A Missing Train, Pet Rock's Last Stand and Bagging a Brace

ALMOST time for the end of another weekend, sadly.

Another entertaining two days is left behind as like all hard working English teachers my mind goes back to what exactly I am going to get my kids to learn tomorrow.

Before I get round to planning for tomorrow's lessons I thought I'd better fill you in about exactly what I have been up to this week. With my Mum gone, things haven't exactly been thrilling and with no one to be a tour guide to I haven't had the chance to go out this week and have any 'adventures', bit it was fun all the same.

The week at school was basically the same as any other, or at least it must have been as I am thinking now that nothing paticular stands out about it! Tells me that my memory is bad or that nothing out of the ordinary took place.
Friday morning with the Kindergarten kids was 'field trip' day for the month though which was pretty good. It's always nice to be out in the classroom and show the kids that not stuff which I actually teach them in the lessons is not made up.

For this month's trip we went to the train museum which isn't far away from Suwon at all. It wasn't terribly interesting but in a choice between that and watching snoopy for the 80th time, trains win.
The kids seemed to enjoy themselves anyway. They were intregued by a minature railway show which we saw when we first arrived and they definately had fun playing on the trains outside which you could actually walk on.

We've been learning about transport this week so it wasn't long before there were alot of "Ben, train", "yes, that is a train", "Ben, two trains", "Yup, we're in a train museum, you'll be seeing alot of them!"

After we'd finished school for the day we headed out for galbi as usual and then me and Charlie decided to hang out at Wa Bar for a little while, where Anna decided to grace us with her company for a little while.

I woke up on saturday morning pretty excited as for a while now we had been planning to go to a food festival in a place called Chuncheon which is famous for it's creation of dak galbi. I'd estimate that me Kevin and Charlie probably eat it about once a week so a whole festival about it was a pretty exciting thing. We'd also agreed to meet up with a friend of a friend of Charlie's who arrived in Korea on Tuesday to be a teacher.

We met her and her friend at a station called Samseong which is about an hour and a half away from us and then we continued on to Chuncheonyangi which is where the internet had instructed us to go. Having not really done much research (something which in hindsight probably wasn't wise) we came out of the station and quickly found outselves wondering exactly which was we should be going and where abouts we should be turning.

We did a full circle of the market which is a few hundred meters from the station, careful not to lose sight of exactly where that was and despite Charlie questioning a cab drive on the whereabouts of a 'Dak Galbi Party' we decided to call the information line which helps out stupid foreigners like ourselves when they are lost.
We managed to signal another cab driver and were prepared to give him some instructions when Kevin relayed the information that we were actually in completely the wrong place!!! It was only this afternoon when I looked on the website that upon closer inspection I realised that we needed to get a train to wherever we were going and although we probably could have done it in the afternoon we were all quite let down by the fact that for the second time since we've been out adventuring we've ended up in completely the wrong location!

Whoops!!!!!

After a spot of lunch we got ourselves back onto the subway to go to Hongdae for the evening. I think I have probably mentioned before that a couple of teachers who work at our school are in a band, we've been to see them a couple of times and they have been really good. But sadly three quarters of the band are leaving Korea so they played on last show before the curtain fell on their stay in Asia.

As we hadn't killed that much time in Chenonyangi we headed to a few bars and played some darts while we waited for our friend Hans to meet us and then we could head to the bar where my friends band were playing. As usual in Hongdae we had Mexican food for dinner and then went to a club on the main street of the city.
I throughly enjoyed listening to my friends band 'Pet Rock' play for the last time, and although I was pretty tired, I managed to stay away for long enough to see the whole thing!

During the intermission the owner of the bar in his band, who were all Korean, played a few songs which were something different but very good. We didn't think that we'd have any reason to head back to Hongdae to watch music but after their performance we may just have found a good reason!

Me, Kevin, Hans and Charlie all headed back to Suwon in a cab after our enjoyable, but long day. And with just a few hours sleep under my belt I woke up this morning feeling extremely tired, and really not in the mood to play football.

Thanks to H1N1 (swine flu to you and me) the school where we usually play football is off-limits after there was a suspected case of the disease there so the game was switched to an away game in the middle of Seoul. Today we were playing the team who I injured myself against last half season so I was pretty wary about the same thing happening again to say the last!

I met the rest of the team in Yeongtong and we caught to bus and then the subway together to Apujeong which is where the game was. The field was pretty small and at first the opposition we were playing against suggested playing a 9-a-side game as they didn't have many players and due to the lack of space. We decided against that idea though and it soon became apparent that it was an extremely wise choice as we were 2-0 up within twenty minutes. Yours truely, believe it or not, was on the scoresheet. It's pretty funny that despite not being fully functional I was still able to score and then five minutes later when one of my teams mates crossed me the ball I netted again to make it 3-1!

The other team, who we had stopped from winning the league last season, we probably fed up by then and despite a barrage of attacks from them for the rest of the game we managed to hold on into the last minute at 4-3 and snuck one in injury time to make it 5-3 and keep up our unbeaten record for the season so far.

I made my way back to Suwon which seemed to take an eternity and a half and then made the decision to go out and get some dinner with Kevin and Charlie as I was pretty hungry! It's been a fun but tiring weekend and although I am not ready to go back to work tomorrow morning, I've got to earn money somehow!

Finishing Off the 'Great Wall of Suwon', Saying 'Goodbye' and Making a Full Return to Action

FLASHING by in an instant go another week and another weekend in Suwon-si.

Spending most of last weekend in Seoul with my mum I didn't really have much time to relax and by the time it came 10am on Monday I was still feeling pretty tired. Still, I managed to make it through another week of teaching to complete my fourth and a half month in Korea.

Evenings this week were spent entertaining my mum and although I finish work at 6pm or 7pm every day we weren't able to go out and do very much exploring but I think my mum will definately be satisfied with the amount that she achieved whilst she was here. The first task of the week, unfortunately, was to finish off school assesments for each one of my kids. It's strange that it has been three months since I wrote the last ones but lucikly this time I think I have less students than before so it actually only ended up taking me about two hours to get them all out of the way.

On Monday and Tuesday we just went out for some dinner and had a little walk around Suwon station but on Wednesday we managed to make our way to the cinema to see GI Joe after I'd finished work. I didn't know too much about the film (or even the series) before I saw it but I was very impressed with the story and it was just my film as it was a combination of intregue and action. I think it was actually better than Transformers 2, mainly because it was about an hour shorter and actually had a storyline, something which I'm sure you'll agree is slightly vital to a film.

The week was soon coming to an end and as my mum was going home on Saturday we decided to finish of walking around 'The great wall of Suwon' which we'd started last Friday night. We took the bus to Paldalmun and then climbed up a great deal of steps to re-start walking around the final quarter of the fortress wall. Most of it I have walked before but it was good to go back to what is surely the highest point and look off there in the daylight. It truely is a great view of Suwon and is probably one of the outstanding memories I will be taking back home to England with me.

As the sun started to set we walked back down from the small palace on top of the hill and headed back home to get some dinner with the rest of the guys. As has now become traditional on a Friday we had some galbi at the usual restaurant and then as my mum headed home, Kevin, Charlie, Haji and myself decided to go up to WA Bar for a little while. I was feeling pretty tired and not even the delicious french fries that you get there could wake me up so we decided to get a taxi home at a respectable time.

On Saturday morning I woke up and headed to my mums hotel to spend some final moments with her before she made her way to the airport. She checked out at about twelve and then spent some time showing me the art park, sculpture park and Olympic park that she had seen on her earlier weeks travels and then we went to Homeplus to get some dinner as I needed a few things. My mum was going to stick around until 4.50pm but as we'd spent about as much time as we could doing everything that didn't involve travelling round and going too far away from Suwon she decided to catch an earlier bus from her hotel to the airport so after sitting in the lobby for a while and waiting for the next bus we said our goodbyes and she headed off.

It has been really good to have my mum around for the last couple of weeks and I am pleased that she made the decision to come here after I thought I might not see her for a year. I know that she had a good time while she was here and she certainly came back with a greater experience than she thought she would have. Hopefully this will encourage a few more people to come out and see me while I am here as I would certainly appreciate a visit any time you want to come over!

