The Great Escape

Melaka Night Zoo, Malacca

2012-01-24T23:15:00.000-08:00

(this happened on 24th January)

So another late night means another late morning to follow.

I crawled out of bed around 10:30am – Sofia told me to go and get some breakfast (donuts) so she could sleep on, otherwise my fiddling on the computer and other stuff will keep her awake. So to the Big Apple Donut stand it was and another truly delicious coffee and donut combination. My intention was to follow it up with an hour or so’s wander around the town but first to the ATM machine to get some cash. Dam, dam and dam again none of my cards will work, twice already on this trip we have had to call the bank as they have put a security check on the cards, even though I have already told them our itinerary they obviously still don’t trust us with our own money, it’s a shame they did not look after all their customers as well as they seem to be looking after us! However after a phone call today it would turn out that the cards are fine so hopefully it’s a problem with the system this end and even more hopefully it’s sorted soon as the cash in hand runs out around lunchtime tomorrow I estimate! So after all the calling to the bank Sofia was obviously awake so she got up and dressed.

We need to find somewhere to go after Melaka which is not proving very easy, we are trying to keep our budget down. We were considering Tioman Island on the east coast but it would appear this is monsoon season and most resorts don’t open until March, there is one that we can afford that opens on Feb 1^st but so far my emails and calls have gone unanswered so that’s not looking good. So that idea is defunct, we need a new destination. I am sure there are hundreds of places to visit, but the ones we see are spread far and wide, plus because we are traveling with so much luggage and as a group of five, self driving is probably out of my comfort zone over here as the road craft is a bit dicey and I would rather leave the driving to others while here, although as we found out yesterday that’s not always the best option!

So we were reading the guide books, checking out the web sites and drawing lots of blanks. The Malaysian holiday industry has not fully embraced the internet , which means lots of Hotels either don’t have websites or, if they do they don’t have a way of booking rooms online or if they do they want you to give all of your details, credit card, passport number absolutely everything over non secure emails or web pages rather than HTTPs ons, I have already booked one hotel that way and I refuse to do it again, it’s a stupid thing to do once, to do it twice would be really asking for trouble. So we finally decided to try a place called Desaru – but of course all our attempts to book on line were futile, and all our emails went unreturned.

So although we check out on Tuesday we still have no idea where we are going or how we get there.

We eventually gave up and decided to go for a walk, Sofia in her nearly new and worn only once shoes she had bought in Manila, I was pleased as I really like them on her, well they lasted all of 50 yards from the hotel before one of them self destructed! Sofia had to hobble around barefooted until we could get in the mall and believe me the bloody pavements are hot! Now the problem we are having is shoe shops over here seem to stop at around size 39 for almost all there shoes and Sofia is a 41. Bit of a problem. She eventually found something, not perfect and sadly not as sexy as her recently defunct pair, but shoes until we can find something better.

We wandered over to the Chinese area (Jonkers Street).and were going to try Dr Fish again but they were closed, so we went for a drink and something to eat at a place called Calense Art Café, it was a good choice and we spent a leisurely hour or so there.

We headed back to the hotel where after a freshen up we were down in the lobby waiting for the driver (not the same one we had yesterday!) to take us to Melaka Night Zoo, we had decided against wandering around the zoo in the heat of the day. A lovely evening cool and pleasant and the animals were active, more so than in the heat of the day. We went on a little trailer train around the zoo, but also got to explore on foot, we arrived at 8:00pm and did not leave until 10:45pm. Sofia fell in love with the Slow Lorris and came nose to nose with a Bintarong. The biggest cobra I have ever seen impressive, the cloud leopard took our breath away, and we got very close to white rhinos, giraffes, elephants the works! We enjoyed the white civet cat but it was a bit smelly and the fruits bats…. Well they were very fruity.

OK it’s not the Singapore Zoo but the fact is we all had a really good few hours wandering around in the cool evening air and the fact that there were so few people meant it almost felt like a private viewing, recommended. The drive back just like the drive to the zoo was uneventful and so we took the drivers card for future use.

We got him to drop us at Jonkers and we wandered around a bit and by chance we found the same café Sofia and I had visited earlier, so we took the others in to enjoy the food and drink. We all had supper and played cards together, Gabrielle is a bit too good and keeps beating us at our own game. She and Sasha had, had their photos done at one of the booths, the type that lets you add loads of special effects, it was so good the owners put one up in the booth to attract new customers.

The stroll back to the hotel was pleasant and at around 1:00am.

Much more pleasant than a walk home from a pub or club in the UK, I did not hear anybody shouting out “what the F you looking at”? and the girls never had anybody shout “oy show us yer tits”. The more time I spend here, the less I want to go back to England, I really think I could enjoy living in Malaysia.

Hell Ride From A'Formosa

2012-01-24T23:09:00.000-08:00

(this happened on 23rd Janaury 2009) in Malacca

At 1:00pm we all met at reception, we asked the hotel to organize us a taxi to take us to the A’Famosa Waterpark and bring us back later.

We all piled in the vehicle which was being driven by an old man of I would say Chinese decent. Our day was about to really start, this guy was driving on his own special road, he would go up the inside of traffic cut in at traffic lights and approach junctions way to fast.He also did not seem to understand English. We were all clearly not comfortable with his driving, he actually hit the umbrella of s poor woman, he was just inches away from hitting her and a couple of times at junctions rolled back so that the cars behind us had to hit the horn, he did manage to get us there in about an hour. So after a very eventful journey we ended up at the waterpark.

For the next four hours, everything was sunny and relaxing, the waterpark is very good with a wave pool, a selection of waterslides a lazy river which Sofia and I were floating around while the girls read and sun bathed and Basty threw himself down every waterslide he could find in the park. The rubber rings were quite difficult for Sofia to squeeze over her bust and hips, she did get a bit stuck when she was washed into the shallows in the wave pool, I had to rescue her as she kept getting knocked over by the waves, very funny (for me). The girls eventually got in the water and I think they enjoyed themselves.

We watched a Gibbon put on a world class, Olympic gold medal winning performance on an island in the middle of a lake on the adjacent wild life park, it was a real joy to watch as it really looked like it was having a great time.

The weather was perfect, it was hard to see the muslim ladies covered from head to toe in black even when swimming and even worse was them not swimming while all their families did.

We all enjoyed ourselves and at 6:30 we all piled back into the taxi and he set off. The next hour and a bit was a very scary period, I don’t know what he had been up to while we were in the park but I suspect it involved either drugs or alcohol or both as his driving was worse by a magnitude. At one stage he was doing his usual trick of making his own road by going down the layby actually onto the grass verge, I look up quite shocked at what he was doing and as I did I realized he was closing fast on a cyclist and although in broad daylight he obviously was not seeing it, at the last minute I shouted out “what are you doing? STOP” at that he seemed to finally act and instead of smashing the bike straight up the back he caught him with the wing mirror at about 40mph depositing the cyclist on the road, I can not tell you any more than that as our hero did not stop, he just kept driving. I at that point should have stopped him and we all should have got out, but we were in the middle of nowhere we knew and so we stuck with it, our next adventure was when he got to a police checkpoint and seemed unwilling to stick around and talk to the police, at the check point it was also clear our driver was lost and we had to turn around, for the rest of the journey we were all very unhappy and a couple of times I screamed for the driver to get onto the right side of the road. Finally back at the Hotel, we reported him to the girl at the hotel reception desk, recommending they never use him again.

No one had eaten all day so we told the kids to get ready and we all headed out to the street market at Jonkers Walk.

As we walked through the mall there were Chinese dancers that we watched for a while, Sofia thought they were quite cute very gay guys who were more graceful than the girls, what do I know?

When we got to the street there was a man with bull whips who was putting on a show of punching his fingers into coconuts, we left the kids to watch and carried on down the street, we found the Limau Limau Café still open in the evening for a change, so we ducked in from the crazy heat and got fruit juice while we waited for the kids, we waited and waited but there was no sign of them so we ordered food, it came, we ate it and had some beer, still no children.

So we continued on through the market and waited up by the place we had discussed having food, they turned up as soon as we got there, so we fed them.

We all headed back to the market, Sofia’s new flip flops were hurting her toes so Basty kindly swopped shoes with me. The girls went off and we saw a huge iguana sitting on a mans shoulder and another man having a tattoo in the street.

So much colour and life and bats dancing above it all with Samba music playing and stars in the velvet sky.

Sofia, Basty and I headed back to the hotel.

We watched Boston Legal but could only watch one episode as the next one is the final episode.

2012-01-24T23:00:00.000-08:00

(this happened on 22nd January 2009)

First order today was to move rooms to one with a double bed, yeaaahhh.

We decided not to even try to wake up the kids, we just left them just stopping to tell them we had moved to a different room.

There is a very tasty looking doughnut place in the mall across the road, so that was where we were headed. The Big Apple is the name of the Doughnut place and having bought two I was surprised to find that a cup of coffee comes with a free doughnut as well, so I had to endure a third, Oh dear the things we have to do.

They were delicious and I will be back! Sofia and I then went for a walk though the mall because we needed some bathroom essentials. We enjoyed a gentle stroll and then went back to the room to drop things off.

Today is a ‘rest’ day so we decided to go to Limau Limau Café for some lunch, I had a very enjoyable lasagne and Sofia had some pitta bread with salad which she also enjoyed. We played some cards for a while, after that we wandered back though the wonderful Melaka streets to the Mall which we use as an air conditioned walkway to avoid the searing heat (as much as I love it) and we decided to find out what was on at the cinema – Inkheart at 7:00pm so we decided that would be good, we headed back to the hotel and knocked on the kids room door, they were still asleep (well what would you expect it was only 3:00pm) we told them to meet us at the cinema at 6:30pm and we returned to our new room to check out the net, and have a little read.

We met the kids outside the cinema, they were carrying a box of donuts!

It strikes me that the cinema although good quality and well priced is not as popular in Malaysia as it is in the Philippines or Thailand as this film was new in and the cinema was 98% empty and that was as busy as we have seen it.

Mind you, to be fair they do seem to have a lot of Malaysian language films so maybe they get the queues, either way it’s like having our own cinema, which is cool as it costs just GB£1.80 each. We all enjoyed the film (Inkheart).

Afterwards we went to Burger King as Basty had a major need for some degenerate western burger. I then headed out to get a massage, the girls were too late to have the photo booth session they had planned, so they went off to the park to take some pictures and apparently had quite a following, they then did karaoke in a near by KTV bar.

Sofia and Basty checked out the toast café (not it’s name but what it is), Sofia had whole wheat toast with coconut butter (yummy) and Basty had tuna toasties. When I returned Sofia was already in the room.

I spent a few hours updating the blogs and wandering the internet.

A Day Trip to Port Dickson, It's OK

2012-01-24T22:55:00.000-08:00

(this happened on21st January 2009)

After a crappy nights sleep in single beds!!! We got up and got ourselves ready,

We had arranged a driver to pick us up at midday and take us all to Port Dickson which according to both our guide books is a seaside resort that the KL residents head too at weekends, with dirty sludgy water and a 15km long beach, The Rough Guide says “The rather dismal strip of the coast” “polluted sea” “It’s not much more than a few shops and banks”. So you can imagine we were rather unsure about it, but decided to take a risk and, guess what?

Yep, we had a great time on a soft white sandy beach in a crystal clear, bath water warm sea. The road from Melaka to Port Dickson was full of interesting towns and lush greenery.

So we all went into town and ate at a very local only type of place (menu in Malay only), we choose blind a bit of a lucky dip but we enjoyed the food, especially the fact that it cost just about £1.20 each including drinks.

Our driver was superb, more than happy to take us around with a smile on his face.

Then we walked through the shops to try to find something to wear for swimming in because of course after reading the guide books we had not bothered brining anything with us.

Sofia got a tube of Malaysian fabric (very pretty) to wrap around herself, got Basty some shorts, Sasha can’t swim due to a new tattoo and I only wanted to play football and paddle anyway. We then drove back to the beach, at some shops there Gabrielle found a rather glam sarong in black with large red hibiscus blossoms.

Sofia’s flip flops which have lasted the last 2 ½ years finally died and the pavement was burning her feet so she basically grabbed the first pair of flip flops that would fit her.

The water was very, very warm and felt lovely and there were very few people on a very long beach. We stayed chillin’ on the beach until 6:30pm then headed back to Meleka which is about an hour drive. We saw monkeys on both trips and Sofia asked the driver if the rivers had crocs in them and he said yes.

Back at the hotel we freshened up ready for the evening. We also booked an extra two nights as there is still lots to do here and we also asked if we could move to a double bed tomorrow, we can.

Upon returning to Melaka we headed out for Sushi and all had our fill and enjoyed it. We also tried a place called Zen for coffee and beautiful looking cakes – but it was all illusion the coffee was shit as were the cakes. Leaving the kids back to the hotel then Sofia and I went to get massages, there was a 40 minute wait until 11:00pm so we went for a walk and found a café for a drink and some cards. The café seemed to specialize in toast, I must tell the kids they would love it. Chocolate Toast and Peanut Butter Toast were just two of the options.

