Thailand

Hiya all, I had the greatest day today, I went on a snorkeling tour with Kate, Meila, Jyri and Michael and a quite a few strangers. We went around the whole island stopping at all the best snorkeling spots, it was so beautiful. The tiny electric blue fish, schooling around the brown mushrooms of coral. Rainbow fish flying through the water like a Da Vinci flying machine but coloured not in sepia but like the third guy in the Gay Parade; pink, blue, turquoise, purple, orange, carany yellow and flouresent everything. Other fish were a a dark brow with yellow bellies and two ultra violet stripes runiing along each cheek up on to their backs, the contrast was amazing. There were Big and little Zebra fish, some with yellow or blue taints near the dorsal fin while others were pure white and black, they would swim right up to me and look straight into my goggles as if to say, what the hell are you and why are you in my water. There were huge schools of what looked like slivers of mirror swimming with one mind collectively seeking food and avoiding danger, prowling around these schools near the surface were fish that looked as if they'd just eaten one of those huge funny pencils, they were atleast 15cm long and only 3cm diameter at the most. The firston I saw seemed to get a big a fright as I, I was marveling at the school offish when into my vision ploughs this bizzare fish welli almost jumped out of my skin and my reaction clearly startled it, the poor thing was so scared it didn't want to break eye contact, so it swam in circles while i rotated for a while, eventually breaking the eye contact and the fish was happy that I wasn't about to eat him. We hada great time I got a bit sun burnt but it was worth it.

I forgot to mention that on our last night in Koh Samui I had one of the best meals of my life (don't worry mom you're still number one ) I order the fried fish in a sweet and sour sauce, it was devine the fish was soft and perfect, the sweet and sour sauce with veg had the perfect balance, and there was a salad bar so I made my self many wonderful salads, Basically by the end of the meal I was completely satisfied, not over full and my tastebuds were singing praises to the cooks, definitely the best meal I've eaten in Thailand and definitely on my top ten meals ever.

ok Take care all,

Mike.
I have uploaded some photos more coming soon.

Hiya all, I had the greatest day today, I went on a snorkeling tour with Kate, Meila, Jyri and Michael and a quite a few strangers. We went around the whole island stopping at all the best snorkeling spots, it was so beautiful. The tiny electric blue fish, schooling around the brown mushrooms of coral. Rainbow fish flying through the water like a Da Vinci flying machine but coloured not in sepia but like the third guy in the Gay Parade; pink, blue, turquoise, purple, orange, carany yellow and flouresent everything. Other fish were a a dark brow with yellow bellies and two ultra violet stripes runiing along each cheek up on to their backs, the contrast was amazing. There were Big and little Zebra fish, some with yellow or blue taints near the dorsal fin while others were pure white and black, they would swim right up to me and look straight into my goggles as if to say, what the hell are you and why are you in my water. There were huge schools of what looked like slivers of mirror swimming with one mind collectively seeking food and avoiding danger, prowling around these schools near the surface were fish that looked as if they'd just eaten one of those huge funny pencils, they were atleast 15cm long and only 3cm diameter at the most. The firston I saw seemed to get a big a fright as I, I was marveling at the school offish when into my vision ploughs this bizzare fish welli almost jumped out of my skin and my reaction clearly startled it, the poor thing was so scared it didn't want to break eye contact, so it swam in circles while i rotated for a while, eventually breaking the eye contact and the fish was happy that I wasn't about to eat him. We hada great time I got a bit sun burnt but it was worth it.

I forgot to mention that on our last night in Koh Samui I had one of the best meals of my life (don't worry mom you're still number one ) I order the fried fish in a sweet and sour sauce, it was devine the fish was soft and perfect, the sweet and sour sauce with veg had the perfect balance, and there was a salad bar so I made my self many wonderful salads, Basically by the end of the meal I was completely satisfied, not over full and my tastebuds were singing praises to the cooks, definitely the best meal I've eaten in Thailand and definitely on my top ten meals ever.

ok Take care all,

Mike.
I have uploaded some photos more coming soon.

Hi guys, we caught two ferries to Koh Tao today, the first to Koh Phanang and then another to Koh tao. Koh Tao is supposed to be the second best diving spot in the world so we'll see I might try my hand at scuba depending on price and my comfort level doing it. In SA I tried a dving with air coming from a compressor, through as hose and couldn't do it, maybe this time it'll be different, I think i can try it for free at our hotel.

Koh Tao is the smallest of the main Islands on the east coast of Thailand's peninsula, it is beautiful covered in vibnrant green trees and has stark grinte boulders protuding into the sea, the sand is a stunning white and the water is hot, it's just lovely. our Resort is stunning, right on the beach with a horizon pool and wooden everything only problem is our rooms are up a bit of a hill, we are staying on the second most populous beach on the island (I think) and we are about 2km from the main town, There are Diving tours everywhere, it's quite funny really. anyway I'll stop blabbering and work on getting some photos up.