On my way out of the hotel I actually saw a big group of people checking in and when I saw that they all were wearing the same t-shirts and carrying the same bags I figured that they must be some kind of team. On careful inspection of their attire I discovered that it was actually a professional football team called Incheon United FC who were playing Suwon Bluewings this evening! Unfortunately none of the players were famous enough for me to feel inspired into getting their autographs!

I took the bus back home to Suwon to see what Charlie and Kevin were up to and we decided to go and play golf and check out what was on at the movies on the way there. Sadly there wasn't anything on at CGV but we went to play screen golf in Yeoungtong. I haven't been to play screen golf in a couple of weeks so it was a bit of a struggle to get going and sensibly we decided to play quite a difficult course this week. I finished at +16 this week but I'd like to say that was only after a few dodgy putts on the last whole which I was just wanting to get out of the way and get some dinner.

By this time as I probably would be after a round of golf was pretty starving so we headed to Kraze Burger to get some dinner and then head back to our rooms for the rest of the evening. I spent most of the evening watching Premiership football on TV and also listening to the cricket at the same time.

This morning required me to wake up early as I had decided to make my return to Inter Suwon this week for the first game of the new season. Admittedly this may have been one of the worst ideas I've ever had as after one training session under my best and my foot still not back to 100% I probably shouldn't have even considered getting out of bed at 8am this morning. Nervousness aside I made my way to Suwon station and met the rest of the team as we traveled to play Bundang.
We hopped on the train (and at one point left our goalkeeper behind) and then had to change to the subway before getting to a stop which was close to Mokadong just shy of Seoul.

We then had to take a taxi to get to the stadium where we were playing this afternoon and after finding the hockey and baseball stadiums of professional teams we eventually found the football stadium hiding just behind. Now, I've played in a few impressive venues in my time thanks to my experiences of playing for Barbados and North Yorkshire but as far as games for amateur teams go I'm not sure I have ever played in a 30,000 al seater stadium before!
It was a pretty impressive sight to be honest and it was a shame that only about 100 people were sitting up in the stand.

With a few new players in the team we started with an untried and untested formation of 3-5-2 with me at right wing back. The team we were playing had split last seasons matches with us but I played my first game against them last time when we won 3-1. Bundang took an early lead in the game despite us starting pretty well and even hitting the crossbar from one of my corners.
We stayed patient and soon one of our defenders had smashed the ball in to make it 1-1. I won a penalty which the same player converted to make it 2-1 and then we went riot on them and when I came off after 75 minutes in the second half we were 7-1 up.

An impressive start to the season I'm sure you'll agree. Some of the guys were heading to Itaewon to watch the cricket and football this evening but I decided to head back home and take a bath and rest before school tomorrow. I've spent most of the evening in my room on the computer making worksheets and things for class tomorrow and I'll be spending the rest of the evening listening to the cricket and watching whatever game is on TV.

It's been another good week in Korea and although I was sad to see my mum go back home, it was lovely to have her over here and it makes me look forward even more to returning back to England and seeing her and everyone else in eight months time!

Jungno-3, Dongdemun and Seoul Tower

WELL it wasn't quite sunday as I expected but us teachers are busy people you know! (especially when you're given assesments to write, not something you really need to be doing while entertaining visitors)

Despite the rude interuptions of work throughout the week as I mentioned in my last blog me and my mum have been having a fabulous time together, getting out and doing plenty and hopefully showing her that I am looking after myself well! It's strange to think that she has almost been here for a week already and I will definately miss her when she has gone but at the moment it's great to have some company and somebody to share the wonderful experience of Korea with.

I think/hope that she is not only enjoying seeing her son but also having a fantastic time, we did some good stuff over the weekend and I definately think that Korea has surprised her. I know that she probably needed the excuse of me being here to come over to this part of the world but I definately think that she is loving how surprising Korea can be and who knows if I ever decide to go to another slightly offbeat destination for work or pleasure, I know I will have at least one visitor.

After our long walk on friday both of our feet were aching pretty badly but as this was the only weekend she was going to be in town I promised that whatever the pain we would visit Seoul this weekend as who knows if she will ever have the chance to again. Saturday was a pretty hot day so we decided to get up pretty early and head to the palace at Jungno-3 in Seoul. It's the one that the four of us tried to get to last week but was closed.

Thankfully this time around the palace was open and following the points the guide map directed us to we walked around the lovely grounds of a fantastic palace. Mum took plenty of pictures and she was surprised to see how beautiful the architecture of some of the buildings was. Despite the fact that there are palaces around almost every corner in many parts of Korea it was only the second time I had been into a royal structure, the first being at Hwaseong Fortress and the second was the one at the City Hall in Seoul which wasn't quite as impressive.

I'm glad to report though that this one was fantastic and it was very big so took us about an hour and a half to walk round. By this time (as we met at 11am) my mum, who had initially rejected my offer of getting diner, decided that she was hungry so we decided to head to Dongdemun as I said I would take her there to walk around and buy some presents for people anyway.
Dongdemun is actually another of the spots we hit last week with Shaun but this time me and my mum walked through the shopping centre rather than the underground market. We headed up to the top floor to get some dinner before heading to the souvenir level which showed me for the first time that Korea does actually sell momentos of your time here. Not many postcards. But still there were some decent gifts which I will be purchasing for myself and other people back home when I return.

Mum wanted to buy some clothes, or at least see what they had so we headed to the underground section of the shops where she was surprised to discover the truth about how much Korean's love shopping! After a few hours spent in there we decided to head back to Suwon for some much needed rest and we ended up hanging around at my place until Charlie and Kevin came back from the movies where they had been to see public enemies.

Charlie had been mentioning a potential BBQ and after Shaun had brought him some traditional South Carolina BBQ sauce he decided to go ahead and test it out. Managing to light the cooker without blowing ourselves up we hooked my ipod speakers outside and spent the next hour cooking chicken, making baked potatoes and then enjoying a delicious meal. Whilst we were eating some fireworks started going off in the neighbourhood which was kinda cool although we didn't know where they were coming from until I went up on the Talkster roof and discovered that they were infact coming from the fortress.

Whilst we were outside enjoying the fireworks a local man who Charlie later described as being 'hateful' started shouting at us, Charlie paticularily, for no reason what so ever. He was pointing at the school and we think he was trying to communicate with us in Korean and then when we looked at him blankly he started asking why we didn't speak any Korean. If he's reading this (on the off chance!) WE DON'T UNDERSTAND KOREAN! SORRY!

My mum got off safely home and after a good night's sleep we met up again the next morning to take on Seoul Tower. For those of you who are ill informed (like me) Seoul Tower is probably the one outstanding landmark in the country and even though you might not have a clue what I am talking about, trust me if you saw a picture you'd be like 'ahhhh I know what you mean now Ben'

I'm surprised it's taken me so long to get there to be honest as I am a bit of a landmark lover but I think the wait was definately worth it. Aside from knowing which stop to get off at I didn't really know very much about how you get up to the tower as I know from looking at pictures that it's up in the mountains. As it turns out you walk up this windey little hill before eventually being presented with the choice of a walk in the 90F sun or a cable car. And even though my mum doesn't like heights she made the wise choice of taking the motorised option.

So after being crammed into a cable car together you ride up into the mountains to find the 'plaza' level of Seoul Tower. Once you've brought a ticket you're good to do and ascending up the however many feet in an elevator you eventually get to the observation deck, from which you can basically get a brilliant view of the whole city and beyond. On the top level of the deck there are windows placed all the way round the outside to give you a 360 degree view of the city and also there are places listed in the windows with how many KM they are from your location in the tower.

North Korea is only about 300KM away with Argentina being a little further at just over 14,000 KM. Rather strangely they also had the South Pole listed on the window which incase you wondered was just 12,000KM away. After a good walk round and a look out of each window we headed to the next viewing point which tells you wnat you can see in Seoul through each of the windows. Back on the plaza level you can walk round and see the view of the city without looking through grubby windows which is kinda cool and then we decided to make our way down and back to the bottom of the hill (which we walked) and to get some dinner.

