Flying out!

So i got up really really early around 4 am and showered anc hecked outta my room. Suprisingly i was able to get my 3 suits and all the stuff i bought at MBK the day before into my suitcase. When i got downstairs one of the 2 cab drivers was waiting for me, it was the guy that was hooked up by the suit guy. So he took me to the airort for a good price. I didnt have to do much walking really. None of the flights were delayed. I mostly slept on the planes and i didnt eat anythign because i really wanted a hot and ready when i landed. I met a couple from Canada who were quite nice. I flew from bankok to tokyo to vancouver, same as when i came to bangkok. it took about 21 hours. No one really knew i was comming home which was good. When i got to the airport and to the family waiting area i expected for my brother and a few freinds to be there, i looked around and no one was there. i walked around a bit more and still no one. Finally i jsut went to a pay phone and said to my brother "Jix where the hell are you man?" he was upstairs getting a piece of pizza, lol. So we left the airport and got in his new car that he bought while i was gone. He got a black golf just like mine pretty much. When we got to poco I went and played football with the boys because it was sunday.


So thats my trip to thailand. Obviously there are things i would do differently if i went but i dont have any regrets. I had a great time and i would recommend it to anyone who wants to travel outside of north america. I can honestly say that it opened my eyes and made me open up to different cultures in so many ways. I think in a few years i'll do Australia. And if i do I'm going to make sure on the way home to go to northern Thailand and indonesia like i was supposed to on this trip.

J Marsh OUT!

Last Day in Thailand!

I know its been a while since i've wrote on here, i got kinda lazy on my last day and when i got home. But now tis December 24th, Christmas Eve and i'm bored at work because there is too much snow for people to come in and do business. So anyways i'm gonna finish this up.

So i checked into the Rambiturri Inn at 6am. I got a room on the 3rd floor which kinda sucks when your lugging around heavy stuff, no big deal tho. I had a nap until about 11. I decided to do my big shop at MBK mall. It was still as busy when as when i left it. At this point in my trip i didnt care about saving money so i took a taxi instead of a tuk tuk. I bought quite a bit of stuff. t shirts for the girls, jeans for me and my brother, some golfshirts for myself, My friend Austin and my dad, i bought 30 DVD's for $90! So far i've only had a problem with one of them. I bought some white shoes because i have always wanted some, some bakini's for friends of mine (they are super cheap so it made sense to get some), a couple soccer jerseys for me and my bro, some t shirts for me, and some sunglasses. O ya and i had to buy a new suitcase to bring all my stuff back. So as i was shopping the suit guys were making my suits. I finally left MBK around 6 pm. I know that sounds long but i had lunch/dinner at pizza hut which was a rip off because the pizza sucked (big suprise) so i came home in a tuk tuk while it was pouring rain harder than anything i have seen in thailand. It was the wrong tiem to choose tuk tuk over taxi! When i got back i took my stuff up to my room and headed down to the suit guy to do the final alterations, i was 30 mins late. So we did all the alterations and it came time to deal with the shipping. The guy originally said "it will be cheap 100 bhat" i can deal with that because its like $35. So we got down to it and he said 5000 bhat! 1000 per kilo. That would ahve been nice to mention eh! so in the end i just said fuck this i'll take it all in my suit case, i had to pay an extra 500 bhat to make the Jacket quicker but i didnt care. They dropped the Jacket off at 2am at the front desk. After all the stuff with the suit guys i decided i should go walk around koh san road one last time, there was so much stuff to buy but i was litterall y out of money. i had enough for my cab the the airport and 3 meals, talk about cutting it close eh. I decided against meeting people and drinking and stuff because i didnt want to be hung over for the plane ride, i've made that mistake twice. So i had a shower and got ready for bed. I started reading a book by rio ferinand, an English Soccer player, just before i left bankok for Laos a week before. The book was really good and i read about 5 chapters before i went to bed. Earlier that day i talked to one fo the suit guys and got them to hook me up with a good cab driver to take me to the airport the nest morning. i also got the hotel to have a cab waiting for me in the morning as well. If one or the other fell through i had a back up. I have to say the Rambiturri Inn was a good place to stay.I was comfortable there and it was right near koh san road. So i went to bed and set both my cell phone alarm and my ipod dock alarm just incase. This room also had a TV so that was good about 5 channels were in english so i watched a bit before i went to bed.

Commin Home

So after a few days in Laos i decided to come home.

I booked a bus that left Viang Vien at 1PM, it was alright. A mini bus with half assed A/C. We took that to Vien Tien and sat around for a bit then took another mini bus to the boarder. Again, i hate dealing with the boarder, they are way understaffed. From there we took a huge a/c VIP bus to bangkok. This bus was legit. The A/C was great, they made a good amount of stops, and it was a smooth ride.....well almost:( This bus had assigned seating which didnt really make a difference to me, as I am used to sitting beside people. I soon realized that no one was assigned next to me, BONUS! So I had a lil room to put my stuff and spread out. About 30 mins into the ride a girl who was riding in the back asked if she could sit in my spare seat because her's in the back of the bus didnt recline. I was pretty choked but what can i really say right? I should have known better tho, after riding busses for the last month and a half i should know that when you are given a break you should take it no matter what. I realized this after i said it was alright. I had a horrible ride to bangkok to say the least. This girl kept elbowing me and comming over to my side while she was sleeping, so i would just elbow her back and push her over, it was a battle the whole way! So let that be a word of the wise to you, when you get a gift like that when you are traveling, DO NOT GIVE IT UP! I got to Bangkok at 6 am and checked into the Rambiturri Inn, the place i always stay when i go to bangkok.

A day in Laos

Tubing was really fun! The first bar where you start there was a bar that was non profit and gave money to the local schools that taught english, it looked pretty legit so i had a drink for the children. There are about 20 bars along the river that you get pulled into if you want to stop. We stopped at quite a few. The best was "Mr. Lao Lao's" He had Happy shakes so we all had one. At the start of the river i didnt think i was gonna do the rope swings but after a lil liquid courage i did a few.

