My Father My father, Robert Murphy passed away on Monday 14th April, aged 85. I am in Thailand at present on Koh Phi Phi Don island. In respect of my father, this is not meant to be an obituary, just a few thoughts as I sit in my room a long way from home. After his heart attack in late 2007 and a stroke in the last few months of his life my father showed great strength in very difficult circumstances. Some of best memories of my father are when we went fishing at the Grange jetty when I was a [View Full Entry]

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SONGKRAN WATER FESTIVAL - HAPPY NEW YEAR "Songkran is a Thai word which means "move" or "change place" as it is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It is also known as the "Water Festival" as people believe that water will wash away bad luck." Songkran is also the Thai New Year. Songkran runs between April 13 and 15 and they also seemed to have a practice run on Saturday April 12 - so that means four days of being sprayed with water from buckets, huge water pistols and having wet chalk wiped on your face [View Full Entry]

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Welcome back to Thailand Leon Yes I am back in Thailand - I think everyone back home is a bit puzzled as to why I have come back here again so soon after my last visit - if you read my previous blogs you may understand more clearly - I really do love being here. I will be travelling to other parts of Asia in the near future but I have made some good friends in Thailand and it is worth the flying time to get here and see them again and more of this amazing country in Songkran time [View Full Entry]

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Thailand - Part 3 of 3 - From Chiang Rai to Pattaya - September to October 2007 After three days in Chiang Mai I was dropped off in Chiang Rai including a visit to the Golden Triangle - the day tour is decsribed below from Sergeant Kai's website as mentioned in my previous blogs. "Start early to reach the Long Necked Karen village in the valley of Mae Chan before travelling to Mae Sai, Thailand's northernmost town, in the morning. From this busy market town you can observe the bustling trade with neighboring Myanmar across the river. Move on to the [View Full Entry]

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Thailand - Part 2 of 3 - From Kanchanaburi to Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai - September to October 2007 There are some more pics of my stay in Kanchabauri, after which I returned by public bus to Bangkok for a couple of nights and then flew by Thai Air to Chiang Mai. I had booked a 3 day tour of Chiang Mai and surrounding areas with Sergeant Kai - he actually books day tours with various companies with mini vans and about ten or twelve other tourists. He is also a great guy and took me out for a whole [View Full Entry]

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Thailand - Part 1 of 3 - First Impressions - September to October 2007 I have been asked for some hints about travel to Thailand so I thought I would show you the itinery for my first visit to my favourite travel destination with some pics and info that may be useful for first time visitors. You can also read about my recent amazing second visit to Thailand and Cambodia from December 13 - 2007 to Jan 26 - 2008 by looking back through this blog. Both trips were booked on the internet, there is no need to use a travel [View Full Entry]

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Jan 19th - 26th The Party is Nearly Over - For This Trip Anyway Well I am back in Adelaide and housebound with conjuctivitis (red eyes) and a cold for the Australia Day weekend - the doctor took one look at me when I went for some eye drops and said you need some sleep - hehe - well i have not had any for two days so i guess she made a correct diagnosis. My last week in Thailand and Bangkok for this visit was very relaxing but every day seemed to go quickly with the inevitable date of departure [View Full Entry]

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Jan 16 - 19 th Pong in Patong The reports about Phuket and Patong Beach were less than inspiring and I was not expecting to enjoy my stay there and very nearly skipped back to Bangkok with my bad cold running out of control and I must admit that I have run out of steam a bit lately - It has been a big trip with some very late nights. I am happy to say my batteries were re-charged and I really enjoyed Phuket and even Patong Beach to a degree. It just proves that you need to see and judge [View Full Entry]

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Jan 15 and 16 th Limestone Lake Wonderland After a nice breakfast at Arts watching the monkeys I had a 1.5 hours drive transfer by mini van to the Chioew Laan Lake Pier with Tara and Colm. Chioew Laan Lake was expanded by the creation of the Rachabrappha Dam in 1982 and much of the wildlife starved or drowned and a lot of the jungle disappeared when the dam filled - that's where my heading comes from and for some other reasons discussed later. This must have been a truly wonderful area before the dam but then again we wouldn't be [View Full Entry]

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Jan 13 and 14th This part of the blog and the next few are written after my return from Phuket - There has been no spare time and it is is now 6am and I have just returned from my local pub's staff party where all the staff were given gifts by the management and there was heaps of food and free drinks of all types and we danced all night (and by the way to my friends back home it is not a go go bar or similar and I would like to keep this place my little secret for [View Full Entry]

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