Back at the massage spa, I had full body aromatherapy massage and Sofia had a foot massage.Back to the hotel for two more episodes of Boston Legal, only three episodes left.

Time to leave Kuala Lumpur and head back to Malacca

2012-01-24T22:46:00.000-08:00

Head from Kuala Lumpur back to Malacca

Up today packing and moving on again, back to Meleka but this time with Gabrielle coming along for the ride.

As much as we enjoyed the Hotel Puri our budget dictates that we need to start spending less, so back on the net and Trip Advisor (highly recommended) and a well reviewed but cheaper hotel was the Fenix Inn.

We already knew where it was and although not in the really cool Chinese area, it’s right next to the malls so all that will happen is we will be doing the same routes but in the other direction.

The van was waiting for us, the Malaysians do seem to be like us Brits as far as promptness goes – Germans or Americans could do with a few lessons.

The drive back to Melaka was again a joy, the Malaysian roads we have encountered so far are smooth and not to busy (except obviously in the centre of KL).

We were dropped at the hotel and soon had our bags in our rooms.

The Fenix Inn (Pheonix) does not have any of the beauty or charm of the Puri, but as hotels go, it is clean, the reception were very efficient and all the staff seem smiley. The rooms are small but clean and it does have the benefit of wired internet (although it is very slow)!

Once settled in the hotel we all set off towards Jonkers Walk (China town area) and to the Limau Limau café which is simply a relaxing and cool place to eat and drink.

Then a walk around the town through the mall (much cooler than walking the street way).

For the evening it was again Jonkers Walk and we had food and drinks at the Geographers Café. Very tired we headed back to the room for Boston Legal, we are getting dangerously close to the last episode.

From Mall to Mosque

2012-01-03T22:11:00.000-08:00

From Mall to Mosque

(this happened on 19th January 2010 in) Kuala Lumpur

This morning we have to pack up again to move rooms, so we woke the children and asked for all their dirty laundry.

We took all the laundry up the road to the laundry place we had used the last time we were in KL.

Another day in Kuala Lumpur and firstly off to a Mall with Sasha and Sabastian who both wanted to look at the IT mall – Sasha because she wants a SLR digital camera, but it was only looking today as She needs to do more research and Sabastian wanted some more PSP games. Basty found a stall doing game downloads but did not have his PSP with him so we promised we would come back again.

Basty was very hungry so we found somewhere to eat. I had a hot carrot cake and Sofia had Malay beef pie and Basty had a full on roast lamb and mint sauce, his was sadly seriously over cooked.

We headed back to the hotel to swap rooms from the 16^th down to the 7^th, these are cheaper rooms but not that different and much less smelly (cigarettes). As soon as the swap was done we headed down and jumped in a taxi and headed off to China Town. and walked up and down the awesome hawkers street.

I bought a nice Diesel (alike) canvas bag, Sasha and I discovered some really magical fluffy pancake and peanut things being cooked on stalls, so good they had to go back for more, Sasha also tried honey jack fruit.

Sofia got a couple of pressies for her friends after some strong haggling. Sasha got her name in studs to put all the way down her ear. As we walked all I could hear was ‘beautiful hair’ being said to Sasha. She had just freshly coloured it and it was glowing the brightest almost pillar box red.

The whole area was very exciting, like Patpong in Bangkok but bigger and better and without the sexy bars! We tried to walk to Little India but had to stop for a drink as we were all very hot. We walked on and then found some great little Bantam cocks that were posing proudly. We walked and found a craft and antique market (Central Market) then a really lovely Mosque just as the call to prayer started, but we still did not find Little India!

So as we were wilting in the heat, we all jumped into another cab and headed for the Petronas Towers instead. This city has some really wonderful buildings and such a diverse mixture. When we reached the towers Sofia could not look up, she found it too scary by far. We went inside, The first six floors is a large shopping Mall and the shops are all of the most expensive type. Louis Vuiton, Armani, Bulgari really all that kind of stuff, that does nothing for us, I guess it might be different if I was super wealthy and more importantly super shallow.

But we all paid 2 ringgets each to use the toilets and they were well worth the money.

On the way back to the hotel we also passed the KL Tower which also super tall, we can see it clearly from our hotel window at night and with the lights on it looks brilliant, in the cold light of day and seeing all the tower it’s not so impressive.

Basty wanted to go back to the first shop of the day to get his PSP games so off we all went. Whilst we waited for Basty to get his games, I went and got a hair cut, Sasha bought some rather cool shoes and we all wandered some more. In the morning we had the Mall to ourselves, it was now packed full of people.

We headed back to the cinema this time to watch The Spirit. Well if you enjoyed 300 and also Sin City and you think because all the advertising is telling you its made by the same people and stylistically the adverts look very Sin City don’t be fooled. It’s a steaming turd of a movie, frankly about half an hour in I was ready to walk out, I would suggest that at least half the audience had actually left well before the end. A serious disappointment. The person playing the Spirit was a complete non entity and Samuel L Jackson should be ashamed to be in this.

We all wished we had gone to see Bedtime Stories instead.

On the way out Sasha found a nice T-shirt. We walked back and up past our hotel to the Green Man pub, where we had some Tiger beer and played some cards. Basty had his new PSP games so it was just the three of us. Sofia just scrapped a victory.

Kuala Lumpur, A Cool Place To Be

2012-01-03T21:44:00.000-08:00

Kuala Lumpur, A Cool Place To Be

(This happened on 9^th January2010) Kuala Lumpur

Up and out of bed but not in time for breakfast surprise, surprise, we woke the children, zombies may have been a better description.

So just a month after our last (enforced) visit (due to the closure of Bangkok airport) we are back in Kuala Lumpur a place that is rapidly becoming one of my favorite cities. I was concerned that being a largely Islamic country that KL would be a very dull and stilted place. But take a walk around some of the cities malls and it reveals a lot of innovative designers and young teenagers with way out hair and clothing, lots of cool stalls and very reminiscent of the buzz that I used to get going to the now defunct Kensington Market in London back in the early eighties.

This city is alive with, designers, great and varied eateries, coffee places and good transport options, in fact it feels like a safer, newer version of London.

Today I started at Starbucks which allowed me to update my blogs and watch the world go by. Watching people go about their lives is always entertaining to me. We are very lucky our hotel the Radius International is in a great position close to the street with all the hawkers stalls and also some of the great big shopping malls.

China Town is a short taxi ride away as is the Petronas Towers. We all visited the big IT mall and also the even bigger Times Square mall. Lunch was at Kenny Rogers Roasters today, a chain that we have seen around Asia and yes it is THE Kenny Rogers the Country Singer.

We decided to go to the cinema to watch a film, to cool down and to rest our legs, we choose ‘Yes Man’ with Jim Carrey, Sofia does not really like him but the trailer had piqued her interest so we all went for it. We all seemed to enjoy it, which was good. The cinema once again was cheaper and better quality than anything back home. After that we wandered some more until somebody realised that Basty had left the shorts we had just bought him in the cinema, so we all traipsed back, he went back in to find them.

Needing a rest we headed back to the hotel, Sasha went off with her laptop, And the rest of us after a sit down and relax went out again, we found Sasha still at Starbucks she was in full flow and not about to stop, so we said we would get some supper and she could join us later, but we had finished some very good food with out her appearing, so afterwards we headed back to Sasha and arrived just as she was finishing up she joined us for some drinks and to play some cards, we played until we were all too tired and in need of our beds.

I hope that the rest of Malaysia can live up to expectation, the problem is KL sets the bar very high indeed.

From Manila to Kuala Lumpur Moving On

2012-01-03T20:48:00.000-08:00

From Manila to Kuala Lumpur Moving On

The following morning we were up ready for our flight to Malaysia.

We woke the children and while they were getting ready, Sofia and I went for a coffee and to play some cards at the outside cafe at the Bellagio Hotel on P. Burgos. Once back at the rooms we all went and said goodbye to Tess and Guyon, so nice to see them again.

We packed ourselves and our luggage into Pepe (Guyon’s Car), and RC drove us to the airport.When we got inside there was a large queue of people as we all had to have our luggage weighed before we even got to the desk! Ninoy Aquino Airport is about as dull as airports get, it’s a real shit hole and the fact they charge 750 pesos per person to go through it is the final insult.

We were really worried that we might have some problems as the sign said hand luggage could only weigh 7kg and you were only allowed one piece, we were over on all those counts. But we went through with out any problems, Phew! In the departure lounge we had a fruit shake while we waited for our flight to be called.

We flew into Kuala Lumpur airport our first visit to this airport and again we come to another airport that is head and shoulders above Manila.

The airport was very smart and easy to get around, not too long a queue at immigration, an efficient airport and very smart, we were soon holding our bags and had bought tickets for the Ekpres Train to Sentral Station, that was a short 28 minute comfortable ride and then out into the arrivals hall of that to the taxi stand paid for the taxi and straight to the hotel. Totally painless and easy, once again putting the Philippines to shame for it’s ease of use and clear easy to use signage.

Malaysian airlines has a very good video it plays on the flight in showing you all you need to know about getting though the airport, really useful and helpful. We choose the Radius International Hotel again as it’s close to the action and good value. We were booked in quickly and up to our rooms, we had forgotten to request non smoking rooms and my god did our room stink of cigarettes ffing horrible.

And Back to Manila and Fort Bonifacio Global City

2011-12-31T21:33:00.000-08:00

And Back to Manila and Fort Bonifacio Global City

(this happened on) 7th Januaury 2009 in Manila, Philippines.

Sabastions 13^th birthday, so we now have three teenagers!

RC picked us up and drove us back to Tagaytay to Sofia’s Mothers, she was wearing a new jacket that Sofia had bought her and looked a lot more chipper, Sofia is pleased that her last day with Mother (for the moment) is with some one on top of their circumstances and doing all they can to feel the best they can. Never underestimate mental strength, look the best you can and it will help you feel the best you can. That’s the philosophy of my Wife.

Got to Travellers Inn in Manila to our rooms on the 16^th floor.

Our rooms at the Travellers Inn were cheap and no complaints, the fact is we dragged our mattress onto the floor because the bed was a pile of shit, it seemed to be in danger of collapse so Sofia and I moved the mattress onto the floor and leaned the bed against the wall, saving us the embarrassment of being accused of breaking the it.

Also the TV did not work, but it was clean and cheap!!! We got what we paid for. Normally we would stay in some of the rooms that Guyon owns and lets out in the same building, but he was full.

The rooms we stayed in could not hold a candle to his, in terms of quality of fittings or cleanliness but it was for one night so no big deal!

Well one of the benefits of having to return to Manila for one night was that we would get to spend some time with Sofia’s brother Guyon and his Wife Tess. Guyon has lived in the Philippines for the past three years and seems to be enjoying life. So Guyon and Tess agreed to join us for Sabastions birthday meal Sabastion wanted to go to a Brazilian Churrascaria (BBQ) for his birthday meal, at Brazil the Brazilian Churrascaria at Bonifacio Global City.

We all piled into G’s car (pepe) and headed out to Bonifacio, it was packed, except our restaurant – The meal cost around GB£15 a head which is very expensive for the Philippines and frankly it was the worst churrascaria we have ever had, it was OK but that’s about all I would say for it.

G and Tess gave us all books with our Chinese horoscopes. Sofia and I are apparently Metal Ox’s, Sasha is a Metal Sheep and Basty a Water Boar. By the time we had finished eating Basty had done some extreme damage to the chocolate gateaux. Tess had backache and so it was time to go, we went back to their apartment and played some Scrabble, Then Sofia and I packed our bags again, We watched some Wire in the Blood. The children stayed up till 2:00am playing cards with G and Tess.

What If We Owned This Place

2011-12-31T21:24:00.000-08:00

What If We Owned This Place

Our time in Anilao at the Outrigger resort was wonderful. We spent a lot of time in the water. The highlights were Sasha and her need to swim down and poke things or hold on the reef and pull her face up to the little crevices and cracks to see who was home.

Sofia who is truly at home in the water and swam to the bottom picking up shells, and other interesting things. She also spent a long time studying the coral so that she could put lots of detail in her drawings.

The evenings were spent surfing the net or playing cards, one night I went up to the room to watch Boxing on the TV while Sofia watched some episodes of Wire in the Blood on my Mac.

The staff were friendly.

The list of food choices got shorter and shorter which was not very clever, these resorts really could do we a bit of Marketing 101 – the staff can be as friendly and they want but if they don’t clean the rooms, drop in new loo rolls or try to consider that if the menu says cheese burger and everyday it’s asked for the answer is they don’t have any, either get some of change the fffffing menu.

Again I get that annoying feeling in the Philippines that they don’t have a good marketing bone in their bodies, which is such a shame when you look at the potential of the country.

The Thai’s would tear them apart in any marketing contest.

That’s why my Son is learning to Dive in Pattaya, Thailand, when in his own words Anilao is ten times better, they market better and he is able to spend three months as an intern. He could not do that in Anillao and if he could he would go stir crazy practically trapped in a resort with nothing outside the door!