Eager for some more adventuring I suggested we head to the Korean War Memorial which is in Samjagki just a few stops down the line so we jumped on a train and went there. Although we didn't actually go in the memorial we saw plenty looking around at that they had in the gardens, including a huge memorial to the fallen soldiers of the conflict and also a map of the country before and after the war. In the further past or the area that you could walk to they head models of several planes that were used in the Korean war along with tanks and submaries. On the opposite side they had several statues which were built which signify the end of the war and also one which depicts the hope that Korea are reunited someday.

Pretty cool stuff I'm sure you'll agree.
The pair of us headed back to Hwaseo for another rest for the evening and planned to go and get some tea before my mum headed back to the hotel and I trudged home to work out what I planned to do today in class.

So that was our packed weekend! It's much more fun having people around and venturing out into Seoul I have decided! There's so much to see there and all it takes it a little reading of the book I brought about Korea and some wonders can be found! After class today I met up with my mum to go and get myself a new pair of glasses. Discovering that they cost 70,000 won (about £35) mum decided she's going to go there tomorrow and get herself a pair.

For dinner I introduced my mum to some Dak Galbi which she enjoyed and we stopped in at Baskin' Robbins at the way home to get some ice cream so even though it was only a couple of hours we spent together today it was action packed too! Not sure what we have planned for tomorrow but my mum is heading to the Korean Folk Village tomorrow after she's picked up her glasses and then we might walk the rest of the fortress wall!

Photography Work, Mum Arrives and Lots of Walking

Slowly recovering from a weekend of fun with the guys out in Seoul last weekend it was time to return to normality on Monday when work came rushing around, but I'm pleased to report that I have now made it to the four month mark of my stay in Korea which I guess means I just have to do what I have done twice more and I'll be all set to return home!

While living over here hasn't been as easy as I might make out, keeping track of time aside I am not in a rush to end the experience as I am fully enjoying my time in Korea but in times when I think I am losing the plot it's good to have something to aim for and while a few weeks ago that was going to Thailand, the 6 month mark and Christmas break are definately in my sights and hopefully I can get to them and through them as I have done with everything else that has been thrown in my path in the last 4 months.

This week has been a rather good one to be honest as on Tuesday my mum arrived in Korea to visit her favourite son for nearly two weeks and I have to say that the company was more than welcome. On monday though we took Shaun out to eat Dak Galbi for the first before heading back to the batting cages for some more baseball practice, something which is rapidly becoming a favourite activity of mine! Good job we went walking down there by accident I have to say.

Well on Tuesday it was time for my mum to arrive and although he fligh got in at 8.05 there was no danger of me making it there on time as I only finished work at 7pm and then had to work through a long and complicated series of trains to get to Incheon Airport. For some reason even though Incheon is only about 50km away on a map both driving and getting the train take about two hours which makes about as much sense to you as it does to me.
But I'm pleased to say that after only one error in getting off the train too early I made it through about 50 stops to Incheon and found my mum after only a little walking through the terminal.

We made our way back to Suwon-Si together and were more than likely on the last train back to Suwon when we arrived at the station at about 12.15. Feeling confident after navigating the train I was extremely surprised to discover that for once the cab driver we picked out could understand my English accent and take us to my mums hotel which is about a 7 minute ride from Suwon station.

The Ibis Ambassedor hotel where she is staying is extremely swish, I think it's pretty new and I am extremely jelous of the surroundings she has during her time in Korea compaired to the corridor that I live in. The hotel is close to Suwon station but also, as I discovered the following day, has plenty to do in the surrounding area and it's probably alot safer than staying in any of the motel-hotels which are near my house.

On Wednesday after recovering from going to bed at 1am I met up with my mum at Suwon station to discover that she had been doing all kinds of exploring without me (see Korea isn't that scary at all...I'm talking to you people who are thinking about coming over here to see me but are worried!) and we ended up spending the few hours we had together in Suwon Station eating dinner and then travelling to E-Mart to get my mum a much needed new digital camera.
I showed her my room and the area where I live before we decided to walk back to her hotel to see how long it would take. About an hour, and no wrong turns later, we made it make to the Ibis and agreed to meet up the next day.

My mum put her camera to good use taking plenty of pictures of the 'soju tent's they have set up near the station and also of many other things that I now recognise as the accepted norm, but to an 'outsider' still seem quirky. That's how I know I have been living here too long! Whilst we were catching up, Charlie, Shaun and Kevin decided that tonight was going to be the night that they ate dog for the first time.

Now I know there are a lot of stereotypes that the sentence I typed just there confirmed but I was informed the next day that it was actually delicious and as I have said before, not all Korean's eat dogs and as I have seen the all packed in the back of a truck before (it's a picture I will definately have to post somewhere, trust me) It's not like eating Snoopy or Beethoven! Somehow (I suspect soju was involved) they also managed to almost get the neighbours to call the police because they were scared when the Shaun and Charlie came home at 3pm shouting their heads off. Although they were in the room next to me and I didn't even stir at all their noise, I somehow managed to get the blame from my boss who said that the neighbours had picked me out personally as someone who was making a lot of noise. I've always thought I was incredibly, but being in two places at one time, as I tell my kids, is something that I have yet to master!

By Thursday my mum was starting to feel pretty tired and also having some problems sleeping so I told her that after she'd finished exploring she could use my room to nap in until I came back from work and then we'd go out so yesterday involved a lot of walking as we went round Soho Park which is just across the road from where I live before meeting Shaun, Charlie and Kevin at Ocha's for galbi so that they could meet my mum and we got a chance to see Shaun before he left this morning. She also came into kindergarten for a bit during the day to meet the kids but they were playing all shy and just about to have dinner when she came in so I guess she will have to return to the classroom next week before she leaves to assess my 'teaching abilities!'
Following the meal, me and my mum decided to join the three of them in a late night walk around the city walls as none of us had been up there when the place was lit up.

The Suwon Fortress wall looks pretty impressive during the day but even the evening it looks even better than usual and the fact that you can walk on the wall at anytime of the day is very cool. It's lit up all around and the views are spectacular. Last night we just walked along part of the wall from the beginning of Namul back to the closest point near our house where we can get off it but today we went back and walked around the other half of the wall after we'd eaten dinner and i'd finished work.

It took us about two hours to walk around and we walked from one end of Namul to the other so the both of us were pretty tired by then. We walked back to Suwon Station so that we could get the bus in opposite directions but we are planning to meet up again tomorrow so that I can take my mum for her first experience of Seoul. Hopefully the weather will be nice and we can visit the Palace which we tried to see last week that was closed and then travel on to the market which me, Charlie and Shaun visited last week.

Hopefully I'll have some good stories to tell and some good pictures to show after the weekends events so you can expect a blog at some point on Sunday!x

Returning to Action, Charlie's Visitor and a Busy Weekend

WELL another week goes by in Korea, and while it didn't speed by as fast as the previous one that me and Kevin spent in Thailand (for obvious reasons) it's hard to think that we are at he beginning of August already.

The weather over the last week has been very 'August-like' with today probably being the hottest of my three and a bit month spell in Korea but all week it has been 'shorts and t-shirt weather' with the temperature at night probably being hotter than it has been in England during the day.
Being in the classroom for a large majority of the day I obviously don't notice how hot it gets but the school itself is very warm and after being in an air conditioned room walking out into the corridor after lessons is a bit like opening an oven door in your face.

It was a slow start to the week coming off the back of my throughly enjoyable week away but it was good to see some, if not all of the kids and it was fun to be back teaching the kids again. By the end of the week I was more than ready for the weekend though and it's a shame we weren't flying off back to Thailand again on saturday for another week off.

Nothing out of the ordinary really took place during the week, just lessons as always. Didn't have anything different to teach and all minus four children my classes were the same.
Desperate to beat the trouble which my foot is still giving me despite over two months of recovery time since my injury I decided to test out my ankle's strength throughout the week by going for a jog every evening after class and playing basketball for half an hour or so on a couple of evenings.

Amazingly the pain in my ankle from running was the same as it has been through walking for the last month and on Thursday, after getting an email during the week, I decided to brave it and head to practice with Inter Suwon, the team I played for in my first few weeks here, as they were training for the first time.
It was nice to see some of the friends what I had made throughout my half season with them in April and May and on a positive note in terms of my foot I didn't have any aditional pain, well certainly none that I hadn't experienced before, despite playing for two hours and spending a great deal of that running around and kicking the ball with my injured foot.

