alot of things

Well the last few days have been rather packed. We left our wonderful accommodation in koh phangan, thailand to go to the more touristy phuket. Leaving our little appartment in koh phangan ended up being a bit sad, and i'll be honest and say i nearly shed a tear, as we had to say goodbye to mr and mrs T and their kid john who we had grown rather friendly with. they did however give us free thailand football shirts with the name of their resort printed on the back which was really sweet of them. Any way we headed off for phuket on a ferry which was literally a boat with a huge bed for all the passengers to share. There was very little room so everyone was touching the persons either side of them. I drew the short straw and was sandwiched between will and a random girl who felt obliged to stare at me as i slept causing me quite alot of distress when i would wake up staring into her eyes our foreheads basically touching!!
anyway after a sleepless night we arrived in phuket where we walked around, stayed on a beach and went to a market. We also had to book our travel down to kuala lumpur and singapore. This is when we realised that things would get quite packed. We ended up getting a flight to kuala lumpur, stay there for one night ( or maybe 2 i can't remember) and then fly to singapore for one night. Kuala Lumpur ended up baing like a more developed and nicer version of thailand so the time we spent there was very enjoyable. The most memorable things were going up the 4th largest tower in the world and seeing the amazing view and having random groups of girls coming up to us and asking for us to have pictures with them. This was very amusing but slightly disturbing and uncomfortable as they did like to get rather close!!
We also had a cracking time in singapore despite it being only for 2 days. The first day we went on the singapore flyer which is the largest wheel in the world i think. This was pretty cool and the views we saw were amazing. There was the sea and skyscrapers and really nice modern buildings and stuff like that ( you had to be there really). Then we went on the formula 1 race circuit which was an experience. We got some rather good pictures. In the evening we went to the waterfront where there was a band playing who were pretty good. There was also an old man who thought it was a good idea to stand at the front by the band and dance towards the audience in a classic 'embarrasing grandad' style. That had to be one of the funniest moment of my life and i don't often say that! i did however feel very embarressed for his family as i would probably have jumped into the sea with alot of weights strapped to me or turned so red that i would've exploded. The next day we decided to go on a cable car to an island just off singapore called sentoser. This seemed like a good idea but when we got up the mountain to the cable car station there was a thunderstorm which was very dramatic as we were basically surrounded by metal so lightning was cracking all around us! the storm did pass over and we did go to sentoser and sat on the beach and had a nice time. In that evening we had our flight to cairns.
The plane was very small and had no tv or anything so entertainment was at a minimum an it was pretty uncomfotable so sleep was also to a minimum! And that leads me to this morning when we got to cairns and the weather has been perfect! In cairns there are no beaches and your not allowed in the sea so instead they have public swimming pools which are very nice. I think you call them horizon pools or something as when you are in them it looks like you are in the sea or something like that. But best of all is the australian accent! i am sat in an internet cafe and there is a little australian boy talking all australian and i can't help smiling! its so funny! i think tonight i shall perfect my australian accent and embrace the culture as much as possible!
We are currently in a youth hostel but the fun really begins in 3 days when we get our campervans! can't wait!!

squatter toilets

It was only a matter of time before i started talking about toilets and other unsavory things!( if you don't want to hear my complaining don't read lines 18 to 24)

Basically it all started when we got to our accommodation in koh phangan. We got off the ferry and searched for our free taxi transfer to our 2 apartment rooms we had previously booked. This proved to be harder than expected as everyone knew where it was but where determined to rinse some money out of us! after a bit of searching and alot of angry shouting in thai we got our taxi. Everything was going well until we headed off the main road and through what looked like a rubbish tip. This was the site of our accommodation!! i decided to 'man up' and take it as being a part of travelling. that was until i went into our room. There was a double bed matress lying on the floor with rather alot of stains ranging from blood red to urine yellow! not nice!! we then opened the door to the bathroom when a lizard dropping down right infront of josh! anyway that wasn't too bad. lets just say I would class our bathroom as rather unequipped. There is a cold shower that is so broken no matter how you hold the shower head the ceiling always seems to get the most of the freezing water. There is no sink and no mirror which makes shaving my ever so manly beard pretty difficult if i don't want to completely laccerate my face! And then the bane of my life a squatter toilet! who invented the squatter toilet?! its so completely useless! If anyone doesn't know what it is its basically a ceramic hole that you have to use a pot filled with water to 'flush' it. it can't save water as you need to fill up so many pots of water from the tap to make sure the 'flush' works! its pointless! and if you actually use it to do a number 2 surely towards the end your thigh muscles would be bulging with such raw pain that you would just topple over and cause even more mess resulting in even more water being used!!! its such a bad idea. i wouldn't mind so much if every toilet was a squatter toilet but no the womens toilets are perfectly normal with a seat and a flush and a sink!! i know this as a fact as i have been in there when no one is looking and find using it far more enjoyable but equally as enfuriating!!

Anyway enough of that toilet talk! The people here are very nice and we get on very well with the owners of the accommodation and their kid, John. He is proper clever and frequently beats me at draughts although he does use strange thai rules!! He is also the best at speaking english and is often called over by the staff to translate words. We have also got to know some chilian people who we had a game of volleyball with yeserday and a swedish guy who is............ interesting!! its the full moon party tonight which should be a laugh and i'm sure we'll meet some more interesting people there too!

well i've been pretty rubbish at writing these so i am going to summarise everything i have done so far!

17th jan: flew to bangkok and saw some films on a plane and slept
18th jan: got into bangkok and checked into rather posh hotel
19th jan: rather alot of jet lag, went to some huge golden buddhist temples, tom got attacked by some pigeon ladies
20th jan: day at the park, saw huge dragons and got on a night bus to chiang mai
21st jan: got to chiang mai and saw some thai boxing
22nd jan: went on a jungle trek, met a nice canadian couple and a gut called singa and slept with a tribe
23rd jan: rode some elephants, went rafting and got back from the jungle to chiang mai
24th jan: went to tiger kingdom and played with baby and large tigers
25th jan: went to chiang mai zoo which was massive and saw lots of interesting animal like sheep.
26th jan: went up to a temple on a mountain and got on a night train to bangkok
27th jan: went to a rather impressive shopping centre and saw madagascar 2 and yes man on the i max cinema
28th jan: travelled to koh samui on a crazy bus built in the 30's
29th jan: not sure what i did
30th jan: relaxed on the beach
31st jan: went on jet bikes
1st feb: went to koh tao which is a very small and pretty island
2nd feb: relaxed on the beach and got rather sun burnt
3rd feb: went on a snorkeling trip which was exciting. luckily they had life jackets so i felt alot safer! we saw loads of fish and huge sharks and turtles and yellow fish and black fish and blue fish and neon fish and parrot fish and trigger fish and loads more!
4th feb: relaxed on a beach

today i have slept for 13 hours and literally just relaxed on a tropical island with temperatures over 37 degrees staring into a clear blue sea! hard life!