Well im now back in Brisbane and a bit depressed but i need to update my last few days in Phuket, so on Thursday nothing special happened just went to Training as normal but my sparring partner didnt show up so it was just a normal session, that night i hadf planned to go tobed early so I could get up early and shoot an AK-47 and ride the elephants before training but it didnt work out that way. Knowing it was nearly time to go home and being anxious about coming home but at the same time depressed i didnt get to sleep till about 4am, plus it didnt help that the boys had gone out and when they came back continued to talk all night outside the door. I didnt wake till about 12pm and my training was at 1:30 i decided to not go to training but instead go to elephants and shooting by this time it was raining pretty heavily i was contempalting riding my scooter but being only a couple of days from coming home i decided to catch a taxi instead, i didnt want to have an accident just before i come home. Shooting the AK-47 was alright but nothing compared to the Shotgun, i also had 10 shots on a sniper rifle that fired the same bullets as an M-16 it had some kick in it i couldnt really get comfortable shooting it because i had to lie on the ground and my neck was hurting while i was doing it but i still managed to hit the target 8 out of 10 times.
After the shooting I went to the elephant place where first you watch an elephant do tricks and give people massages then I had went for a half hour ride, it was alright not very exciting though im sure my kids would love it though, i bought a bag of bananas to feed the elephant and while i was on the back it lifted his trunk over his head for me to give him one, not thinking i put one in its nostril instead of across it. After the Elephant ride the rain had cleared up and i went back to camp and me and Taizo went to Patong on our scooters to pick up Kumar who had stayed there overnight, while there i did some last minute shopping for clothes then we stopped at the night market for a feed of pad thai which was the best i had while i was in Thailand, we also booked in to go to Phi Phi Island on Saturday.
Saturday morning me Taizo Kumar and Lachy head off to Phi Phi Island we get picked up at Tiger MMA at 7;30 at transported to the Ferry which was quite big and had about 200 people on board, One thing about Thailand is that they don't really have any safety standards and they didnt have the correct lifejackets plus the boat looked overloaded. The trip out to Phi Phi was boring until we got close and it was amazing like a fortress sticking out of the ocean then you get close and then you see little openeings in the walls and in the openings are beaches that are unbelievable to describe how awesome they look. When we got to Phi Phi we transferred onto another boat for a 5 minute journey to the snorkelling site, it was a reef about 10metres deep that got shallower as you went to shore me Taizo and Lachy did the snorkelling, Taizo had a bad ear so he couldnt dive down and my neck was preventing me from properly enjoying the dive but i managed a few deep ones. lachy is a commercial diver who works on oil rigs for like $3000 a day so he was swimming through the coral tunnels like a dolphin, afetr snorkelling we went to the island for a buffet lunch then a drink on the beach and then back to the Phuket. On the way back me and Lachy had the best seats on the boat, on the top deck feet on the rails in the sun drinking beer with our shirts off and music playing, the time went so fast i didnt want to get off the boat when we arrived at the port. Saturday night was BBQ beatdown they have it once a month at TMT where you can fight other members from the camp in the ring or the cage, it costs 350baht to attend but you get beer until it runs out and a BBQ. Taizo fought that night and beat his opponent by ref stoppage in the 3rd round, another friend of mine Andy fought an MMA match and lost but it was an awesome fight. Andy is 45 and lost his wife 2 years previous in a car crash so he decided to travel the world and now he is in Thailand fighting in a cage. This was also my last night to catch up with all the boys i had a few drinks with Tonci, Tommy and Jeremy the aussies that I met online before going to Thailand and also all the other boys from Nature house accomodation. It was very depressing in the morning driving back to the airport when i got there my luggage was overweight so i had to throw out some old clothes to make the weight plus i tied 3 jumpers around my waist put stuff in my pockets and piled as much as i could into my carry on luggage which was only supposed to be 5kg but was 15kg, one guy told me i had to check the hand luggage in so i went to another counter and just kept it out of site. I had a overnight stopover in Kuala Lumpur which really sucked because i just wanted to get home i stayed at a nice airport hotel, Kuala Lumpur airport is very modern but don't expect any help if you aint Malaysian, they don't have signs telling you anything the information counters have nobody in them and some people just ignore you, both times i was at that airport i found myself wandering around for at least an hour trying to find the right bus or train.
So now im back in Brisbane at the office typing this, very happy to be back and see Katherine and the kids but at the same time can't wait to go back but next time i will take Katherine with me, this will probably be an annual trip or at least every 2 years, why not live like royalty every now and then.