Of course it wasn't 100% but at least I now know that I can do stuff like running around and playing football and basketball so I am not consigned to sitting on my hinee after I finish work and feeling very lazy.

Before I knew it the weekend was here though and on Friday one of Charlie's friends, Shaun, flew in from the US. In the evening we took him out to dinner and showed him the delicious galbi restaurant that we often dine at. Then we decided to head to a place which we'd checked out earlier in the week called Lau Bar which is a 'foreigner' bar right by Suwon Station.

We timed our arrival just right as when we came in the door they were preparing for their weekly and customary fire show which basically involves then trying to be Tom Cruise in cocktail and then setting certain drinks on fire for people to then sample. Although I wasn't interesting in drinking any of the Jagerbombs that were on offer I was quite intregued to see exactly what the 'show' would involve.

Thankfully we weren't disappointed as they were clearly trying to entertain us as well as impress because one guy who was doing a mix of juggling and making a cocktail's first act was to drown the people next to us in orange juice when he tried juggling a container of it which wasn't sealed properley (at this point I was slightly worried because they then brought out the fire, but thankfully they didn't drop any of that, although the did have trouble putting it out!) The rest of the evening we spent playing darts and chatting and the four of us were joined by Lisa, Anna and Emily who decided to meet with us too which was cool.

Determined to show Shaun a good night we decided to head to one of the clubs that we are always touted by people on the street to go in. We decided to give it a chance but on the way Shaun became distracted by a shooting gallery game which we'd actually never seen before so him and Charlie decided to face off and play that! A little further down the road he also found a game where you could break bricks with your fists for a prize but after we'd played on all the games we decided to head to another bar which actually turned out to be extremely empty.

Eager to get the party started for all twenty people that were in there all of us got on stage and danced (more than likely to some horrible k-pop) and at the same time we discovered a strange trend in Korea in which people who are dancing together don't actually stand together, but dance opposite each other and then they make a big line and start doing choreographed dances to each song...fair enough if they were playing the macarena or saturday night but for regular music, I'm afraid I haven't watched enough music videos for that one.

Up for some more entertainment we then headed to a swank norebang (karaoke room) back by Lau Bar and spent until about four in the morning singing our hearts out to some classics. Charlie opted against singing Boyz to Men this time but me and him did do a good version of Wonderwall by Oasis and also the Thong Song by Sisqo (which was mainly intended to embarass the girls! It worked!)

Waking up the next morning for the '1pm' meeting time that Charlie had decided to set the night before I spent much of the morning tidying up my room and playing on the Wii before at about 4pm Shaun and Charlie decided to surface. We caught the bus to Suwon Station and had some dinner before heading to a palace in Jeungno that Charlie and Kevin had been to before.

Unfortunately as it was about 6.30pm by that point the palace was closed for admissions so we walked round an open air food market in Jeongno which was pretty cool and then headed to Hongdae for the evenings entertainment. When we got there me and Kevin were already hungry so decided to head for some food at our traditional stop of Dos Taco's and we met Shaun and Charlie in another bar just down the road.
We stayed in there for a bit and then went to Bull's Eye's Darts for a few games and then to a club next to it where we spent about three hours playing a game of 'Guess What Country That Person is From? It was such a success that some Korean people who could speak reasonable English and were sitting near us decided that they wanted to join in too which was pretty funny.

As the evening dragged on and it got to about 1am me and Kevin decided we'd had enough to headed back in a cab home after getting a kebab for the ride.

Today has also been a reasonably busy one as Shaun and Charlie graced us with their presense rather earlier today and we headed to a place called Dongdaemoon which is just past the subway stop for central Seoul and is also the location of a big clothes market. We spent a few hours walking down there and then went to another mall which was about ten stories high which was filled with all kinds of different shops.
Charlie and Shaun brought some things from there, my personal favourite was a t-shirt which Shaun brought for his brother which said 'Happy Earth Day 2007. Protect the earth, save the futrher.'

How I do love an entertaining piece of Konglish! We spent a few hours walking around there and then made our way back to Hwaseo for a little rest before going out to eat dinner. When we were out near Suwon station the other day Shaun had seen to batting cage games so we messed around on those for a little while (I was amazed that I actually managed to hit a few balls!) and then went to eat medeterranian.

Coming back home I spoke to my mum for the last time before she's headed to Korea and watched the first half of the Community Shield game between Manchester United and Chelsea (can't decide whether I should allow myself to stay up and watch the second half!)

It's been a busy weekend though and I am very tired so I think it's time for me to sign off. My mum arrives in Korea on Tuesday evening so hopefully this week will be as funfilled as my weekend was!

Take care x

Videos

Hey everyone!

Just a quick mini update to let you know that I have finally got round to uploading a few videos from my trip to Thailand on the third of my websites. There's some pretty cool ones which show what the beaches were like, just how safe me and Kevin were on scooters and that 20-something year olds still like to dig holes.

If violence is your thing then there's plenty of videoes from the Muay Thai Fighting we witness.

Incase you've forgotten the address is: http://s76.photobucket.com/albums/j28/benjsmall_0014/ Once you're there scroll through my Korea videos if you haven't seen them and then the Thailand ones.

Enjoy

Ben x

Photos Uploaded

Hey everyone, hope you've been enjoying reading about my travels in Thailand.

Incase you haven't checked (and I did promise I'd tell you) all my photos have now been uploaded to my gallery on shutterfly.com. There's about 300 pics to look through but I'm sure it'll be worth your while!

The web address incase you need reminding is: http://smallsyskoreanadventure.shutterfly.com/

Until next time...Enjoy!

Back in Suwon and a Return to 'Normality'

WELL everyone, you'll be glad to know that me and Kevin made it back from Thailand successfully this morning. We flew from Phuket Airport yesterday afternoon at about 6pm and had a three hour layover in Bangkok before we flew from there back to Korea.

Arriving back at Incheon Airport this morning was a strange feeling. Most notably because I'd slept for about two hours on the five hour flight between Thailand and Korea but also after all the beaches, sand and sunshine we'd seen over the last week this morning it was back to hazy sunshine, smog and the concrete jungle that is Korea.
It wasn't really a feeling of depression as I'm sure the two of us were ready for home after a week of adventuring but I guess reality bites when you have been on a tropical island and them come back to a city.

We caught a taxi home from the airport which cost us an arm and a leg but we were both too tired to care so we trundled our way from Hwaseo Station back to Talkster. I wasn't feeling very tired by the time I came into my room but I laid down for a bit and ended up sleeping for about four hours until I was woken up by the emergency alarm I'd set to prevent me from sleeping through the rest of the day and then not at all this evening.

I've spent most of the day washing clothes and putting things back where they should be. I also did a little room re-arrangement and I'm pretty happy with the third re-allignment I've made in three months so hopefully I won't have to go through the problem is sweeping up a ton us dust which obviously wasn't cleaned up before I arrived.

Once Charlie woke up we headed towards Suwon Yuk to get some food and discussed what we'd spent the time doing on vacation. I was disappointed that he wasn't able to come as I think the three of us together in Thailand would have only multiplied the comedy but hopefully if we're going away at Christmas, he'll be involved.

Spending most of the afternoon playing on the Playstation we then vetured to get some galbi for dinner, but our restaurant was shut so we headed back to Suwon station and got some Dak Galbi from the usual place. It was good to get some Korean food back inside my stomach as that is one thing I have definately missed during my time away. It was a wierd experience walking around with bright lights shining everywhere and after a week where everything has been so laid back it's difficult to become acustomed once more to regular life.

While we were standing at the bus stop waiting to come back home, there was a food service for homeless people as their sometimes is on an evening and we were quite shocked to see uproar break out when one homeless guy wasn't allowed to go for seconds (we presume this as not speaking Korean it could have been over something else). The guy was pretty drunk though and even brandished and swung a knife at three of the people who were working there. It's funny that people here just stood around watching in amazement as this guy not three but four times tired to stab somebody, if that happened in the UK or the US, I'm sure somebody would have jumped (infact if it was the US more than likely he would have been shot.)

Just reminds me of the contrast I have left behind to what I have returned to. Not once did I see a drunk person in Thailand but already within 24 hours of being in Korea I've seen plenty roaming the streets! Very strange.

