photoshoplooter:

I wear the trousers posh boy

davidcameronpretendingtobecommon:

It’s opposite day in a Wolverhampton supermarket, as an ethnic youth looks judgementally at an upper-class white man.

That’s just the way down-to-earth-David operates.

not blogged for a very long time but something has gotten on my tits a bit recently so I’m going to get it off my chest.

with recent natural disasters in Australia, New Zealand and most recently Japan and Also with Comic relief on the horizon. the profile of donating of aid organizations has been pushed in to the lime light. Now I’m sure we can all agree that donating to worthy causes is a good thing.  However one thing that has been annoying me is people saying that for every retweet they get they’ll donate a sum of money to Charity or for every follower to a page that money will be donnated to charity.

two examples I have seen of this most recently was firstly a retweet by Comedian Marcus Brigstock which reads as follows

RT @TonyHinchliffe: @marcusbrig please RT Marcus, I’m giving £1 to Comic Relief for every celeb RT up until Friday

the second example I have seen most recently is an 18 year old claiming he’ll be donating £10 per retweet

@TomStonem :For every person that RT’s this, i’ll donate £10 to Japan. And that’s a promise.

If these people had vast sums of money to donate then why would they limit the amount of money they donate based purely on the ammount of Twitter attention they are getting?

at best they are are showing off and trying to take gratitude for donating money to causes in a public forum. at worst they are making little or no donation and seeking attention in the form of followers on Twitter.

pretty much the best youtube vid I’ve seen for a long long time!

my flat mate got very very drunk last night, I decided to punish him! I could well be looking for a new place to live Monday. But dont worry I’ll be up early to wake him and film his escape and reaction!

a small selection of my favourite photo’s while travelling some taken by me some by others.

this is the entry into my travel blog (for this adventure anyway).

we left around 10 am from Sangkhlaburi for an epic day long trip with a couple of stops. the first stop was about 3 hours into the journey at some hot springs the springs had a river that was about 25 degree’s and then 2 springs that were 39 and 41 degree’s each. They wern’t that exciting and were more like an open air bath I guess a bit like they had in Roman times just without the toga’s. The next stop we made was in Kanchanaburi, back at the same hotel resort we’d stayed in a couple of weeks previously. This stop was for about 3 hours. Our tour guide had told us there was a KFC and tesco about 10 minute drive away. In a moment of weakness myself and 3 others decided to go visit it. I had a look for some flip flops as I was still sporting my trainers in the heat and again no luck. Turns out not even Tesco caters  to the size 11 gentleman. after our trip I realized what I had done and felt a bit dirty and even more dirty when I realized what I had done was on par with those people that go to Benidorm and eat at McDonalds.

Our onward trip was over night on a coach we left around 9 PM and arrived at 5am the following morning at the ferry port. we made a stop around midnight and as it was Scotts Birthday a small cake was bought for him and we sang happy birthday. The Boat took about 2 hours to get to the island. Once on the island we jumped into our pickup truck style taxi’s and drove for about 15 minutes to the hotel resort. the hotel resort was on the beach the beach had white sands and blue sea. we could also quite clearly see kho Samui across the ocean. we also had a swimming pool that had a rule of not pooing in the pool (I dread to think what incident resulted in them having to include this rule)

Kho Phangan is a tropical island famous for the full moon parties and also famous as the location that the film the beach was shot. we had arrived a couple of days late for the full moon party but not to worry we were getting a half moon party which I’ll get onto shortly. the time I spent on the island were mainly lazy days and nights out at the various parties. 3 of the nights we went to the beach where the full moon party takes place as parties take place on the beach every night. after speaking to others the full moon party was pretty much the same as what we had experienced on the beach just with more people. the beach had 3 main bars pumping out popular music and a range of smaller stalls selling buckets of cocktail designed to make you feel rather drunk. on the beach there were fire displays a skipping rope made of fire and even the chance to try out fire breathing. Wanting to try new and dangerous things I had a go at fire breathing which is basically holding a mixture of white spirit and water in your mouth then spitting it onto a flame, I did swallow a small bit of the mixture which wasn’t pleasant. I also had a go at the skipping rope but the reality of it being on fire came to mind on my third jump and I decided my days of playing with fire were over and retreated back to the safety of the crowd!