After tubing and a meal i was done, pretty much jsut layed down and went to bed the rest of the day/night. Today i didnt really do much, just chilled out and walked around. I'm gonna meet up with the aussies around 830 and go to a bar called "bucket bar". I think I'll do some tubing tomorrow then leave on the next day.

Worst few travel days ever!

So i left Koh Tao from my hotel at 11pm for my 1230 boat. The boat took 3 hours to get to a town called Chumpon. I had a 2 hour layover before my bus from there went to bangkok. I met a nice american couple and decided to have dinner with them. Eventually i took a 12 hour busride from chumpon to bangkok. I arrived at Bangkok at 5am. After showing the americans where to stay i went to the trainstation to get the first train to Laos. I found out that the train i wanted leaves at 8 PM which means i have a full day to waste in Bangkok. I have a love/hate relationship with Bangkok. I grabed a hotel room and had a 6 hour nap. I then decided to go to MBK mall to watch a movie in a VIP theater and get some mcdonalds. On the way i wanted to check out suit prices. I didnt want to go in but i ended up going in. Its kinda a good thing i did because they need about a week to make the suit. So i ended up getting all my measurments taken and in the end bought 2 suits a tux, 6 shirts, and 5 ties. I then left for MBK and went to see the movie, "body of lies" with Leo Dicaprio and Russel Crowe. It was pretty good. Before the movie starts there is a video and music about the king of thailand that you stand for. I got back to the suit place for them to do some final measurements then it was on to the train station. At first when i saw my first class sleeper car i wasnt too impressed. It basically had a lower and upper bunk and a sink. I had a guy from new zealand in the bottom bunk. Eventually as the train got moving every 5 mins there would be a new person that came into the room to change something. One came with bottled water, then clean glasses, another to change the garbage, another to take dinner and breakfast orders and one to change the sheets. So eventually our opinion changed. I thought the ride on a train would be a bit smoother than a bus but i was wrong, even tho i did get to sleep more, the bus was really rocky and bumpy. That train wetn from 8pm til 10 am in the morning. Eventually we got to the Laos boarder. I hate dealing with the boarder. you have to sign out of thailand then get a visa for laos and sign in there. Its a long process because there are so many people. That was the boarder at "VienTien". Eventually i got through and took a taxi to a travel agent to get a bus that would take me to Vang Vien. I only had to wait 40 mins for the bus which was alright. The bus to Vang Vien was about 4 hours. I met an austrailian on the bus that owns a bar in Vang Vien so that has come in handy. The first night i took it easy and just had some beers at his bar. I met an Ausie couple at the bar who were on my bus up here. We decided to meet up to go tubing the next day.

Tubing was really fun! The first bar where you start there was a bar that was non profit and gave money to the local schools that taught english, it looked pretty legit so i had a drink for the children. There are about 20 bars along the river that you get pulled into if you want to stop. We stopped at quite a few. The best was "Mr. Lao Lao's" He had Happy shakes so we all had one. At the start of the river i didnt think i was gonna do the rope swings but after a lil liquid courage i did a few.

After tubing and a meal i was done, pretty much jsut layed down and went to bed the rest of the day/night. Today i didnt really do much, just chilled out and walked around. I'm gonna meet up with the aussies around 830 and go to a bar called "bucket bar". I think I'll do some tubing tomorrow then leave on the next day.

Most intense travel day so far...

So I took my 3 hour boat to chumpon from Koh Tao. From there I took a 12 hour bus ride to bangkok Which arrived at 5 am. Durring the trip i met a nice american couple. We had dinner together along the way which was cool. When we got to bangkok they hadn't been there before so I took them to Rambiturri rd. where i stayed while i was there.

It was kinda a shitty time to get to bangkok (5am) so i took a cab to the train station and found out that the train i wanted to Laos didnt leave til 8pm that night. So thats great, i have to spend a day in Bangkok. Me and Bangkok have kind of a love/hate relationship. Kinda like me and the city of Richmond. There are parts of it that are fun and then parts of it that are like pulling teeth. I grabed a hotel room so i could get a 6 hour nap because i was pretty tired. I then decided to go to MBK mall for a movie and some mcdonalds. On my way i checked out a suit place. I told them that i didnt want to go in because i knew what would happen, and sure enough it did. I ended up buying 2 sweet suits and a tux. You never know when you might need that kinda stuff right? The nice thing was that it was tailored to my body and had extra fabric if it needed to be altered in the future. I bought a grey suit, a black pin striped one and a tux. Along with 6 shirts and 5 ties. So after about an hour of going through all that i went to MBK. I went and saw the movie "body of lies" with Leo Dicaprio and Russel Crowe. It was pretty good. I did the whole "VIP Movie" thing. Super huge reclining chairs that reclined pretty much as far as you wanted them too. a blanket, cheese cake, popcorn and a coke. Before any movie in Thailand there is a video clip with music that you have to stand before and honor the king. A lil different eh? I bought a few shirts then went back to the suit place to make the final alterations to the test suit they would be making the real suits from.

I then got on a train to go to Laos. I booked a sleeper car in first class. When i got there it didnt look like much, 2 bunks with a sink and some lights. I had a nice guy named Steven from New Zealand rooming with me. We ended up traveling together through to vien tien. We were kinda choked about the money we put out for this plain Jane car. (he paid 200 more bhat than me) all of a sudden people started comming in and making changes to our room every 5 mins. A guy came in with bottled water. Then a guy came in and changed the garbage. Another came in to give us drinking glasses wrapped in paper. Another guy came in and made the beds with fresh sheets and blankets. Then the last guy came in to take our orders for dinner and brekfast in the morning as well as any drinks we might want (only alcohalic, no soft drinks:( ) So after all that we changed our opinion. I thought that it would be a smooth ride all the way through being on a train and what not but i was sooooooo far off. The car rocked and constantly hit bumps the whole way through and kept making stops. We eventually got there a hour late at 930am. Then took a tuk tuk to the boarder.