Anyway enough of my delirious ramblings. Please do read what I have written for the last week while I have been staying in Thailand. Because I didn't have a computer I wasn't able to post the stuff online but i wrote it at the time and then posted it before I wrote this so it should hopefully helpt you keep up with that was going on.

I'm hoping to put all of my photos up this week on Facebook and on my photo gallery so feel free to take a look. I'll probably post when they are all up there just incase I don't get a chance to mail a few of them out.

Time for some well deserved sleep I think.

Take care

Ben x

Kata Beach Re-revisited, Bang Thao Beach and Returning to Reality

READY to head into our last day of the vacation and head off on one of the island tours, we were disappointed to discover that it would have actually required some prior planning for us to be able to book ourselves on one.

The two most popular destinations are Maya Bay which is where ‘The Beach’ was filmed and ‘James’ Bond Island’ which is close to the Phi Phi Islands, near mainland Thailand. Sadly both these tours set off at very un-vacation like times , in fact much earlier than I even get up for work so we decided to spend the day taking in a final twenty four hours of sunshine before returning to Suwon tomorrow.
Although I was disappointed that we missed out on an adventure it turned out to be a nice quiet day which fitted in very well with the rest of the time we’ve spent in Phuket.

We headed out towards Kata beach after discovering that most of the tours had already left and grabbed some food at a restaurant in the main town. We headed back to the main stretch of beach where we’d spent the first day and lounged around in the water and laying on a sun lounger for a couple of hours before deciding to be adventurous.

Although we’ve visited most of the beaches in Phuket during our stay we decided to head to one more before we left, heading towards Bang Thao beach which is just north of Surin and Kamala and about a 45 minute ride away on the bike. Well it only takes that long when like most other places it’s signposted for psycic people who realise that the turnoff is about ten minutes back in the direction they just came from.

After winding our way down a couple of small roads and being able to see the beach through the trees we decided to make a break for it through a hotel car park which seemed to lead to the beach. Luckily there was no-one there to stop us from reaching the beach and we walked down a fair bit of the 8km stretch of beach before deciding that we needed an ice cream and a sit down.

Bang Thao beach might just be the largest one in Phuket and it certainly was one of the prettiest. The water was fairly cold but the sand was perfect and as usual there were plenty of places to grab a seat as we virtually had a km of beach to ourselves. After a rest and a tasty cornetto we hopped back on the bikes and tried to find the invisible waterfall that we were unable to seek out the other afternoon.

Heading down a few narrow streets we figured we were getting somewhere until every single road we decided to go down led back onto the original road that we’d turned off. Deciding to cut our losses and head back towards the beach before the sunset we decided to stop in at Patong to get some dinner and then take one last walk on the beach in the dark. As it turned out by the time we’d had a little bit of a dip in the water and had some food it was still pretty early so we made a beeline for a bar near the shooping mall which had a few pool tables in.

Throwing 200 Baht at the waitresses we managed to get ourselves eleven games of pool and spend about an hour and a half entertaining ourselves before it was time to come back to the room. Well, that’s pretty much all as far as Thailand goes for me but I have to say that this might just be one of the best places I have ever visited and it was an excellent decision to come here as I have loved every second.

It’s always nice to get out of the city and leaving the concrete jungle of Suwon behind for a little while was a wise decision. Sure a week off from work would have been great had we stayed in Korea but it was fantastic to get out and see a different part of the world. I’m sure not all of Thailand is as glorious as Phuket but it truely is a wonderful place to spend sometime and I urge anyone with the opportunity to visit to come here and check this place out.

The beaches are wonderful, the food is fantastic, the weather is unbelieveable and the people are friendly and speak English so you’d be a fool not to. I’m pretty much sure I will be making a return visit in the near future because I have enjoyed it that much and although during our Christmas vacation it’d be cool if we could go somewhere different, I wouldn’t at all be disappointed if we ended up back here because it’s cheap but a great place to be and I consider myself very lucky to be here.

I guess that’s the week gone though and on Monday it will be a return to normallacy and a return to teaching English. It’s strange to be heading back ‘home’ by that I mean that I consider Korea to be my temporary home for the time being and while it’s nice to go away it’s always good to come back, just a bit wierd that I won’t be able to share my experiences with all my friends as I’ll only be a little bit closer to them.

We head out from Phuket airport between 6-8 tomorrow (Kevin still needs to check the ticket!) so most of tomorrow will be spent killing time before we return to Incheon via Hong Kong. I can only hope that things are as smooth in transitioning us back home as they were coming here!

Naithon and Naiyang Beach, Racing the Sunset to Ton Sai Cascade and a Legitimate Massage (Yes, it is possible to obtain)

SETTING off from the hotel this morning me and Kevin decided that we were going to spend the day hitting one or two of the northern beaches of Phuket and having accidently ridden in that direction during our first day on the island, we didn’t think that they would be too difficult to find.

The day started off with us getting some beach on Patong Beach and after avoiding some woman who wanted us to pay money to park our bikes in a certain spot we found a restaurant around the otherside of the beach to eat in reasonable peace. It’s amazing the difference between Phuket at night at during the day, most of the time before dark you can walk down the road without being hassled to purchase a suit, get a ride in a tuk-tuk or eat at a restaurant. Where at night you run the gauntlet between being forced into buying one of those things, and many more.
I guess during the day most of the hassle you receive is on the beach where people want you to buy things which are probably more usless than they are trying to sell you on the street!

Anyhow after some revitalising food we hopped onto our bikes and headed north towards Naithon Beach. Arriving there we saw the white sand and blue sea which has become a common theme of our stay in Thailand but stepping out onto the beach for the first time we noticed that Naithon was absolutely deserted. There was literally about eight people on the beach including ourselves. Most people head to Thailand, and paticulauly Phuket in the winter I realise but a perfect beach in absolutely perfect condition deserves better.

We didn’t mind though and soon we were swimming around in the water and making the most of the hot weather. Naithon hasn’t been my favourite beach of the stay in Phuket so far but it did have some lovely powdery sand which squeeked when you walked on it. There were also some fantatic views into the distance and plenty of the little white sand crabs we’ve become very familiar with scuttling up and down the beach.

Hopping back onto the bikes we decided to head a little bit further up the road to the next beach along the west coast which was Naiyang. Now Naiyang may have had exactly the same qualities as all the other beaches we have visited but the sight of it going as far on as you could see and having the view of a couple of islands out at sea made it extremely beautiful.
I just stood at the waters edge for a long time taking pictures and marvelling at everything that the beach and it’s scenary had to offer.

Again Naiyang like Naithon was pretty deserted but there was a little restaurant where we decided to get some food. Fully refreshed from eating the daylight was starting to come to an end so we decided to head towards a waterfall which I had seen signposted on the way. Hoping it wasn’t going to be invisible like Manik cascade that we’d tried to find the other afternoon we were both pleased to discover that the place was actually quite well signposted and we found it fell before sunset had completely set in.
Unlike the waterfall at Kathu, Ton Sai was much less visitor friendly. Although there was a path for a nature trail much of the exploring we did was climbing up rocks which probably shouldn’t have been climbed and following paths that probably weren’t paths. Still, the waterfall was as impressive a sight as I have seen during my time in Phuket.

It’s amazing to think about the contrast between a beautiful waterfall and then the picturesque beaches we have spent much of our time on. Doing things like seeing the cascase really reminds you that you are essentially in a tropical jungle resort and that some untouched areas like this are as beautiful as the man made areas which we have visited so frequently.

Climbing up the waterfall as far as our legs (and the path) would allow us, we headed back to the bottom. Because you’re essentially heading into the dense jungle it is ridiculously hot once you start climbing up the hill and although I feel I am able to tolerate hot weather pretty well, the humidity as you started climbing into the trees is unbelieveable. Getting back on the bike and letting the wind blow across our faces was quite a relief.

With some daylight hours still to spare we decided to hit the most beautiful beach we’d visited in the last couple of days which was in Surin. Light had started to fade quite badly by the time we got there but we were definitely in time to see the sun disappear into the sea. A beautiful sight it certainly was. We decided to eat dinner in Kata this evening but before that we also decided to try a Thai speciality, a massage.