we also went to a pool party which I guess is self explanatry. and then the highlight of the party nights the Half moon party. Half moon was held in a specially built venue which was pretty much and open air night club but in the middle of the jungle. As a group we made a big night of the half moon and everyone dressed up and got painted in UV paint. we arrived around midnight the music was pretty much just boom boom trance music but the atmosphere and sound system made it seem so brilliant. I partied until about 6.30AM before tiredness set in and we decided to go home. about 5 of the others decided to go through til the 8am closing time.

we spent another day on the island before returning to Bangkok. we arrived back in Bangkok around 9 o’clock at night got some food got dressed and went to the gazebo nightclub. The Gazebo was the nightclub of choice for our first 2 nights together in Bangkok. returning to the club was slightly strange as when we’d been there previously we barely knew each other but by this point we were all friends. I realized this was my last night of travelling and sat back and thought of all the great people I’d meet and loved seeing everyone getting on so well. the following morning we woke up early to say good bye to a large number of those that had to leave at 8 am for a 12 o’clock flight. once we said our goodbyes myself Jason Lauren and Bethan decided to visit the largest shopping centre in Asia MBK. I did some shopping and picked up a few bits of branded clothing at a much lower price than you’d pay at home. The brands on display were all produced in Thailand and had then appeared somehow in the independently run shops as an example I picked up a bathing ape polo shirt that’d cost 45-50 pound at home for 6 pound!

we then meet up with our remaining travellers picked up our last cheap street meal then myself and Bethan jumped on the bus to the Airport for our onward journeys.

Thailand was a brilliant experience. although unlike Vietnam were I saw absolutely everything I only touched the surface of Thailand. I’ll certainly be back to explore the north of the country then Island hop. I’d do it as an independent traveller rather than in a tour group tho so I can go at my own pace.

first of all sorry I haven’t updated for a couple of weeks but I am determined to get my blog finished by tomorrow.

we spent a couple of weeks in Sangkhlaburi this was the place I did my volunteering and also visited a local orphanage on a few occasions. I’ll write firstly about the town the activities then the volunteering and orphanage.

Sangkhlaburi is located in the west of Thailand and the town is only a stones throw from the boarder with Burma. the town itself was very small had one block which featured a market in the centre and just one chain store, the 7-Eleven, we also had just one bar and a small handful of restaurants. just outside the town was a small area even closer to Burma which was basically an area of land that Burmese setters that’d escaped the country could live but go no further. separating the 2 areas was a river with a couple of bridges over including the longest wooden bridge in Thailand. This town was the real Thailand and was the closest most people could get to Burma and Burmese culture for the foreseeable future. The hotel we stayed in was basic but had a couple of beds a hot shower and air con so I was more than happy with my room for the 2 weeks. This was the that I had really craved for having seen the real Vietnam for the most part of my travels, and at last I felt like a traveler again rather than a tourist.

