Post Thailand Tales

Ok, I know I'm not still in thailand but I am going to update with what has been going on since! So, after thailand I got home for a few quiet days of rest and getting over jet lag before heading off to France. I went to France about 2 weeks ago and it's been pretty eventful to say the least. I spent the first few days in Nice with my dad and we just chilled out there on the beach and had some good food and drink in the old town. Also took a trip to Monaco for the day which I wasn't all that impressed by. I also met up with Charlotte and Hanan who showed me a great weekend. I was taken to a nice Irish pub by Charlotte and to a party in Antibes. On the Saturday we also had a nice trip to the beach and just basically doing nothing! Cha took me to a great Nicois restaurant for some traditional Nice cuisine and then in true Irish tradition we went to the pub to shelter from the weather for the evening!
Next stop after saying goodbye to my dad was Marseille which was quite different to the other citys in France. It's a bit intimidating and not very clean but got a good fun kinda atmosphere around there. I took a trip to Aix-en-Provence for a day which was really nice. Beautiful town with lots of fountains everywhere and a nice cathedral.
So having enough of the Cote d'Azur, I decided to go west to Bordeaux. I was so impressed by the town. It is really nice, so much happening there and everyone is so friendly. Just met so many nice people when we were there. I also met up with Briana at this point and we'd a great few days drinking lots of good wine and eating some good food. We took a trip one day to Margaux which is in the Medoc region. Some of the best wines in the world come from here. We went from Chateau to Chateau learning about the different wines and tasting them along the way. It's very interesting the whole process. On our last night in Bordeaux, Briana and I had a very drunken night out in some jazz bar. It was a funny night as when we got back to the hotel I couldn't remember the code to open the front door!!! we were stuck out there for about 2 hours and then just by accident I typed the correct code! I guess subconsciously I knew it along. Got to bed that night at like 6am and BB was supposed to be flying to Dublin the next morning but we slept in and she missed it!!!! It was ok tho as she was able to change the flight till that evening.

I wasnt sure what I would do next then I got a mail from Edwina saying that her and Dana were going to amsterdam so then I got thinking I want to go to amsterdam too and with some persuasion from Briana I decided I would!!! However, the train was like 125 EUR one way so then I was going to give the idea a miss. Next thing I know briana has me convinced to go hitch hiking to amsterdam like she had from Lyon!! so I did....and here I am!!!! I thumbed first 600 KM Bordeaux to Paris in 7 hours which ain't bad! Met some nice people along the way too. When I got to Paris, I went to gare du nord and was going to get the train from there but I had missed every one of them for the night! So here i was stuck in paris, no accommodation and in a dodgyish area of Paris! I met this german guy who had missed his train to Brussels and we became great friends. We went to a cafe for a drink and he was on the phone explaining to his girlfriend what happened. He was talking in French and this parisian guy sitting beside us heard him saying that he had no money etc. Feeling sorry for us, he bought us a coffee and gave us cigarettes. We ended up talking to him for ages and he was so interesting. He was old (75) and his wife was dead and all his kids moved awy. He was just interested in talking to us, hearing our stories and having a laugh. We ended up staying there until 6.30 amthen , gave all his cigarettes to us, bought us more beer and coffee cos he felt sorry for us. He woulnt take no for an answer. The guy was old like 75 but he ended up staying out drinking with us until 6.30 am!!!!!

So then me and Andre (the german guy) went off hitch hiking to Lille in the very north on the belgian border. Few hours later we were in Lille. We were so tired though that we then decided to get a train. Got my ticket for 30 from there! not bad : 30 Bordeaux to Amsterdam! So met edwina here and been partying for few days. What a crazy city.....I love it!!! So much fun all the time. Went to heineken brewry yesterday and it was great. Also to the Van Gogh museum which was nice too. It's just such a crazy place with all the prostitutes and drugs! It's all so normal to them though and I guess it seems to work!

Edwina and Dana are now gone to Germany and I am currently in Brussels staying with Andre (german guy!) and his girlfriend! They are so sound and brussels looks pretty cool so far. Just gotta try some Belgian beer and waffles.........................

That's all for now. Will try and get some pics up soon. Next stop is back to paris (I think)!