Now when you think about Thai massages I’m sure you all have an image in your head of some skinny Thai bride-to-be using her massuse skills to seduce a middle aged old man into marrying her. If you wipe that image out of your head completely and think about what two twenty-something boys were looking for in a massage, the two were quite different images!

Getting a massage in Thailand is about as easy as it gets. From morning to night, ‘girls’ sit outside their parolors and in the same distinctive tone say ‘hello, massage, welcome’ to almost anyone who passes by. We saw some massuses in the beach the other day which would have been the perfect open aired experience we were looking for.


However now that the sun had disappeared it began to look as though we were going to have to work this one out for ourselves. And by that I mean judge the shadyness of each massage place we walked past on it’s own merits. Avoiding the obviously dodgy places with attractive ladies outside and nobody inside (not quite the sign of a good business is it?!) we looked for safety in numbers and headed back down the road we’d come in to see if we could find a massage place where there were already a number of people inside.

Thankfully about ten minutes down the road we found a nice place which was extremely legitimate and got ourselves two Thai massages. I’m not quite sure I have ever felt so relaxed and even when it felt like the woman massaging me was going to re-break my injured foot the pain didn’t last too long and I’m pretty sure I could have fallen asleep while we was at work.

Ending the evening as usual with a meal we walked back down to where we had parked out bikes and had some nice food at a place called Bufalo Steak house. Seems like we made the wrong choice though as the restaurant across the road seemed to have people crowding around it. Only when they stepped back and made a little space between them that we noticed that there was a huge crowd outside it because there was a baby elephant standing out in the street with it’s owner who was allowing people to buy peanuts and feed it.

Admitedly we’ve seen quite a few entertaining sights in the last few days with people showing off monkeys, iguanas and all sorts on the street but a baby elephant is quite the attraction! Although we were tempted to down our cutlery and head over there we decided that it would be best if we didn’t, mainly because there would more than likely be some kind of fee involved to feed it and/or have your picture taken with it.
Dodging the gauntlet of bars with Thai women trying to woo you in on the way back to the bikes we made the short journey home and prepared ourselves for whichever tour we decide to take tomorrow.

Trairang Beach, Phuket Town and Why Getting Lost Can Sometimes be Beneficial

FOLLOWING the enjoyment of last night’s Thai boxing, me and Kevin decided to take it easy today by having a lie in and spending most of the morning lying on the beach.
As you can imagine after the last couple of days we are pretty spoiled for choice when it comes to our selection of beaches but we made our way to a different one today deciding to head out to Trairang beach which is just left of Patong Beach, about a ten minute ride from our hotel.

Typically the beach was in perfect condition and with no threat of rain this afternoon it was a case of: Sunshine, Check; White sand, check; Beautiful blue water, check. I really think we have been totally spoiled for choice since we’ve been here and each beach we seem to go to only seems more beautiful than the last one!

We spent about two hours on this beach lying under an umbrella, taking some pictures and enjoying the water before we decided to go for a bit of a ride and head towards Phuket Town. We’d bordered the town in the last couple of days but not managed to venture into it as yet and after an hour or so of riding around we’d probably explored every street that Phuket Town had to offer and decided to find ourselves a restaurant.

As peaceful and tranquil as the rest of Phuket is, Phuket Town was probably somewhere that you wouldn’t want to stay if you came here. There was plenty of traffic on the road and not seeing the beach for about two hours or so was surprisingly depressing. With so many more buildings and shops the temperature, even on the bike, was about 10F hotter than it has been the whole time we’ve been here. We eventually managed to find a restaurant which boasted itself to sell ‘Thai and Chainese’ food. Despite not being a big fan of eating jewellery we decided to head in and in the end the food turned out to be very good and very cheap.

Stepping back on the bikes we headed for back for home but with our excellent navigation skills we managed to find our way to about seven dead ends including one which simply seemed to be the end of land with a road heading that way. Yet again Thailand came through in the clutch with it’s road signs...not.

As it was the lack of signs didn’t hinder us too much as we somehow found our way to Phuket Bay which is one of the southernmost points of the island. We arrived there just in time to watch the sunset and just around the corner we watched the rest of the sunset by the waters edge which is just near the town’s aquarium. I’m not sure we could navigate ourselves there again if we tried but it was certainly worth taking a few wrong turnings or so.

Eager to hit the water again (or at least get our feet wet before we returned to the hotel) we decided to head to Patong beach and take a walk across the sand before getting some dinner. Standing in the water looking out on the waves in Phuket is a truly amazing sight and one that I wish everyone could see (or at least that I could capture on my camera) It’s such a contract from the bright lights on the opposite side of the road, I certainly know which one I would prefer to experience.

Sadly to get some food you have to take the gauntlet down the road whilst people try and sell you fake goods, offer you a taxi or women offer you a ‘massage’ (yes, in Thailand we really do know what that means.) We found ourselves at quite a delicious restaurant with a live band and some good atmosphere so we were pretty happy to finish off yet another enjoyable day and night in style. We then took a ride back to the hotel to rest up and decide what we shall do tomorrow.

Why TLC were right not to advise chasing waterfalls, riding our bikes in the wet and front row seats to see children fighting.

OUR third day in Thailand began with us going to get some breakfast/lunch in Karon whilst we decided what we were going to get up to throughout the rest of the day.
Stopping at a restaurant about five minutes down the road we decided to head towards one of the beaches which we hadn’t visited, Kamala.

After riding about ten minutes down the wrong road realising that we were heading back towards the cascade we visited yesterday, we hooked a u-turn and headed back the way we thought it was going to be!

Riding up and down, left and right and seemingly round and round we seemed to be chasing an invisible beach! If there’s one complaint I have against Thailand it’s that they don’t exactly signpost things efficiently! Signs will all of a sudden disappear and then five minutes later you’ll see one on the other side of the road to let you know that you’ve gone completely the wrong way!

Thanks. For. That.

In the end we decided to head for Kamala beach as that was one of the ones we hadn’t ‘hit’ on our last couple of days in the country. Kamala beach proved to be as difficult to find as the other three that we’d been looking for and it took about fifteen minutes of searching and driving down the wrong roads before we finally found it.

As it turned out Kamala beach turned out to be pretty hidden away but pretty nice (despite the sign which boasted ‘beach 280m’ I think it was a little further but it was worth finding) The beach was pretty long as and as is standard came with beautiful blue water, plenty of palm trees and perfectly soft sand.

Spending some time swimming in the water I took a walk down the beach but just as I returned to my seat to get comfortable we started to feel some spots of rain in the air. We started walking back towards to bikes to hop on them and try and find a place to shelter ourselves from the rain, but as it started to come down pretty heavily we headed to a restaurant and got some food while the weather calmed down.

About an hour later the rain had eased up and we decided to make the brave step of getting back onto our bikes in the wet weather. Eager to do some more exploring we decided to head to one of the other waterfalls on the map. Unfortunately we had some problems with directions again and after riding up and down several hills we’d ridden about as far as we could and got no closer to either of the four waterfalls that we’d tried to find. They can’t be that hidden surely!

As we rode along and navigated the wet patches on the road we decided to head back towards home as we were heading towards northern Phuket which was probably more than we could handle in one day.

It took us about an hour to get to wherever we were back to Karon and once back to the hotel we had a shower and rested before an evening of Muay Thai fighting which we’d both been looking forward to.

Now I’m not a big one for violence but Thai boxing is one of the countries proudest national sports and like karate or Tai Kwan Do it’s full of strict rituals and is mainly about self defence and respect. Knowing absolutely zero about the rules of Thai boxing I decided to take in an evening of fighting to see for myself what it was all about.

Before we headed to the ‘Biggest Fight of the Month’ we decided to get a taxi down to the arena. Hoping to get into a tuk-tuk (special Thai taxi) we were disappointed to discover that we were given a lift in a minibus but at least we made it there. The Muay Thai boxing arena wasn’t as far away as we thought it would be and as we arrived a couple of hours early we decided to head for some food, and finding an ‘Irish Bar’ in a shopping mall just off Patong Beach we had some food, a couple of drinks and played a game of darts on, for once, a real board.

