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