*** THAILAND ***

…Ok here goes, this is our second blog entry and is again written by me, James. Firstly we must apologize for it being so late but we are now out of Thailand and for that reason I have regained the ability to write (and for that matter speak without a slur).While I was located at Thailand I was too intoxicated to think about writing and if I am truly honest, who in their right mind wants to type into a computer when they can just lay in the sun drinking cold beer with Swedish blondes! However we did manage to keep you all updated with photographs, which im sure tell their own story.

Thailand was and still is f&*king amazing!! Just to set the scene for you, before you continue reading go and find a Bob Marley album and put it on; pour yourself a large glass of wine; smile; relax; lay back in your seat and enjoy!! That is simply what Thailand is all about! Smiling, relaxing and having a good time "everything is going be all right".

When Specs, Gourlay and myself arrived at Bangkok airport we immediately caught a bus to our booked accommodation and anxiously awaited the arrival of Gethin and Dozer. I must admit carrying our backpacks through Bangkok on our first night, eagerly looking for New Siam guesthouse was a little daunting. Dodging dogs incase they have some terrible disease, watching out for pick pockets and genuinely on guard from any danger. However, after one night these nerves simply disappeared and we started to feel very relaxed. Later in Thailand we blamed the first walk nerves on the pep talks our peers had given us before we left. We had heard many daunting stories and myths that we actually believed that night when we hit Bangkok we may get chopped up, robbed and sold on some dodgy street corner.

Anyway, within an hour of waiting Dozer and Gethin turned up and were both armed with 640ml bottles of a Thai larger called Chang. At this point I was not aware of how big a part of my life this beer would become over the next month.Relieved to see each other and overly excited about the trip we all hit Koh Sahn Road in Bangkok.This is the place where everyone goes, bars, live music, street stalls, food stalls…its all there and for two quid you can have a beer, kebab and Bruce Lee t-shirt…HAPPY DAYS!We hit the Chang hard on our first night, it was expected of us; it was the start of our magical tour, the 'antur 4 boyos' and Wales had christened it with a win over England!

The following day everyone gradually made their way back to base and we endured a cooked breakfast and jumped about in the pool.However, we still had a man missing in action.The Gourlay bird, famous for his rock n roll lifestyle and three day 'strongbow' fuelled weekends, had gone missing.We made a decision to walk to Koh Sahn Road in hope that on our return he may have turned up.Ten minutes later I was walking through the busy street and being pestered by all sorts of cheap cons.At this point as the booze started to wear off I began to worry about Gourlay! "s*** James this is Bangkok where is he?" I kept rhetorically asking myself.Then suddenly just like some Christmas edition of 'Only Fools and Horses' I could hear a voice in the background 'James!' I turned around 'James owwww!'…..Matthew 'mad' Gourlay was in a taxi in the middle of Koh Sahn Road still steaming from the night before! Happy that he was alive and kicking we all hit a bar and again ordered in our new friend Chang! Chang in 640ml bottles at 6.4% is just brilliant, one your merry, two your very merry, three your talking s*&t, four your considering singing and by five its meat loaf on the stage!However one problem that we first noticed in our primary days in Bangkok was that there was a low supply of Strongbow.Gourlay being a seasoned bow drinker who despises larger was very upset by this, so while the four of us ordered Changs, Gourlay opted for the cocktail menu.Again, like something off 'Only Fools and Horses', we would all be in a bar with bottles beer and Gourlay similar to Del Boy had these huge and colourful 'sex on the beach' cocktails.

The next few days were spent in Bangkok.We had no real reason to move because we were all really enjoying ourselves and meeting different people, each with different stories to tell.The guest house accommodating us was top quality and had a nice pool with a good food area.Bangkok is a big city, it smells at times but once you hit Koh Sahn Road there seems to be a bit of a buzz about the place. There's live music, crazy stalls selling hand- made beads and necklaces and designer replicas are in abundance.

One day we went for a Thai massage which was an experience in itself.You go into a small room and they rigorously massage all your back and shoulders, clicking and clunking, it's a bit viscous but when they have finished you feel much better.Apparently they re-energize the muscles and increase the circulation.For our massage we all had girls except for dozer he ended up with this bloke twice, which was funny!Specs had such a rough massage that his neck didn't feel right for days!

