Happy New Year everybody! I can’t believe that it’s been a matter of months since I last blogged! What with laptop issues and being so bloody busy I just haven’t had time. Here goes......, there’s a lot...beware!

So, I’ve been here for four months now and finally I feel like I’m settling in. The initial stress of starting a new job and moving to an entire different country half way across the world has gone and I’m starting to enjoy the real Thailand :0)

Adventures so far include Singapore in November, which was a great experience. I visited a friend and so it ended up being a drunken reunion followed by a day of hung-over sightseeing. Singapore is amazing. I was surprised at how western it was over there and how much it is like a giant Canary Wharf (but the buildings and skyscrapers kick CW’s arse by a long shot). We also got a ferry to a near by island (Pilau Ubin) which was beautiful. There were hardly any cars and so we rented push bikes and cycled round jungles, drank coconuts from a crazy old Thai man who only knew the words ‘hello’, ‘coconut’, and ‘$2’...haha, he was funny. Overall awesome trip and the flight home allowed me to travel 2 hours back in time so I was able to get a good nights sleep before work the next morning :0)

Koh Sichang: Well, this was an experience before we even arrived on the island. We (myself and two girlfriends) took a coach from the local bus terminal (Mo Chit) which took 2.5 hours to get to where we jump off. The funny thing in Thailand is that most buses/coaches will just drop you wherever you want to go between departure and arrival destination. We read in the lonely planet guide that you get out at ‘Robinsons’ dept store after approx 2 hours drive and then jump on a tuk-tuk which will take you to the ferry crossing, so that’s what we did. Jeeze, if this had been me when I was about 18/19 years old, I would be freaking out but everything seems to just fall into place over here so no need to worry. So we got to the ferry crossing, get on the ferry (which was more like a two story fishing boat!) and we see rain in the distance. Within about 3 minutes the rain had reached us along with the thunder and lightning. Within seconds the boat was drenched but luckily I had bought one of those crappy giant plastic bag cagooles the week before so I put that on which kept the top half dry but my legs and feet got soaked......good job North Face Jesus creepers were invented! Me and my two friends Charli and Amanda were just in the middle of saying, ‘oh, we wont take off in this weather....’ they started up the engines! You could hear the whole boat start nervously giggling. And so, we set off into a huge storm in a quite frankly inadequate boat with metal railings over our head!!! It seemed to be quite funny for about 15 minutes until a fork of lightning hit the water right next to the boat and I almost crapped my pants (excuse my phrase but hey...that’s me!). Everyone’s feet were in about 2 inches of water because the little drain holes couldn’t cope with the speed that it was coming in at. In the end, our 25 minute journey took 45 minutes and we were all soaked by time we got off the boat. So we get off the ferry not knowing which way to head as we hadn’t booked anywhere to stay. As we walked up from the ferry it was still raining and it was as if we were walking through a river as the water came over our ankles! It was apparent that when it rains, everywhere closes and so we just walked along the main strip (high street......I’m starting to talk funny over here!!!!) asking locals where we could get beer! One man who clearly spoke no English was trying to offer us his creaky old stool to sit on in his shop and he obviously wanted us to by beer from him but this shop sold fresh meat and it stunk! When I say fresh meat, I’m not sure how fresh (as you never know this in Thailand) but it was raw pieces of something and it stunk so we didn’t hang around there for long. We eventually found a bar and so got our long awaiting Leo and a giant greasy pork omelette!

It eventually stopped raining so we ventured to find somewhere to stay. We ended up staying in a really nice room that was huge and had everything we needed including a a fridge and a western style toilet....YESSSSSSS! It’s a bonus if you get a western toilet in Thailand, especially as this island is not very western at all. The walk to our room was through a woody area filled with tropical tree’s and giant snails everywhere.....they were huge and there were quite literally hundreds of them along the path.

After checking out the local area it was apparent that we needed to get some form of transport for our stay. Luckily our guesthouse did mopeds for 200baht for 24 hours which is about £4.20...bargain!!! I have never ridden a moped properly before so it scared the crap out of me but after a few minutes it was I loved it and was zooming around with no problem. We then spent the rest of the day exploring the roads that lead to beaches, temples with giant Buddha’s and bridges that over look the sunset....it was truly beautiful and although only a couple of hours from Bangkok, it seemed as though we were a million miles away. So we had dinner, a couple of glasses of wine and headed back to the room. This night changed every holiday that was to come as we discovered Sang-Som rum! This stuff is crazy cheap, tastes like Captain Morgan’s rum but doesn’t give you that bad a hangover and gives you giggles.....I’m convinced it’s got drugs in but the label is in Thai so I don’t actually know what’s in it!

The nest morning we were up and ready for an early adventure. We scooted to a nearby temple built into the hill with the largest golden Buddha I had seen since my arrival in Bangkok. We then tackled very steep hills to a the ‘Wat Tham Yai Phrik’ Monastery which was lovely. It was so tranquil and peaceful walking around the gardens and taking in views of the island. There were beautiful trees and frangipani flowers everywhere along with many other tropical plants and flowers.....I could have stayed there all day. The steps out of the monastery had a dragons body as the rails which went all the way down the hill and ended with the dragons head at the bottom....all in green and red mosaic....fantastic!

I then left the girls at a beach (Hat Tham Phang) because sunbathing wasn’t for me that day, there was still too much to explore. I ended up scooting to the other side of the island and found ‘San Jao Phaw Khao Yai’ a Chinese temple which stands a fair few hundred metres up, build into yet another hill. I walked up to this amazingly colourful temple and had a look around. The artwork inside was so cool – large paintings and mosaics of dragons and bright colours and lot’s of red everywhere. After being smoked out by all the incense I decided to take a path of steps that went further up the hill. There was a sign that said over 200 meters to where Buddha left a footprint in the hill or something similar (pictures will be uploaded at some point) so I decided to go up there. Bearing in mind that health and safety doesn’t exist there were no safety rails and it was literally shifty concrete steps cast into a hill and they were only about a meter wide. It was so hot and I was starting to feel the effects from last night’s rum but I took it on as a challenge to see how far I could get. I got about ten minutes up there and remembered that I was scared of heights!!!! I turned round and could see the main village which was the size of a pea and everything looked so far away lol! I decided to sit down to have a rest and then to walk back down before the old leg shaking set in and then I wouldn’t have been able to get down at all.

After this, I ventured back to the beach, ate far too much chicken fried rice, swam, got attached by the smallest fish in the world that clearly just wanted to eat me and my friend Amanda. After this we got the ferry which was a much better journey than the one out there.

But then, we realised we hadn’t planned out journey back...ooops! But we just headed back to the dept store hoping for the best. When we got there, there was a mini bus taking people back to Bangkok so we jumped in. The guy said that he’s take us back to Saphan Kwai which is right near where we live which sounded great! After 2.5 hours of reckless driving and me wondering whether we were going to live or die, the driver just stopped and basically said that’s as far as he’s going. We were in Bang Na which is quite away from where I live. After demanding money back and calling this guy all the names under the sun for not taking us where he said he would we then had to make our way back home from wherever the hell we were. Luckily a nice Thai guy helped us get to the local BTS station (skytrain) and then that took us 45 mins plus a small taxi ride back......misson but a good weekend overall. We swore never to get a minivan ever again after that. Errrrrghhh!