I had an early start on Friday morning for my trip to James Bond Island (Kao Phing-kan). We were driven to a petrol station for the transfer to the main bus and I was delighted to see that all the smokers were made to put out their fags before entering the shop. Wandering round the [...]

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I got nattering to a lass from Leeds (Sarah) and we went for a wander into the town to kill some time. McD’s for lunch (I am so bad) followed by a Swenson’s ice cream desert, at a ridiculously low price. Back home, this would have been £6 or so. It was 130Baht here and [...]

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 Next day, we headed for Phatong – one of the beaches in the area and the one with the most nightlife. We crashed out on sun loungers for most of the afternoon. The Kiwis went jet-skiing while I finished another novel and then we tootled off for some grub. And, boy, did we find some. [...]

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[apologies for uploading all of this after a week - there was no wireless in the hostel in Phuket though the internet was OK for email] Phuket is an island off the west coast of Thailand and its beaches were affected by the Tsunami all those months ago. To look at it, you’d never guess [...]

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I’ve spent the last day or so virtually indoors to avoid the water being thrown around. I think Songkran is now over so I should be OK to pop out for a bit! My main concern was when I got off the airport bus at roughly 6pm (and after sundown), and some little sprog chucked [...]

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As I sit writing this, many of you will just be getting up for work. Ready to face another day in the office, the long drive there, the traffic… Except maybe Phil, who’ll be running round trying to find matching cufflinks and making sure plane tickets are where they should be for the honeymoon after [...]

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A few things about the place I’m staying. First of all, I’d recommend it though the wireless broadband’s somewhat flaky. This is possibly because I’m on the 3rd floor and the router’s downstairs. Secondly, no taxi seems to know where it is. The one I got here yesterday dropped me off two streets away. “Soi [...]

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Chiang Mai. North of Thailand and its second-biggest city. And also reckoned as being the best place for Songkran. If by “best” you mean “most likely to get soaked in”. I’ve made one quick excursion into town and managed to get some flip flops, 2 Tintin t-shirts for Indy and no watch battery. Holy grail [...]

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 I was intending to get all the tiger pictures up today, but it seems that Fotopic isn’t in agreement with me. Their servers seem a little too busy and I can’t connect to upload. However, the pictures are all sorted and waiting to be shoved up the wire. I’ll try again when I get in [...]

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 Today there was a lot of walking in a lot of sunshine. My forearms are now bronzed like those of a Greek god. Unfortunately, my nose and head are as red as a baboon’s bottom and my legs as white as a pint of milk (which incidentally, you can’t seem to buy here). I went [...]

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