Afternoon all, Just back in town after a week in an Akha village. Chose the above title because it really isn't Thailand up there, it's clearly the home of the Akha. The village is at the very north of the country - you can just about see the Burmese border from the hilltop - and the whole way of life is different. I was staying in the Akha Garden Logde (sic). This may sound like a holiday resort, but is actually three mud huts on a cattle farm. Everyone here lives in houses made of mud and straw, yet they all [View Full Entry]

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Hello! Sawat dee krap! Udutama! Not too much to add since the last posting, but I won't have much chance to get back on here for the next week at least. I'm currently in Chiang Rai, a city in the province of the same name, the northernmost in Thailand. We're very close to the area known as the Golden Triangle, where the borders of Thailand, Myanmar (Burma) and Laos meet. We should be visiting the border zone in a couple of weeks (it's still a good hour or two away). I'm staying at AFECT this weekend. AFECT, the Association For Education [View Full Entry]

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Hello all, My wordy, I've been online a lot this week, because for once I'm in a place with lots of reliable electricity and computers that work. But what have I been doing these last few days on Koh Samet, I hear you cry! Well, the answer is: very little. It's just tremendously relaxing here. I'm staying in a basic but comfortable little shack of a place just off Hat Sakieaw, the Diamond Beach. It's highly touristy, but great fun, as we are a mere minute away from the sea of the Gulf of Thailand. There are fire shows each night [View Full Entry]

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It's well past one here, in some interweb-cafe-bar-venue thingy on the island of Koh Samet, nestled in the Gulf of Thailand. I owe the few who read this blog a proper update, so here we go: The first weekend involved a messy day out in Bangkok, celebrating the birthday of my new friend Ziggy. Much cheap alcohol was consumed, and all culture was ingored for the day. When we got back to Singburi province, we explored the local village bars, crashing a wedding, and were chased away by a biker gang, eventually landing in a rundown shack with a couple of [View Full Entry]

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Sorry, not much time in this crumbling internet cafe in Singburi town. So what have I done since I last posted? To summarise: Spent a night in a run down monestary, meditating with a Man U supporting mink called Lam and sleeping on a flea-infested carpet. Spent a very pleasant day at a resort spa, where I had my back cracked and my body massaged by a pretty Thai girl who kept giggling. Chased two frogs around someone's bathroom - and caught them. Visited the cemetray and memorial for the WWII dead in Kanchanabruri. Ate snails on a floating market on [View Full Entry]

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Since last I blogged, we've had a pretty packed schedule here. We've been taken around several beautiful temples, some fairly new and still in use, some simply ancient ruins. Some of them I could have stayed in all day and just relaxed, but frankly I'm feeling a little templed out. Still, I'll be spending a couple of days with the monks next week. It's pretty bizarre, seeing orange-robed monks wandering the streets amongst everyone else, or hopping out of cabs, stopping for a pray at an ancient monuments, then hopping back in the cab and driving off. Pretty surreal. Not as [View Full Entry]

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Hey all, Very quick update - slooooow interweb connection and not much time. Had a fantastic time in Bangkok, even though we arrived during an alcohol ban due to the election (we found ways around it). Have tried many forms of travel, including the riverboat, the rickety truck bus and the terrifying tuk tuk, the tiny rickshaw type car that is clearly made for two passangers but can squeeze in five of us if we're stubborn. Very beautiful, friendly, busy, seedy city; we've been throughout the markets, Chinatown, the backpacker strip and the ping pong shows (don't ask for details...) Arriv [View Full Entry]

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Hello ladies and gents! There's not going to be much in this, my very first travel blog entry, because I haven't even left yet. I fly tomorrow evening - at eight of the evening clock, after a journey to Heathrow by National Express (with the song playing in my head). I'm flying to Bangkok via Dubai, and shall arrive on friday. If I haven't told you yet, or if you've forgotten, here's what I'll be doing over the next thirteen weeks: I'm signed up for the Thailand Experience with REALGAP. My first four weeks are 'experience' weeks. I'll be meeting up [View Full Entry]

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