That being said we had a fantastic time and spent a lot of what if time.

What if we owned this place? That type of thing.

Snorkeling in Anilao and it’s AWESOME

2011-12-28T18:12:00.000-08:00

Snorkeling in Anilao and it’s AWESOME

This happened on January 4th 2009 in Anilao, Philippines

I am not that comfortable in open water, I have this real belief that I will drown. So when snorkeling I spend a lot of time concentrating on not going out too far over deeper areas, not water getting in my mask, I can hear every breath I take amplified in my head, I am always finding it hard to just enjoy myself. This I am sure will settle down after a few days but yesterday I swallowed so much water (and snorted!) that I did feed the fishes swimming around me with the contents of my stomach, Yep I swum to the shallows and puked quite impressively ooo about a half dozen times. But I kept going back out!

I was disappointed in the amount of rubbish on the ‘house’ reef. This area of about 100 meters long fronts the resort and you can swim within 25 yards of the shore and see all there is too see. The sad thing is there are a number of bottles (some broken), lots of cans, sweet and various other wrappers and even old clothes bobbing away on or near the bottom. The only reason people would go to any of these resorts in Anilao is for the water, the diving or snorkeling – there is nothing worth seeing outside the resort and with out the water all these places are basic (very) hotels with a sea view. So you would think the hotel would bother to keep it’s own reef clean.

Sofia swam around and filled up a plastic bag with rubbish and there would be no reason why the resort could not get one of it’s staff to do the same once a day.The staff don’t seem to bother sadly, there was a beer bottle sitting out towards the pool and the following day it was still there just waiting to be picked up and put away or possibly thrown into the sea creating more broken glass. It’s something I have seen in the Philippines before, last year we went to a place called Lago De Oro, this was firstly one of the most uncomfortable hotel’s I had ever stayed at, way over priced and the staff could not wait to shut the bar and stop serving as early as 7:30am and believe me there once again is nothing outside of this so called ‘resort’ that you would go to. The hotel was right on the beach and the beach was only shallow maybe 10 yards deep and 50 yard frontage to the hotel – yet that beach looked like a rubbish tip, the staff could not care less about going out and picking up the rubbish and with absent (overseas) owners not looking over their shoulders not much was getting done.

In Thailand the beach would be clean and out side of the resort there would be bars and restaurants, shops selling all types of goods and a real reason to go to the area. This I guess is why the Philippines government counts returning Filipinos who work overseas as visitors, without then the visitor figures would be embarrassing for a country with so many potentially amazing places to visit. It’s a real opportunity lost. What these places need are big business to take them and shake them up, because the Philippines could be as popular a place for real visitors to visit as Thailand if they tried.

So January 4^th in Anilao and the sun is shining brightly for the first time in a few days and looking out over the sea all is well with the world. Sofia and Sabastian headed off straight after breakfast to go snorkeling and I followed a little bit later, Sasha was feeling unwell so stayed in bed. Sofia and Sabastian had swum around the headland and being lazy (and a weak swimmer), I walked around it before joining them. Once in the water the myriad numbers and the amazing colours of the fish overwhelm. You don’t have to swim out miles, you can literally put a mask and snorkel on and put your face in six inches of water and be surrounded by fish, Anilao is a truly amazing place to snorkel or indeed even more so for those who can Scuba. On my way to swim over to them I was lucky enough to see a sea snake, yes, they are deadly poisonous, but they are gentle unthreatening creatures who show no aggression and really are no problem, unless you do something stupid.

We found a big reef and literally hung over it and swum around it for a couple of hours, the views were amazing. It’s too difficult to describe the views, just imagine the best aquarium you have ever been too and imagine it going on for miles and miles, life happening all around. In the sunshine the colours are so much brighter we headed around the headland to the next cove along which had a lovely reef, really full of fishes and corals, we saw a couple of good sized eels, lion fish, puffer fish and so, so much more. The water was quite amazing with temperature changes all over, from warm to cool from one spot to the other. This whole area is basically on old volcanoes and certainly there are still regular earth quakes in the area.

After our swim we were starving and had some lunch, Sasha joined us and after lunch we all headed to the water. Basty and Sasha headed for a peddelow and Sofia and I hit the snorkels again. Later on Sasha and Basty again joined us in the water and we all swam around happily until it started to get dark.

We showered and went for food. Sofia and I watched a couple of episodes of Boston legal before heading for bed, happy and tired. I realised that Sofia had burnt her back and I had burnt the back of my knees and legs.

We went to sleep, with a little gecko guarding our bathroom.

Sofia loves being in the water as she can forget all her various maladies and certainly run rings around me in the water.

No puking today, so I am relaxing a bit more and really enjoying being in the water.

Outrigger Resort, Anilao, Philippines

2011-12-28T17:57:00.000-08:00

This happened on January 3rd 2009, At Anilao, Philippines

Another cold, wet and windy day. Sofia’s Mothers helper was bashing about in the kitchen waking everybody up, Sofia’s Mum is staying in bed feeling really rough today, she can never admit to being frail or needing time out, (must be where Sofia get’s it from).

So Sofia took her breakfast before we left at about 11:00am with RC driving us. He is a good driver and we found our way to Anlao about 90 minutes away by car with out incident.

We wanted to go to Anilao as this place has some amazing snorkeling opportunities (or for those who scuba – even more amazing opportunities 20+ dive sites). Stefan who has spent the last few months diving off of Pattaya in Thailand told us it could not get anywhere near Anilao for beauty or variety of fish.

We arrived at our resort, the Anilao Outrigger Resort after a fairly easy ride down, passing through the Batangas countryside. Outrigger is right on the sea front and is down a steep hill!We were shown to our rooms which were very simple but had all you could need.Double bed, single bed, TV with multi channels, aircon, bathroom and balcony overlooking the sea. The bar/restaurant is right over the water.

Frankly this is an amazing place easily mistaken for a version of paradise, indeed I think it would be if you could just pop out in your car to the local supermarket , bar, casino and cinema, unfortunately they don’t exist! In fact the biggest problem I have with this area is really there is nowhere to go to outside of the resort, it’s not really very visitor friendly, take for example Thailand, there would be tuk tuks outside the resort ready to whisk you off, there would be myriad stalls selling food, the Thais are so much more adept at taking the holiday dollar from those looking to spend.

Although I suppose that paradise really should not have those type of things, it should be a beautiful place with lapping waves and myriad (underwater) wildlife, which of course it is.

Now we have been to Anilao before, well Sofia and I have, Sasha and Basty had not. We stayed at Eagle Point resort last time just along from where we are.

The water looked so inviting that once we had checked in and had some lunch Sofia dragged everyone off to get fins, masks and snorkels and we were in the clear warm water which was oooooo about 5 yards away! Not quite as good as Eagle Point house reef but still ten times better than Pattaya, so if the sun comes out it will be great

Sasha and I were sick from swallowing too much salt water. We saw a giant clam, a sea snake, lion fish, parrot fish and many more including some quite large unidentified fish. We could do with Stefan or Guyon here to tell us what is what.

OK, I will be honest the reef is not as good outside the Outrigger resort as the one outside of Eagle Point but we had only swam within a few yards of the shore on the ‘house’ reef and that was already better than anything the kids saw snorkeling on Christmas Day at Pattaya in Thailand. Even though the day was overcast it was still a magical, experience this is the worlds biggest aquarium!

It’s places like this that the Philippines should sell all over the world, it really is a stunning place to visit, the problem is the infrastructure does not support it, there is no obviously easy way to travel from Manila to Anilao, probably an unsafe overcrowded bus. To be fair it was possible to book Outrigger online and it’s website did work, many others I tried in the area did not, That’s why we stayed here instead of Eagle Point in fact (lost business!) This whole area of Anilao is full of dive resorts and a nice air conditioned coach service from Manila serving all these resorts would surely be a success. Without the advertising and transport Anilao will be a mystery to all bit the scuba diving fraternity, that’s a shame as it’s quite something.

Sasha did not join us for supper as she did not feel too well. We played cards and Basty beat us game after game right up to the last hand when Sofia swept in and exacted revenge and took away his victory. In our room we watched Boston Legal and also a quite compelling program on rites of passage (called Taboo) boy are some cultures cruel to their youngsters.

And The There Were Four

2011-12-28T17:51:00.000-08:00

this happened on Janaury 2nd 2009, in Tagaytay, Philpiines

Early this morning we posted Stefan off to Manila, ready for his flight back to Thailand and we will be packing tonight ready for our trip (about 90 minutes) to Anilao, where we will spend four days hopefully snorkeling in the lovely warm (I hope) waters, loaded with fish.

When we were here last year Sofia and I were lucky enough to find Nemo, also I saw a turtle and a sea snake as well as millions of other fish.

Stefan has told me that where he is in Thailand (Pattaya) has nothing like the quality of diving off Anilao. It’s a truly magical place.

It had been such a windy night, it howled through the corridors all night, the acoustics in the new part of the hotel are really bad, all the sounds amplified many times.

Sofia and her Mother went out to do the shopping, Sofia got some supplies for our time in Anilao. She cooked us some burgers when she got back, and then spent some time with the stray cats and then Sasha and her watched Sex and the City the movie and she cried, I reckon that movie would be enough to make anybody cry.

Tonight we get to sleep in Guyon and Tes’s room (Brother and Sister in Law) as they are not here. Sasha slept on the pull out sofa bed and Sabastian slept on the sofa at the end of the bed.

A New Years Day Kitten Story

2011-12-26T09:35:00.000-08:00

this happened on New Years Day 2009 in Tagaytay, Philippines

Last night was New Years Eve and the night was alive with firecrackers from early evening, come midnight the whole area sounded like a war zone. There were some traditional fireworks but mainly just the continual bang bang bang of firecrackers. Sofia and I drove back to the hotel around 1:30am and all the streets were quiet.

At around 10:30am this morning we walked out of the hotel to the van, there was a shock for us. Underneath the van was standing a little kitten, it was clean but pretty miserable and meowing at us, Sofia recognized it immediately as one off the two kittens that hang around the mother in laws house and have been unofficially adopted, although not allowed in the house they do get fed everyday.

The reason the kitten was so clean was because Sasha had washed both of them yesterday! We could only assume that the Kitten amidst all the firecrackers had taken refuge somewhere under the van and had then endured the two mile journey back to our hotel.

A very lucky kitty, if it was just me, I would not have recognized it, luckily for us all Sofia is more inclined to notice things like this, l would have left it behind However when reunited with it’s fellow kitten there was no doubt they were brother and sister.

The weather here while much warmer than all our friends back in the UK are experiencing, is still miserable with an almost continual drizzle.

One other aspect of our lack of action is also a lack of new photographs..

Stefan will be going back to Thailand on January 2nd, to continue his Dive Course, he has to retake a couple of exams to complete his Dive Master course and then will start his Instructor Development Course (IDC) and Emergency First Response Instructor course (EFRI). This whole course has cost an arm and a leg but as parents we wanted to give him every opportunity in the world.

His future was not going to be academic and I don’t think he holds any future great medical breakthroughs, so at least we are giving him the chance to travel the world doing something he enjoys. Although much to our horror he does seem to have his heart set on joining the Army.

Here’s some input from Sofia:

I put the washing on and did the kitchen chores and then started peeling vegetables. We wanted to take everybody out to Taal Lake but the weather is horrid and no one seemed up for it. So I started preparing lunch of roast chicken and sweet potatoes, ubee (a purple and white root veg), stuffing which I had to make from scratch and garlic mushrooms. When it was all prepared and ready to cook I turned around to find NO Oven in the kitchen! The oven is outside in the gale force winds and drizzle and it was not plugged in. It took quite a while to get it up and running, put the dinner in, I checked it ten minutes later and the oven was not heating at all, I tried all the buttons again with mother prodding them to and at last it seemed to work. When I thought it was ready I went out and pricked the chicken to make sure they were cooked and the juices were clear and they looked great but when I had gotten the whole kit and kaboodle in to the house and on to the table the chicken was rare in the centre, so after all the work the dinner was crap!

We cooked some of the chicken in the microwave and everyone had something to eat and the rest of the chicken went back in the oven. When it came out again about an hour later all crispy, the boy’s all fell on it like jackals.

Mother went off for a sleep, she overdoes it constantly.

We stayed around until about 8:30pm just chilling as a family, then we headed out to our hotel.

I was in need of salad so we played some cards while I ate a Caesar salad.

Back to the room for Boston Legal, the first episode we watched was about dying daddies and I got really tearful, so we watched another episode to cheer me up.

-------------------------------------------

And here’s an apology for all English scholars

My ability at writing the English language is flaky at best, I am never sure at what point to input punctuation, I also although actually being pretty good at spelling do tend to misspell the same words over and over and although I always spell check, it actually fails to spot correctly spelled words that are in the wrong place! Also of course somebody somewhere in computer land decided that all bloody spell checkers should be American English and so some times I can’t be bothered to correct words like specialized to specialised (although actually I prefer the American version). I type too fast for my small brain and I am rubbish at checking what I have written before posting it. So that’s it, no excuses just simple mistakes and bad grammar, live with it or travel it’s more fun.