After our few days in Bangkok we put our bodies through an endurance test and traveled on a twelve hour train journey into the north of Thailand called Chang Mai.We would stay one night at Chang Mai and then embark on a three day, two night trek in the jungle.This trip into the jungle was to become one of the highlights of Thailand.We were picked up in the morning in a huge Jeep and the five of us plus four girls from England and a Japanese guy that we nicknamed 'Tommy' headed for the jungle.Sitting in the back of the Jeep with our backpacks, and being driven into the Jungle by two Thai guys…it was a bit special, we thought we were something out of Rambo 4 (we had been boozing the night before).The initial part of the trip was spent visiting a waterfall and we spent an hour there climbing the rocks, slipping on the rocks and getting bruised.But it was amazing….you find yourself sitting on these massive rocks with the water smashing the back of your neck and you and your mates are just there laughing your heads off!! Five boys from Neath in the North of Thailand, in the jungle, under a waterfall. We were high on life and laughter! In the afternoon we then visited a Buddhist temple which was huge and we just stood there staring at this colossal gold Buddha in the middle of the mountain. Gourlay was more interested in the plastering going on when building it and made me take accurate photos, so that the tradesman ship could be appreciated.Then by mid afternoon we started trekking through the jungle and it was very warm and humid.We walked through rice fields, jungle land; woods….you know the score like 'Arnie' in Predator!

In the evening we stayed with a local tribe in the middle of the jungle and had to all sleep in this structured wooden hut.The tribe had constructed a small village made from nothing but wood and all lived very simply.Everything seemed so primitive and straight forward and it was overwhelming to think that many of these tribal people had never really left the jungle.What was even more overwhelming was the fact that these people who basically had nothing were so happy.They greeted us on arrival and were keen to sell us hand-made items and they were all smiling.It was a unique experience.Soon in the jungle it was very, very dark and we all had food that was made by our guides.The food was uncomplicated, mixed vegetable and chicken curry with rice but it was delicious and for desert we had fresh fruit.Gethin took a strong liking to the fresh pineapple and claims it's the tastiest fruit he has ever eaten.Then we all sat around a fire and our Thai guide blasted out a few songs on the guitar….within an hour, after consuming a few Changs plus some herbal medication I was singing 'Hotel California' and we were all having a good time.Although our tour guide while trying to cook after the munchies nearly burnt a hut down!

The next day we trekked for over four hours and stopped at various waterfalls just to cool off and have a swim.If you look through our Chang Mai album you will see photos of us wearing handmade hats made from huge leaves and also there are photographs of our food.Our afternoon meal for that day was rice but it was wrapped in huge leaves, everything was so natural, it was impressive.That evening we camped at another village in the jungle and although still very basic it was a little more modern than the previous night location.

The last day of our trek was separated into two parts.The morning was spent riding these huge bamboo boats down a moving river and turned out to be a humorous event.We had two boats between eight of us and spent the trip pushing each other in and jumping off these huge rocks into the water.In the afternoon, we maintained our Rambo image riding elephants through the forest, Gourlay was on one with Tommy, Dozer and Specs shared one and Gethin and I had a rebellious one.Our elephant was 'a bit off the wall' and I liked him.I kept throwing bananas at dozer and our 'bad boy' elephant would stick his trunk into dozer's seat and start sucking and snorting.Dozer kept panicking and was shouting for him to get off while Gethin and I were just p**sing ourselves laughing!The three days spent in the jungle were tremendous; we had hiked, watched these wicked spiders, lived with tribal people, partied with tribal people, seen some amazing sights and bathed in these crazy waterfalls.We all agreed it seemed a little surreal.Our tour guides took as back to Chang Mai and explained that in the evening everyone from the trek meets at a reggae bar in town for all-you-can-eat bbq and few beers.We turned up to the reggae bar early and were really shocked to find it was all-you-can-eat bbq but you had to cook the meat yourself.We hit the action plan immediately, Gourlay and dozer were on bbq; Gethin sorted out the salad bar; Specs grabbed a table and I got in the Changs.Within an hour our group had all arrived and we were all grubbed up and were sinking Changs.The group of people we had trekked with had all been good company and our guides had been awesome, and for that reason the five of us picked up the bill sorted it out and then left for the train to Bangkok (we left the bar like movie stars).

We had one night in Bangkok and decided to take a cheap flight from there to Phuket early the next day.Within no time we found ourselves on Patpong beach in Phuket; sitting on the beach, jumping in the sea, drinking cold Changs and paying roughly 30p for a Thai woman to rub natural Aloe Vera into your back.That evening we hit Bangla Road which is a huge tourist spot full of lady boys, go- go bars, strip clubs, ping pong shows, nightclubs, bars and is basically a bit wild!We partied hard, 'playing connect four' against strippers, dancing on tables and buying stupid hats!