Having been turned away the first time we tried to get into the stadium for being there too early we took another walk around the mall and came back as the repetitive announcement told us at ‘9pm’. As it turned out when we got there, what it needed to say was that doors opened at 9pm and action wasn’t to get underway till an hour later. Apparenelty not everyone had been told that and some people sat there with us for the next sixty minutes wondering when the action was going to begin.
The arena that the boxing was being held in was a lot more ‘advanced’ than I thought it would be. I figured it would be in some underground Fight Club-esque arena but there was a reasonable sized ring and plenty of seats around the outside. Having picked ourselves up some ‘VIP’ seats we were extremely close to the ring and as 10pm arrived things got started once everyone had got to their seats.

The night’s bouts started off, rather awkwardly, with the 60lbs category, which basically meant that the first fight was between two eight-year-olds. As the people around us were about 55% women, they were even less impressed than we were to be watching two kids so young battling it out. To be fair to them, the two kids held their own quite well and although the one from the blue corner probably landed more punches than his opponent, we didn’t have to deal with the awkwardness of a knock-out or one of them getting cut.

We were lucky enough in the second flight to see a knock-out in our second fight as a European fighter, I think he was from England knocked out his Thai opponent in the first round. We had a couple of disappointing fights to sit through next as two women battled it out and then two Thai fighters basically battled out a draw. The next one we saw reminded us how close to the ring we were as a guy from England got a cut on his eye and the programme we had sitting next to us got covered in blood, as did everyone in the row in front of us. The guy eventually gave up after he stopped being able to see which I figured was probably-wise.

A few fights later we got to see the ‘Amco’ title belt change hands as some showboating old man fighter, who spent about five minutes before the beginning of the fight dancing around and taunting his opponent got knocked out within the first round and after his showboating a big cheer went up when he ate the canvas in under two minutes.

The ninth, and last fight we saw was probably the closest as some guys who came down to the ring with money wrapped around their neck were obviously fighting for some kind of prize fund and were reasonably closely matched so even though both of them went down once neither of them gave up until the last round and in the end the guy who we thought would win from the red corner took a narrow victory.

I personally had a great evening watching the action and although the fighting was pretty brutal it was interesting to watch and there certainly was some adrenelin pumping when people were landing punches and kicks on one another. As I was in Thailand I figured it was a one time only thing and unlike some people in the crowd I wouldn’t be taking my ten-year old kids to watch!

Impounded Vehicles, Big Buddha, a Beautiful waterfall and the beach by sunset

THROUGHLY enjoying our first days stay in Phuket Kevin and I woke up this morning wondering what the day would have instore for us. By the time I am now writing this blog entry, the answer is a lot more than I expected. I’m pleased to say though that once again Thailand managed to astound both of us with is truely amazing nature and fantastic scenary.

Waking up at about 11am we decided to go and get some brunch at a restaurant in the Karon area and then head on to a waterfall and then perhaps to a beach we hadn’t visited yesterday. As it turned out the morning was spent somewhere neither of us wanted to end up, the police station!

Fear not though, it was through no fault of my own!

We pulled up at a restaurant called ‘The Little Mermaid’ had some breakfast and planned to get some gasoline for the bikes before heading off. As we approached Kevin noticed there was a white piece of paper sticking out between his handlebars. On closer inspection we noticed that it was a parking ticket and eventually realised that we had parked in an area which on a sign further down the road wasn’t supposed to be parked in. (For some reason in Thailand depending on whether the date is odd or even you can either park on the left of the right hand side of the road. Sadly neither of us knew of this law and had we known, neither of us actually knew what date it was)

Anyway, putting the tickets in our pocket we decided to deal with them later and carry on with our day. Sadly it didn’t quite work out that way when we realised that our bikes had been chained together (presumably to prevent us from disappearing without paying the ticket, but more likely because we were forgeign) Unaware of who had ticketed our bikes, and also how we were actually going to get out of the situation we trooped back to the hotel in the boiling midday sun and explained what had happened.
Thankfully the lady behind the desk willingly voulenteered to take us to the Police station to pay the fine which was 500 Baht. After a twenty minute drive to get to the station we found the ‘Pay Fine’ desk, filled in a form and handed over the money (which rather entertaingly and sumwhat unsurprisingly ended up in the ticketing officers top pocket)

The guy radioed for someone to come and unlock our bikes and by the time we’d been dropped off, walked back down to the bikes and had a quick drink with the bikes in view we’d had them unlocked. We returned to the bar to finish our drinks and then got the shock of our lives when we went back to the scooters only to find that they’d been moved from where we put them! Both of us figured that they’d probably been picked up by the same police officer again for some other stupid reason but we were soon informed that they had been moved by someone who was trying to reverse their car out from behind them.

In the interest of not losing our bikes again we got some gas and hit the road down to Kata beach which is just south of where we are staying. After out visit to the station we both felt we needed to cool off and while Kevin took a swim I walked down the beach and took some pictures of yet more picturesque background. I’m pretty such that I have taken a lot of ‘computer background’ photos while I have been here but someone the ones I took this afternoon on Kata beach really some up this island paradise.

With much of the afternoon left to spare we decided to hunt for the ‘Big Buddha’ which sits on a hill somewhere in Phuket and following the road a bit further south back towards the police station we soon discovered a few signs and headed north (as in up) towards the Buddha. The road was pretty steep at some points and I wasn’t entirely sure that my ‘hog’ would make it up the hill but after a lot of windy road and some more spectacular views we finally got to the top to see the incredible sight that is a big marble Buddha on top of potentially one of the highest peaks in Phuket.

We walked through a temple which was decked out with many of the things we’d seen on Buddha’s birthday back in Suwon and then we ascended up a few more steps to discover a 45ft statue of Buddha with people all around continuing to work to finish off the statue of their God. We stood and marvelled at the views for half an hour and I took plenty of pictures which you will be able to see on my photo gallery. The view from up there of the whole of Phuket was a truely amazing view and I can liken it only to the view of Paris which I got from standing on top of Tour Monparanase. Just this time it was views of beautiful beaches and clear blue water.

Heading back down we decided to go towards food and after driving on the open road for a little while we headed back towards Patong Beach where we’d spent some time yesterday. We got a nice little pizza from one of the places by the beach and then decided to sit out on the sand under an umbrella for a little while as our food settled. I watched a couple of people go out jet-skiing which I have to admit looks very fun and I was also lucky enough to see a couple of people go up parasailing which also looks like a blast. Not sure I would have the daring to do either though!
Sitting for about an hour or so on the beach we caught our breath from the excitement of the morning and decided to get on our bikes once more and head towards a waterfall which we’d seen on the map. We’d been pointed in the direction of the nearby mountain by one of the guys we brought gas from and eventually after a ten minute ride or so we reached the bottom of the fall.

Climbing up a few thousand steps we were soon at the top of the waterfall which provided us get again with some terrific views. As we climbed further and further up, it was more like being in the jungle as the humidity got much greater and also the trees started to become much thicker.

Me and Kevin got to the top, dipped our feet in the water and tried to take in the beaufitul sight of a waterfall which we pretty much had to ourself. It’s incredible to think that there is a river running right through the mountain and we weren’t even able to climb to the top of it but it was an amazing sight. The water which we put our feet in was so cool and clear, the sounds all around us we very atmospheric and it was a sight like I have never seen in my life. Certainly not one I’ll forget in a hurry.
It’s strange to think that with all the beaches we have seen, we are essentially in a third world country which along time ago was all jungle. Seeing the virtually untouched waterfall helped bring that back to me and I realise how lucky I am to have been able to see such a sight on my journeys.

Hitting the road again we rode our bikes around in a square and hitting speeds of up to 100km/h we were driving along some main roads alongside other cars which was a very auxillerating ride. We headed back towards Surin Beach and despite thinking we’d missed out on finding it after a thirty minute ride we eventually found a side street which led us to the beach.

Arriving at the beach we were just in time to watch the sunset on what I reckon is definitely the most beautiful beach I have ever seen in my life. Whilst I was in Barbados I saw some fantastic beaches but this one was out of this world. From ear to ear all I could see was white sand and gentle waves turning over in the sea. The sunset made the view even more fantastic and as we walked along the beach with no-one around we ran out of superlatives to describe how amazing the scenary was. The sand on Surin beach was perfect, the water was warm and completely clear. No litter, no seaweed, no nothing, just perfectly pure and clean water perfect for swimming in. We walked out towards the farside of the beach where I was able to climb on some rocks and get a better view of the fantastic sunset.

