The eye before the storm

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Hey all,

To start with I thought I would explain the logic of doing this travel diary/blog/confessional. I'm going to be away for 6 weeks and I'll probably be coming across a computer once every two days. I really don't want to have to e-mail everyone that I know saying what I've been up to, plus attach photos to each photo. It's much easier to stick them all on one page to be viewed by all, and you can follow me in everything Iam experiencing, uncensored (mostly) and uncut.

Now I've got that over with I can explain in brief what it is I'll be doing over in Thailand. For the first three weeks will be volunteer work in the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project on the beautiful island of Phuket, southern Thailand. It won't be near the crowded tourist area of patong beach to the south, it's in the Khao Phra Thaew Royal Wildlife and Forest Reserve in the northern interior of the island and one of the sites is close to Bang Pong. This is a muslim village and drinking is not encouraged, Doh! I'll have a mouth like Gandhi's flip-flops after these 3 weeks.

Duties include : Cleaning cages, feeding, observing, teaching etc and basically everything to do with the gibbons. Further details will follow in later posts.

A word of warning, I don't know what internet access is like in the project, so for the first 3 weeks the posts may be few and far between. I'll more than make up for it in the last 3 weeks.

After the gibbons I'll be spending a chill out week in Khao Lak, a small place a couple of hours north of Phuket. Sun, sand and ........ Singha for the week (I know what you were thinking, dirty people!) This week may also be slow on the excitement front, as I will be mainly lying around trying to turn from white to a bit less white and drinking with the locals.

Finally the last two weeks I'll have a bit of a walk about and try and take in as much of Thailand as possible.

Possible activities :
-Muay Thai boxing in Bangkok (watching, not doing!)
-Fishing for sailfish in the Andaman sea
-Half moon Party on Koh Phangan
-Ping pong show in Phuket, no pictures I'm afraid
-Visit Grand Palace in Bangkok
-Weekend Market in Bangkok
-Eat barbecue and drink sangsom buckets on the beach on Koh Samui
-Go on some of the best beaches in the world on Koh Phi-Phi
-Meet as many interesting/ disturbing people as I possibly can
-Get some pictures of dirty old western men in speedos with thai women who are way too young
-Bamboo tattoo on Koh Tao.

And many more!

Make sure that you subscribe to the blog so that you'll get notifications when new entries are put up. Comments are also appreciated, but lets try to keep them fairly clean, my nan might read these.

Bon Voyage!

Joe

P.S If anyone from 'Wish you were here' is reading this, Iam open for any offers of work, I'm a trendier Judith Chalmers, less orange for a start...

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