New Year in Tagaytay

2011-12-25T17:23:00.000-08:00

This happened on New Years Eve in Tagaytay, Philippines

I’m having a day off from blogging so again Sofia takes the writing reins, take it away Sofia.

Not up in time for breakfast this morning so straight off to mothers. She was upset as Loyloy had boil washed the sheer curtains and then hot dried them so they were full of wrinkles. I set to and started ironing them, there were 22! I got all but the last 6 done. I also got all our washing done and I ironed as well.I cooked curry for everyone and did not get to sit down until 8pm totally exhausted, what with the rug laying, curtain hanging etc.

Sasha decided to bathe the two stray kittens to make them a little more palatable to Granny. Their mummy did not take her eyes off of them, she is a lovely little cat, already heavily pregnant again. I am quite surprised that mother has not scooped her up and had her neutered, it really is a sweet natured little cat.

I managed to get mother to have a lay down after dinner. I don’t know how she keeps going the way she does, she really wears me out. Mother was up again at 9:00pm.

I made the boys tuna sandwiches and Mother sat with them and watched Pirates of the Caribbean. Alan had spent most of the day trying to book a hotel in Anilao and totally got stressed as he found it impossible to book anywhere using on-line booking. Then he decapitated one of mothers parian figurines, she took it fairly well. I quietly superglued it back together. I helped mother get better acquainted with Facebook and we spoke to Magali in France (a family friend) on line, which was lovely. We all toasted the New Year in with some bubbly wine or shandy in Sabastians case and cornflakes in Sahsa’s.

We watched Blades of Glory with Sabastion and then left for the Hotel around 1:30am

Tagaytay Philippines (pt 2)

2011-12-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

(this happened on) December 30th 2008, in Tagaytay, Philippines

So for the last few days we have basically been camped out at the Mum in Laws just being lazy.

Barbara my Mum in Law is quite amazing for a lady of her age who is undergoing Chemotherapy, she is in a surprisingly robust state of both physical and mental health. Good to see.

Sofia really needed to see her mum as she herself has been through full on Cancer treatment herself some 11 years ago, her treatment included both chemo and radiotherapy so she truly knows what her mum is going through.

I have been trying to organize some rooms at our next destination which is in Anilao (Batangas) where we want to take the kids in the lovely warm clear and fish filled waters to snorkel.

But as I am sure I have mentioned before the Philippines really is not actually that good at helping foreign visitors get around and book things.

So I tried contacting a couple of the dive resorts, both via their websites – which with few exceptions did not work properly and also by telephone where I was 100% on the numbers shown on the screen not working!

These people can obviously thrive without making it easy to book rooms.

So with just a couple of days to go we still have not managed to book anywhere.

Anilao is not a place that you want to drive to with the hope of just pulling up at a hotel and booking a room.

Most of these resorts are down amazingly steep long, badly paved roads or lanes and usually you have to park at the top and take the resort transport down to the resort. I wonder if they would be keen to take you back up if you did not book in after they took you down!

If we do actually manage to book somewhere then we really will fall off of the blog map for a few days as I do not think any of our chosen resorts even know what wifi is!

We will actually be out of touch for up to five days before finally heading back to Malaysia for the next couple of months.

I also tried to go to the casino in Tagaytay, a place I have been too a couple of times before.

Upon entering the place was buzzing, a very good singer held many of the visitors spellbound and the rest were surrounding the tables 3 or 4 deep.

I don’t normally play card games in a casino preferring roulette. The two roulette tables were besieged and after waiting for half an hour I knew I would not manage to get near enough to lay a bet.

I had a wander around the card tables the price to play was way beyond my meager gambling stack, the cheapest table was 300 peso which is about $6.50 and most of the tables were more like $22 a hand.

I like to visit a casino for a fun time losing two of three hands and going back to my room is not my idea of fun.

I tried to find a video poker machine sadly most of them looked way beyond there best, those that were working were almost all taken and the few that were not did not seem willing to accept my 500 peso notes.

So sadly even the Casino’s in the Phillipines don’t make it easy to spend your money. After an hour or so I went back to the hotel to sleep.

Welcome to Tagaytay, Philippines

2011-12-25T17:09:00.000-08:00

(this happened on) 30^th December 2008, in Tagaytay, Philippines

We will be at my Mum in Laws in Tagaytay through the New Year leaving around 3rd January and we don’t really have any transport, so are unable to travel to much around the area. There are of course Jeepney’s which I am afraid are a complete mystery to me and frankly all look to be polluting heaps of metal usually with bald tires and no lights or brakes and absolutely no safety features to speak of, not something I wish to experience. So I won’t have much to write over the next few days while we chill out.

So today we got up, showered and down stairs in time for breakfast (a miracle), some of the staff at the hotel recognized us from our former visits.

After breakfast we made our way to Sofia’s Mothers. The children had all been up most of the night and were therefore sound asleep. So Sofia left Me at the computer and She went out with her Mother, RC and Loyloy (her gay housekeeper) and they went to the market.

So today for a special treat I will let Sofia tell you what she got up to.

I had bought aubergines, onions, tomatoes and mushrooms ready to make a spagbol tonight. We also had mangosteens, melons, oranges, apples and mangos to keep Sasha happy. I could not really cope with the sights and sounds of the meat market, cows heads lying on the ground at the stalls, their tongues lolling out, flies everywhere and the SMELL. So, I went and looked at the plants with Mother instead. She really enjoys talking to all the stall holders about her garden and which plants she wants. But needed we needed more stuff from the supermarket, so we went to the recently opened Robinsons supermarket, it was heaving with people.

We managed to get the rest of the stuff we needed for dinner and for tomorrow nights curry as well as I had found some lovely Ocra at the market. We stocked up on drinks for the children and chocolate for Alan.

We then needed to go to the Tagaytay hospital to check on when Mother could have her injections, but it was completely shut up and empty, so she will have to try again on the 2nd January.

I checked with RC and Mother whether he would take us down to Anilao on the 3^rd and bring us back on the 7^th, then up to the airport on the 8^th after we had said goodbye.

I then showed Mother my pictures on facebook and showed her the pictures on the Chagford filmmakers site of Peerie Fool. Then after I suggested she give Loyloy New Years off and send him off to enjoy himself, I settled down to make spagbol. The kids were all up for a bit of home cooked grub. We all ate too much.

Sasha is very enamoured with the little family of cats living on the back door step.

They are awfully friendly and keep wanting to move in but, mothers two Siamese are not going to have that. I Gave the kids ice creams then Alan ad I headed off to Taal Vista hotel. When we got back in they told us the lifts are now working huurah!

We couldn’t watch Boston Legal as Alan has left his laptop at mothers to down load the next season of Boston Legal as mother has a superfast internet connection.

I read my book and he watched Football on TV. He went over the road to the Casino for a little flutter but it was sooooo packed he could not get near a roulette table, so he came back.

(Thank you Sofia)

From The City To The Volcano - Manila to Tagaytay

2011-12-21T17:55:00.000-08:00

(this happened on) Monday 29^th December 2008 – From Manila to Tagaytay

Well we have to check out of the hotel by 12:00 but are we not expecting to get picked up until around 3:00pm.

My wife’s Mother now lives in the Philippines and is unfortunately undergoing treatment for cancer, the prognosis is very positive and according to my Brother in Law who also lives in the Philippines the treatment she is getting is superb. Sofia has not seen her Mum for about 14 months and the children (except for Stefan) have not seen their Grandmother for over two years when she left England for the Phills, so this is a big day for everybody.

We booked out at midday and then sat in reception waiting to be picked up, Sasha had forgotten her iPod and left it in the room, but, luckily the Hotel staff found it before we left. The kids had lunch over the road (Shakey’s Pizza) while we watched the bags, then they watched them while we ate some very mediocre fare there as well. We did not eat much so I got it bagged up and gave it to some of the street people. There are whole families sleeping on the streets around the hotel and some sleeping on the roofs of cars. We always try to buy food for the street people but on this trip they seem to have become more pushy for money.

My Mother in Law turned up earlier than expected and for somebody who had just undergone her latest bout of chemotherapy she looked very good. We headed down to Tagaytay and dropped the kids off at Grandma’s, RC (the driver) took Sofia and I off to find a hotel.

We tried Days, it was full to the brim for the holidays., wWe tried the Royal Parc Hotel, nothing royal about it, we looked at a room and it was full of mosquitoes, worse than basic, it was shabby with a capital S. the Royal Park was ok for those on a strict budget but bloody hell it would have to be very strict and anyway considering the quality of the room it would not be money well spent.

So sod the expense we headed to the Taal Vista hotel, this would be our third visit and this time in the new wing. This is almost four times more expensive than the Royal Park but really we need somewhere nice to stay in Tagaytay.. It has a fantastic view over the Volcanic lake below. They are having a soft opening of their new block so we got a better price but still more than we really should be spending. We are on the second floor, no working lift (yet) and miles of corridors.

The Taal Vista has one very big positive in my eyes it is across the road from a casino! Casino Filipino is a real fun place with live music, happy croupiers and enough second hand smoke to ensure almost certainly that your health will suffer at sometime in the future! But the Casino was for another day.

Back at Sofia’s Mothers, her Brother was on the phone so she had a chat with him, it was good to hear his voice but she was sad we had missed him whilst in Manila.

The children had all made themselves comfortable, Sofia cooked everyone ham and eggs on toast but they had all been piggling the naughty their Uncle had left for them, things like crisps, cakes breakfast cereal, pot noodles etc.

Well the lack of transport struck again with the net result I had to drive my mother in laws car to our hotel. I asked her if we could get a taxi but she said there were none. She may be living in the area but after two years she still has not sussed out the travel options so what chance have we got. We had a few mishaps trying to work out which side of the road we were supposed to be on, but we did it! I am sure the locals know the local transport options but they just are not clear for foreigners which is crazy as Taal Lake offers a real world class amazing view and attracts many visitors.

We went into the bar and had a san mig and played some cards in the lounge area the waitress had to check if we were allowed to play cards before retiring to our rather pleasant room We watched some Boston Legal and then sleep.

It's A Mall, Mall, Mall, Manila World

2011-12-21T17:17:00.000-08:00

(this happened on) 28^th December 2008 Manila, Philippines

Up very late and even later before we got the children up and at ‘em.

Today was our last full day in Manila. I may be seriously wrong but on my visits to Manila it has never struck me as a city to walk around, a city of interesting places, and again it’s poor transport choices do not make getting around easy.

So, today we all headed out to the malls all squeezed into a cab, this time Glorietta, Landmark and Greenbelt a linked collection of massive malls with everything from designer gear, through to the usual chains and also some small local designers. Lot’s of electronics stores, cinemas, restaurants, cafes and bars.

There is another major mall in Manila called the Mall of Asia which is allegedly the largest mall in Asia, that may be technically true but it’s actually not that exciting a place – Today’s choice on the other hand is a full on day of exploring all the nooks and crannies of multiple malls.

We had a spot of lunch at a grill restaurant and then we walked more miles through all the interlinked malls, trying hard to steer clear of book shops (our collective weakness). We had an enjoyable day of strolling, all the cinemas are taking advantage of the local holidays by showing only local films so there was no opportunity to show our children that even the Philippines cinemas are better than those back home. But believe me they are, except for the national Philippine pastime which is texting and goes on throughout the films. These folks are going to have the fastest strongest thumbs in the world.

Stefan insisted that we ate at Gerries a superb restaurant and his favourite in Manila, it was very full with an hours wait.. So we found a bar on the street so we could all sit outside and we had San Mig Lite and played cards, Sabastion was unbeatable. Then when it was time it was back to Grerries. Stefan went for Blue Marlin Steak, I chose probably the finest fried chicken I had ever had. Sasha continued her Club Sandwich world tour but was not impressed. Basty had very nice and juicy looking spare ribs and Sofia decided to try all local dishes, which was fairly interesting, but I’m not sure if she would repeat the choice. We headed back to the hotel and after some Boston Legal hit the sheets.

Tomorrow we will get picked up by my Mother in Law who now lives in the Philippines and taken down to her home in Tagaytay which is right on the side of a still active volcano in the middle of a lake created by an even bigger volcano. Compared with Manila it is cooler and fresher less hectic and offers amazing views.

Fort Bonifacio, Modern Manila Rocks

2011-12-18T21:25:00.000-08:00

Today we were all late to rise but Sasha took the biscuit and we did not even get out of the Hotel until 3:00pm.

We decided to head out to Port Bonifacio Global City and Market Market. This is a new built area in Manila that is going up on the old American air base. We visited this while here last year and were very impressed. Well let me tell you the changes in just twelve short months are nothing short of amazing. Basically this is what a modern city could look like if they were given a blank canvas. This place has grown massively since our last visit and there is now a Bonifacio High Street, this whole area is be the finest shopping and entertainment area in the city.

