I was all excited and dressed up to go to the Grand Palace this morning and meet Dee Diezo but unfortunately I only got as far as Siam. I got up late, I went to the bank and stopped off at the shopping centre in Siam, at a Korean restaurant, I had a very big meal and then decided it was too hot, too busy and too late to do anything but have a cappuccino in a café and catch up on my travel plans via WiFi.... read more

Today I did my first scubadive, on the bay off Pattaya. It wasn't very well organised. The diving school picked me up an hour late, once we finally got out to sea the water was really choppy (both there and back.) We spent an extra hour at sea looking for the diving spot as apparently somebody had removed the buoys and we needed to find another spot. I was sea sick three times as were other people as the water was a lot rougher than the water was when I went whale-watching in Iceland. The boat ride was really quite a frightening experience. This was my first experience of sea sickness. The scuba-diving itself was very interesting and I'm really glad I tried it. I learned how to use the equipment quickly and didn't panic. However, ... read more

Today I travelled to Pattaya by bus from Bangkok and settled into a hostel there. It was a pleasant journey on a government air-conditioned bus and I slept nearly the whole way. The humidity has increased and I am having to take things a lot slower now. I changed some more money at the bank in Bangkok and stopped by Ekkamai and ate a Japanese dish of pork and bean sprouts in soy sauce (there is a photo of the menu), a green tea and for dessert I had almond jelly. They kept giving me free refills of green tea. That is the best Christmas present anybody could ask for. Tonight I ate chicken and rice in a street café with a Russian person I met in the hostel. The meals here are so good that ... read more

Today I really indulged in western food in Susan's local neighbourhood Punawithi. I had a nice ice-cream sundae in Mcdonalds, a mixture of thai food from a street vendor and an enormous café latte in S&P which is a thai chain of restaurants (like Vips in Madrid.) I woke up late and walked around the neighbourhood and to finish the day I had a fish spa at a Thai massage parlour. In the evening Susan ordered food from S&P, and I got Skype working at Susan's and chatted to Dad on it. That was a very pleasant surprise!... read more

Late morning I went to the polo club with Susan to meet her friend Carol and two of their Thai friends. The polo club is exclusive, only available to upper members of society and you can only join by knowing the right people and paying a lot of money. It has a 50 metre swimming pool, a golf course and a horse-riding track and a nicely air-conditioned restaurant. Susan invited us to lunch there, and then they exchanged Christmas gifts (well really New Year gifts as Thais don’t celebrate xmas but they celebrate New Year.) I had imported salmon (it tasted norweigan rather than Scottish) and crepe with ice cream for dessert. Susan’s friends were friendly and very interesting people. I learned a lot about the thai royal family and the king’s four daughters and one ... read more