Feeling hungry we headed back to land and stopped at a nearby restaurant. I had some delicious sweet and sour chicken which was a perfect way to end the day. Feeling tired (and no doubt eager to blog about what we’d just seen) the pair of us rode back to Karon Beach via the usual chaos of Patong and I can say I am very much looking forward to what tomorrow will bring.

Hopefully we’ll remember to park on the right side of the road....

Hiring a Scooter, Breathtaking Views and Elephants ‘parked’ by the side of the road

WAKING up after a good nights sleep and getting rid of all the tiredness from flying half way across Asia yesterday me and Kevin got up this morning fully ready for exploring.

Kevin had read that the best way to get around in Thailand is to use a scooter so we enquired about them in our hotel and found out that they were only 200 Baht which is about £4! Crazy I know. Now the thought of being on a scooter in England is a little intimidating but being on one in Thailand is an even more intimidating thought.
After I’d finally worked out how to start it up and filled it up with some gasoline, which incidently is sold on old wine bottles at the side of the road by most vendors, we were ready to go. Kevin needed to get some sun cream and I needed to get some flip flops so we headed to the nearest town we could and got hold of what we needed and once we’d got the scooters going we realised it wasn’t quite as difficult as it came across, probably because there wasn’t much traffic on the road.

Kevin was slightly more confused than I was because despite his greater experience on the scooter, driving on the ‘English’ side of the road provided him with an extra challenge!

We decided to head towards a nearby beach and following some signs we rode up and down some hills and on some windy roads. We stopped off at part of Patong Beach which is one of the most reputable beaches in Phuket. We dipped our feet in the water, sat for a bit and then decided to find some food. We rode a long way across Phuket it seemed without finding a restaurant or anything that looked like a restaurant for around 45 minutes. Eventually we pulled up at some form of roadside cafe and picked up a nice meal for around 400 Baht (or about £7) Looking for a new beach we rode the scooters back towards Karon and continued down the west coast reaching the next beach along the coast which was called Kata.

Clear blue waters, white sand and an amazing amount of sun the pair of us were already beginning to shown some signs of redness and we decided to head into the water to cool down. The water wasn’t quite as clean as it was at the bit of Patong beach we went to earlier today but it was perfectly temperate and the sand was so soft and nice that for those couple of hours, being there was nothing short of being in paradise and I sat in the water for quite a long time thinking about how amazing it was that I finally made it to Thailand having wanted to go there for so long.

Me and Kevin rode further up the road beyond Kata beach finding another small beach called Kata Noi and then we rode even further up the coast to Ravena Beach which actually turned out to be more of a pier than a beach. On the way there we stopped off at Kata viewpoint and saw some of the most visually stunning beaches I have ever seen in my life. Hopefully you’ll enjoy looking at them on my photo gallery to see what I mean.

Just when you think you have seen everything we were driving along the road, I caught sight of a couple of girls who were riding in front of us wildly swing half way across the road. Thinking that they were just poor drivers I looked down at the ground and noticed that their swerviture was likely because a snake, which was now on the road, had jumped out of a tree and aimed at them.

We decided to travel back towards Patong to get some dinner and after a 30 minute ride we finally made it there both feeling starving. We stopped off at a Mexian restaurant, had some dinner and watched the sunset, which again provided us with some amazing views. We walked up through Patong a little while before decided to head back to the hotel because we were nakered!
Riding the bikes back in the dark was a little difficult, especially when someone decided to steal my helmet and I ended up riding back with just a baseball cap on to protect me.

I must be honest and say that today that was an absolutely fantastic day and I saw some incredible views and riding the scooters made it all the more pleasureable. Hopefully tomorrow we’ll have some more exiciting adventures and having invested in those things for the rest of the time we’re here, we’ll see what we can get up to.

Four Countires, Three In-Flight Meals, Two Unnecessarily Filled Out Health Declerations and One Swine Flu Hosing Down...

AFTER the long wait and the weeks slowly drizzling by, Saturday morning came around for me and Kevin, meaning it was time to head to Thailand. We’d arranged a ‘call van’ to come and pick us up at 5.30am to get us to Incheon Airport in time for our 8.30am flight which would take us to Phuket via Hong Kong and Malaysia.

Despite not going to bed until about 1am because of playing on my Wii and messing around on the internet by the time the van got to Talkster, my suitcase was packed and I was ready to go. As we were driving all the way to Incheon the weather was pretty miserable so perhaps it wasn’t such a bad thing that we were leaving Korea for a week.
We managed to get our plane tickets and get through customs with little problem, neither of us had checked in a bag so we didn’t have to mess around with any of that nonsense at any of our three stops.

Amazingly the first of our three flights was on time and we took off from Korea to travel to Malaysia on the first of three flights which was due to take five and a half hours. The first of our flight meals arrived just as I decided to wake up and it was very much needed as already I was starting to flag! It was still early after all!

We arrived in Hong Kong to a torrent of rain to spend the next couple of hours in the countries only airport. We tried to find our way to the ‘transfer desk’ of the airport and after kindly being pointed in the right direction by a sign we got to the desk to discover that we’d been pointed in the wrong direction. Getting to the second place we were pointed to the queue we were in to get through customs decided to back-up and we were soon told that due to a ‘malfunctioning door’ we’d have to go back to the original desk we were pointed in the direction of. Heading back there we discovered another ‘door problem’ and were then marched halfway across the airport to a door that appeared to be working! (We never did discover that the problems with the ‘door’ were but we figured that was a code for someone trying to bring someone through the gate that they shouldn’t be.

Speaking of which when we did get through passport control and had our bags checked the few women in front of us decided that they were going to try and bring a drill box full of plants through which did hold things up a little bit but with two and a bit hours to spare it wasn’t exactly a serious problem! Taking off from Hong Kong to get to Malaysia, the weather had eased and soon we were on the four hour flight between Hong Kong City to Kuala Lumpur.

On the flight between the two countries we had a bit of entertainment on the plane and not just the choice of films there was to watch. For the second time in two flights the pair of us were told to fill out a health declaration form which was basically checking that you weren’t carrying swine flu. Presumably to ensure against the same thing there was an announcement just as we were about to land that the plane we were on was going to be sprayed to ensure that everyone was ‘clean’. I can’t remember exactly how it went but it wasn’t very re-assuring to be told that if you were wearing contact lenses then you simply needed to close your eyes for 30 seconds and you should be fine. Luckily I was wearing my glasses and I was able to see the ridiculous sight of four members of the flight staff spraying what seemed like air freshener whilst walking backwards down the cabin. Me and Kevin just lucked at one another concluding that the world had gone mad.

We arrived in Lumpur feeling pretty jaded but having only a couple of hours to get onto our flight in the comfort of reclining chairs it wasn’t so bad. Boarding our one hour and ten minute flight to finally get to Phuket we were given some pretty good food including some Ferrero Roche and actually had to fill out a worthwhile health form as we were actually entering the country not being confined to the space of the airport. We touched down in Phuket at about 6.30pm and both of us were feeling pretty tired.

We managed to get ourselves a taxi to the Karon Living Room Hotel where we were staying and after changing our Korean Won into Thai Baht we headed out in the direction of the south coast of the country. As ever when you arrive in a place late at night, things seemed pretty surreal and it was pretty difficult to pick any noticeable landscape features out in the cover of darkness.
After about an hour we got to our hotel and checked in. We decided having travelled all this way that it was time to head towards the beach and then get some food. Even though it was stupidly dark and we weren’t able to see very much of Karon Beach it was pretty obvious that every second of the journey had been worthwhile. Kevin decided to go and check out the water whilst I took in the fact that it was still 90F despite being pitch black.

Both of us as usual were hungry so we headed towards a nearby restaurant and grabbed some traditional Thai food. We took a bit of a walk around the main street of Karon and decided to call it an evening and head back to our hotel after the travelling had worn us both out.
We did have one little shock late at the night when I decided to turn on the light and wiped out all the power to our room by blowing a fuse but we survived through the rest of the evening to enjoy our first day in Thailand.