There are big walkways, nice water park areas, loads of café and restaurant choices, totally awesome. Makati will struggle to maintain it’s position as the must live place in Manila with Bonifacio just down the road. If it were my money (and you need plenty of it) and I wanted a city position with a café lifestyle then this place is truly world class. My only concern might be the dependence of the car getting in and out – this place would really benefit from a monorail being laid to it’s door or even a fleet of modern air conditioned buses, both unlikely. One nice thing I did see at Bonifacaio were electric tuk tuks – that really is the future. Manila has too much of a reliance on the quaint but crappy and seriously unsafe polluting Jeepneys, or the cities fleet of taxi’s which by and large are all on their last legs, most of which if they have a meter the drivers have an aversion to putting it on, the usual state of these machines is to have the petrol low light on and for the brakes to sound and feel like they may never stop the vehicle. They often have aircon written on the side, don’t let that worry you it does not actually mean they have it! If you can judge a city by it’s taxis and airports then Manila really is in a bad way.

For those who have never been to Thailand and the Philippines one look at both of these area’s will show you that Thailand is on a much more modern course than the Philippines. It goes back to what I said about the Holiday Industry in both countries, Thailand has courted the holiday makers from around the world and works hard to get them and when they arrive they service them really well. The Philippines with it’s misguided belief that returning countrymen count as tourists and it’s really poor infrastructure, lack of use of the internet by the holiday industry will always lag behind, even though it is equally as beautiful and has the big positive of mostly speaking English. It’s truly sad, I have considered living in the Philippines but every time I visit the place it always just seems too difficult, but still I am drawn towards it!

That being said Bonifacio Global City and various other places I have visited in the Philippines recently shows that they can do it right, the business people really are progressive and are to be admired. The government is so corrupt that the money does not get through to sort the infrastructure out, getting around in Thailand is easy lots of nice modern coaches, or taxis. In the Philippines I truly feel stranded and that puzzles me because it’s a well known fact that Thailand is it’s self struggling with corruption and often times seems to be on the point of either civil war or collapse, yet they manage to sort out the infrastructure as if they realize it’s the way to get people to visit, make life easier for them when they want to get around.

We finished off our day by returning to the hotel and then heading out to a bar we know called the Coca Cabana, great food and beer and a nice atmosphere. Basty was a whiz at cards tonight and wiped the floor with us. This was an enjoyable day In Modern Manila.

I know it sounds like I have a downer on the Philippines but I really don’t, so much of the country is beautiful, the people provide superb service and are very friendly. The infrastructure and lack of social welfare are it’s big weaknesses.

From Thailand to the Philippines

2011-12-17T19:02:00.000-08:00

Boxing Day 26th December 2008, From Thailand to Manila, The Philippines

OK, today it’s all up early check out of hotel and off to Bangkok airport for our flight to the Philippines.

Sofia was a little worried that Stefan would get so out of it that he might not turn up, but no worries Stef turns up nice and early although he had not been to bed!

The mini bus also turned up on time and we had a pleasant ride to the airport and from there on everything was easy and fast. I have been to this airport a few times and I find it very pleasant, easily the best one I have been to, right up there with Changi (Singapore). We checked in with out any problems and then headed on through to departure. We split up for lunch the boys doing Pizza and Burger King, and the girls doing Deli Sandwiches and Salads. Sofia got a couple of gifts for her Mum in duty free. Really as smooth as silk. The flight is little more than a short hop and we landed in the Manila (easily the worst airport I have been to).

We did not have a hotel booked, so when I see a lady with a sign for the City Garden hotel I asked her if we could hop a lift and she called the hotel to confirm availability and the rates. it would have been one of our two first choices as we know where it is quite well, so this was an opportunity We did have to pay for the ride to the hotel but it was all easy and we could not turn it down.

Arriving at the City Garden we booked in and headed up to our deluxe two bed suite, DOH!!!! OK so it was all going too well, the woman we had spoken too quoted us a price for what we believed was two rooms, one sleeping three the other two, what we actually got was one room with a double bed and a single bed for five of us! And they thought that was OK. I went back to reception but got nowhere other than being offered a second room doubling our cost per night, so, I headed out to the Makati Palace Hotel which was our other choice. Bottom line was it still would have cost roughly the same if not slightly more so moving was not worth the effort. So after arranging the other room we were slightly annoyed but what can you do?

One of the biggest problems with the Philippines is that the travel industry really has not embraced the internet to the extent that other Asian countries have, most of the hotels own sites make it almost impossible to find how to book or do not even have an option, only the very expensive places get it right. Mind you this is a country that is so poor at attracting holiday makers compared to all it’s near neighbors that it counts the famous OFW’s in it’s visitor numbers (Overseas Filipino Workers), these are the people that are the countries biggest export, the people that provide a huge influx of overseas cash monthly as they send regular sums back home. And in a delusional way the Philippines counts them as tourists without which the visitor numbers would be embarrassing for a country with so many places to visit.

Even the in flight magazine for Philippine Airlines had what I considered an embarrassing advert for people wanting to retire to the Philippines, of the four people they featured one of them was actually born and bred in the Philippines and had returned after working in the USA, surely they could have tried a bit harder.

I decided to pop round to the local 7 Eleven which is on the infamous P.Burgos Street just around the corner from our hotel and a place I have visited many times before. I don’t know if it is as a result of the economic turn down or some other reason but since our last visit something major has changed! There were always beggers, hawkers and people sleeping on the streets but none of them were aggressive. Now it’s a continual stream of people pushing Viagra, DVD’s etc in front of your, try saying no to that and they offer you women, no to that and it’s quickly onto drugs, saying no is no longer enough, they literally follow you to the door of the 7 Eleven and then pick you up on the way back, the streets I would say have at least three times more families living, sleeping, surviving on them, the beggers are more aggressive and in a new twist there seems to be loads of street whores offering massage!

This area of Manila (Makati) is supposed to be the business capital, the area around P.Burgos has turned into a nasty disgrace that the local mayor or the national government should take note of. The Philippines has more than it’s fair share of terrorist groups, from the MILFs to the communists ——— etc etc and if the country continues like this they will never have any shortage of new recruits who are angry with their lot in life. I used to really enjoy Makati and Sofia and I would sit on P.Burgos outside the Bellagio for hours playing cards and watching the world go by. I really did not feel comfortable out on the street today in a way I never have before anywhere in the world.

We scoop up the kids and head out to Rockwell and the Powerplant Mall. This is new Makati, big modern skyscrapers, lots of money and lots of monied people and a very pleasant atmosphere, but it cannot go on like this, surely one day if the poor are not considered and helped, one day it could all explode in a big uprising.

Rockwell is right up there with any mall in any country, it has all the usual names, lots of wonderful local and international food options, it’s very easy to forget that outside people are sleeping in the streets, just like any big city except in places like London it’s usually a drunken bum, while here it’s a full on family including babies, something should be done.

Stefan recommended the Banana Leaf café for dinner, Sofia had beef randang as her brother said how good it is. It was very coconutty and she had it with aubergine, she wished she had more room to eat it all, it was good. I was not so keen on my spare ribs in coffee sauce.

We returned to our room Sofia had a hot bath after we had shown Sasha and Basty where their uncle Guyon lives. After her bath she did some writing and read while I went off to find an internet connection.

Merry Pattaya Christmas, Scuba in the Sun

2011-12-17T06:17:00.000-08:00

Christmas Day, Pattaya, Thailand 2008

So the morning after the night before and we are up at 6:45am – on Christmas Day, it’s just like being a kid again, except of course we are not going to be rummaging though our Christmas stocking, oh no we are going out on a boat as Stefan is taking us Snorkeling, when I say us I don’t mean me I am uncomfortable in deep open water, so I was in for a nice relaxing day in the sun sleeping off some of yesterdays crimes!

We met Stefan at the Mermaids dive shop and after sorting out the kit for their snorkeling it was time for a bacon and egg sandwich, yum Christmas breakfast!

Once we had got fins, masks and snorkels sorted it was quite a long wait for everyone else to turn up and get sorted. Stefan was wearing aa xmas hat that he said he was wearing all day, even to dive in.

We got in a mini bus and went to the quay at Pattaya and climbed on board Mermaid 1, heading out for the far islands about 70 minutes away, quite a bouncy sea, so a few seasick people Surprise, surprise a lot of Russians were on the trip., Pattaya is infected with them and it’s not a good thing.

I relaxed while Sasha, Basty and Sofia put on their gear and chucked themselves into the sea with Stefan

Sofia reported tthat here were quite a few different species of fish and some corals but she said much less than we saw last year in Anilao in the Philippines, but it was great to watch Stefan teaching Basty and Sasha they both did very well.

Bless Basty he said to Sofia ‘Mummy I didn’t know you were so agile in the water, it’s really your element” and it is, she is fish like.

By the time they got back on the boat and dried off it was lunch time, the swimming had made everyone very hungry.

The boat then set out for the near islands, forty minutes closer to shore.

Stefan took Basty back in again, Sasha and Sofia were too tired, We slept on a deck chair the water was pretty rough, Sasha slept up on the sun deck

Sofia and I are so looking forward to the kids going swimming with us at Eagle Point (Anilao, Philippines) according to Sofia Pattaya is black and white in comparison with Anilao which is full on Technicolor. I will be swimming there as we can dive straight from the shore.

When they came back on board the boat headed back to Pattaya and we returned to the shop, Basty was spent and was practically asleep standing up, Sasha had unfortunately over done the Sun so was not feeling great.

We organized with Stef for him to meet us at RS Seaside and bring his bag down ready for our airport pick-up tomorrow.

Back at the hotel everybody showered and changed, Sasha coloured her hair and I went off to do my blog. Sabastian and Sofia went off with all the food in a case to the Tequila Sunrise, She could not carry all the pressies so she left some for me to bring, when I joined them.

At the Tequila SunriseI Sofia got on with setting about all the food chopping, mixing and dressing, the bar girls all chipped in and it looked pretty good. Stefan soon turned up with the rest of the bags of pressies.

`The karaoke group were already doing there thing, they waited for me but in the end they decided they needed to hand out some pressies.

They gave all the girls and the band and Ore the gifts. Although Sofia did keep the pressies for the little girl in the café back for Me to give her when I eventually turned up.

By the time I arrived Sofia had loaded the tables with all the party food and the girls all greeted me with kisses and hugs. Basty was exhausted and sleeping, he had a bit of sun on his face and neck even though we had made him wear a t-shirt in the water, so Sofia had to take him back to the hotel before returning her self, but not before Stefan and Sasha had drawn black eyebrows on him with a sharpie. Sasha had quite a bit of sunburn too.

At about 9:30pm Stefan upped and wandered off into the night ready to meet up with his dive buddies at Shooters bar before heading again to Walking Street never to get to bed!

We on the other hand decided at about 10:30 to head back to the hotel and pack ready for our trip to the Philippines tomorrow.

As we started saying our goodbyes I think suddenly the Girls understood we meant this was really goodbye for ever and not just until tomorrow night at around that stage I was shocked to see first Orr (the boss lady) and then some of the other girls with tears in their eyes, this shocked me as I expected these young ladies to be hard hearted and go through saying goodbye to holiday makers, but the fact was for the three weeks we had been in Jomtien the bar was our second home and had only opened a week before we arrived and indeed the first few nights we were practically the only customers,, now the place was thriving, not our work, but we certainly did our bit to lift the atmosphere, befriend the girls, convince other people to come and drink there. So by the time we left the bar their were many tears some of which I am not embarrassed to say were mine. It’s an awesome feeling to have touched people lives in such a positive and yet simple way, we always treated the girls with respect unlike many of the idiot expats we witnessed who thought buying the girls a drink meant they could just treat them as less than human.

Now don’t get me wrong not all expats are like that but sadly a large minority were. The sad thing for me was the sight of one asshole calling the girls stupid over and over and another loudly asking a girls if she was going to fuck him. I was pleased that her answer was no. Look guys play nice, these are people and if you treat them nice I suspect you would have more fun and also you might actually feel better about your self.

Back at the hotel we all packed and set the alarm for 7:45 – ready for pick up at 9:00am.

I was not really expecting to enjoy my time in the Pattaya as much as I did, but we had three weeks of absolute relaxing fun, lots of good food, met lots of nice people (despite what I said above many of the nice people were expats).

I had tried new local foods, such as the Scorpion, crickets, pupae, deep fried crabs (little fellas that you eat whole) they were tasty but I suspect if you eat too many your teeth will wear away. I had even tried the funny little flattened, sun dried and almost translucent squid that so many of the hawkers sold, way to fishy tasting for me! But I tried it and that was what I was here to do, have fun and try new things.

Next we were off to the Philippines. Personally I don’t think it can compete in anyway with Thailand but we will see.

Naked Times Yes Christmas in Pattaya Is Approaching

2011-12-17T06:07:00.000-08:00

Before we start I must confess that I spent a big part of Christmas Eve looking at barely dressed and often totally naked young Thai ladies, I’m sure Jesus would not approve but I could give a dam. You worship your god, I will worship mine!