Malco's contribution

Well hello all,

I have been promising porridge i would write a section on this blog thing all holiday and now that we are at the very end of our holiday its either now or never. Now from what i have heard there have been a few things said on this thing that were'nt altogether true about me, in fact i think they were said to save porridge some face but its all coming out now, oh yes the truth will be told... i will not be silenced! Actually that was a big long rant for something that can prbablt be said in two lines. First of all, Thailand has lots of dogs: Porridge is scared shitless of them, not me he had to run to hide behind me when one chased him. "Malcolm its not stopping aaahhhhhhh!!!, im a little girl!" most of you guys well know he prbably didnt say "I'm a little girl" but im just trying to make the whole thing interesting, aight?!? We were up in the north of Thailand in a place called Chiang Mai, which is pretty amazing, and we were walking home to our hostel that was dwn this dirt road and a dog, on a chain mind you, started barking and jumped towards us still being fairly far away and porridge jumped towards me, i had barely even noticed the dog as i had well a belly full of beer, so when i saw porridge jumping towards me i pushed him away (as most people would seeing a fully grown man flying in their direction) this poridge construed as me pushing himn in front of the dog, which was more than likely a cute little puppy (again probably an exageration, but with the combination of beer and trying to excite the story i think ill continue the little add-ons).

Right so, we then came back down to Bangkok, i think porridge's fears of stray dogs had been cured by this stage. Thailand is s full of stray dogs that you cant avoid them so you either sink or swim, or for porrides benefit: "When in Rome!". Then on to Koh Pha Ngan, the Full Moon Party which was cool but as i was tld the nights leading up to the Full Moon Party were much better than the party itself! One day a few of us decided to go for a trek into the jungle on Koh Pha Ngan (the majority of the island is still mainly jungle/trek country s pretty unexplored as we were about to discover) On this trek only three of us made it past the first hill, the partying had obviously taken its toll on the others. So along we went and further up the mountain we went following this almost no existent-marked trail. We got lost a few times but back tracked and found our way again. So i was leadin the trek and i saw something rustle in the bush where i was about to step, so i pulled back, then decided it might be ok i might have rustled it with my fot. I moved again and a snake went slithering out of the bush, a pretty big one abut a metre long and apparently it was poisinous. S said it might be a god idea to go back as we are dead in the middle of mosquito hours and other stuff. Porridge again with his fear of everything living that does carry on a conversation with you was the nervous scared one.

Having said all that there were a lot of Dougal moments along the trip, which had be in fits for the whole trip. You're one funny fecker Mr. Biscuit! Ah and sure i would change my beloved travelling companion for a newer model we had a savage time, but sometimes porridge you cut me deep Porridge you cut me real deep (Donkey, i cant take credit for that one you crack me up too-- layers!)!

Right so where am i?!? Im in Bangkok now waiting to go home. The last time a post was up was when we were in Koh Tao doing diving which was savage, this lad called Mario jaysus he was funny. The Germans i think they are hilarious, this guy was anyway but i might have been laughing at him though he didnt mind! Left Koh Tao got a horribly rough boat ride to a place called Chumphon then a train down to the border of Malaysia where we went to the Perhentian islands for more diving. I got real sick on that trip and so could hardly leave bed all the time in the Perhentians. Still i picked up a cool book and that kept me occupied, Porridge and the tw girls Jen and Grainne did diving. I dont know if they have had a mention yet on this blog, they were our travel companions for about a month of the trip, it made the month fly by, glad to have had ye along!

Then we were off to a place on the other side of Malaysia called Penang, where we got dropped on the other side of the island by the bus and had t haggle for a taxi ride in the wee wee hours of the morning, with very little sleep due to the bus ride being as cld as my fridge at home, i shit you not! What is the craic with that huh, is it so that you are relieved to reach your destinatin so that everyone piles off the bus and a quicker turnver time. Sort it out Malaysia! Saw a cool old chinese mansion in Penang anmd stayed at a placed called Love Lane Inn, the lady who owned it was very funny i loved buzzin off her bargaining for stuff i really didnt need to bargain for. Anyway she was great then we had a good meal and caught and early bus ride out of there for Kuala Lumpur. KL was cool we went to this amazingly large shopping centre right in the centre of the town which had an amusement park in it, so that took up the guts of one day. Getting back to our childish roots. We then went to see the Petronas towers the next day which were cool to, although they were more impressive from the ground than from the Skybrdige we got tickets for. Anyway they seem almost mystic, fair play to the architect! That night we went to this german restaurant and wanted sausages, what else do you do in german places but eat sausies, eh!? We ordered a platter of sausages between the two of us, but did not expect the size of the portion. This could easily have fed four people and no-one be hungry. I think i ate my quota of protein that night for at least a week. Porridge was really struggling, he was almst asleep with all the food, lucky he didnt havea few beers i would have had to carry him home, you guys all know what happens porridge has a few beers (night night! that happened more than a few times on this holiday) Once he fell asleep on the bech in Koh Pha Ngan for being so drunk, very funny stories told the next morning, ha and also he fell asleep with his feet in the pool on Koh Pha Ngan too.

