So I left the motherland on 14 October and embarked on my year long career break around some of the world....with the first stop being Thailand. We arrived in Bangkok on 15 October at 3pm in the afternoon after a good flight with BA. So after all the hassle of visas and collecting luggage it was time to try and get a taxi from the airport to the city centre and I was approached by this well dressed gentleman who starting asking all the touristy type questions (like where you from…Scotland……oh Whisky) and this happened quite a lot through the whole of Thailand. Anyway after all the usual conversation was over and done with he asked how we were getting to the city centre and he offered us a taxi at a good price which we took. He directed us to his driver "Mr. Nikki" who met us outside the airport and we were taken to his taxi (now a say taxi but what I mean is an old black Volvo with tinted windows and no taxi badge on the car what so ever) anyway we excepted the ride. After a 2 hour journey which involved stopping at tourist information booking place and unbelievable traffic jams we arrived at our destination for the night. The hotel was just around the corner from Koh San Road aka "traveler's paradise" and it was a swanky hotel for our first night stay. After a shower we hit the bar to try the local beers and that first couple of beers were sensational as it was really quite hot for 8pm in the evening. From the hotel bar we went to travelers paradise and must off walked 5 times up down this road looking at all the stalls, bars and people trying to sell you everything…..especially suits but there is more about suits later on. We found I little bar and had some more beers mainly for Dutch courage but also just cause we were on our travels. After the beer man must have a little snack so we tried the nearest street vendor which was amazing. I had pad Thai which cost me 60pence for a huge portion and it was simple sensational.

After a good nights sleep we had our first whole day in Thailand ahead of us. So we went to TAT (tourist authority Thailand) and had a chat with a man called Tony but he insisted we called him Tony the Tiger which was not weird in the slightest. We had a long chat with Tony the tiger about what we would like to do in Thailand and he came back with an itinerary and prices. Basically he booked all our transport and accommodation for the next 20 days at such a cheap price so we decided to go ahead and do it. So we had the whole of Thailand planned out so all we had to do was find a new hotel for the next 2 nights in Bangkok before the adventure really begins. After finding a new hotel we went out again on another local drinking sampling mission in the Patpong area of Bangkok. We stopped of for some more local street vendor food which was amazing again then the heavens opened up so found some refuge in a bar of all places. After the rain we stumbled down some small alleyway full of bars and rocked up at this cool place or what we thought was cool. We ordered a massive 3 liter jug type thing first then sat down outside and just when the beer arrived we both looked at each other and noticed that were no woman around and all these men were sitting rather closely to each other………we only went and stumbled upon the gay district of Thailand with 3 liters of beer to drink…….needless to say we had a gay old time here.

Day 3 in Bangkok we decided to do all the touristy things such as government buildings and Buddha statues. We got a famous tuk tuk ride (imagine a scooter with 3 wheels and seats on the back) to all the sites which took 3 ½ hours and only cost 80p. But part of this ride the driver kept taking us to tailors and jewelers as he obliviously was on commission, still it was a good way to see the city and it was quite funny haggling with the jewelers and tailors even though we weren't going to buy anything. After all touristy things we returned to the hotel and went out for yet more beers, banter and street vending eating. It was a tame night in the end as we were leaving for Kanchanaburi early doors the next day.

Our first adventure trip of the travels and it started at 6am but we had a 2 hour journey to Kanchanaburi as it's a fair distance north west of Bangkok. The trip was 2 days and involved The Bridge of the river Kwai "famous movie" the museums, hell fire pass where the prisoners of WWII where made to build a railway, a nights stay on a floating hostel, elephant trekking and river rafting. The first day involved the bridge on the river kwai museum and walking over the bridge itself and this was good but it was absolutely scorching day with pretty high humidity and we were going to be outside for most of the day. After the bridge on the river kwai stuff we traveled further away from Bangkok to our lunch destination which was a floating restaurant which was awesome and the food was pretty darn good too. From there we went to hell fire pass which also had a museum but it was really interesting and such an eye opener. Then we got a train for an hour which was fairly boring but we met a good bunch of people earlier on in the day so banter was flowing and the good thing was these people were also staying on the floating hostel. After the train journey it was back to the floating restaurant for some dinner and beers then a 20minute boat ride up stream awaited us to our floating hostel. When we arrived on the floating hostel there was a bar so it was a case of dumping our stuff then head straight to the bar to chat with people from the trip and this night was class. We stayed up really late drinking a lot of beers and the banter flowed like the beer needless to say I had a slight hangover the next day but nothing compared to Kevy who spewed everything up as soon as we went to our beds. I was laughing so hard at him I woke the person up next to me!!

