27th February - The holiday makers - or 'gropples' if you come from the East of England!

We have just enjoyed a week in a hotel with Sue's sister Marilyn and her friend Suzie. Air Conditioning, Swimming Pool, Hot Shower, TV, Football......

Every morning we looked out of our bedroom window and watched truck loads of workers going past to work on the new hotels being built after the Tsunami (we saw one with at least 30 workers standing in the back shoulder to shoulder). The road they travel down is across from a fenced off strip of waste land where you can still see the foundations of buildings that were destroyed.

6000 people died on this particular strip of coast (half the total lost). We saw a sign next to a piece of land further inland that said, 'I can't go on, please buy my land'.

Apparently lots of land was just 'taken over' by big hotels and the workers we saw are not from Thailand but are brought in to work for even less than Thais would be. Nice to know some things never change - greed and exploitation is still alive and well.

However, life goes on and the Thais are as friendly as ever.

We hired a car (oh the luxury) and went across to Phangna and from there on a trip to 'James Bond Island' (The local name for this Island is Kao Pingun which means 'The Island which leans on itself').

"The names Bond - Basildon Bond"

Of course there are lots of people offering trips to this island, how do you think they attract your attention as you drive along the pier in your car? Brightly coloured signs that line the route temping you in? Impressive looking motor boats? Skimpily clad girls (or boys)? Oh no, they are far more pro-active.

The first person to jump out into the road waving bits of paper made me swerve violently to one side to avoid him and to wonder if there was an emergency that needed attending to. But by the time we reached the end of the line I hardly batted an eyelid as one after the other they threw themselves onto the bonnet of the car, cheeks pressed to the windscreen, eyes pleading as they slid slowly down and off the front. I turned slowly at the end of the pier and gunned the engine before driving back, hunched forward, jaw set looking neither to right or left as they scattered in front of me.

We pulled into a restaurant and a very nice young man offered to take us in his longtail boat, which he went off to collect on his motorbike. Is there shade on the boat Suzie wondered? Yes. Do we stop on the way? Yes. Only 1000 baht for the boat and a trip that would last about 3 hours, bargain.

It was a great trip, limestone cliffs and caves, mangrove swamps, sea eagles, monitor lizards and of course James Bond Island itself with the famous rock which was surprisingly small. On the way back we stopped at a muslim village 'on stilts'. The frontage was wall to wall restaurants that all the longtail boats pulled up to. All very slick, but the food was great. Fish, crabs, lobsters and prawns were kept in nets, you got to see the poor things flapping about before they were barbecued and on your table in less than 20 minutes, delicious.

Name that dish!

On the way back we stopped at a Wat and were lucky enough to see two novice monks going through the ordination process. This involves shaving their heads, donning white robes and walking 3 times round the temple with family and friends following a band playing drums and singing and dancing. They then sit with the family for a while chanting and then they walk to the temple steps and throw coins into the crowd as a symbol of giving up all worldly things before family members carry them over the threshold of the temple and they kneel before the Abbot to make their vows. After this they put on the familiar orange robes and live the life of a monk for either a few months or, in some cases, the rest of their lives.

Good luck!

21 February - family visit

It is good to be on the move again.

Things are much more expensive down here, 90 baht for a beer and over200 baht for a meal, I mean come on, how are we supposed to survive at those prices. The hotel we are going to is even more expensive, but luckily the room has a fridge so we can go to the local supermarket and stock up on the essentials - beer, Samsung (Local Brandy - 220 baht a bottle), coke etc.

I was sitting in the airport at Bangkok outside the gents loo (waiting for Sue) and watched as a woman walked purposefully towards me and into the gents, I knew she was going to the wrong place but didn't say anything, why? She was obviously a woman (the low cut tee-shirt tended to give the game away) but I daren't say anything just in case she was a he. She soon came out again looking rather embarrased and gave me a dirty look as if to say why didn't you say something! Why didn't I?
Ahh, you have not heard the full story. When we were in Chiang Dao I mentioned we met a couple, Jackie and Jane but I didn't mention my fo-pa (spelling?). Jane detected Sue's Norfolk accent and asked where we were from, when we said Suffolk she said she lived in Sheringham and I said ---- "So you are a good old Norfolk Boy then" we all laughed and then she leant across, patted me on the knee and said "Actually I'm a good old Norfolk girl but don't worry about it, my name is Jayne and this is my partner Jackie". Oh dear. I was totally thrown, not only was I embarassed but I couldn't get my mind to move on from it's 'first impression' which was that Jayne was a man. I couldn't stop thinking in terms of 'he' and very nearly dropped myself in it for a second time which would have been unforgivable.