I hate dealing with the boarder. There are sooooo many people there all doing the same thing. You have to check out of thailand, then check into Loas and fill out a bunch of forms in the blazing heat. You even had to take a bus from the thai boarder to the Laos boarder, thats how far apart they were. For some reason i was feeling really sick today so that didnt help. Me and steven then took a taxi for about an hour to vien tien. I went to a bus stop and he stayed there. My bus was leaving in 10 mins from when i got my ticket so that was good, but then some stupid couple at the only hotel we had to pick up from was 30 mins late. I know this sounds like i'm complaining alot but when you are sick and waiting in the heat of 100 degree weather (not exagerating) it sucks. So we finally got on our "VIP Bus" This wasnt much of a vip bus, it had ac but wasnt very comfortable. It was by far the bumpyest bus ride I have encountered in my whole trip, and it was like that the whole way, in the 5 hours i got maybe 2 hours of sleep. I finally got to Veng Vien. It looks like its gonna be a good time.

I was thinking i would only stay 3 days because I'm feeling so shitty but with these prices i'll probably stay longer. I met a guy on the bus that owns a bar here so that will probably come in handy;) My accomadation was about $4.50 a night. Nice big bed and a huge fan, i dont really need a/c here apparently. I think thats what got me sick in the first place. I'm gonna do some tubing tomorrow and sample some dishes from the "happy Menu" so it should be fun. So thats pretty much where I'm at right now.

First and pretty much last day in Koh Tao...

So i woke up around 11 for my dives at 12. I went down to the shop around 1145 to check in and fill out some forms. They said we'd be leaving around 1215 so i grabbed a sandwich. 12 15 rolls around and we're still not movin. 1230 rolls around and i ask if i can just make a quick hit on the internet before we leave and they say the bus will be here soon. So 1250 rolls around and i say eff this i'm gonna go use the internet, knock on the door when we're leavin. So we finally leave at 1 pm. The gear is not already on the boat so i have to carry my own bag which is something i havnet had toi do before. We take a taxi to the "sister dive shop" and when we get down there there are sooooooo many people! When i was diving in koh phi phi i had the instructor and one other person with me and there were maybe 15 peopl ppl on the boat which are good numbers. So groups of about 12 pplk jump on speed boats and get taxied to a big boat. In the end there are 55 people on the boat and 5 in my group! That is wayyyyy too many people. Not to mentiopn the other companies that are at the same dive site. So it took quite a while to get in the water because your waiting for alot of people and i hate waiting when i ahve dive gear on, i just wanna get in the water. My instuctor had such a thick accent that i could barely understand him which isnt good. There were 2 advanced divers and me and another lady had our open water and there was the dive master. I was supposed to kinda stick with the other open water diver but she dragged her ass on both the dives! there was no way i was stayin with her the whole time. The visability wasnt that great down there, not even close to as good as Koh Phi Phi. So we finished the first dive and got back on the boat, i always get kinda a sea sickness feeling on the boat but i ahve never thrown up. The divemaster gave me a sea sickness pill. I was about to take the pill and i thought about swallowing it and right there i vommited! All over the boat, lol for some reason no one noticed. So i went to the back of the boat which was close and vommited 3 more times. I felt better:) I went on the 2nd dive and it was pretty much the same deal, slow partner, took forever to get in the water, bad vis. I knew it was gonna be like that at any dive shop on the island. Koh Tao is a nice place, really chill. But when I'm by myself chill is not a good place to be. When I'm by myself i need a party to meet people. There are some cool bars here but just not the right kind. I ended up meeting up with Maz last night and we had some drinks and what not. They are leaving today and so am I. I leave at 2 and i'll get back to bangkok at 5 am then i take a train to Laos. I'm looking forward to Laos because i always hear good things. Then again I'm kinda gettin tired of traveling by myself, kinda too lazy to make the effort to meet people. I just wanna get home and sleep in my own bed where the temp is normal. Eat a home cooked meal. Watch some tv. Eat Canadian food. And most of all be with my friends. I miss my friends alot! I should be home pretty soon, i jsut dont know how soon, could be a week could be 2 or 3?

Last few days in Koh Phan Yan

The last few days were pretty laid back. Had some meals, went swimming a few times. Last night i wanted to party on my last ngiht there but that scene wasnt really goin down so i grabbed a happy shake and just chilled in my room, listened to music and made soem calls back home. Today was moving day. I dont like moving days because you have to get up early in most cases and you gotta pack all your stuff up again. I took a boat to Ko tao which wasnt bad. It took about an hour for the boat to leave which kinda sucked but they played the movie "dont mess with the Zohan" Starring Adam Sandler, its not a bad movie. I slept through the last 1/4 of it tho because i only got 4 hours sleep last night, the last few nights i've had trouble sleeping:( After zohan they showed top gun but only got through half of it. I'm staying at a place recommended by Austin and Elliot Called Sunshine Dive. It looks pretty legit. My room was 400 bhat a night but had no electrical plug in so i had to switch a a room with electrical, gotta have my tunes;) That one cost 500 bhat, it has 2 beds, one of which will go to waste. The room only has a fan, i hate rooms with just a fan but a/c was gonna be 1000 bhat and i'm not payin that. I think i'm gonna do 6 or 7 dives while i'm here, 2 per day. The afternoon dives go at 12 noon so thats perfect! The weather here is kinda overcast which kinda sucks but is a nice break from the heat. I found out 4 of my friends from England are here so thats pretty sweet, i just gotta find them. The Calgary guys went to Ko Samui but i bet they will be here in about 3 days just before i leave. I'm definitly gonna need a bike while I'm here to get around, you can go from one end of the island to the other in like 30 mins but all the towns are really spread out.

Full Moon

Went to Full moon last night around 12. Didnt come home til 6. It was cool to party on the beach with the sun comming up. I know i sound like a zombie in this post, thats cuz i feel like a zombie today. I didnt wake up til 5 PM today. There were so many thai guys on the beach trying to sell extacy. I walked around like a zombie to get something to eat tonight. Today is pretty much a write off. I'm kinda choked that my camera is messed up. It says "lense error" on the screen. The lense wont open and i think its because there is sand in the camera. Not too sure what I'm gonna do about that. Its about 7PM now and i think I'm gonna go back to bed.

