Friday 1 August 2008

sad sad day!























Yesterday evening was a very sad event as Annabel left me to travel to southafrica knowing she might not see me for a few months. It was a very tearful moment but I am sure we will both be strong and enjoy our remaining time on our own trips until we meet up again.


I am going to now add some more pictures for you all of the trip so far apologies if some are repeated!

Tuesday 29 July 2008

Advanced Diver

Since my last entry Annabel has become a year older and we have been diving pretty much every day, well I have! I have continued with my diver training and have now sucessfully completed my Advanced diver course and I have to say I have caught the bug and plan to do more in the future. On my dives I have seen leopard sharks, whale shark, turtles, puffer fish and mona eels and never fear i also found nemo (clown fish). We are just spending the last day here on the island typing and sorting before we head back to bangkok via Phuket tonight. Annabel then leaves me tomorrow evening to continue on here journey to South Africa to wrestle with Lions and water buffalo. I on the other hand will have to wait a few days for my Vietnam visa to come through so I can travel to Hanoi and conduct my research of cheap products to flog around the world!! "This time next year rodders" !!! I was originally going to go to ChangRai and cross the border to Laos from there but I have decided to amend my plans and cross from vietnam instead if at all. I have loads of picture to post and will do that later as it takes forever and my patience would not take the strain. I would recommend to anyone though to come here in Koh Phi Phi if they get chance especially in low season as its busy but a nice busy.

see you soon Phil

Hi every one Bell here
I would like to kill that terrible opening line with a little browner and wiser!!! The island is fantastic and the sea food pizza is amazing if we stayed any longer there would be less fish to see as we keep eating the blighters. See you all soon i may return if i dont get eaten by lions and Phill may never be seen again as he has become a water babe!!!

Friday 25 July 2008

























Hi guys in Koh PhiPhi island now and been here a few days. The place is fabulous with beautiful beaches and warm clear seas and whats really nice is there are no cars or bikes! The place smells better, looks nicer and the people are less hounding of you. I could easily stay here a good while longer given the time! So far the weather has been excellent with hot sun during the days and cooler dry evenings and the accommodation is ok aswel. The first night we stayed in a bungalow on the beach which looked fantastic but believe me the mozzies eat me alive!! Since then we have been staying in a guest house called the white rooms which are lovely and clean and cool.

Annabel and I have enrolled on a diving course called the Open water course which will when we pass allow us to dive anywhere in the world. It was quiet scarry at first but now I seem to be getting the hang of it and we have 2 days left to complete the course and pass and exam.

I have attached some photos of our journey todate for you to check out.

I am leaving the island on the 30th to take Annabel to airport in Bangkok for her onward journey to Johanasburg, then I am off up north to Chang Rai to get a river boat trip for 2 days down in to Laos.

Write soon Phil

Sunday 20 July 2008

Phuket

Hi guys just another little note to let you know how I am getting on.
Arrived in Phuket a couple of days ago and we headed for a beach area called Hat Karon which was supposed to be pretty and quiet. It was but it was also very boring and too quiet. So we stayed the night at a nice hotel but we managed to find the noisiest neighbour on the island I think some bloody Yank and his Thai bit of rough. SO I was forced to bang on his door and tell him to keep a lid on it. So o apart from that it was good place but I think better in high season.

We have now arrived just up the coast to Patong which is much livelier and also the sea is better to swim in if the waves not as big as Hat Karon. We checked in to a really nice hotel called Absolute Sea Pearl right on the beach which was lucky as the place (Patong) is busy. But again we have been struck by bad luck with the accommodation as we had to move rooms twice once because of building work starting @ 12pm and then because the new room had just been painted the fumes where to strong to stomach. But the current on is fine. Quiet plush actually! The rain is coming down like cats and dogs at the moment hence why I am writing but all is good if not a little sedate at the moment. I will post some more pics later as this computer does not seem to allow usb devices to transfer pics from.

Wednesday 16 July 2008

Bangkok

I think Jan started his apprentership here!!


Hi all this is my first diary entry to cover the first couple of days. On arrival of Bangkok I was very impressed with the airport it was very effient, clean and organised. The queue for passport control as you can imagine was long and drawn out but still all good!


I got the express bus into Khaosan and it dropped me right out side the hotel, all planned (oh yeah) of course! The diggs where lets say basic but clean for a 3* what we might call suffient. It was however bang in the centre of the party area. The smell was the other thing that hit me just like Cuba, a mixture of strret food and crude oil! People so far are very helpful and pleasent if not a little impatient at times.


Bel arrived yesterday and she made her first impressions are similar to mine but was impressed with our compact and bejouir bathroom facilities. She can also recomment malaria tablets for weight loss as so far she has been sick for the first day and eaten v.little and also now she can eat her stomach is filled by the time she has had 3 mouth fulls.


I stumbled across this new hostel yesterday called RefillNOW which is awesome!! its about 30mins between airport and city centre but is pure luxary for 22pounds a night. The only flaws to this hostal are that Annabel was a little concerned about the mixed see trough shower and toilet facilities and she she did not want to bear her bottom to everybody. The place is quiet and relaxing however I would defo recommend this place to anyone. We went into the main Siam square in the afternoon and we had to endure the local directions and the longest 1km walk ever!!! it was about 5 bloody miles. We decided to sample some local transport and took a water taxi to town and it was mega. 18baht for a white knuckle journey down a stinky river. Still when in Bangkok!! The shopping however was top and we did manage to buy a couple of items. The journey back was even more eventfull as I cursed the weather by mentioniong that concidering its rainy season its not rained yet, well you guessed it Bloody rained and thundered and lightening like a good'un (it pissed it down!!!) so we got the sky train back to within 1km of the hostal (yeah right) but because of the bad weather we could not get a taxi so we ended up trying to walk. Well after about 2 miles and 3/4 of hour we gave up and got a tuk tuk. funny though!!!


We fly to Phuket this afternoon to try to catch some rays and sample the beach life for a week or so. up date you all again soon.


Phil and Bel x