A lot of Thai (food)

Today was one of the days on my trip that I was really looking forward to - the Thai cooking course (yay!)

Anyways, I want to start by saying that there was a lot of food, considering that I have been eating 1-2 small meals a day - I had 6 courses over the span of the day! I also picked up some little tricks and stuff, and am firing to get home and cook up a storm at home. I have to say also that it was some of the best Thai food that I have had, and I have had a lot of Thai food over the years, maybe it was because it was freshly cooked in front of us. Sean & I (the third party piked) had a lovely day learning how to cook a number of popular Thai meals, which were: pad thai, tom yum kung (my favourate), spring rolls, green curry, stir-fried chicken with cashew nuts and mango with sticky rice. Yui (the teacher) is so friendly and had lots of information to share with us, especially on the tour of the local markets (where there was no tourists) showing us the local foods. Sorry to sound like an infomercial, but if you want further information, or are planning to go to Chang Mai, I would really recommend that you check them it out at http://www.alotofthai.com/

Snorkels & Changers

I am in Chang Mai now (changers). The weather is a bit cooler than previously. But I have to tell you about my snorkeling experience. What a wonder! I was a bit reluctant to go, as I am not a strong swimmer, had tried snorkeling once before unsuccessfully and I was feeling a bit sick that morning, so didn't really know what to expect. It was also an over cast day and rough as guts on the boat out.The 1.5 hour catamaran took us to this tiny (and I mean tiny) little island just off Koh Tao (a slightly bigger island), where we snorkeled of the beach, I feel like I was going to chuck when I first put the mask on, but finally got the hang of it. It was BRILLIANT! I have never experienced any thing like it. Was like a whole different world! The coral was mostly dead, but the fish were bloody amazing (pictures to come). I made use of my new underwater camera - yay!

Yesterday was a long day, spent whole day traveling - boat from Koh Phanang to Samui and then flight to Bangkok and then another flight to Changers. Our flight was delayed out of Bangkok which meant we would have have had to leave at 10:45pm. So we got a refund and caught another flight which left at 8:15pm.

Chang Mai is not what I expected, much smaller and quieter. It is also much cleaner than I expected. Less people speak English though. Oh well better keep trucken@!

Another day in paradise ...

Yep, it's another day in warm weather, white beaches and clear skies.... Do you like the picture of my bungalow?

Who can complain? Not I! Well maybe a little bit... I do have this massive "scrape" up my leg, which aches when I walk and I have managed to sunburn my forehead!

I was stressing about my flights out of here, cos the times were too short, but now it's all good cos the helpful people on reception have fixed it all up for me, well at least I hope, the language barrier is a bit scary... I guess we just have to hope for the best! I just checked the online view flights thing and now I can't see our flights, hopefully it's just a temporary thing...

Yesterday on our bike ride, I bought the coolest (literally) pair of Thai pant yesterday, purple and very very comfy.

Last night we went down to the town - cos we are up over a hill on a seperate beach - and watched a movie and had some food, and then watched Germany flog Sweden in the football.

This is the beach where it all happens at night, the alcahol you can buy from the seven-11 and then just sit on the beach and soak up the entertainment...

Tomorrow is our last day on Koh Phangan. We are going on a snorkeling trip to a smaller island called Koh Tao. Last time I snorkeled it was a bit of a disaster, so we will wait and see what happens. It was one of the more expensive tours, which takes us to the island 1.5 hours away in a a/c catermaran, at a whopping 1300 baht (50 bucks). Things are very cheap here even though it sounds expensive... I almost balked at the cost, cos it's a lot of Thai money even though it really isn't much in comparison to what it might cost on the barrier reef in Australia.

Went for a walk to get some photos of phangers... to share with all - sorry for delay but internet is slow here! This is the same beach as above, the taxi boats waiting for a fare!

Koh Phanging..

Yeh, on Koh Phangan (think that's how it spelt) and I have to say I am having fun, but so so tired! The keyboards here are weird too... Anyways, last few days that we have been here have been low key, been not eating much and chilling lots...

Although today, the boys hired scooters and Sean doubled me. That was a bit scary, steep hills (up & down) were the least of it! The corkers was when we went on turn off to waterfall, which ended up as a a 4wd track... Very steep and very bumpy. IP you would have loved to take your shorty! But doubled on a scooter, maybe not. I finally chucked the girl spack, when we fell off the bike - can you blame me? And then looked at the steep hill ahead and just went "NAH"!

I didn't put the sunscreen on my face properly, so think I will have sun stroke tomorrow :(
Planning on a boat day trip to a smaller island Koh Tao... See how I feel. Tomorrow night is black moon festival also.

Anyways, gonna go back to air con comfort away from the mossies.... Don't have the rid on cos I Over dosed on it yesterday I think) and made myself sick! The joys of Thailand. Am having fun serious! Bit dizzy though... maybe sun or heat stroke?

I made it.... eeek!