So Christmas Eve in Pattaya, Thailand.

Well let’s have a weather report first. Well as I look out of the window do I see any snow? Of course not another day of beautiful bright sunshine awaits me.

Why would I want to spend Christmas back in England’s cold miserable weather?

I headed into Pattaya to have a wander down some of the side streets of this ‘Extreme City’. I was going to have a massage which I do enjoy however after walking around for a while I was quite, how shall we say ‘sweaty’ and I knew therefore that I would have to have a shower at the massage place, I don’t feel comfortable leaving my clothes unattended in these places with my wallet and it’s contents out of my sight. The fact is all of the places I have had a massage in this area have been just fine, I guess I just have a suspicious nature.

Back on the street, I found a street hawker selling chicken hearts, so I ordered four sticks and when they were cooked I walked along enjoying these juicy little jelly beans. If you have never tried them don’t judge, back in the UK when we could get them Sofia would do me them served with plum sauce, debloodylicious. I stopped for a cold beer and then decided more chicken hearts were needed (see what I mean).

While I was doing all this Sofia and Sasha had gone to a Kodak place to get some pictures printed off and left them to pick up later. We all met up at Mermaids to have lunch in the hope that Dave (Stefan) might turn up, he didn’t.

So the girls and Basty headed off to the Outlet Shopping Mall to get some last minute bits for tomorrow. They found wrapping paper, a mirror and some other bits she wanted like balloons and bubble guns. Then they headed back by Taxi to RS Seaside (our hotel), beating Me back by half and hour.

Then we headed round to pick up Stefan and head out to Pattaya and more specifically the infamous ‘Walking Street’. We hit Pattaya too early for the clubs even after picking up Stefan and having a drink at Mermaids.

So, as the doors at The Blues Factory did not open until 9:30pm, we went upstairs to Goodfellas for a bite to eat, It has the big advantage of being one floor up with a balcony that overlooks Walking Street. The place was totally themed as a gangster place and had tape demarking dead bodies all over the floors so I had Basty try them all out and took photos. We all enjoyed our meal, played some cards and watched the world go by as the atmosphere livened up on the streets below. The scantily clad girls beckoning people into the Go-Go bars. The Hawkers selling their numerous assorted wares. The Russians, Danes, Brits in fact most of the World seems to have a fair smattering of representatives strolling the streets or drinking in the bars.

At this point Stefan dropped his bombshell that we all had to be at the Dive office at 8:00am Christmas morning to get on the boat and go to the ‘far islands’ snorkelling, After a couple of hours in Goodfellas we intended to go to The Blues Factory but, Stefan zigged instead of zagged and we were soon in Lollipops Go-Go bar as he wanted to wish his friend there a merry Christmas.

As she is one of the main floor managers we are all treated rather well, getting front row seats which basically put two scantily (soon to be nude) nubile young Thai ladies just inches away from me. Whether you agree with this type of establishment or not I don’t care, the ladies in these bars can earn in a day enough to support their whole family back in the rice fields of Northern Thailand for a month! Their parents are trying to get by on less than 100 baht a day, these young ladies can easily earn ten times that a day, actually much, much more. Stefan was busy chatting and then having a drinking competition with his lovely plump little friend then they did slammers at the bar and charged them to us! Definitely time to move on.

The Blues Factory is a live music bar just off of Walking Street (on Soi Lucky Star) the music in there is a class above anything else in Pattaya and the whole place has a great friendly atmosphere. There are various house bands including a Blues Band with a stunning American singer guitarist who goes by the name of Snowman and I think I read somewhere that he had worked with BB King (don’t quote me on that), either way he has the ability to really rock the place. The lovely female singer (Frosty) also has a great and powerful voice and unlike most other Thai singers, she does not clip her words when singing in English. The whole band in fact are stunning. The place always has lots of people in it as befits what must be one of the best music venues for many miles around. If you are in the area and you like your music live, go take a look. If rock is more your music of choice turn up a bit later for the Rock band who come on around 12:30.

Next we headed back to Angelwitch the Rock dancers go-go bar, the place was packed solid, we were led upstairs to a seat and we all enjoyed the special Christmas eve show, The many lovely ladies performed various shows and we all had a fantastic time, especially Sabastian who once again seemed to be the most popular guy in the place. Two of the ladies had spied him while performing below and came up of their own accord to sit with him and cuddle him. The smile on his face may take some removing! Poor old Stefan and I don’t get a look in when Basty is around.

Just after midnight and it’s Christmas Day we headed out into the street and We made our weary way back to the baht busses only stopping for me to have yet more chicken hearts, I also tried a squid, the ones that are totally flat and dried out and almost see through, it was like old shoe leather. we would have liked to have stayed out longer but at 8:00am we are off diving.

Karaoke, Drinking and Having Fun in Pattaya

2011-12-17T05:56:00.000-08:00

Today was the calm after yesterdays croc and tiger storm.

I was late to rise, Sasha and Sofia went swimming in the sea, it was quite choppy,

The sky was really clear today and they were able to see islands across the bay

that they had never seen before including one Sofia named ‘Bum’ Island as it

looked like a pair of perfectly rounded buttocks sticking out of the sea.

There was no wi-fi in the hotel for some reason, so I headed down to Stefans place to log on there while Sofia and Sasha went out to try to get some pictures printed but the Kodak lady said the disc had a virus, so they left it and went shopping instead.

After a little bite to eat and a drink I left Stef’s place and set off to try to find a new hand luggage bag with wheels, as I have mentioned before, If you are thinking about doing one of these tours, don’t be a hero and struggle with a shoulder bag even the bag that only feels slightly heavy when you pick it up, can become rather wearing after marching from one end of an airport to the other, dragging your main luggage bag with you. I don’t like to just leave my hand luggage with just anyone to watch it, or not. It has my laptop in it, my important documents, my back – up drive, my ipod, things I just don’t want to risk losing.

After returning to the hotel, we all chilled, before heading out to the Tequila Bar, it was live music tonight and karaoke and the place was rocking.

The guy doing the singing had a really great voice, full and rich even though he was a skinny little thing .

A little chap was doing his own dance but they asked him to leave which was a shame as he was really (unintentionally) funny.

The guys and gals singing were really very good, although Thai’s singing English is not an easy thing as they put the accent on different bits of words, so listen become ‘list ten’ but they still did a brilliant job of entertaining us and the bar was getting a steady stream of customers, the girls were on good form, grabbing those passer-bys who were just watching from across the road, leading them to the bar and selling them drinks.

Once the Karaoke got going it was a free for all.

Some fat ugly German transvestite, possibly just a fat ugly German in bad make-up was weirding people out by inviting himself to sit with them and a couple of times he had left the bar with out paying only to return later, but of course we figured he could just be testing the girls to see what he could get away with.

When he finally did leave the place, both Trevor the owner and I chased after him to make sure he had paid, luckily Orr came after us and told us he had, but we still told him where to go as he was not right in the head.

The night was very enjoyable, Sasha had got up and sang and danced with the girls, and Basty performed with the magician. We all played pool, and cards.

A really good night out.

It pays to cultivate a local bar and become a ‘regular’ we get fantastic service, are always greeted warmly with kisses and big Thai smiles.

Only a few more days to go and we will be heading out to the Philippines.

But first we have tomorrow night and Walking Street and then Christmas Day in Thailand!

Sriracha Tiger Zoo And Crocodiles As Far As The Eye Can See

2011-12-06T20:31:00.001-08:00

* this happened on Monday 22^nd December 2008 – We Visit Sriracha Tiger Zoo, Chonburi, Thailand

Monday morning and I was up early as we were hoping to go to the Sriracha Tiger

Zoo and I had to confirm with the Hotel that it was booked.

While we waited we all chilled in the morning catching up on e-mails and blogs, friends and family. Stefan turned up around midday everybody was like puppies so excited.

At 1:45pm the transport to the Zoo turned up. A mini bus with a tiger on the side, but when we got in the driver had a bit of a fit, we had only paid for one and he was expecting one, not five. So we handed over another 2600 baht and off we went (this was the correct amount by the way, so we were not being ripped off), just miscommunication between our hotel who booked it and the Zoo people.

We picked up more people from other hotels and then a thirty minute dash down the motorway and we were at Spiracha Tiger Zoo, we all got Number 71 stickers stuck on us and we were ushered through the gates.

The Health and Safety over here is not what it is in the EU so it’s all hands on.

Sriracha Tiger Zoo turned out to be a very exciting day out which was way above my expectations.

The first thing we came across was the crocodiles, there were so many that we were convinced they were false until we saw one move it’s eyes, I can say I never knew I would ever see so many in one place, there seemed to be hundreds possibly even thousands.

We had to walk on a suspended walk way over them, it was quite terrifying for Sofia to be so high up and walking on something she did not trust at all, and it went on and on.

Then, we came to two little ladies who for 50 baht a pop, gave you a pole with string and a pigs leg so you could feed the crocs, so you were actually fishing for crocs. It was very entertaining as these animals would appear to be asleep or, simply disinterested and then BAM! They would grab the meat and a tug of war would begin which the crocs would win. Some needed more tempting than others. We were all awed by it. Sofia clung on to the edge of the walkway and watched while these great dinosaurs sprang and snapped at the meat.

I can’t tell you how happy Sofia was to be off of that metal walkway and on terra-firma again.

The area where the crocs lived in was massive and in some places the ground was completely covered with crocs as far as you could see.

Then we followed signs to feed the Tigers, By this stage Sasha was already so excited, but the chance to feed a baby tiger was the final straw and the smile on her face was so bright it lit up the whole place.

I thought there would be 3 or 4 but we walked into a room with 18 – 20 young tigers, each in separate cages, we got bottles for the children to feed them through the bars, they cried out for milk, so, Sofia and I joined in and fed them too.

Although we would rather they were not stuck in cages like that, it was also totally wonderful to be that close to Tigers, to watch them curling their paws with pleasure at the milk. The little tiger cubs were all very keen to grab hold of the bottles and Basty actually lost his tug of war with one of the Cubs that had the bottle out of his hand.

We then headed to the tiger show,The show was opened by a pig dropping down

the welcome sign, then some more pigs joined to do pig tricks. The Tigers watched behind bars while ‘dinner’ performed and seemed almost eager to get out on stage!

The show was exactly what you would expect but the cats looked well and were quite feisty. but really it was not my thing I prefer to see tigers in nice big areas not putting on a show for us.

Next we went to have our pictures taken holding tiger cubs and baby crocs.

The opportunity to actually stroke a tiger cub was something we all took advantage of, at one stage Sasha had one gnawing on her hand and another her elbow, she was in Tiger heaven. Sasha had the biggest grin on her face, she could not help smiling constantly, the babies were so lovely.

Next we held the crocs, the larger of the two we held was only around four foot long but that was four foot of solid muscle, a magnificent creature and a really exciting experience. they had sellotape around their mouths to stop them biting.The large croc was rather heavy and the little Thai girls struggled to man handle it on to our laps. When we had finished with the pics we headed out towards the Elephant show, not really my thing, I much prefer the power and grace of a large Rhino to a bumbling Elephant, but the others seemed happy enough.

We saw a show with about six elephants again all looked healthy and happy and were very dark in colouring. Sadly that was about it as we were out of time, we walked back past even more tigers, we had not seen much of the park and I wish we had, had a whole day there.

On the bus the children were bubbling. Sasha said she had done quite a few of the things on her wish list.

We had enjoyed such a good day that we did not want to risk crap food, so, we went to the News Café again for dinner.

It was the best meal we had, had in Jomtien previously and we were delighted when it was very good.

Sofia had steak gorgonzola with asparagus and garlic potatoes, really excellent.

Stefan headed back to ‘revise’ and we headed off to Tequla Sunrise for some more Drinking and Pool. We met Trevor, Ore’s boy friend and the Australian part owner and I explained some of my ideas for making the place a bit more visible and to help hold onto the customers. He seemed keen on the ideas, but that did not stop him beating both Basty and Me at pool.

Sofia taught Gwaum (one of the bar girls) how to play Kalooki, she is a rather quick leaner. Sasha left first to do her emails, then Sofia as her eyes were really sore.

Much later myself and even later still Basty a really enjoyable day.

Lazing On A Sunny Day By The Sea

2011-12-05T04:42:00.001-08:00

Today (Sunday) was a quiet, lazy day.

*this happened on 21st december 2008 at Jomtien, Pattaya, Thailand

Sofia dragged Basty down to the hotel pool for a Sunday morning swim but the water was freezing so they did not last long.

We all walked along the beach and then took a baht bus to Mermaids to meet Stefan, two minutes after we sat down he walked in.

We all decided to go for dinner at Antz again as Basty loved the steak there.

We had a good meal and decided to all meet up tomorrow to go see the Tigers.

Stefan went back and we headed to Tequila Sunrise for cards, pool and lots of kisses, and some mixed fried rice for the boys.

A slow relaxing Sunday.