Activities,

the group was split into 2, with about 10 volunteering in a local school and the other 20 off out trekking and doing 3 days voluntary work. I was part oif the smaller group volunteering in the local school. However the activities we were all grouped together. the first Activity we did was my favourite. it was a day of elephant trekking and then bamboo rafting.  The elephant trekking was for about 40 minutes we jumped on our elephants. because our elephant was a bigger one we managed to fit 4 on 3 on the carriage one 2 on the poor things head. we trekked across a couple of rivers and along some rough terrain in the blazing sun. we then jumped off the elephants and had lunch. Lunch was the old classic rice in a bag before getting some life jackets on for the next part of our adventure a 30 minute trek to bamboo rafting. just as we finished eating the heavens opened and we got the heaviest rain I have ever seen. It was like that Vietnam scene from Forrest Gump! but it just made the adventure even better. first we had to cross a fast running river this river was about 100 foot wide. I made it across no problems in fact I was 2nd across out of the group of 30 including the tour guide. most the group floated upstream much to the amusement of the elephant handlers who were still with us. My one mistake was keeping my flip flops on and one broke resulting in me having to wear trainers for the next 2 weeks as it was impossible to find size 11’s in the town. we then trekked a bit further (now bare foot) and came across another rive this one wasn’t as wide but just a fast flowing again  I made it across no problem but many of my fellow travelers had problems and went upstream again! we arrived and the rain stopped. we then jumped on some bamboo rafts. The Rafts were about 8 bamboo logs across and 10 foot long each of us took 2 to a raft along with a ‘driver’ we also got a bamboo stick to guide us along the idea was the prod yourself along the water by sticking your stick in the river and fining a rock to push with the stick. This was all well and good until the drivers decided to make us fall off or crash into the sides. This was the best day I spent in Thailand and came close to Ha Long Bay in Vietnam.

The next few days were spent volunteering but I’ll get into that shortly. we had a day on the Friday were we walked in 35 degree’s heat to see some local temples. nothing exciting to report except for a monk that blessed us by giving us a beaded necklace but because he couldn’t touch women he had to throw the necklace onto the girls (and the guys) hoopla style. That night we went to another local hotel where the mon tribe (tribe of Burma) provided the entertainment in the form of traditional dance for half an hour and we provided the drink (mainly a selection from the beloved 7-Eleven we’d all come to rely heavily on for all our western needs) it was an interesting night.

The following day we visted a place called the nature club. the nature club was a massive green area with a massive swimming lake and the following outdoor activities, Zip linning, Zoorbing and Quadbiking. I decided to do firstly the Zorbing. Zorbing is getting into a massive inflatiable ball which had some water inside it. your then pushed down a down hill circuit while being thrown around within the ball. We could also be run over by the ball if we wanted. that was quite fun to! the other activity I did was the Quad biking I did this with intention of doing just one lap but my one lap wasn’t that great as I hadn’t gone as fat as I hope so went again for a second lap the 2nd lap I over did it and crashed so went for a third lap which I was very happy with. it wad just rained before we started which made it more fund sliding the bike through the corners and going through massive puddles!

my last activity that i did in the area was back at the nature club the following week and day before we went to Kho Pha Ngan we had a part by the river edge with a BBQ and Karaoke again we supplied our own alcohol and a good night was had by all.

Volunteering and Orphanage

so as I have said I was volunteering in a local school, the school was in the area that was for Burmese settlers and Thai’s. The school was funded by the local buddhist temple and the state. the school had around 150 children aged between 4 and 12 but most of them fell into the 4 to 7 age bracket. they had lime green uniforms that were about 2 sizes to big for them which made them even cuter! a typical day in the school would start by being picked up at 8.30 am driving for 20 minutes we always knew we were close as the corner before the school there was a buddha statue that the driver would pray to by taking his hands off the wheel and closing his eyes for a couple of seconds before sharply turning the corner! once there it’d normally be lesson time from 9 til 11 we’d normally teach them abc’s 123’s, what ever exercise the teacher would set or sometimes they’d be stuck in front of a DVD for the morning I tended to get more into the DVD than they did! while teaching them half the kids ran off so it became a task of bringing children back into the class rooms. after a couple of days I gave up on the runners and concentrated on the kids that wanted to learn. at 11 they’d have lunch and so did we followed by play time until 12 it was then nap time until 2. we’d try to join them for nap time but were often disturbed by the head master or tour guide who would want us to do a task like cleaning the play ground or even worse we ended up doing the toilets for them. At 2.30 the kids then went home and so did we. The school was a rewarding experience but not nearly on the same level as my previous work in Vietnam. I did learn I can handle and entertain children even those that spoke a different language.