What an Awesome day!

So i woke up around 11 on the day of the pool party. I really felt like doin something good today. So i walked downstairs and rented a motorcycle for 2 days. Its kinda weird driving on the left but i dont mind it. The only time where it gets scetchy is when foeigners (anyone who drives on the right) decide to drive on the right, thats where the accidents happen. So i got the bike for $10 canadian for 2 days which is pretty sweet. I drove over to my buds from Calgary's place and picked up ryan, the otehr 2 guys jsut sleep all day, nice vacation. Me and Ryan went to the beach and made a stop at the "mellow moutain bar" We had a few beers there and i had a shake. All the drinks there were pretty expensive. Then we hit up the beach, i went for a swim and met some nice irish girls. I came back to the beach and chilled for a bit then me and ryan went up to a restaurant a few meters away and grabbed some food. Met some nice girls from south africa, twins actually, lol. By then it was dark so we jumped back on the bike, i stopped by my place to grab the normal stuff i have like money camera and cell phone then we drove back to their place to meet the guys for dinner. I decided after dinner i should prob have a lil 2 hour nap before the big pool party so i drove back to my place. I didnt really sleep i kinda just layed down for a while, music was goin pretty loud outside my hotel so there wasnt much chance of sleep. I went back to their place and it was a Zoo! sooooooo many ppl! the place was packed, easily 300 people. I decided that the cell phone flip flops camera and shirt should probably go back in their room. We spent most of the time in the pool which was pretty disgusting but w/e "when in rome" right? I didnt really drink much so i kinda got bored. We met a bunch of swedish ppl, they are fun to party with, lol. I went back home around 4 but couldnt grab my stuff because ryan left before me and decided to walk to grab some food without telling any of us. I was pretty choked. Yesterday i didnt do much just went to their place to grab my stuff then spent the whole day reading my book on the beach. I was supposed to meet the english girls for dinner around 7 but they couldnt find my hotel. I went for a walk and checked out the beach which was in full on party mode then went back to my room with some beers and read a little more. I wanted to have a pretty chill night because today is gonna be a long long night. I dont plan on getting to the party til 12 at night because i know i wont leave til 8 in the morning. haha so i went to bed last night around 1. I get a knock on my door at 4 am and its the English girls! They are wasted! hahaha i bet they are regretting that today and i told them they would. Today I'm prob gonna go for some lunch, maybe do some shopping and watch a movie. Tonight is gonna be wild! Nice to see that the Canucks are doing well. I listened to overtime in the second game against the flames.

Welcome To Koh Phanyan!

So i didnt end up getttin too hammered on my last night in Ko Samui. Kinda took at easy and drank on the beach with the girls. I almost lost my camera at the end of the night but one of them grabbed it for me:) The next day i woke up and the fan was off and the a/c was off as well and my room was kinda filled with diesel fumes. I found out that the power was out. I didnt want to sleep in a room filled with diesel fumes (from the back up generator that was below my bathroom window) so i demanded a new room for the next 4 hours, they gave me a HUGE bungalo:) Eventually the power went back on and i went back to my room and showered and packed up my stuff to check out. I chilled in samui for the day just havin lunch and checkin up on sports scores. I left at 5 but the taxi got us there late so i had to take the 630 boat. When i got here it didnt take me long to find the guys from calgary. Some English girls (what a suprise) were walking to the same place they were staying so i walked with them. I found the guys and we had some beers. Ryan was skinny dippin at night and stepped on some coral so his foot was all wrapped up. They had a new guy with them that they met from England, nice kid. His mates left him high and dry when he banged up his knee so he's not really hangin out with them right now. He had to go to the hospital and they didnt even help him out. I will probably go to ko tao with him when i leave here. The calgary guys to to Samui after the week here. So i left their place and went back to mine to get ready. O ya i forgot to mention that my place is right in the middle of the 2 beaches and sooooo close to the one with the full moon party! couldnt have picked a better place. Its close but not too close so i'll be able to sleep. Its right in downtown haad rin so everything i need is a few steps away. We ended up goin to a beach party (which they have every night) but this wasnt liek the beach partys i had been to before. The ones i went to before were put on by one bar on the beach. This party is put on by EVERY bar on that beach and there are about 70 (not exagerating) stands to buy buckets. They are pretty cheap too! coke redbull and vodka bucket for 180 bhat, not bad at all. There were ppl everywhere, i cant imagin what the full moon is gonna look like! We met some nice irish girls too which was cool, i broke my english ppl streak, lol. This morning i woke up with a brutal hang over:S I got up at 1 and set out to find a new cell charger because mine wont charge my phone and i found one. then i stopped by a restaurant that was showing superbad so i had some fries and 2 pops. I went for a swim later on which was nice, it was kinda overcast so its not like i lost a beach day today or anything. I really wanna hit the beach tomorrow early because i wont be hungover ( i hope) I dont plan on doin anything tonight, just takin it easy prob gonna read a book or go to a movie. There is a huge pool party at the calgary guys place tomorrow and i wanna be in good shape for that. I just started an autobiography about an english footballer named Steven Gerard. O wait i forgot that the England vs Kzakstan game is on tonight! I've kinda become interested in Soccer (or football as i like to call it now) Alright time to take off.

Random Day in Ko Samui

So yesterday when i left here i went for lunch, i would like to say i was eating some amazing traditional Thai food but it was Burger King, lol. Instead of walking back along the main street and being annoyed by ppl trying to sell me everything from suits, to food, to massage to places to stay, i decided to walk along the beach back to my hotel. Afterall, My name is Jackson and I like long walks along the beach;) It was really nice to just walk barefoot and let the waves hit your ankles and look at all the different ppl and scenery. I went back up to my hotel room to drop some stuff off and grab a towel. I went back down to the water for a swim. There is an island within a swimable distance that i wanna swim to today. I swam for about 20 mins then went back to my room to get ready for the night and to watch a bit of tv to relax. I went down to the girls room and we went out for some pad thai. After that we walked around a bit just enjoying the nightlife. We went to bed early (12 am) because we had to go zipline treking today. It was really fun! In total it was 500 meters and 6 platforms. to get to the first platform it was a 200 meter hike. After that we came back to the hotel, had some lunch and came here to check msgs and what not. I'm gonna go swimming now. Talk to ya later!

