This is Aaron's 'this is' blog. Today, the day after Jians birthday- the poor boy is sick again. But we had a trecking tour booked for today and with Jian's moaning, sleep deprived blessing- I set off on the tour on my own. I'll let the pictures do the walking... The tour was great and I met some lovely people. We started the day with an elephant trek which I did not take the camera on. I had an extreamly tempremental elephant who will shall call: "Mr. Burns". Mr Burns really did not want us on his back. I would be lying if I said I was not a little nervous. But we made it! Also not documented in the photographs is some bamboo rafting I did (just imagine if I had come home from my ... read more

In our travels so far I have to say that Americans and Australians are by far the most ignorant tourists out of all the nationalities we have encountered. Perhaps this is a generalisation, but perhaps there is also some truth. Maybe it is a geographic thing; Europeans and Asians are surrounded by a multitude of other cultures and nationalities at their doorstep, Americans just have Canada and Mexico and we have New Zealand and, well, Tasmania as our neighbours. A responsible traveller should do some background research on the country they visit, and at least learn what is respectful and what is not respectful. It is extremely disrepectful in Thai culture to pat people on the head or to point your bare feet towards someone. It is respectful to give your seat up on public transport ... read more

Friday night was our last night in Koh Samui, so we decided to go back to Chaweng Beach to celebrate in style. We started the night off with $4 cocktails, moved on to $8 gin and tonics and ended the night in $22 vodka and red bull buckets. Yes, you read that right, BUCKETS of alcohol. In Sydney there's a big fad of serving alcohol in teapots (hello, is there nothing classier than a trashy girl in the X with smeared black mascara running down her face and skirt hitched so high you can see her arse, drinking out of the spout of a white porcelain teapot???); well in Thailand they like to serve you alcohol in bucket-loads. You get about 6 shots of alcohol in each bucket but they really aren't the greatest ideas I've ... read more

I'm sitting here in our bungalow with the sounds of Thai Dubbed Juno filling the air and faraway monkey's looking for mates. We are prepping our cameras for tomorrows safari adventure (hoorah!) and I can't stop the desire to brush my teeth. Over and over and over and over and (yep- I'm going there) OVER again. Why, I hear you ask? (you all lean forward in your chairs...) Yep. I told that wasp from last night where to go. Down my insect eating thorax! Booya! So yeah, Jian and I went to dinner at a little off the road restaurant. There was this giant, ancient, diseased ridden dog with a bleeding forehead there. And I loved that it was there. The longer I stay in Thailand the more humorous I find the anal retentive fear of ... read more

Rule #1 when travelling in Thailand: never NEVER EVER catch a bus from one city to another. No matter what they tell you. I've made this mistake twice now. The first time was a couple of years ago when I came on my own, and organised to get a 'joint ticket' from Koh Samui to Bangkok. This involved getting a 2 hour ferry trip from Koh Samui back to the mainland, and a 12 hour overnight bus trip to Bangkok. This would have been okay if the trip hadn't turned into a 20 hour trip. And the air-conditioning unit didn't break down at the beginning of the journey. And I wasn't sitting directly below the dripping unit on the back seat for 20 hours. And the one toilet hadn't broken down. And sewerage wasn't leaking backwards ... read more