It rained all night so everything s so slippery outside! My muscles were absolutely killing me so the first 10 minutes walking were spent trying to coax my stiff muscles into movement while trying not to fall over, not the easiest task!! We only walked about an hour before reaching the river. The first stage was white water rafting in a big rubber dingy. It was excellent and the rapids were pretty big as the river was full with all the rain we'd just had. We got drenched instantly but it was great!! we also managed to chase down the other [View Full Entry]

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I was collected first thing ready for my Thai cooking course! There were 10 of us today - 5 French, 2 Aussies on their way home from 3 years in London, an English/ South African couple from Edinburgh and me!! Our first stop was the market to buy the produce needed for our day. We made 6 dishes and mine were Thai Green Curry Paste, Thai Green Curry, Tom Yam soup (with Shrimp!), Chicken and Cashew Nut stir fry, Pad Thai and Mango with Sticky Rice! It was great!!! Our instructor took us on a guided tour of the market, explaining [View Full Entry]

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I arrived in Chiang Mai mid moning and for ease, went to look at a hotel offered by a tout at the station. It was a little more than I wanted to pay, but it had a pool, was in the right area and allowed me the chance to dump my bag and look around for something cheaper. I spent the whole day walking around the old town, all enclosed within a square moat, and looked at the numerous tour packages offered. I would ave liked to do something a little less touristy but as my time was limited, and organised [View Full Entry]

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Up for breakfast of toast , a boiled egg and some pineapple!! Bizarre! We learned yesterday that a jungle hour is like a country mile. Our '2 hour' trek yesterday was nearly 4 hours so we set out hesitantly on our first '2 hour' trek of the day! A couple of the girls really struggled yesterday so took a shorter, easier route. Although I was slow, I was determined to do the full trek and took the hard route! 20 minutes later, and halfway up a sheer climb, I was regretting this decision immensely! It was stunning though!! Soon we were [View Full Entry]

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Another early start for the first of my 3 days trekking! 10 of us piled ino the truck - 2 Canadian, 2 Andorran, 4 Dutch, 1 Italian and me! We quickly made friends and headed off to the market for provsions for the trip where we were accosted by 2 young boys selling friendship bracelets. At 5 baht (about 9p) we all bought one, much to the delight of the boys. I picked up some tiger balm (a mixture of various types of oil - clove, menthol eucalyptus…) as everyone had been raving about it as an all round problem solver, [View Full Entry]

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I spent the whole day day at Joey's school. She teaches 7 - 8 year olds at a multilingual school in Bangkok. There are about 24 children in the class and they are split into 2 groups. In each classroom there are two teachers - one teaching the thai curriculum and one teaching the british curriculum. The both teach at the same time in the same room (opposite corners) and then after 40 minutes they swap groups and the teachers teach the same lesson to the other half of the class. The kids don't have the same lesson in Thai and [View Full Entry]

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Joey lefet early for work leaving me to my own devices for the day. She had left me some sugestions and so off I went. I jumped on the monorail to the river and once there, caught a tourist boat down stream a few piers to Wat Po - a big temple on the tourist route. Here I saw the reclining Buddha - a huge gold statue of a budda lying lengthways and lookin down into the room. Its little toe was bigger than me! I tried to take some photos but I just couldn't get the perspective so have had [View Full Entry]

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Up early for my flight to Bangkok (still no lie in in sight!). Arrived just after lunch and wandered round the shopping malls for a couple of hours, with bags, until Joey finished work. We went to Khao San which is backpacker heaven. There are loads of stalls a places to eat and drink and although you get shouted at, it feels far less claustrophobic. The road is nice and wide and there is plenty of room to escape if necessary. I have been asked to go to so many "ping pong shows' it's untrue! We went to this great little [View Full Entry]

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I woke up pretty confused. Where was I?! We had just pulled into the station in Kuala Lumpur (KL) and everyone was already getting off the train! I followed suit and headed up the escalator. At the top, I found that I was at the station entrance. No passoprt control in sight! I asked several people where to get my passport stamped, believing not having a stamp could only cause problems trying to get out of Malaysia again, but was repeatedly told I didn't need one! There was also no security so at least I wasn't arrested for drug trfficking! I [View Full Entry]

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A trip to Singapore is not complete without a visit to the tourist overrun Raffles Hotel, visited by many famous names in its time. The bar is famous for its Singapore Sling... Type: Mixed drink Primary alcohol by volume: Gin Brandy Served: "Straight up"; without ice Standard garnish: Maraschino cherry, pineapple Standard drinkware: Highball glass IBA specified ingredients†: 4.0 cl (8 parts) Gin 2.0 cl (4 parts) Heering Cherry Liqueur (cherry brandy) 0.5 cl (1 part) Cointreau 0.5 cl (1 part) DOM Bénédictine 1.0 cl (2 parts) Grenadine 8.0 cl (16 parts) Pi [View Full Entry]

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