A few days later now I'm in Ko Samui

I havent wrote in here for a while because i've been on the move alot and havin fun. When i got to Krabi from Railay i realized thati just wanna get to ko samui so i stayed in krabi for a night in a nice place with a tv and a/c then that night i went to a different guest house to check the travel prices, for the visa run to malaysia his price was 250 bhat less than everywhere else and because i booked my ticket to samui with him i got a discount on both trips and i stayed at his place for 270 bhat a night which is really good. The Visa run day was hell, i was in an a/c van all day and night just to get a stupid stamp of my passport but it had to be done. I can now stay in the country of thailand til the 5th of november. The next day i left krabi for ko samui, I left at 11 and got to the island around 5:30 I met some really nice girls on the boat from england. The 2 of them were traveling with 3 other girls. Their situation was really interesting. Basically 4 of them had never met until a month before they went traveling. They met on a website called "i wanna travel" which basically is a site to find ppl to travel with. (why didnt i think about that?) They are traveling the world in 8 months tho, europe, asia, auz, south america. Sounds pretty sweet eh? Then another guy is friends with with one of the 4 and she was bored so she decided to come on the asian leg of the tour. I notice most young ppl in england are professionals by the age of 23. They go to "Uni" right outta highschool. One of the girls is a lawyer and shes 24, how crazy is that! One of the irish girls i met a few weeks ago has a masters degree and shes only 24.

So right now I'm in Ko Samui for 2 more days. My hotel is awesome, i paid 500 bhat for a fan room which included hot shower mini bar and a tv. haha i guess they didnt notice the air conditioner in my room that i have been using and will keep using for the next few days. For an A/c room its 700 bhat. Score! The beach is a 50 meter walk from my room and there are restaurants on the beach everywhere here. Yes i had dinner on the beach last night, some really good pad thai and 3 scoops of strawberry icecream for dessert. The shopping is pretty good here too. They have burger kind starbucks and mcdonalds, lol. The calgary guys decided to go straight to koh phan yan and then come back here leter which kinda sucks. I'll hang out with this for about 5 days when i get there. Today i think I'm gonna book a zipline treking tour for tomorrow, it should be fun. On my last day I'm gonna rent a scooter and rip around the island. I would never do it in a busy place like bangkok because they drive on the left here but on this island there isnt too much traffic. Its gonna be weird to drive when i get back.

The night life is alright here. Kinda tame and the girls dont really drink too hard. Which is kinda nice because it gives me a break until i get to koh phan yan. Lotsa bars here tho. It kinda reminds me of puket but not as sleasy.

Well I'm outta here. talk to ya later!

In Railay Beach

So i left ko phi phi the other day. I was kinda sad to leave, its the place i stayed the longest and i really liked it there. I cam to Railay beach because my friend Austin recommended it. Everyone has their own opinions and mine is that i dont like this place. You either stay in an expensive resort or a shitty bungalo with a mosquito net, not cool. I am sweating my ass off here for some reason. Its a small quiet town for chilling out in, not alot of young people here which kinda sucks. So I'm gettin outta here ASAP i will have spent a total of 20 hours here. Next stop is Krabi and because of my brutal stay in Railay i think im gonna slurge on a good hotel room. I'll probably stay in krabi for 2 nights then down to Malaysia to get my passport stamped. O ya so i ordered some pizza here last night and what i thought would be half pep half hawaiian turned out to be hald hotdog weiner half hawaiian and the pizza sause was ketchup! Saying i was pissed would be sugar coating it... I met some nice ppl last ngiht tho, an english girl, a guy from Aus, 2 girls from sweden and a guy from laos. The guy from laos was awesome! Not much left to say, talk to ya later when I'm in Krabi!

So I was supposed to leave today but ran into an unfortunate event, lol. I went out with some friends to a bar last night and had soem drinks. It was on the beach which is always nice. So we decided to go for a swim. We walked about 50 meters down the beach and went in. Some english guys also came in the water for a bit. So when we got out 500 bhat ($15) was gone from my wallet and my new fave shirt was gone! This shirt was pretty sick it was a bright light blue billabong tank. So i was pretty choked about that. I talked to my friend and all her cash was taken from her wallet too. So i walked back to my place and went to bed. I was supposed to be at the dive shop for 8 am. I woke up today at 4 PM!!! I'm guessing somewhere along the way someone put something in my drink because i never sleep in that late. So i left my place to go get something to eat and I walk by the travel agent that sold me my boat ride to krabi that i missed today as well. she was supprised to see me and asked why i was still her. She felt bad and changed my ticket for tomorrow right away. I had to go to the dive shop and tell them why i didnt show and they understood and rebooked my dives. I know this all sounds bad but its really not that bad, doesnt really bother me. I'm choked about the money but im the most chopked about the shirt, lol. I'm probably just gonna take it easy tonight have a few drinks with some friends at the irish bar that is litterally 40 steps (i counted) from my place. After my first dive tomorrow i will be certified to dive at 18 meters. Talk to ya later!