Yeah we got into Koh Samui this morning at 7am. After 7 hour flight to Brunei, then 3 hour flight to bangkok, and a over night (6 hours) on the hardest most evil chairs in the world; and finally a 1 hour flight to Koh Samui.

About the Bangkok Airport, "sleeping arrangements" - there were all Limo drivers hanging out there as well, must be their haunt..... Bit scary when they turned up, but they just went to sleep.
Didn't get much sleep so it made for a very very long day!

After a refreshing shower, we decided to walk up the street to the street, OH MY GAWD! The awful smells, the heat, and the distance - so so so long of a road! Not a pleasant experience.... And the dogs.... ew!

Anyway I must sounds like a whinging gurl, but really I am not.... Happy to be here and on the big adventure! And it can ONLY go up at the moment! (Photo of the boys at dinner)

so long.... farewell .... auf wiedersehen..... GOOD BYE!

It's been a day of farwells today, as I went in to work, on a rec leave day even, to say good bye to my boss, who is leaving to go to NZ. After this I stumbled down to IPs haunt for his farwell, having finsihed up at VB today. Also, there were mini farewells and best wishes for my "mammoth" trip to Thailand (yay).

Get really excited now, so much to do and so so little time..... Ah well, can't wait for the flight at 1pm on "montag", might miss the boy (and the gurly-cat) tho.

Anyways, bed time for moi.... ciao bananas.

Five sleeps until....

Only 5 sleeps until you-know-what! Yay! Getting excited now.... except I don't have a suitcase! Well I tell a lie, I do have suitcases, 2 or 3 to be exact. But this is my woe. One is HUGE, now I mean mega huge... but I think this is too be to travel around with and I think it might have so much space that I am likely to go over the 20kg luggage weight limit. And then to the other suitcases, they are povo, made out of cardboard (almost) suitcases which would be ok, except that I wouldn't want to check them in, but they are too big to take on the plan (cabin luggage). So I think I need to buy something. I found something that I like at a luggage store in the city, antler brand, but it's $120 bucks! So I don't know.... there was also one at DJs which could be good as I do have $100 in DJs vouchers, but meh.... I don't know..... Anyways, that where my heads at.

schmired?

Meh, I am tired today... But I guess that's what happens when you try to sleep when you aren't really asleep. Andrew bought a steak & mushroom pie back from Yatala, which was pretty good, but now my tummy hurts...

We learnt that a work-mate is going to Europe soon, which is right after another work-mate who is now there - must be contagious! I wonder if I will catch it like the cold I seemed to have shared around?

Not long now until I am off on a (hopefully not a wicked doom balloon) flight to Bangkok (otherwise known as bangers). We overnight it at the airport before a early morning flight to Koh Samui. I am feeling a bit worried about the hanging out in the airport at bangers, but figure that the amazing race has been doing it (why is that they get to leave at inopportune times which get them to the airport in time to sit around for a early morning flight - wouldn't they rather be sleeping???). But anyway I digress... Once we get to Samui everything should be hunky-doory as there will be sun, beach and shopping... 2 days of that before a boat ride to Koh Phanang.

Anyways, Andrew is whinging.... we are going for a crooze! ciao bananas!

And that was the Queens' Birthday...

Pretty lazy day today, with a noon lay-in and a lazy late lunch at the Newmarket Hotel, which was pretty good. The Mezze Platter consisted of oyster shooters, salami, trio of dips, calamari, salad and toasted turkish bread. Was very good, especially in comparison to the one we had at Stones Corner Hotel last Sunday, which has skanky prawns on it.

Tonight, I cooked a fish curry which was pretty good... And a good mix of veges....

Oh well only 6 days until I flutter off to Thailand, yay, but three days of work this week to get through first... Don't know if I can make it (grin).

So soon... Too Soon?

Whoo hoo! Only 7 working days until Thailand (13 full days).. Can't wait, but there is so so much to do before then! I hope I get it all done....

Today I bought an i-river H10 5 gig MP3 player, very cool schmool! I actually bought an OMNI MF1100 1 gig yesterday but was very disappointed with it. So I took it back, the menus sucked and the sound quality was poor. To make matters worse, the headphone jack was not the normal size. I ended up getting the H10 for $30 more than the omni. What a bargain!

I am very happy (so far) with the H10, very easy to use and sounds brilliant! So I am nearly ALL sorted with the toys, I bought a Olympus Camera a few weeks ago. You know the one you can drop, take under water and stuff (the advert on tv shoes it in the dog's mouth with drool all over it).

Anyways, it's late so might log off.

Posted by mKitty at 10:36 PM

Sweet or Sour?

Yay, it's the weekend! How cool is that? Now it's not very long until T-day... Thailand is *just* around the corner.... Which is good, but it also means I have to get organised.... Stress!

Anyhew, IP is cooking sweet'n'sour pork. I just did a taste test, pretty good! Cept I burnt my tongue! d0pe!

Ahuh! Food is inbound... Catchyas Later!