hey hey everyone, im kho pangan at the moment. my last night in chiang mai was great fun. After a few Changs me and a couple of guys (ryan and amnesh) went to thai boxing. It was a dodgy little arena with a fight club feel to it. The farang sat around 3 sides of the ring, with the thai gamblers stood on the other side or further back behind a cage. We saw 8 fights, and with the alcohol flowing we got well into it, the atmosphere was awesome!!

Towards the end we were starting to suspect some of the fights may be fixed. In one fight a thai guy punched his aussie opponent against the ropes before proceeding to fall to the floor untouched, very much a cristiano ronaldo moment!!Me and ryan managed to get an exclusive interview with the australian who won the fight (well we saw him coming out of the toilet) and asked him what happened. He avoided the question and mumbled some rubbish about the stars helping him. The chang had kicked in by this point so i cant remember exactly but i do remember thinking the guy was off his head.The fighters looked suspiciously young as well. Im pretty sure the guy who lost the last fight did so on purpose because he had to be up early for school in the morning.

Still buzzing from the boxing we decided to get a tuk tuk to the only non prostitute bar that we knew, a british place called The What. The driver has no idea where he was going and kept stopping to ask other tuk tuk drivers. No one around seemed to know where the What is, so, in what is definately my most cringe worthy moment so far, on a street full of westerners i had to shout at the top of my voice "TELL HIM TO TAKE US TO THE STREET WHERE ALL THE PROSTITUTES ARE" Covered in shame we finally made it.

The usual drinking chang and chatting to randomners followed(including firefly goers em) before a lock in followed. Everywhere is meant to close at 1 so steve the owner just pulls down the shutters and lets the good times roll (how cheesey does that sound). I got roped into a game of killer (pool) and looked good to win. infact i should have won but like an english penalty taker i bottled it.

Eventually at 3am me and ryan set of for home, although our journey was cut short when we saw a street bar, Ryan is welsh and we had been winding eachother up all night, by this pont is was just pure racism. Eventually, despite ryans best efforts to get us lost, we made it home.

The next day was painfull. Checkout was 11:30am so i had minimal sleep and the hangover from hell. To top it off me and my malaria tablet had a bit of a falling out. After taking it i felt serously ill. With no room and consequently no nearby toilet i gracefully took up the "michael position" in some alleyway and spent the next 3 hours throwing up with nothing but stray dogs for company. All very pleasant!!

I got the overnight bus from bangkok and it was the same 3 guys who stole from us last time. This time they managed to get into peoples bags upstairs and 5 people had money gone. Luckily im a walking fort knox so no one is getting into my stuff. I spent a few hours waiting around bangkok with this sweedish girl camilla (this came back to haunt me in kho pangan when she was battered and no one knew her so i had to help her home). I caught a flight to the border and then a ferry to ko samui!!

On the ferry i met a thai guy who offered me a lift to the othet side of the island on his motorbike/skooter thingy. I, perhaps foolishly, accepted and it was great fun. Thai guys ride these things like maniacs and he was no exception. (although i was slightly concerned that we was going to take me to the thai mafia and rob me but that never materialised)

Ko samui is well expensive and feels like a Spanish holiday resort. The place was a ghost town for backpackers and full of couples!!I met a pimp and a couple of thai mafia and hung around with them for the night (i didnt know what they were at first) In our first bar i kept beating the owner at connect 4, which won us loads of free drinks and made me a legend in the eyes of the mafia. After that me the pimp and the mafia (i love it) went to some seedy club. This is wher i grew suspicious of there occupations. Normally the prostitutes would have been hassling me but around these guys they werent even lookin at me. The pimp knew the owner again, this owner was a dirty old man who was makein me choose which women were to dance on the pole. Then the pimp turned to me and said "between me and him we own the best women on this island" Feeling it was time to get the hell away from these guys i decided to go home.

KO (as in knock out, or mafia number 1) didnt want me walking so he whipped out his phone and two motorbikes pitched up within a couple of minutes. One drove ahead and i got a lift from the other (whilst fearing i was going to get robbed) They left me with the depating message of "stay away from the lady boys, they will eat a pretty boy like you alive"

The next day i met the thai guy from the ferry, he obviously hadnt read previous blogs cos he took me to temples. (his english was limited so the whole day was spent in silence or confusion) It was ok though cos i got to view the whole island from the back of a bike, it is inspiringly beautifull. I offered to take him to dinner as a thanks and told him to choose his favourite place. I was expecting him to take me to some underground thai place that did amazing food, instead the little sh*t took me to mcdoanlds. Thats westernisation for you!! And then when i sugested a game of pool he took me to some well dodgy underground snooker hall. There was only two tables and you had to climb through the window to get in. I was the only none thai guy and they were all speaking thai staring at me. I cant quite decide if i had fun in my 1 day on ko samui, it was all very surreal. But i knew i didnt like the place itself so i went to kho pangan on the last boat.

I am in love with this island!! Been here nealry a week and its full moon party on wednesday.Its like a backpacker village where everyone chills during the day and goes crazy at night. Ill leave a blog for kho pangan at some pont im just too busy getting wrecked at the moment!!