So you see, my confidence in being able to tell the difference between a man and women has been totally destroyed which meant I couldn't assume the person walking into the toilet was a woman, imagine saying "Excuse me, this is the gents" only to be told in gruff and no uncertain terms "Yes, and your point is?"

We are in Kaoh Lak now on the coast of the Andaman sea, we have been staying in a great bungalow (Poseidon Bungalows) overlooking the sea so we have been going to sleep to the sound of waves lapping on the shore and (unfortunately) cicadas that have ear splitting screeches
that sound like worn wheel bearings and set your teeth on edge, luckily they give up by about 8.00pm.

view from our bungalow at Poseidon

Sue's sister Marilyn and her friend Suzie are here at the moment. It is strange to see familiar faces and talk about familiar things. Our bungalow 'near' where they were staying turned out not to be so near as we thought. We hired a motor bike and set off, after about 15 km we saw a sign saying the hotel was 11 km away but 18 km later we still hadn't seen it so I turned round and set off back. After about 3 km we saw a sign saying the hotel was 11 km away, huh! We carried on and eventually found it. It took 2 hours! Compare that with the flight from Bangkok to Phuket - 1 hour.

Sue, Marilyn and Suzie

I lent Marilyn our camera as they were going elephant trekking (she had brought a nice new camera but neglected to bring a charger) and that day we saw a cormerant chasing fish underwater from the restaurant at Poseiden and then in the evening we saw 3 elephants going for a walk on the beach and chatted with some children at a bar who were all drinking beer and saying "Cho Di" - cheers. No photos, but we may get another opportunity as we intend to go back when Marilyn and Suzie go home.

Marilyn, Suzie and Combi

I have just left the three women shopping (again) and come into an internet cafe. I am going to meet up with them in a bar across the road where Nancy (a boy-girl) is very willing to show you her new breasts. I am not sure the experience will do anything to help my confusion over gender identification. Perhaps it is good for me and will help me not to make any assumptions and to question all my previously held beliefs. That's OK but it does get a bit tiring. "Good evening Sir, can I get you anything?" What does he mean by that? Is the evening good? What does he think I want? Sir?!

Sunset over the Andaman Sea

11th February - last day in Chiang Mai

Packed and ready to go down south.

We have just spent two days up in Chiang Dao at a place called 'The Nest' - beautiful. It is run by an Englishman, Stuart and his Thai wife, Wicha. There are about 10 wooden huts and a restaurant surrounded by hills and mountains.

It is a bird watchers paradise, you could hardly move without tripping over huge telescopes on tripods.

We walked up to a Temple and noticed a group of Japanese with their telescopic cameras trained on something just round a corner, so we crept up only to find they were watching a poor monk trying to meditate about 20 yards in front of them, were they trying to see if he had anything interesting stuck between his teeth?!

We climbed the 500 odd steps up to the Chedi at the top. It was so peaceful, just some wind chimes tinkling and a fantastic view. There was nobody about but we both found ourselves walking round on tiptoes and talking in whispers.

A group of Thai school children finally made their way up as far as the temple area below us, making the sort of noise only excited school children can make. We walked down and saw a pile of shoes outside the temple, which was really a cave, but we couldn't hear a sound, they were so quiet.

There was an interesting nature walk too, which was more like a jungle safari up a steep mountain. At one point we had to go under a branch which caused much amusement as Sue tried not to get 'dirty' (I was far too busy taking a photograph to help), we blundered raucously round the corner and came across a 'twitcher' in full 'twitch' peering intently into some bushes, we whispered our apologies and went on our way. Later we talked to him and he told us he had been in that spot for two hours - oops.

Since we have been in Thailand we have been waiting to bump into someone we know, just one of those coincidences that seem to happen. Well we came close - we spent the evenings talking to a couple (Jayne and Jackie) from Sheringham, just up the coast from us who know our friends Debbie and Roy, who live in Cromer!

On the bus journey home, we were stopped at an army checkpoint where they checked documents. Most had ID cards, which made me think of the proposal in our country. I wasn't sure I wanted to carry around an ID card all the time, now I know I don't. It was quite intimidating and I know I would never remember to have it with me. One poor girl, with a baby, produced loads of pieces of paper and it took ages for them to satisfy themselves that these were in order. Sue told me that she had read that some of the Hill Tribe people are not citizens of Thailand even though they may have spent most of their lives in Thailand. They have to apply for visas just like we do, how awful not to belong anywhere. Apparently the 'Karen' (Long Neck) tribe fall into that category. So it's ok to exploit them for the tourist trade but they are not allowed any rights!