Get Thai'ed

Woah.
Thailand is certainly something else.

I've been having an absolute blast here in Phuket and Bangkok. I'm finding it hard collecting the energy require to update the blog. I'll quickly whiz past my last 8 days or so.

There's been plenty of vegan places to eat about Thailand. As I mentioned in my last post, plenty of places hail the yellow Vegetarian Festival flag around their stall or the like. Unfortunately it's quickly dissappeared now that the festival is over (Finished on the 19th). Every place I've been to has been very accomodating however.

I've been eating all over the place in regards to venues. From nicer restaurants, to very Thai local places on the side of the road with friends. I was initially very worried about getting sick here from road side food, however as yet (touch wood) I've yet to get sick at all - And some of the places I've ate at look pretty dodgy, hahahha. But when a full meal and drink (coke etc) costs 40b ($1.25) how can you resist?

The prices here are so incredibly vast as well! You can have a fully fledged meal with soft drink for about a dollar, or go to one of the hundreds of places offering meals at Grange pricing. Alcohol is very cheap here if your not buying it from a bar. A beer is about 30-50b ($1.00 - $1.66) and mixed drink about 47b. In bars drinks are full priced at about 100-140b (Still not too bad considering in Australia you pay more still, and get no 'entertainment'...)

And speaking of entertainment here, it certainly is of a mind blowing degree. Unfortunately it requires alot more time that is currently unavailable to be able to even start to dip our feet into it. Not only that, but I'm using an utter piece of shit to write this, to which encounters a 3 second delay to see my own writing come up. Plus I'm justabout to head off to Soi Bangla (Patong, Phuket) for a drink and watch something pretty.

I was planning to go on a liveaboard to the Similan Islands on the 21st, but unfortunately 20 minutes out of dock, one of the motors blew and we had to wait until morning to be able to dock again and let the engineers have a alook at it. They came to the conclusion that the motor is indeed fucked and the trip was cancelled and put on hold to recommence tomorrow (the 25th). We have been put up at the Royal Phawadee Hotel in Patong, which is quite nice compared to what I've been staying in.

One final bit of bad news too is that unfortunately I've been in a solo motorbike accident. I was going around a corner too fast when wet (I was pissed as a skunk as well) and crashed. I got stitched back up in Patong Hostpital and grazing on my legs and left arm. I've got 2 internal and 8 external stitches for a hole just above my eyebrow. Because of both this and being forced to stay in Phuket I will more than probably extend my stay in Thailand by a week or 2. To be confirmed.

Anyway, I'm going to go as the delay is incredibly irritating. Will update more as I can (hoipefully a bit before I leave for the Similans tomorrow.

Cheers,
Wade

Musical Chess

Working casually (as opposed to full time) has it's benefits, however holidays is certainly not one of them. I've been working at Gametraders for nigh on 2 years now, and although only work 7 days a fortnight, I feel like I need a bit of a break. It's difficult taking a 'holiday' as such when only 2 people run the store; you feel that any time off would unduly burden the other with a 7 day week. I could write a lot about my feelings on many things in GT, but it will all end up saying I've decided to take a couple of weeks off anyway. But where might you ponder?

I was actually planning on going to Japan once more with Sachiko to attend her friend's weddings that she is heading off for. This would have been great, however the 'holiday' in Japan would have lasted a measly 6 or so days, with probably a day or two tied up with the formalities of the weddings and the like. The shortness of the trip when weighed against the cost of flight to Japan doesn't exactly sit well, not to mention the fact that Tokyo is not the cheapest of places to stay in. A few other reasons (family over there) make the situation particularly sour, and for that I'd rather keep my hard earned money and break out of Japan for the time being.

So I'm going to Thailand.

Thailand? Why Thailand? That's a pretty good question. Like decision like this, it's a few things that slowly compound themselves, until you realize it's something you really want to do. For me, this can include even the most trivial things like music. Murray Head's song 'One Night in Bangkok' has forever had me intrigued about this city of chess, bars being temples and gods in 'golden cloisters'. So much so that it lead to browsing information regarding the city, the country and such. From this point, the language started to pull me in with its hieroglyphic esque writing. How can these fascinating characters make up written words? How are they read and pronounced? It's a similar journey as when I started to become interested in the Japanese writing system.

Previous to all of this, I've also been internet friends with a Thai girl named May for just over 4 years now. I'm trying my hardest to remember where exactly (what chat room etc) we met, but I can't be sure. I think it was maybe MSN Messenger Chat rooms before they were taken down. As of now, I have 10 Thai chat buddies on my list :) Two of whom (including May) I really wish to meet. Very reminiscent of South Korea and going to meet Jiyeon and friends.

So Thailand wins. The major downside of course is the fact I will be going commando. Single; Alone. Sachiko still wishes to go to various weddings, and will be taking 2 trips to Japan in October and November, and as such going overseas again would be too much of a burden financially. So I've decided to brave this somewhat new frontier alone. I've been to South Korea 'alone', however my hand was held by Jiyeon and gang to an extent, so I had someone to fall back on if needed.

I'll be heading over from the 14th of October through 1st (evening), arriving back on the 2nd at this stage. I suppose the Thailand trip is one of the reasons I wish to 'revive' this blog, as to have a place to document travels and other activities. Before I decided to go to Thailand, I was researching various things I am able to do there to relax etc, as well as places to travel to. Some of the places that interest me are the exquisite looking beaches of southern Thailand (Phuket, Koh Samui, Krabi etc).

One of the activities that caught my eye, I actually had been researching for a little while myself - SCUBA diving. I often will spend a good whack of the evening browsing Wikipedia, and clicking various links within articles to learn more about something. I can often start looking up about a pretty standard sort of topic, like maybe a new game I'm interested in. Within an hour or so of following links, I'm researching about 19th century aesthetic philosophers.

My interest in diving started like that. For some reason I ended up researching about SCUBA, and have become quite interested in cave and cavern diving. So many other things diving related started to interest me as well so when I saw that Thailand included some of the best diving sites in the world, it surely can't be coincidence that has lead me here.. Obvious the first step to deep/cave diving is learning to dive..

Wade