So from KL to Singapore, oh and the guy who ran the hostel in KL was after porridge too, that was real funny. He was walking down the corridor to the shower whilst putting his t-shirt on, you know showing off his buff body so as to make all the other men jealous! He does that a lot! The owner says to him "Oh padraig you dont need that(the shirt) you sexy enough as it is". The owner was a man if i havent mentioned that already. Singapore was amazing, so well organised and everything works coherently, the bus, the metro, the tram. And waiting times i think the lonest we ever waited for anything was 8 minutes. Dublin should take a leaf out their book. We stayed witha friend in Singapore which was amazing because he knew everything about the city and he wasnt even from there. Thanks Naveen! We spent probably quite a lot in Singapore cos beer is expensive, but it was the end of the trip and well we didnt mind at all. We were all taken by the city and all its extras. I saw these mst amazing building designed by a guy called I.M. Pei (the guy who designed the triangle/pyramid thing in the Louvre i think) anyway these looked almost 2-D when viewed from a certain angle, incredible we marveled at that for a while anyway. So then we had to leave but not without spending almost all the last night watching fire-works and playing Taboo whilst drinking giant glasses of Vodka, Naveen makes them stronge!

Now we are in Bangkok, didnt do a whole lot but went to the Hard Rock Cafe, and couldnt move after eating so much then bought a few presents for the family and here we are, ready to go home. Hope we are all up to scratch on our travels if you guys even made it this far in reading, i know its a long note. Sorry bout that, but i knw you guys are just sooooo interested in our travels that you had to read on, oh and also my writing style is just so very captivating that you couldnt tear yourselves from the next paragraph. Right so bye, and seey'all soon.

A+

Malco

The story so far.......

Sorry for such a delay in getting something posted up here but internet and time has been the main constraints followed closely behind by my laziness! Anyway, everything is good here. We left Bangkok and went south about two weeks ago to an island called Koh Pha Ngan which off the east coast in the gulf of Thailand. Here we met up with some lads from college to bring our group up to a total of 9....(Dave, Chris Kitchin is here with us at the moment)....We had this beautiful hostel (or hotel even) with a pool, own beach and beautiful views of the sea. Koh Pha Ngan is a bit touristy but we decided to stay there for little over a week for the infamous full moon party and just to relax a bit. First few days mainly consisted of getting up around noon, lying by the pool or in a hammock for the afternoon, maybe going for a massage then off for dinner and out to beach parties for the night!! We did take a bit of a look around the island and even ventured a bit into the jungle a few of us on our own. It turned out to be a bit more of an adventure than a leisurely stroll!! We kinda 'wandered' off our track and was a little lost when the next thing Malcolm screamed (like a big girl!) that something moved in the grass ahead so he stood back for a secon and then moved forward again only to see a snake scurrying on ahead which later we found out was a very deadly snake! Next thing coconuts started falling from the trees missing one of the other guys by about an inch! Who'd have thought coconuts could have been so dangerous!!! Eventually we made it back safely with lizards, mosquitos and monkeys annoying us alll the way down! We also took a day trip to Ko Samui which is another island in that area. Nice island too but very touristy. We'd the full moon party last Saturday night and that was awesome. All night dancing and drinking on the beach. Everyone dressed up in psychodelic bodypaints and just general madness. I have loads of photos of all this but the internet cafe here wants to charge me to plug in my camera into the USB port and then charge me for every photo I upload.....so going to leave it for today. Monday we moved to another island called Koh Tao (Turtle island cos it's shaped like a turtle!)....all 9 of us. It's really nice here, quiet, beautiful beaches and famed for it's diving and snorkelling. So we started a diving course straight away and it's been long and busy days. Were out diving all morning and it was truely amazing all the coral and tropical fishes we seen. Tomorrow we go on a few more dives then have an exam and hopefully I will then be a certified diver so i can dive anywhere in the world (up to 20 metres). Hoping to leave here on Friday and go south to Malayasia where we might do an advanced diving course in the Parenthean Islands, check out some national parks and tea plantations (sure been Irish, have to see where our tea comes from!!) then on to Kuala Lumpur to see Petronas towers and then finally to Singapore for a few days. Hope to get some photos up soon. Take care,P

Massages, Elephants and more Thai Whiskey.....