Last few days in Ko phi phi

I haven't wrote in a while because i have been busy diving. 3 days ago i started with my confined water dive just off the beach. We didnt go any deeper than about 12 feet. There i learned alot of different skills needed for when you are diving. You can get into some pretty dangerous situations down there and if you dont know how to handle them you could really injure yourself. The first day i had a hard time with clearing water outta my mask while underwater. So much trouble that i was even thinking that i wouldnt be able to finish the course. What i would do is panick and swim top the top to fix it. What my instructor told me is that i have air flowing through my mouth so there is no need to go to the top. Eventually at the end i felt completly comfortable (today i cleared my mask at 60 feet) After and before the confined water i had to do some class room work. With the dives and the class room work it takes up about 7 hours of the day. The next day i was supposed to do 2 dives, one just as a fun dive where we dont practice any skills, we just swim around, then we come up for an hour, have lunch then go back into the water and practice skills (that day it was at 36 feet below) I got motion sickness after the first dive when i was on the boat and i have heard of ppl who have puked at 30 feet into their regulators so i didnt take a chance. So i ll just make it up tomorrow and do an extra dive while im out there too. Today i did 2 dives and my deepest depth was 60 fee below surface, it was great! I've seen soooooo many sweet things down there. Haven't seen a shark or a turtle yet so im kinda choked about that. The sharks out here are not aggresive and do not bite. There are some here that are 18 meters long! Today was a great dive tho i feel very comfortable. The main thing to master in diving is buoyancy (hovering by using your breathing tecnique) When your lungs fill with air you will float up, when you expell the air you will float down. If you do it at the right pace you would pretty much stay at the same level. After tomorrow first dive i will be a certified open water diver. Which means i could have someone drive me out anywhere in water and dive to a maximum of 18 meters with a partner who is also certified. The only downside to the diving is that its at 8 am in the morning so i cant go out and party too hard. On the other hand swiming is a great hangover cure, i kinda found that out today. Tomorrow will be my last day on this island, im kinda sad to leave it, i really like it here. But its pretty small and i've pretty much seen everything. I spend a day or 2 in a place call railay beach, its supposed to be pretty nice. Then i head to the boarder of malaysia to get my passport stamped then up to the islands of Ko tao ko samui and koh pen yan. For the last few days of ko phi phi i decided to stay in a good room, i have a fan, a small fridge (very key) a tv, a safe, and a hot water shower which is kinda nice to have every once in a while. Normally its straight up cold water showers, lol. Last night i met up with the guys from calgary and we went to an irish pub, then i went to a beach party but came back to the pub, there was acontest there for girls that was pretty sweet, the winner won 1500 bhat which is like $45 lol. 2 girls both won so they split it. It was a pretty sweet contest, lol. We made friends with one of the girls from the contest and her friends so then we went to a raegae bar. They have a muy thai boxing ring there with equipmet if you wanna fight your friend. If you do it you get a free bucket. 2 of the girls got in the ring and it was pretty sweet. We ended the night at the beach party, it was fun, i wish i coudl have stayed til the end (5 am) but i went home at 3 because i had to dive. I'm gonna go get some lunch, pretty hungry from the dive. Talk to ya later!

Chillin in koh phi phi

So the beach party on friday night was pretty good, it was a 3 bucket night with a solid hangover the next day. Saturday was definitly a beach day. I slept in til 2 pm. Sat on the beach and wrote postcards for a few hours. IT was Milka Kit and Stephs last night here so we didnt wanna go too hard because they had alot of traveling to do today. MIlka had an 18 hour bus ride to kuala Lumpur, malaysia. And kit and steph had a 12 hour to Bangkok. So we went to a small beach party and split a few buckets there then went to a bar called "tiger bar" and had a free bucket there. The owner of that bar recommended we go to a beach bar called "Appache" so we went there and OMG there were litterally 100 ppl there, the place was packed! Within 15 mins i ran into my buds from calgary who i was supposed to meet earlier that day but didnt. So we stayed there for an hour and had another bucket, so much for not drinking much last night:S I ended up getting back to my room around 3:30 am. I feel pretty shitty today. Milka left at 9am so i said bye to her. Kit and steph didnt have to leave til 2 so we had lunch together. This hangover has put me in a bad mood, i find that i'm annoyed by everything today. Crying baby in the restaurant, street bike racing on tv instead of soccer, the rain, the food. Its just a bad day altogether, one of those days that i wish i was just at home in poco laying on my bed watching Lost or family guy. I'm gonna meet the guys from calgary in a bit and check out their place and maybe stay with them. I'm thinkin i might just pay the extra 100 bhat ($3) and stay in a place with a/c and satilite tv. I feel like being comfortable for the next few days. I gotta start reading the diving text book and i dont wanna do it in a sweaty room. I'm kinda gettin bored of this island, I'm leavin in 3 days, I'm only staying because i gotta do the diving. I dont think I'm gonna drink for the next 3 days, even tho the guys are gonna want to.

Koh phi phi is Awesome!

So i have left patong beach in puket and came to koh phi phi. I'm really glad i did too! Koh phi phi is a small island that is very tropical. Its so small that you can walk pretty much anywhere really quick. There is nothing motorized here, ppl get around on pedal bikes. That bars here are pretty sweet and there are beach partys every night! This island is wayyyyy less commercial than all the other places i've been, way less pushy sales people too. My first night I went out by myself and met some fun irish people, i love partying with the irish! We ended up at a beach party at the end of the night. That night i had 3 buckets and about 4 beers so i wasnt feelin to good the next morning. The next day Kit and Steph came over so I kinda showed them around. The 3 of us went out for some buckets last night but called it an ealy night because today we went on a 8 hour island tour which included alot of snorkeling and kyacking. I went to the beach where the movie "the beach" with leo dicaprio was filmed, it was pretty nice. I saw alot of crazy looking fish today and a shark swam right beside me which was pretty sweet. O ya and we went to a place called mokey beach and there were monkeys all over the beach, i fed some of them and got a few pics too! There is a huge beach party tonight with 4 dj's and buckets are 2 for the price of one so its gonna get a lil messy:S I'm gonna start my open water diving course tomorrow night so i can get in at least 2 dives here. I think I'm gonna stay til Wednesday. Milka, Kit, and Steph all leave on Sunday so that kinda sucks, they are all really nice and i had some good times with them. The guys from calgary are commin here tomorrow afternoon so that worked out pretty good actually. On wednesday I'm gonna go to a place called Krabi and stay a day or 2 there, then Railey beach for a day then after that i have to do a boarder run to malaysia to get my passport stamped. You can only stay in a country for 30 days straight so to make my trip work i gotta quickly go down to malaysia.