It might sound boring (to some) but back home in England it’s cold and everybody is shivering and concentrating on Christmas.

We on the other hand are hardly aware of Christmas, even though there are Christmas decorations dotted around and Christmas tunes coming from the shops and various bars, but really I’m not feeling it.

Don’t get me wrong I’m not worried, I hate the cold and we have spent two of the last three years in Las Vegas for Christmas.

The difference was we had been in England within days of the event so the house would have had all the Christmas decorations up and we would have been feeling Christmassy right up until we left.

Then a quick walk around the Conservatory at the Bellagio and Christmas would have been cemented in our minds. Plus last year I could see the snow on the mountains from our windows of our suite at the MGM Grand.

Sofia and Sasha are doing there best to make a Christmas event at the Tequila Sunrise bar, so we can see how that goes.

Music Rights Gangsters, Bikers and Pussy Whipped Drunks

2011-12-05T01:33:00.001-08:00

Music Rights Gangsters, Bikers and Pussy Whipped Drunks

*this happened on December 20th 2008 in Pattaya, Thailand

Today. Sofia and Sasha headed off to Tesco Lotus for some Christmas shopping Thai style, while they did that Sabastian and I went out to meet Stefan who was doing the last day of his Dive Master course.

He turned up at Mermaids bar eventually and I gave him his watch back and also his passport and flight ticket to the Philippines.

He has to re-sit a couple of exams before his course is complete but he seems confident he can pass them. He disappeared up to his room to do some revision and Basty and I hung out with some of his fellow Divers and then at around 4:00pm headed off to the hotel.

Sofia and Sasha tuned up an hour of so later, they had got food for a party (?) she got cheese biscuits, parma ham, melon, smoked salmon, crisps, biscuits and chocolates and she also got some stocking pressies for all girls at the bar. Sasha found a t-shirt (Christian Audigier) and a couple of outfits she was very happy with. There were many things they could not find and very few xmas items as this is not a Christian country, but she was hoping that Tesco’s might have more items for the Europeans over here. They did well considering.

Then we all went around to Tequila Sunrise for food, drinks and pool.

So that should have been that another standard day in Thailand, except a few things happened at the Tequila Sunrise that are worth mentioning.

Firstly a black Mercedes with cool wheels pulled up outside and a motley looking bunch of Thais strolled across to the bar. We were firmly of the belief that they were local gangsters come to extort our ladies. One of them seemed to have a semi official looking badge, but there was a young long haired, baggy jeaned big booted guy and a few others who were trying (and mostly failing) to look mean.

The air was quite tense and lots of paperwork was shown and discussed. Sofia and I were considering grabbing pool cues and rushing to our ladies aid! After they finally left we got the real story, they were something to do with the musical rights at the bar. And at turned out they had been ripped off in the past, but these guys were there to help sort things out. Still Orr and May the boss lady and her number two headed off to the Police station to sort out the paperwork.

An old biker turned up on a super smart and very cool looking Harley Davidson which I took a few pictures of, he was a bit of a prat (OK a lot of a prat) as he treated the ladies with no respect, he spent some time talking to another English guy who was a member of a local Biker gang, unlike the old guy on the Harley our ‘Biker’ had turned up on a little scooter and in his mandals he looked more silly than scary.

Finally a sadly typical looking Brit turned up at the bar already looking drunk and carrying an unopened bottle of Whiskey. After discussions he agreed to pay a charge to drink his whiskey at the bar. The normally very keen ladies did not seem quite so ready to sit with this character but of course one or two eventually did.

About 30 minutes later it all kicked off as a little Thai lady pulled up on her scooter and stormed up to him, obviously she was THE Thai lady in his life (and he was her human ATM machine) and she was not about to share her drunken bum with anyone else. It was almost the scene where the mother grabs her child by the ear and drags him off. She told him to pay the bar, she reached into his pocket and grabbed his money and cigarettes and helped herself to both. And then dragged him suitably chastised to the bike and took him away.

The girls sat at the table with him quite rightly kept quiet and did their best to look invisible until he had cleared the scene.

Highly entertaining.

I have persuaded Orr to put Football on the TV and now Sofia moans that I can’t stop watching it. I have also talked her into serving food from the next door stall in the bar and I have offered to re-do the Menu’s so the Brits can understand them. The people next door are happy and both lots get a cut. If it works both should be better off.

Sofia tried snake fruit from one of the passing bicycle stalls it smells like cheesy feet which made it impossible to eat. She also wanted to find out what the pink eggs were all about, so we bought one, they are black jelly inside, none of us could not try it, just the look of it had us retching.

But Sofia will keep trying new things.

Sasha and Sofia then left us boys in the bar and walked back along the beach, apparently some young lads bounded up to chat to them, welcoming them to Pattaya, but, they can’t speak Thai and the boys had very little English, so the conversation did not last long.

An entertaining day.

The Pattaya Days, part 4

2011-11-01T23:50:00.000-07:00

(this all happened December 2008, in Pattaya, Thailand)

So today the first thing I had to do was go and pay the travel agent lady another chunk of the money for our flights to the Philippines.

Once I got back to the hotel we decided to head out to Pattaya once again to enjoy the chilled air in the mall, (Mike’s Mall) and the wonderful views from the top balcony while eating a snack.

The Mall had some excellent hats and the kids each found one they liked. Sasha had a hard time choosing eventually picking a black Ed Hardy skull one. Basty picked a sensible khaki cap with removable neck protection.

We wandered until we found a comfy bar for a drink and a bit of people watching.

We were trying to think of anything else you could sell from a bicycle cart after a man went by with garden plants, another with feather dusters and reed brooms and yet another with step ladders and scaffolding! I love the way that a motorbike here can be a whole business and family transport.

We headed on back to the hotel only to find no electric on.

Sofia was too hot and tired to even attempt five flights of stairs, so she went and sat with her feet in the pool until it came back on.

She then snoozed until it was time to go meet Stefan and collect his passport. Sasha was wiped out, so, we left her behind.

Stefan was going out with all his guys at Mermaids so we grabbed his passport and his watch which needs a new strap and he said he would see us 7:30pm tomorrow.

Sofia, Basty and I all ate at the Tequila Sunrise. We chilled with the girls and then headed back for Boston Legal. Basty stayed on to finish his game of pool, when we got back Sasha was on the internet doing her emails.

When I first came to Pattaya last year I was to be honest disgusted with the old European men picking up young Thai girls.

Now, I knew that these were financial situations, the guy has the money, the girl has the honey, the deal is made!

Well I guess I have reconsidered.

Think about it, you’re a shaky 65+ odd year old European or Yank, living alone, do you want to live a lonely life in cold miserable overpriced, unfriendly England/USA et,c dependent upon stretching the pension enough to be able to afford to put the heating on, hoping not to get mugged on the way to the shops. Do you want to pay most of your money to keep your car on the road, or struggle with all your shopping on the over crowded over priced bus?

Or would you like to live somewhere hot, with cheap local transport, friendly people willing to be your friend and carer and more for the right sum of money. Beautiful Thai ladies and sometimes more beautiful thai ladyboys (so be careful).

If I ever find myself alone, old and shaky, my family just waiting for me to die so that they can pick over the remains of what’s left. Well, I think I might consider being one of those ‘dirty old men’ myself.

What sort of twisted joke is the English currency playing on us.

Not such a long time ago the dollar was two to a pound and likewise every other important (to us) currency was weak against the pound.

In the last few months the pound has fallen off a bloody cliff against the Dollar, the Thai baht, the Philippine peso and every other currency anywhere.

The English government screwed the Brits at home with it’s tax on everything, non stop raping of the motorists with additional charges based upon the size, shape colour or number of wheels you car might have.

Let’s get everybody into diesels by lowering the cost of diesel and then once everybody has fallen for the trick make diesel more expensive than petrol. Non stop bastards. Glad to be out of it.

*************

Next Day

**************

Today was a bad food day and a bad burn day!

I went off early to pay the next instalment for our tickets and book Stefans flight to go with us to the Philippines.

I walked all the way back with no sun protection at mid-day, of course I did not realize at the time how much sun I had caught, so, I dragged Sofia onto the beach with me to go for a swim in the sea.

About two hours later we had, had enough of the wonderful water and sunshine and headed back to get changed. That’s when I saw how burnt I was! Ooowwww.

We decided to go for a gentle stroll and find a local food shack for lunch, it was pretty bad, we fed our left overs to some nearby puppies.

Sofia did the clothes washing and hung it all out, then we all went over to Stefans to hopefully meet him for dinner, we waited for 40 mins and then gave up and got a bus to Pattaya.

We were going to go to a place called New Orleans for Steak and Ribs for the kids but when we found it, it was a bit expensive so we found another cheaper place to eat, ‘The Nag’s Head’ which as it turns out was empty for a reason, not good food.

Two bad food choices in one day hmm, not good.

We watched some Russians having a tiff, then bussed it back to the Tequila Sunrise where we were greeted like old friends, aaahhhh home!

We played lots of cards and pool, Basty is becoming quite the pool shark. Boston Legal and then to Sleep at around 3:00am!

*********

Next Day

***********

I Woke up today and was really feeling the sunburn, firstly had to go and pay the next installments on the airfares and had a quick wander.

While I was out Sofia colored Sasha’s hair while they watched an Angelina Jolie film Changeling. She found it quite moving and said it was very well made.

When I got back I also watched a Jolie film, Wanted which was good.

For the late afternoon we had a late start and headed to the far end of Jomtien Beach to Dongtan Beach (Dongtaen) definitely the ‘gay’ end of the beach very colorful, we walked the length of that, it was idyllic, as the sun set we stopped for a cool drink while watching the fishermen and people going about their end of day business, the joggers, the beach people closing their stalls, packing the seats and loungers away.

Then we went to a very nice eatery at Rabbit Resort where the children could have the steak they were wanting.

We then headed out to the night market as it was Friday and after a long walk we finally got a baht bus to take us there.

It was a very large and very busy market with something for everybody. I also have to say how impressed I was, so much is mended, recycled, second hand. This is not a throw away society unlike our own. If something breaks it gets fixed not thrown. Want some shoes try the market, parts for your car try the market etc etc.

We headed back to the hotel and dropped Sasha and Basty off as Sofia and Myself are headed into Pattaya for a night on the town.

We baht bussed into Pattaya and walked down to the (in)famous Walking Street and visited a couple of go-go bars where I got to watch young nubile (naughty) Thai girls strut there stuff.

We went to ‘The Airport’ girly bar first, live sex shows and naked girls dancing under showers. The highlight was when some officials came in to check on them and all the girls that were naked scampered and the wet girls put on T-Shirts until the all clear was sounded and all their clothes were off again in seconds.

Then to Lollipops more down market and down trodden and the girls were interested in Sofia’s make up.

Then we managed to find ‘The Blues Factory’ we played cards and listened to some great music, a good little singer who belted out all her numbers, then a really good guitarist played full on Rock and Roll, the staff were very interested in our game of cards.

We would have stayed longer but a guy came in and started smoking all over us even though it was a no smoking place.

So, we left, we bumped in to Orr (the boss lady from Tequila) in the street and had a quick chat.

I then told Sofia she had to pick the final place for us to visit and she chose a place called Angelwitch (rock dancers).

It was very, very funny a stage in the middle, oval with bars all the way around, the girls arrived on stage down the poles from high above.

They put on full costumed shows and were very entertaining.

We stayed till 1:45am really enjoying it, although we could not work out what the ping pong ball throwing was about.

That was a lot of fun much less flesh on display than the Go-Go bars but it was much more entertaining.

So rather drunk we headed to the hotel and bed – stopping only for me to buy some lovely juicy chicken hearts on sticks yummy!

The Pattaya Days, part 3

2011-10-27T22:23:00.000-07:00

(this happened on) December 15th 2008

A busy and expensive day today.

Firstly, We had to get up early to go to the immigration office to extend our visa by seven days as due to coming in overland rather than by air we only got a 15 day visa, ahh the ever changing Thai immigration what a joy.

Apparently the later you go to the Immigration office the longer the queue. So we got to the office at 8:15am and, well, there was a big queue, so god knows what it gets like later.

We picked up the forms we needed and were told we needed some photos and photo copies of our passports – Some enterprising soul had opened up a guess what shop right next door?

Yep, a copy and passport photo shop, 440 baht later we had the pictures and copies.

Then at the immigration office we were given numbers like at a Doctors and had to wait to be called one at a time. No hiccoughs we all got our extra week, our photos all looked like 'The Usual Suspects'. An hour and a further 7600 baht (£144) later we had our further seven days taking us through to December 26^th.

Next we had to find a travel agents so that we could organize what to do after the 26^th, The first three agents we went into had nobody who could help, seems 9:00am is way too early for business in Pattaya. Finally at the fourth attempt we hit pay dirt and booked flights to the Philippines and from the Philippines out to Malaysia two weeks later.

Total cost was almost 80,000 baht (£1500 !) a lot of money but what can you do? And guess what she did not accept credit cards only cash.