Just spent 4 days up north in Chiang Mai and what a great city! It's so less intimidating than Bangkok, cleaner, lots of tourists and just not as intense. I guess it's the Galway of Thailand! It's a walled city and there are lots of great markets all over the place where you can buy any food you want, any brand of anything you want or even all stuff from the hilltribes, a lot of it probably fake but who knows! So just chilled out there for a few days going around the markets and getting our Thai massages. It was very enjoyable and a whole new experience. You are on a mattress on the ground (see malco right!) and you have this Thai woman sitting on you while she massages you! There are so many of the massage places around and some of them are brothels so you gotta be careful! Speaking of brothels......so many prostitutes in the bars in Chiang Mai trying to pick western men up...very strange too! Yesterday we went on this trek into the jungle. That was really great - spent the day elephant riding (as from the pic below!), white water rafting and visiting some of the different tribal villages.

It was a great day all in all apart from two very annoying French girls (desole aux francais qui lisent cet blog!) that did nothing but complain and give out constantly and then gave our poor guide who was the coolest guy loads of hassle at the end of the day.......
Last night we took a night train back to Bangkok which took us 15 hours. For fear of not been able to sleep for the duration of the trip we decided some help might be needed so we got a bottle of thai whiskey, thai red bull and coke and made our own home made "buckets" on the way back! It was very effective for me and I was sleeping like a baby for a solid 10 hours! Unfortunately Malcolm wasn't quite so luck and ended up staying awake most of the night.......unlucky! So now back in Bangkok and we've met up with some friends of Malcolm's that arrived here yesterday. All off to see some Thai boxing tonight then heading down to the islands tomorrow for the full moon party which is on the 22nd I think. Hope everyone is having fun wherever you are and hope to have some more news up here soon.

Ripped Off Number 1.......

Well, I think I spoke too soon in the earlier post about us being so clever and not getting ripped off!! We got a little bit conned with a travel agent in Bangkok but not bad at all in our terms. They have all theses travel agents everywhere whom are in cohoots with the tuk tuk (taxi) drivers who get a percentage off them if they take tourists to their office. They had the whole 6 weeks planned for us for what in European terms seems very reasonable. Thankfully we only booked the first week as far as chiang mai with them! Everything worked out fine for us but we paid a small bit more than if we at just paid as we went along. Not to worry, we've been meeting lots of ppl along the way who were seriouly worse screwed than us!

We left Bangkok on Thursday and headed north to a small town called Ayuthaya which used to be a the capital. Lots of old temples (or 'wats') to see but to be honest once you've seen one wat, you've seen them all! So, spent one night there and then headed further north on a long 6 hour train journey to a town called Sukhothai which used to be the first capital of Thailand. Nice town with a cool park again with loads of temples and sitting buddas. We met nice German and Danish people there and had two nights of some good food and relaxing. We left there this morning and are now in Chiang Mai - Thailand's capital of the North. gonna hang around here for a few days and see what it has to offer. we're near the mountains so lots of trekking, hill tribes and what not. Off now to look for a thai woman to run up and down my body.....yes you read right but don't worry that's what a Thai massage involves!! I'll let you know soon what it's like. Thanks for the posts and mails, keep them coming!

Bangkok bound.....

Arrived in Bangkok yesterday and what a mad city. Avoided the usual number one tourist mistake of paying loads for a taxi and got the bus. All went ok. Hostel was grand we were staying in. Went on a walk around Bangkok and turns out there ain't a whole lot to see. Mad drivers here...No law and order but the tuk tuks are cool. They just follow the tourists trying to take us somewhere and they insist on bringing you to travel agents, tailors and all sorts of places. Think they are all working together to con us! It's a fairly polluted city too. Last night went to this bar to try their "buckets" (Thai whiskey, Thai red bull and coke)......Lethal stuff. We were so messed up after 2 of those (between us). Went wandering with 2 English guys and ended up in some undesirable places! Also, went to a karaoke bar with just Thai people and decided to get up and join them dancing.....We got free t-shirts for our efforts! Today was a hungover day....Shopping, eating and that's it really! We're going up North tomorrow to Chiang mai and a few places along the way. Gone do some elephant/jungle trekking. Everything dirt cheap here and u can get anything you want for next to nothing. They are even selling builds of Longhorn and Office 12, weird eh?! Got to go now but will try keep this up to date and hopefully with some more interesting tales and adventure (and scandal on malcolm!) with a few pics too.

Last goodbyes......

Just one day to go now until myself and Malcolm arrive in the Kingdom of Thailand. What a busy week I've had......finishing up work, moving out of my apartment, last minutes things for my trip and of course the obligatory last nights out with work and friends from college. Must say was sad leaving Microsoft after a whole 12 months. I've made some good friends there, what a crazy gang! This photo is of my last night out with them when I also got presented an honorary (joke) certificate for outstanding performance as their Computational Linguist......Carl Vogel would be so proud! And everyone got their exam results this week and i think everyone is happy, well done guys. I'm jealous now that I'm a year behind you all.

The next thing I write on this will be of my Thai adventures! take care,P