho Pha Ngan for the weekend. Unfortunately our bus broke down in the middle of the night, then we got sold the wrong boat tickets and had to take an overnight boat so ended up not getting there until 7am on Saturday morning! Our return was booked to leave at 7am on Sunday morning!

Now you ask, what could have been so important to travel for over 55 hours in 3 days to spend only 24 hours on an island – let me tell you – the party of a lifetime!!!

Every full moon on Kho Pha Ngan, they open up one of their beaches to host one of the biggest beach parties in the world. Ok, they actually do something similar on the half moon, and probably the quarter moon and new moon, or just anytime someone sees the moon. However, the full moon party is the most famous and the biggest (though supposedly not the best).

Stayed in a magical beach hut with the coolest bar with a treehouse style upstairs with nice music and hammocks, all for the bank breaking price of £2 per night.

Party was absolutely amazing – the only downside was that i had to leave at 5.30am to get the boat – i would have been more than happy to still be there at 5.30pm partying away!

Lots of pics of the whole trip available here.

If you are ever in Asia – make sure you stop there – aside from being one of the nicest islands in the world – the party is fantastic!
Hopefully will be there for December 16th full moon as gonna spend a few weeks in Kho Samui (next island) over the hols – see you there!