GoodBye Bangkok Hello Puket

So on my last day in bangkok i didnt really do much. I slept in past my 1230 checkout because i was hung over. I had to get on a bus at 530 to ride over night to puket. so around 330 i decided to get a massage because i hadn't had one yet (and no there was no happy ending, get your mind outta the gutter) This was a legit authentic thai massage. It cost me $6 canadian for an hour. So after that i went and waited for my bus. I met a nice brother and sister from Cali who were also goin to puket. So the bus we took was pretty nice it was all air conditions and had movies and stuff, we then had to take a connector for the last 4 hours of the trip which really sucked. It was supposed to be jsut ppl who had booked legit through a travel agent but the guy running the bus kept picking up anyone he could to make some extra cash, he had ppl standing in the isle which im sure is not something he should have been doing. So because he was scamming our trip took a total of 14 hours when it should have been about 10 which was pretty weak.When we got dropped off we met a girl from finland who also was with us from the start, the 4 of us have been hanging out for the last few days which is pretty sweet. I'm staying in a nice guest house for 250 bhat which has a/c, a tv shower with hot water and it's really clean. That is the biggest steal ever for 250 bhat, i didnt even get all that for 400 bhat in bangkok. So durring the day we just went to our local beach. It was alright, the water wasnt really nice. At night we went out to party! There is a whole road they close off and its just constant bars and nightlife, i ahve never seen partying like this anywhere! Including Vegas. There are girls trying to pick up guys for free drinks and whatever else they can get out of them in every single bar, the ratio of girls to guys is easily 3 to 1. They pretty much attack you when you walk into the bar. It sounds like its something I would like but its not cool. They are only out for one thing and I'm not down for that. it was kinda good that me and Kit ( the brother from Cali) had Steph (his sister) and Milka (from finland) with us to look like we were already kinda taken. We ended up meeting up with Mick and connor who i partied with in my last night in bangkok and some girls who the 3 of us also partied with that night. haha i introduced myself to them when i saw them in puket not knowing that i met them in bangkok they laughed at me and said "Jackson from Vancouver" right? hahaha so we had a crew of about 15 of us at a few bars we were hoping around to, we ended at a bar where we were paying less than a dollar for a beer and about 2 dollars for a strong whisky coke. The bar tenders were buying us all free drinks and they even lit the bar on fire. I ended up gettin home at 5 am that morning. I called Mick today to ask when he and the rest of the guys got home and he said they went to an after hours and got in at quarter to 10, lol. Today i went to a really nice beach about 15 mins away where the water was blue. This beach was amazing! I rented a boogie boad too which was fun. It wasnt all fun tho today.... Today i saw something i have never witnessed in person before. A dead body got dragged out of the water and on to shore:S I ahve never seen a dead body a foot infront of me before so it was kind of a shock. it weas a man in his 70's and judging by the colour of his skin he had been dead for a while. My guess is that he had a heart attack. There were red flags up today which means you shouldnt really be swimming in there. When its like that i dont swim where i cant touch but i guess he didnt use that rule. It kinda put a damper on the rest of my day. After that i bustedout some tunes on the beach to try and change the mood. After the beach we got showered up and the 4 of us walked around beach street and grabbed some dinner. We're takin it easy tongiht because we're gonna do an elephat trek tomorrow. We were supposed to do it this morning but Kit was huggin that toilet for about 4 hours this morning, lol. After the trek i gotta pack up my stuff and head to ko phi phi. Google that place and check out some pics, its gonna be amazing. O ya by the way the shopping here is rediculous girls, everytime i see the shoes, handbags, and bathingsuits all for less than $7 i laugh and think of the ones who didnt wanna come to thailand. I took some pics for ya which i'll post in a few days. I def laughed today when i was looking at a wall of hundreds of girls bakini's all under $10. Alright I'm outta here, hopefully i didnt leave anything out. I'll be posting in the next few days.

Jackson

My last full day in bangkok

Yesterday was pretty decent. I loaded up about 4 movies to my ipod because i have a long bus ride to puket tonight at 6 and i dont get there til 10 am tomorrow. I'm pretty stoked to be gettin outta bangkok. Yesterday i went for a long walk around the city and met some ppl from london who just got back from a year and a hald in new zealand, its cool talkin to ppl fro other countries, you learn so much! haha i noticed that all the toilets here have no toilet paper which i thought was kinda weird then i noticed that they all have hoses with spray nozels haha it wasnt until yesterday that i put 2 and 2 together, lol. So being my last night in bangkok i decided to get hammered, no like blackout drunk but still hammered so i bought a bucket on koh san to pregame with. A bucket is a small pail with ice, rum (or vodka) coke and redbull. Its pretty much the best invention ever. So on the side of the street there are lotsa ppl sitting on stools with their buckets so i made some friends with these girls from croatia and these 2 guys from ireland. The guys are flying to puket today so im gonna meet up with them when i get there tomorrow. When i was sitting there these lil girls would try and play me in either thumb wars or rock paper scissors. I lost 100 bhat in a thumb war but i won 60 bhat in rock paper scissors, lol. so after 2 buckets we decided to go to an irish bar, it was fun but i knew i was getting too drunk so i decided to walk back to my hostel, i stopped at a 7/11 and got a hot dog and a bunch of chocolate which i found in my room this morning. I woke up a half an hour past check out but thye didnt have my credit card so i didnt really care. I went for a really in depth walk down koh san today looking at all the stuff to buy and realized that all the girls would absolutly love it here, seriously girls you should come here for a week and just load up on clothes. I almost wanna just take pictures and take orders for all of ya! O ya i forgot to mention i was walkin down the street the other day and i was sweating bullets and i saw a beauty salon, so being the beauty that i am i went in there and got my head shaved. It feels so much better already:) Man i cant wait to get outta here, only 3 more hours:) I'll have some really nice pictures when i get to puket for sure, so much nicer than dirty bangkok.

