Uncategorised

Sooo....ummm....yeah, I kinda forgot to keep updating my blog. I guess that's what happens when you end up spending all of your time working in the same place. That being said, Bangkok was awesome. The longer I stayed there, the more and more I was liking it and I don't really have any complaints. The weather was good, the food was good, my job was good, I met a few good friends and I met lots of nice girls

That being said, I didn't spend a lot of time in Bangkok the last month or so I was there, except when I was working. I took a few trips to Pattaya with some of my mates from both Bangkok and abroad, as well as a trip to Hua Hin with my Thai bird. To be honest, I'd heard a lot of bad press about Pattaya while travelling, and I'll have to say, it was nowhere near as bad as I expected it to be. Yes, it is a den of sleaze and filth, but if you can suspend your views on what is right or wrong, it can be a pretty big blast as it reminds me of a cheesy, sleazy version of Vegas and Miami mixed into one. The beaches aren't the greatest, but when you're chilling on a beach on a hot day with your friends and loads of cheap, cold beer, you really can't complain.

Hua Hin on the other hand, I wasn't a big fan of. The beaches were nice, but because the place is popular with upmarket Thais, it's expensive. The ladies on the beach were trying to charge about 50 baht for the same pineapple I could get in Bangkok for 10, the guesthouses were way too expensive and the town itself looks like any other small town in Thailand. Good thing I had company to pass the time

In the middle of September, it was my mate Dan's 30th birthday, so he brought 15 of his friends from Australia and we partied it up for one night in Bangkok, one night in Pattaya where we rented out the presidential suites and the front half of the hotel and had a crazy party - which unfortunately involved fines and the police. Something about lawn chairs being thrown off the balconies and too many other guest complaints, but it had nothing to do with me.... really. The next day we caught mini-buses to the airport and flew to Krabi to get to Ko Phi Phi. It's a good thing we chose Krabi instead of Phuket, as the flight to Phuket was the one that crashed - we were in the air at the same time, how freaky is that. After landing in Krabi, we took a speed boat to Ko Phi Phi, but since there was a massive storm we ended up jumping the boat over 3 metre swells the entire way - it was loads of fun, but man were my back and arse sore.

On Ko Phi Phi, we did loads of fun things - chilling on the beach, partying at night, drinking whiskey buckets the size of garbage cans, and we rented a speed boat for a whole day. We went cliff jumping, went to loads of different islands, played football on beaches, fed bananas to monkeys, and in the end, we ended up wakeboarding in the ocean while the sun was setting. It was good fun the whole trip.

From Phuket, we took boats to Phuket, but by then, everybody was pretty knackered from the trip, so we just ended up having a big seafood dinner and crashing out, the next day Dan and his girlfriend went to China, Dan's friends went back to Perth, and I went back to Bangkok for my last week of work.

My last week of work was nothing special - my body was pretty destroyed from the non-stop drinking of the 10 ten days before that, plus the fact that I had a lot of packing to do and errands to run. I went out on my last night with some friends, but ended up getting way too wasted and had to be sent home at about 1. The next day, my friend Sam and I flew to Phnom Penh.

After arriving in Bangkok determined to look for work and be motivated...didn't really happen. Met my mate Jimmy from the last time I was here as well as a few people and ended up just partying, getting drunk, having fun and sleeping in all week. That's ok, because I was able to talk to a few people who are already working here, so let's chalk it all up to research.

Finally did the work search thing on Monday, and out of the 500 or so jobs on Ajarn.com, I applied for 8 of them. Let's just say that a lot of Thai employers are completely taking the piss in what they're asking for and what they're willing to do for it. However, I ended up getting interviews and being offered jobs by all of my applications and I ended up getting lucky. Why? Because the job I've taken involves me teaching hot, rich thai girls english for a pretty good salary (in Thailand, at least) and never having to work in the morning, so other than my next visa run, it's looking like I'm going to be here for a while.

If anybody is coming to Bangkok, give me a shout!

After about 5 days in Pai, I headed to a small town near the Myanmar border named Mae Hong Son. The scenery on the way there was spectacular, and this time I took the big local bus so I was able to enjoy it instead of concentrating on keeping myself from barfing. Mae Hong Son itself is just a quiet little town, but there are a lot of natural attractions and hilltribe villages near it. I met an English guy and a Finnish guy and jumped on the back of their motorbikes and we went to visit a longneck Karen tribal village. To be honest, I'm not quite sure what to think about it. On the one hand, it was interesting to see, but on the other hand, it seems like the people are just set up to be looked at by tourists...

I'm now back in Chiang Mai and I'm heading to Myanmar tomorrow for just one day to do a visa run. After that, it's back to Bangkok to look for work. I'm soo overjoyed at the thought of that...

After spending my last few days in Chiang Mai with an eye infection (from the water festie), I decided it was time to move on to Pai. Pai is a little town northwest of Chiang Mai, but it is full of wannabe hippies - I don't know why, but I have a massive dislike of white people with dreadlocks - and the ride here was murder. I was in a minibus with the driver determined to get here as fast as possible around a bunch of tight curves - I wanted to hurl the entire trip.

Anyways, after spending a couple days here just chilling out, I went for an elephant ride. The first bit was hard, getting used to the elephant and the massive toll it was taking on my thighs, but overall I really enjoyed it. Our elephant was a bit naughty and I don't think it liked us that much because it kept blowing snot all over us. Also, the guy I was riding with was a bit of a bigger lad and after it tossed us in the river, it wouldn't let him get back on.

I'm going to spend another day or two in Pai chilling out before heading to Mae Hong Son to do some trekking.

The last week has been completely mad. Since Friday, it's been Songkran, the Thai New Year's, but being Thai, they decided to start it 4 days early. Last Sunday, I ended up getting wasted with the Chiang Mai chief of police, then having him drive me around the city on his police bike...gotta love Thailand! Simply put, Songkran has been crazy. Imagine an entire city having a massive waterfight...people everywhere are armed with waterguns or buckets, people are driving around in tuk tuks or in the back of pickups with massive tubs of water and waterguns, and the bars and hotels are in constant war with eachother. And everybody, from tiny little children to grandparents gets in on the act. They've even been having a foam party in the middle of one of the major streets. I can honestly say it's one of the best parties I've ever been to, and that's including the full moon parties and carnival in brazil...If any of you ever have a chance to come to Chiang Mai during Songkran, I guarantee you'll love it!