Mike

Hey everybody we arrived on Koh Samui yesterday afternoon, after waiting ages for the bus that was running late. the bus rides were actually quite good, the limestone formations were very beautiful to look at, i would have liked to climb one, they are like big thick pillars sticking out of the earth, covered in forest. haha it pays to be the gentleman, i gave my seat to a lady who'd got on the bus (I couldn't fall asleep because i had an aisle seat) and the conductor got me to go to the back where I got a seat to myself, an open window, less noise and soft bags to lean on hahaha.
Anyway, Koh Samui is lovely, no waves butthe water is clear and warm, our resort is wicked good, pool, good food. the only thing i dislike is the taxi drivers. I even tried wind-surfing today, I was actually doing really well bu the centre board was too narrow an the wind to light for me to get back easily so i got a lift with a speed boat back to the resort. ok I gotta go now, we are leaving for dinner really soon. will post again soon.

Adios bros

Hey everybody, we've moved down south with the trip, 12hour train ride from Bangkok to Surat thani, and a 2hour air conditioned bus ride to our resort in Koh Sok ANtional park. The four adjacent parks here form one of the biggest areas of protected wild life in S.E. Asia and it's very beautiful. We arrived yesterday morning, swam in the river and just chilled, almost everyone else went on inner tubes down the river, saw a few snakes and fish and lizards (and a monkey temmple) while i opted to go off on my own for a while and doa trek, it was great, saw some pretty neat stuff, got bitten by one leech and took quite a few photos.
In the evening most of us took a night trek to spot wildlife as a large proportion only comes out a night. we saw bats (which were flying around our resort like dog fighters) frogs, bugs, a flying lizard, an owl, a beautiful white snake (only small) some HUGE spiders with Huge webs, some mouse deer, and a Macaque (type of monkey)
Today we did some more trekking, we stopped and swam at a small set of waterfalls, dived off some rocks, and generally had a good time, after that the british girls who joined us in bangkok were going to go elephant riding so they turned around along with some others, while robin, kate, jyri (yuri), nicole and I went further up stream to find a waterfall, the route wasn't marked very well and at one point we were about to settle with seeing a less impressive waterfall, but I scouted ahead and the sign said we were only a kilometer off, so we soldiered on, with nicole as the exception who needed a sleep. after some more trekking we reached the river again, checked the map and discovered that we needed to crosss this big river, walk up a triutrary and then get to the waterfall, so we put all the cameras and valuables and some food into my bag, and tied that to the pulley system that was setup to take bags across the river, so we swam across, pulled my bag across ad headed up the river. It was getting close to that point where we would have to turn back, so after some deliberation we decided that if we couldn't hear/see the waterfall in 5minutes we'd turn back, so we trudge on trying not to slip taking everyone's cameras in with me. about 200m laterrobin can hear the falls, we catch up and can hear them too, so it's decided now we have to dee the falls and we march on, climbing up the hills where the river is too deep to walk in, jumping from rock to rock and eventually we see it, a magnificent waterfallzig-zagging down the rocks, it was very beautiful. we all took photos, jyri, kate and I swam and robin sun-tanned. I decided I wanted to get behind the waterfall which i felt sure had a open space behind it, got pounded and sent down steam the first try, and the second on the third and what i'd decided would be my last try I mangaed to find some grips on the rocks. The water was pounding white around my head so thick that I couldn't see anything other than the white blur or hear anything but the low roar. Using all four limbs carefully i managed to pull myself, crouching through the falls, I was right there was a space behind it that the water relented and I could stand up. after giving a few victory cries i headed back, this time standing, with my back against the wall bracing myself withmy legs, Kate took a pic of me like this and we headed back. so it was a really great experiece.
On the way back i almost lost the cameras to the water when I was walking with the water up to my chest and the bag above my head all of a sudden the rock i was walking on went into a 45degree angle and i had to tread water to the side and push the bag onto a ledge, alas my shoes were soaked.

Well we've had a great time, Ps i forgot to mention that on the nite trek i kinda fell into a spike covered tree and had a heap of spikes break off in my left hand and arm, luckily Claire is doing her 1st year of med school in cardiff next year and was a medic in the army for a while so she's been taking care of me, still some spikes to come out ho, i'm good, no infection, just a bit sore and stiff.

PPS Photos will come in a couple of days I got three spools developed and uploading a few shouldn't be too hard but it will be easier in Koh Samui.

Take care,
Mike