in the second week of our time in Sangkhlaburi we learnt of a local orphange and visited every night we could I visited 4 times over 6 evenings after having been at school during the day. the Lady that organized the orphanage was truly inspirational. most the kids were of Burmese or Korean decent and a few Thai. She spoke Korean Burmese Thai and English. All the kids had English and Thai names and spoke English as a second language. She had also taught most of them life skills most of them could pick up a guitar or cut hair or paint nails all before they even got to double figure in age. seeing the kids being so happy just to let us join in with games with them was awesome. they often seemed to wait for us each evening before we turned up. They were all very happy despite having very sad pasts. one of the girls on the trip got a list of the kids names and why they were in the orphanage and it was heart breaking to read, some of them need not to be there as they were only there because their parents divorced. But I’m happy they live now with someone that truly cares for them.

my time in the town was some of the best time I have spent travelling. and seeing the orphanage was truely eye opening and made me realize although I dont think it i do take things for granted and I’m pretty sure the others on my group will feel the exact same way. next time I go away I’ll make sure to go at least visit an orphanage if not volunteer in one.

after a couple of event filled days in Bangkok it was now time to head to our second destination within Thailand, Kanchanaburi. due to a more than a few sore heads we left an hour late. Kanchanaburi is located about 2 and half hours from Bangkok its a smallish town with one main road and has the river Kwai running pretty much parallel to it, this was home for 6 days. We arrived at our hotel to find it was on the river front and had 7 buildings each building containing 6 rooms and then an over sized shack as the bar/restaurant/reception area. it also had a pool which became the scene of late night/early morning swims on a daily basis.

the first afternoon was a free afternoon where we explored the town and went for a group meal that evening in a boat playing load music it wasn’t that much fun but the food was lovely. The following day we visited the Erawan Waterfalls. the waterfalls consisted of 7 levels. each level was quite a distance from the last we trekked right to the top this took about 45 minutes over rough terrain but was well worth it. the pool at this waterfall was pretty and contained those fish that ate your dead skin from your feet. At first they came as a surprise but after a while I got used to them and let them feast on my feet! we then headed back down and stopped off at a couple of pools on the way down. one pool had a slide type bit which wasn’t actually that much fun. it was now time for lunch we had lunch just outside the entrance to the waterfalls, in the tree’s there were several monkeys which our tour guide kept us safe from losing our lunch by firing a catapult at them.

the next day the group was split into 2. my group did some Thai cooking. we cooked 3 dishes the first was Pad Thai a noodle dish with sweet and sour sauce the guy teaching us to cook told me my Pad Thai was top in the class. we went for a quick break and came back and cooked a lemon curry soup the teacher was less impressed by my effort with that and a Chicken fried rice which he didn’t try. I’m waiting on the ingredients list to make Pad Thai when I get home but it may have to be modernised due to the lack of certain ingredients in the UK. as we finished early we got a speed boat to take us along the river to a 3 different destinations. the first was a temple, but unlike the other 3409,000 temples I’d visited this one was within a cave which I guess makes it a bit more unique and exciting. the second destination was a memorial to Asian and Wester prisoners of war that had died constructing a railway for the japanese in the second world war that lead from India via Burma into and into Thailand. The railway was made famous for the amount of men that died during construction the exact number isn’t known but thought to be around 100,000. the third destination was a small museum dedicated to the railway the museum mainly featured photos newspaper clippings and paintings and a few artifacts such as tools.

The next day we visited more waterfalls. this was a small waterfall and quite an anti climax from the falls we’d visited a couple of days previously. That night we had a big night out which resulted in me trying my first Thai bucket which is small bucket containing Whisk, Coke and red bull it was actually alot nicer than it sounds.

The following day we visited more temples. these weren’t that exciting I think from visiting temples and being blessed and wished good luck so much I should play the lottery when I get home. one temple did feature a massive but tack tiger statue I wanted to pose on it from a picture but as I climbed the tour guide raced over and told me to stop as it was pretty disrespectful, He should know he told me he learnt it by doing exactly what I was trying to do a few months previously.