Now those of you that actually know us, will of course be aware that I regularly walk around with a wad of £1500 for fun, I mean doesn’t everybody? What are these people on? Who the hell has £1500 in cash when walking around a strange country with a reputation for robbery of tourists who flash the cash.

Now our banks which failed to look after all of the money we leant them, seem a lot tighter about actually letting our money back into our hands and so far on this holiday we have already had three occasions when they had required to speak to us as a security check – so what chance do you think we have of just taking out £1500, well the answer is NONE.

So we have to actually wander down to her office everyday and hand over wedges of cash until the flights are paid for, before she will hand over the tickets.

By this time it was around 10:00am or about time to get up recently.

So what to do next?

Late breakfast in a café, Sofia had spinach, cheese and eggs and said it was fantastic, then we headed back to the hotel so that Sasha could get some more sleep.

I left Sofia in the room and went out to explore and also have another round of physical abuse from the masseuse who seems intent on beating the living daylights out of me!

While I was doing this Sofia and Basty were off on a ‘secret mission’ they went to the big Tesco Lotus store on a Christmas mission, more cannot be divulged as it is top secret and not for my ears or eyes at this stage. She did tell me though that It is going to be hard work when even Tescos has only one rather drab aisle with a bit of tinsel in it, but Sofia’s are hard to thwart!

After my massage I called into a bar just as it was opening and watched as one of the girls prepared the various temples and gods on display, by changing all the little gifts to the gods, which in practice meant removing the old bottles of fanta and opening new ones and putting them in there place, fresh milk for Ganesha (I know that’s an Indian god but it was there). Then she replaced all the flowers for the gods with fresh roses or some of the garlands of Orchids and other flowers that the street vendors sell.

She finally lit a huge handful of incense sticks and held them between her hands in silent contemplation.

I headed back to meet the others at the hotel via a walk along the beach, where Cammy was lazing surrounded by the remains of his latest batch of battered prawns.

When I finally went back to the hotel Sofia and Basty where still not back from Tesco’s and Sasha was doing some drawing

We were going to go to the Mauy Thai fighting tonight except for Sofia who does not like the violence of it.

So we popped around the corner to the blue bar and had a quick bite to eat and some nice cool drinks!

We left Sofia as she plotted with the girls at the bar and she was also introduced to a fruit she liked called Lum Yai.

The rest of us went to meet Stefan and headed off to the fighting, it was hard work as everybody we asked for directions told us ‘Walking Street’ which does have Mauy Thai but it’s just there as a way of pulling people into the bars and charging more for drinks, we wanted the real thing.

Finally we found a tuktruk driver who knew where the stadium was and we turned up and saw the price 1000baht no way, we turned around and headed back to Stefs place. Almost £20 each is wayyy to expensive for Thailand so we sensibly decided to leave it.

We dropped Stef off and went in search of Amie a certain lady(boy) that Stefan claims to have mistakenly bar-fined on two separate occasions not realizing he/she was not all woman.

We are not sure if we found her or not, so we moved off to a Go Go bar, it was not very exciting in fact we spent more time watching the music videos and chatting than actually watching the bored looking girls.

Back to the hotel and bed, except I was still hungry, I managed to convince Sofia to come back out with me as I went in search of chicken hearts on a stick yummy, sadly I could not find any so it was back to the Tequila Sunrise where I had some some chilli clams and hot soup, we then played some cards and pool before heading back to the hotel and more Boston Legal.

It had been a busy, expensive but fun day.

*Two people today really stuck out like sore thumbs – the atypical scouse wideboy at the immigration office in full on fully zipped up shell suit. How desperate are you to look what you think is cool? It might work in chilly old England (it doesn’t, you still look a prick) but come on man it was boiling and you looked what you were a twat!

And then there was the drunken asshole at the blue bar from Chesire who only seemed to know a few words, the most popular of which was ‘f**ked’ which everybody within 20 yards could hear, he then insulted the girls at the bar, told them all they were stupid and he stumbled off into the night like the fucktard he was.

Apparently he spends his time between Cyprus and Thailand, great he is proving to everybody in two different countries that the stereotypical Brit abroad is alive and well and old enough to know better.

To you Sir I have two words – F**k off!*

******Next Day******

Sabsatian had apparently stayed up all night playing on his PSP and watching DVD’s also therefore keeping Sasha and Cammy awake, this ended with Cammy sleeping outside on the balcony, and of course this morning Basty was sleeping while everybody else was ready to go out and play.

It was Cammys last full day so he and Sasha were going shopping together.

Sofia and I wanted to go into Pattaya and I did not want Basty along if he was tired and miserable, so, I told him we were going to leave him to sleep.

We headed into Pattaya on a tuktruk (bahtbus) and headed for a camera shop as Sofia wanted to get some of our photos printed up for her diary so went to the shop we had recently bought our camera from and they printed up some pictures.

While we waited for them we found a nice place to have an iced coffee and after that we found a bookstall and had a look around, we then picked up the photos and headed out to try to find a place we had visited last year.

We enjoyed a pleasant day walking the streets of Pattaya and managed to buy a nice piece of luggage as Sofia’s has wobbly wheels and is difficult (impossible) to control as it goes into a low speed wobble and then rolls over. She also managed to find a few bits to put in the girls (at the Tequila bar) Chritmas stockings.
On the way back we stopped at a bar, had a drink and one game of cards which (of course) Sofia won.

Back to the hotel, we picked up Basty and Sofia dragged him down to the pool for a quick cold swim, then we went to the Mermaids Bar to meet up with Sasha, Stefan and Cammy for his last night in Thailand.

We jumped straight onto a tuktruk and off to a place Sofia had noticed on the way up the road. Live music (a bit heavy on the Carpenters covers), quite good food and quite lively, everyone indulged in puddings then we headed down to the Tequila Sunrise bar.

It seems the whole family feel comfortable there as they are so welcoming.

Tequila Sunrise suddenly seems to be the place to be seen, usually we are 90% of the customers, not tonight. We had a good evening playing pool and chilling, At about 1am Sofia took Basty back to bed, Sasha had left ½ hour before to wash her hair and we all had said good bye to Cammy and sent him on his way with Stefan, for a last few hours on the town together.

I stayed out until the bar closed and then headed home.

I need not mention I was quite drunk! A fun filled relaxing day.

The Pattaya Days, part 2

2011-10-19T21:04:00.000-07:00

Today was a day much like many others!

Let me explain, the first part of our trip was always meant to be more like a traditional holiday as we had come to Thailand and Pattaya specifically to spend Christmas with our son, Stefan who has been a Diving intern out here for the last two months hoping to qualify as a a Scuba Instructor.

The fact was Bangkok airport was closed which led to the trip starting in Singapore and the ride through Malaysia and into Thailand and on to Pattaya.

The plan in-fact does include Malaysia but not a quick few days through but actually a couple of months! So stick with it I am sure the story will get more exciting.

Today, after all the updating of blogs, checking emails, etc I looked at my watch as we left the hotel and it was already 2:30pm, late nights, mean late starts.

We decided to have a little play on the beach today, it’s just across the road literally! So we chilled on the beach under the blazing beautiful hot sun, played around in the sea and it was totally wonderful.

If the choice was be poor in the UK with the freezing cold, or poor in Thailand with the beautiful beach and wonderful weather, I really would not have to take much time to choose and I would not choose Weston Super Mare.

Basty was building sand walls against the tide, Sofia made a sand mermaid tail for Sasha, and then, Sasha and all the boys were splashing around in the sea.

We had some street food that they come around and sell on the beach, giant prawns steamed with sweet chilli sauce, also prawns in batter. Cammy thinks he has died and gone to heaven as he is a bit of a prawn freak.

After our sandy day it was back across the road to the hotel to clean up and change.We moved off into town around 5:30pm and met Stefan, the plan for tonight was that Sasha, Cammy and Stefan were going out on the town as Stef had tomorrow off therefore could drink a few.

We found a back street eatery where we had a good cheap meal, Sofia had a green curry with egg plant and tuna and said it was delicious.

We then tuktruked it back to our end of Jomtien where we went to our favourite local bar, Tequila Sunrise, we played some cards, then the girls challenged us to some pool, the girls here are good fun,

We then wandered back along the beach, the tide was so far out that the boats were beached. It is lovely to see so many families out on the beach together at night.

After a watching a couple of episodes of Boston Legal we hit the bed.

-------- Next Day ----------

Today started with the kids turning up after their night out, it sounds like they all had a fantastic time, except once again Stefan ‘lost’ his bank card, this just a few days after I had handed him his new one to replace the last one he lost.

Due to security issues we had to bring it as he did not expect it to arrive if sent by post.

That first time we also had to send him some emergency funds via Western Union which was a very expensive way to keep him afloat, but really was the best option at the time.

Lucky for him we are here this time, but I must say we are not happy, at 19 he should really be a bit more sensible about the important stuff.

So my morning started with calls via Skype to the bank back in England. Having a Skype number has been a real benefit and I highly recommend it for any fellow travelers.

The kids had lots of tales of the night market and naked pole dancers. Stefan insists it’s safer if they are naked as you can then tell their gender.

It seems Cammy had the hot’s for one of the bar girls. He slipped a 1000 baht note in her panties which was much more than he would need to ‘bar fine’ her. But he did not ‘bar fine’ her because as he said she was too innocent. Right! That’s why she is a bar girl Cammy!

We headed out for a drink and some games of pool before going further down the road to a local Thai food café, the food was very good.

It’s Stefans day off so we gave him the choice of what he would like to do and he wanted to go ten pin bowling. So it was down to the Rhythm and Blue Bowl via tuktruk to Pattaya

I had a couple of good games (for me) hitting 155 and 178, Sofia was also well on form, 141 being her best score. It seems the teenagers just have not got what it takes to take down the oldies yet.

I had a need of the loo while in the place and once again thought back to our local bowling places in Devon. The toilets were sparkling and fresh smelling, not the piss soaked floors of the UK with the stench of stale piss.

I often have occasion to wonder which is the third world country.

We then went for a walk around Pattaya ending up at the Royal Garden Plaza for food.

It was decided by the kids that Sabastian for his education should be taken to Lollipops. So, the next hour is not for general release.

Lollipops is a go go bar that the kids had enjoyed the night before and it would appear that Stef is a regular as the place is popular with the Dive crew, suffice to say it was an eye opener and a pleasant one at that.

Back to Jomtien and the hotel where Sofia and I watched a couple more Boston Legals before bed.

A fun day.

-------- Next Day --------

Sofia had noticed the clothing on the balcony had gone missing.

So, she knocked on the kid’s room door, Cammy answered it and she sent him down to the pool to track Bastys clothes. One pair of shorts was on a balcony to the side and a floor down, it must have been a bit windy.

On the beach on a Sunday it is Thai family day. Families take a table on the beach under umbrellas, then order food and all sit for the day eating and drinking, lots of children digging in the sand, puppies and lots of hawkers offering henna tattoos, food, fruit, ice cream, massages, pedicures and manicures.

They are all so laid back and happy, the kids are cheeky and great to watch splashing around in the sea.

We had lunch in a local café same as yesterday, then finished up at a really grungy internet café, the computers were so old it was a struggle to do anything on them.

We ended the day at Tequila Sunrise again for dinner, pool and cards.

I was on rare winning form, Sasha and Sofia could not beat me.

Cammi and Basty had gone to see a Thai film – Ong Back 2.

Back at the room we watched the first episode of season four of Boston Legal.

An early night as off to immigration first thing in the morning.

------Useful Information --------

Today for a bit of variety I am going to give some tips to anybody who wishes to follow in our footsteps with their own ‘Mature Gap Year’.

Luggage, Specifically Hand Luggage: – Get some with wheels! Mine is mainly used for carrying my laptop and accessories, but suddenly books, documents, drinks and all sorts of other stuff sneak in, and after a few minutes carrying that lot around your shoulder starts to get it’s own groove.

Not nice after a long flight, even worse when you are struggling with your main bag and your hand luggage.

Laptop – If you must take one (and I must as it’s like a part of my body that I cannot live without, plus I also have loaded the hard drive with TV series and Music for those occasions when the hotel is dire and you need some comforts!

But if it’s only for email and Skype capabilities (and Skype has already proved invaluable for us) a little bit of blogging and net surfing. Might I suggest looking at one of the new mini notebook computers, compared to the set up I am struggling to carry around, these things cost a fraction of the price and weigh a fraction of the weight yet give you all you really need.

Or find an internet café and save yourself a lot of lugging around and worry about the security of your laptop when it’s left at the hotel, the only downside if some places just don’t seem to have much access to net cafes (Australia!)

Books – Don’t bring more than one for the journey, you can buy books anywhere.
Invest in a small round the neck security bag – so that you can keep your credit cards and excess cash safe when out and about.

***** Note ****** It's funny how in just three years the computer bit can change so much - Now I would suggest something like a tablet (Android or ipad). Personally I would go for a 7" like a Samsung that can also double as a telephone but it small enough to keep on your person.