The next day was probably the first day where we were starting to feel the effects of the previous two weeks and we found ourselves hung-over, tired and burnt out.We took it easy in the evening and met up in a bar with a few of the Cimla boys who were out here on holiday.

The following day we traveled to arguably our favourite spot in Thailand called Phi Phi Island!It is Thailand's national treasure and parts of the island are protected by national park laws and obviously it attracts numerous backpackers.During our time in Thailand we experienced many of the islands but Phi Phi was something different.It had individual characteristics that allowed it to excel the rest, the main one being the fact that there were no vehicles on the island.You had to travel everywhere by foot, it was a simple concept nevertheless it was so effective.There was no vehicle noise or pollution instead you could hear the sea and Bob Marley tunes emerging from small beach bars.There were not too many people staying on the island but just enough and at day it was tranquil with long beautiful beaches offering small boat trips but at night it came alive with fire shows outside beach bars.The food was extraordinary and if you enjoy indulging in fresh fish dishes then this is definitely the place for you.We had our first meal in Phi Phi sitting in a bar that was located on the beach and we chose the fish that we wanted to eat from the ice display, it was then barbequed with mixed peppers on a fire in-front of us.We spent two nights on Phi Phi simply chilling out in the day; Dozer and Specs played Frisbee; Gethin continued reading Howard Marks, Gourlay spent hours snorkeling in the sea and I just slept under a tree.In the night, we met up with various people and drank at 'Carlito's Bar' (it played the finest of house music) before moving onto 'Hippies Bar' until the early hours.Phi Phi was an area of Thailand that was hit very badly by the Tsunami and there is still damage and landmarks on the island that indicate this.However, the local people on the Island seem to have a powerful spirit and have worked hard in restoring the area.

After two nights on Phi Phi we booked an excursion to Maya Bay which is a small island that is still part of Phi Phi but is a national park.It is the location where the film 'The Beach' was filmed and for our trip a group of about twenty of us would take a boat to the island for sunset.We would then spend a night camping on the beach, have a bbq, few beers, camp and watch sunrise the next day.There was a good crowd of us including a group of Aussie girls, two couples, an English girl living in New York, a Dutch Judo Champion and a boy from Swansea!When we arrived on the island we were the only people there and it would stay that way for the rest of the night until the next day.It was breathtaking and we all just walked along the beach in awe.I know this is cliché but all of us were lost for words (even me).There was a crazy guy on the island who claimed that he lived there and we nicknamed him 'Genie'.'Genie' preached to us about love and nature and personally I think he had been smoking far too much weed. But he did say when we first got on the island that this place was 'the stairway to heaven'.After walking around the bay under moonlight, swimming in the sea there at three in the morning and watching sunrise on the beach the following day then I think I'd probably agree with him the place may just be 'the stairway to heaven'.But as for all the other stuff he was saying……definitely too much weed!

Visiting Maya Bay was another of our highlights and when we left there the next day we caught a ferry to mainland Thailand and then a taxi to Krabi.We had decided that Krabi should be a period where we rest our livers and treat ourselves with sleep, water, healthy food and rest because after all we were hitting Koh Phagan for The Full Moon Party next.The first night was fine and everything went to plan and following a meal we were in our rooms fairly early watching Manchester United before bed.We slept well, had a healthy breakfast and spent a day on Krabi beach.Dozer, Gourlay and I without any form of hangovers were feeling adventurous and decided to swim out to this isolated island in the middle of the ocean.It took us a while to get there but when we arrived it was quite amazing, we were the only three people in the world on this small island in the sea.We sunbathed there for a short time and then Gourlay decided to leave.Both quite proud that we had explored this small landmark Dozer and I decided to stay and then suddenly from the rocks above us was this loud, screeching, highly pitched noise…we s*$t ourselves! We dived into the sea, cut all our feet on rocks and swam back to the beach hoping that some wild undiscovered monster wouldn't follow us.By our second night our detox plan had gone out the window, rehab is for quitters, lets get back on it! Similar to the way a duck finds water, we found our way to a bar that played live music, had lots of good people and sold cold Chang.The band were entertaining singing a range of rock music, then a Swedish guy got up with the band and sang, following him was a Scot…..There was no way that I was going to let Wales down, James 'Clapton' Williams got up and sang 'Cocaine' followed by Jonny Cash 'Walk the Line' and we were all back Rock n Rolling!!

The final part of our Thai experience was spent on Koh Phangan for The Full Moon Party…for those of you who are not aware, its Asia's biggest rave up, a place to go to lose your mind….but that's another story!!

So turn up Mr. Marley, pour yourself another glass of wine and relax because we five boys are all doing fine!!!