Almost done in Bangkok

Yesterday wasnt too eventfull. Got up and had some breakfast which was an omlet sandwich. Basically it was egs tomato and cucumber and cheese on bread, lol. Went and bought 3 pairs of shorts and 3 t's. Then went to my buds house and watched lords of dogtown (great movie) they didnt wanna go to MBK mall so i went my self. Grabbed some socks, cellphone charger, usb stick to load my pics, soap, shaving cream and all that kinda shower stuff. That mall is the biggest shopping center i have ever seen, i've never been to west edmonton mall but i know this one has more stores for sure, you wouldnt be able to see it all in a day, not a chance. On my way back i rode in a tuk tuk with a really nice thai guy named "Alek" he talked about being honest with ppl and the importance of friendship. He said that tuk tuk drivers get a bad name because of the mafia and what not which is true. He said that any time i wanted to go somewhere or hang out and drink or if i ever needed to know something to just call him. I kinda did him a favor. See here in Thailand all the cab drivers and tuk tuk drivers get commissions when they bring tourists to places. He needed to bring a tourist to this one place to get this "coupon" or something. All i had to do was go into this suit store and look around for 5 mins and he would get hooked up. I didnt really care so i did it to help him out. He was so grateful he said he would buy me dinner or a drink or whatever i wanted. I said a water would be great so he pulled over at a 7/11 and grabed me a sprite. He was a really nice guy. So finally i got back to my new place which i like. O ya i forgot to mention i realized that i was spending too much money in bangkok so i had to make some changes to my spending habits. No more a/c and cable tv in my room which would normally cost 460 bhat (30 for ever dollar approx) and no more 120 bhat meals. Instead i would stay in rooms with just a fan and i would have meals for no more than 60 bhat. So that night i decided that i would just take it easy, i loaded the movie eurotrip to my ipod, grabed a pad thai for 25 bhat and 2 beers from 7/11 and just watched a movie in my new room. I like my new room because its a double bed with a fan and marbel floors for only 200 bhat. The curtains are light tho so they blow all over the place durring the night which kinda sucks but iu'm on the 4th floor so its alright. O ya and with the 200 bhat room you get no bathroom so you have a shared bathroom and shower facility which i dont mind at all because its like that in school and in sports. Today I'm gonna go check out some travel prices to go to puket i think. I'm gonna leave tomorrow night, i gotta get outta bangkok, there is nothing to do here but shop and party, no beaches or anything like that. When i get down there eventually i'll have to do whats called a "boarder run". You can only stay in this country for 30 days so what i have to do is take a bus to malaysia, get my passport stamped and then go back into thailand, lol. Once i do that i'll move on to the other side of the country to koh tao. Well i think i've said enought for today.

Jackson

First full day in Bangkok

So today i took a cab to koh san road from my airport hotel. It was so intimidating that i resistated to get outta my cab. So i got out and had to find a place to stay. I had no idea what to do so i started talkin to some british guys. They were lokin so we all kinda jsut looked together. Finally i just picked one and they kept lookin. I got my room and put all my stuff in there and decided to hit up the famous kohsan road. O ya the place i picked is a street above koh san. So anyways i start walkin this zoo of a street. litterally it is a zoo, if you have ever been to mexico and gone through the markets there picture that but ten times more aggressive and poor. So I'm lookin aroudn for the bars and finally i had enough and asked these guys so we got to talkin and they were from canada, 3 from calgary and 1 was actually from holland ( theres 2 things i hate racists and the dutch! haha lil austin powers joke there) So we hung out for the day and went swimming on the top of their hotel's pool which was pretty sweet, it had a swim up bar which was a huge plus. So then we went out for some dinner and stuff, i have yet to try some authentic thai food, this morning i had american style breakfast which included to cocktail weiners that were not cooked. and for dinner i had a burger and fries. The guys told me to get the runs over with but im too much of a pussy so far. There were some nice british girls ( i said nice not nice looking) at the pool that wanted to go to a Ping Pong show with us. We ended up goin to the show but not with them. The 5 of is hopped in 2 tuk tuks and ripped it to the ping pong show. A tuk tuk ride is one intense experience look it up on the internet if you dont know what one is. The show was pretty crazy, i was tired so i kinda just wanted to get outta there. I dont really find thai girls attractive so it didnt really do anything for me. I pretty much just felt bad for them that they had to do stuff like that to make money. Stripping is one thing but degrading yourself like that is pretty harsh. I asked a girl if she was a lady boy and she was really pissed. gave me dirty looks all night. I can honestly say that I'm pretty turned off by all thai girls here, they are all out to make a buck and its kinda... i duno what word i wanna use but i just dont like it. Haha one kinda funny thing was that my buddy ryan got a piece of a banana shot at his mouth:S man was i happy i was sitting 2 feet to the left of him, lol. I liked it better in Vegas where all the strippers were so rich that they would be nice to you and hang out even if you didnt give them money. Plus they were good looking. Tomorrow I'm gona go meet the guys and hit up MBK mall. I'm told i wont even get through the whole mall in a day. I'll get that cable for my camera so i'll be able to put my pics on here. Not too sure if im still gonna go to indo anymore, i kinda wanna stay with these guys, maybe when they go to malaysia and cambodia i'll go to indo. I dunno i guess we'll see.

Got here safe.

Hey Everyone!

After a nice 24 hours of being awake i am here at my airport hotel bloggin away. It smells pretty bad here but I'm sure i'll get used to it. On a sad note, i forgot the cable to my camera that transfers the pics to the comp, so i either have to have one sent to my hotel from my rents or try and buy one. Tomorrow morning i'm gonna head to koh san road and so some shopping. I'll probably stay at a hotel just a block away from there for a night then try and find a flight to Indonesia. The flights were alright. I watched Sex and the City, which by the way is a very good movie, you would never think so. Then i watched shine a light, a movie about a rolling stones concert done my Martin scorecesee. Then i watched the maid of honor. Trust me there were not too many options. Dont really know what more to say cuz i just got here. I miss all of ya back at home!

Hey Everyone!

Hey!

I thought this would be the best way to check out how my trip is goin. I'm gonna write updates and post some pics, maybe the odd video when i get a chance.