The last day was a free day. 6 of us decided to have a relaxing day first we headed out for a Thai massage it was quite an experience and for 3 pound was very good value for money. I almost floated when I came out and went for lunch. We found a cake and coffee shop and indulged in some fine pastries and not so great coffee (good coffee is hard to find in Asia)

the town was good fun and hotel was great and it was a bit closer to the real Thailand than Bangkok is, it was still a bit tourist inspired and seemed to have alot aging men shopping for Thai brides, which was ammusing to observe.

I arrived at 11 am into Bangkok airport and was quickly through the now familiar process of having my passport stamped and checked within half an hour of jumping off the flight. I was no ready to meet my new group. I wasn’t really sure what to expect y buddy list I’d been sent a couple of weeks previously contained 12 names but only one of the people mentioned, Laura was on the same trip around Thailand that I was on. Going from a group of 12 to a group of 2 was something I was quite nervous about. I soon found my tour guide who informed me we had to wait for one other person after 10 minutes the person arrived. Her name was Vickie she explained to me in the taxi ride to the centre of Bangkok the group was around 29 people in total! this made me more nervous 12 names was hard enough to remember let alone 29. Me and Vickie hit it off right away she’d been in India for 2 months so we shared travel stories. At this point I realized Bangkok was a bit of a culture shock for me and almost a step back into the Western world, the traffic was made mainly of cars rather than the 80% motorbikes I’d seen whizzing by. huge modern buildings and chain stores were a far cry from the other cities I’d previously visited.

we checked into the hotel (I was checked into the wrong room but I’ll explain that later) dumped our stuff and headed out into the main street of Khao San Road, for a bite to eat and a beer. Khao San Road is a road around 150 meters long catering to all your western needs, there were t-shirt stalls several bars and cafes vendors selling meat on sticks and even a boots! we also decided to go find a swimming pool another local hotel had a roof top one so we paid them a couple of quid to use it. later on we meet in the hotel bar and meet 5 further people in our group. we all headed out for food and a night out on the town. in the bars you could buy a tower of beer and pour your own pints we shared a couple of these between us before heading from bar to bar only stopping for a local variation on the game ping pong. we eventually ended up in a club where we meet several more of the group we made introductions but no one was really in a fit state to remember all the names and background stories!

I rolled into my room around 2 am to find my room buddy was fast to sleep and to my suprise female. I spoke with her for a bit bit before a knock at the door and someone saying they were ment to be sleeping in the room I told her that I was infact booked into the room. she then went off to another room. turns out in the moring she was right she was suposed to be in the room but had dumped her stuff in someone elses room and gone straight out. I of course appoligized and was slightly embaressed as it wasn’t the best way to to meet 2 of my new fellow travellers.

The next day I woke and all 29 of us meet for a morning meeting. we explored Bangkok, first visiting the Grand palace which had a strict dress code I had to hire a pair of trousers that seemed to have come straight out of MC Hammers wardrobe. the palace is fantastic and glistened in the sunshine it was made of 1 inch square reflective tiles all across the outside of the walls and statues. after that we visited Wat Po home of the reclining buddha and the most famous temple in Thailand. there wasn’t much there except an 200 ft long buddha statue that was in a relaxed laying position it was also this temple I had my first of many Thai rain showers. we then headed across a river to another temple, Wat Arun which was a very steep climb similar but better maintained than the steep Cambodian Temple I’d visited a few days previously. the climb was worth it and I got some great pictures of the city sky scape. while very interesting and inspired me to do some further reading, by this point I was more than a little sick of visiting temples! I dread to think the amount of Buddha statues I’ve seen on the trip!

That evening we went for a welcome meal that was a ’traditional’ Thai meal, but was very westernised. we headed out again for pretty much a repeat of the previous evenings antics.