With our hangovers we were up fairly early for breakfast but I think this was the excitement for the elephant trekking. So we jumped back in the long tail boat and headed further up stream to the elephant trekking site. This was really good fun and the trek lasted for 1 hour just heading around some forest then onto a road which was funny especially with cars and scooters driving past us on top of the elephant which I had named Bert even though he had a name in Thai. After the trek it was time to jump on the river raft and float down to where we had lunch the day before. This was relaxing and this is where we met the 2 dutch girls Loes and Maartje who we would meet up with further on in the trip. After we arrived at the restaurant we had lunch and I had a sneaky beer which did in fact cure my hangover and allowed me to sleep on the bus back to Bangkok which took approx 3 ½ hours (see drinking does have it's benefits guys and gals). Once we got back to Bangkok we collected our stuff and had a shower at Tony the tigers place then waited for the overnight bus to Koh Samui which left at 10pm.

After traveling for 13 hours (bus and boat combo) we finally arrived at Koh Samui island and checked into our accommodation which was home to us for the next 4 nights. First impression of Koh Samui was good a fairly big Island but very touristy and not touristy in the backpacker sense more family and club 18-30 orientated which sounds weird but its the only way I can describe it. Anyway our hotel was right on the beach so the first couple of days involved a lot of sunbathing and swimming in the sea. At night the place seemed to come alive especially on the beach so we would walk into the main town grab some grub then head to the beach to relax and par take in a few local beverages and enjoy some of the live shows like fire breathing, jumping, skipping and limbo! I had a very relaxing time in Koh Samui apart from 1 night where I over did it on the Thailand buckets (imagine a beach bucket filled with half a bottle of Thai Whiskey, red bull and M1150 (illegal in the UK)) and I had an epic hangover the next day.......I was literally at deaths door. There wasn't a great deal to do on Koh Samui so chilling out at the beach was the option especially with a killer hangover. We did try out football golf which is a football instead of a golf ball and you have to kick it into the hole. It was 18 holes and I had a blast there even though I got pumped by Kevy. I am now seriously thinking about setting up a football golf course back home I think it would be a huge hit. From Koh Samui we headed to Koh Phangan Island for another 4 night stay and this was home to half moon party!!

So we arrived Koh Phangan Island in the afternoon and our resort was in the Thongsala area of the island which is right next to where the boat dropped us off. Koh Phangan is very different atmosphere to Koh Samui a lot more chilled out and more backpackers where situated here as opposed to the holiday type of folk. The resort was a little chilled out place right on the beach it was one of my favourite places that I stayed in the whole of Thailand. It had an awesome pool with a pool bar which I took advantage of. The 1st day we chilled out in the pool and got chatting to some people then had dinner in the resort which was pretty decent then that followed with a couple of bottles of Thai whiskey and a few cheekie beers. The next day was fairly boring in the sense we walked around the town and the local market. That night the 2 Dutch girls Looes and Maartje came around to our resort where we sat at the bar and just got totally smashed then when everyone was drunk they decided to launch me in the pool which was funny but I had the last laugh by throwing everyone in. The next day we went on a tour of the Buddhist temples which was pretty cool and there was some awesome views of the south west of the Island. On this tour we saw a preserved Monk who was obviously dead but instead of burring him they decided to put him in a sealed glass cage and people like me can take photographs...very good idea if you ask me and it made me think when I die I would like to be in a glass cage and have people take pictures of me!! After the tour we headed back to the resort and chilled out as it was the day of the famous half moon party. The island is more famous for the full moon party but I was just as happy to hit up the half moon party!! The half moon party is held in the middle of the island in the jungle which just sounds awesome! So pre drinks were had in the resort and a taxi was arranged to pick us all up from the resort. When we arrived at the party you walk past all of these crazy colourful tattooists (fluorescent/glow paint) so I got a gecko on my arm which was pennies and looked not too bad either....Jokes!!. Then headed into the party which was a huge dancing area with about 10 bars around the place in a giant circle. Now I can only really remember the 1st 2 hours of the party then the old thai buckets kicked in and the rest of the night is explained by my photographs!! Got back to the resort in the early hours of the morning where a few of us headed to the pool for a morning dip which was awesome and a great way to end the night. The next day just lounged about the resort but the weather was not so good so lounging about was all we could really do and we were departing for Krabi early doors the next day. All in all I would definitely go back to Koh Phangan it was my favourite place in the whole of Thailand.