Here's a little competition for everyone at home. First person to spot the shark from our few days snorkelling in the Perhentian islands (blog entry to follow soon) in all the photos gets a prize. Click on the photos to enlarge them if necessary. There's one bonus point on offer for recognising all the extremely white and pasty Irish lads in the photos aswell.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Ok maybe we didn't actually see the last one. One more thing.....if the prize gets lost in the post it's not our fault! 
Monday, June 22, 2009
Paddy in Koh Tao
After the all night partying in Koh Phangan our bodies decided that we needed a well deserved break. Koh Tao, our next destination is famous for being one of the best places in the world for learning how to dive. How could we pass up on such an opportunity. On arriving we signed up for a 4 day PADI diving course. We completed the first 2 days which consisted of class work, homework and even a couple of exams! It was just like being back in primary school but the weather was much better. After passing the exams we were then allowed into the water. In the water we had to do some practicl tests like threading water for 10 minutes and some basic diving skills. These were completed in a swimming pool with all the diving gear.
On the third day we completed out first 2 dives at a depth of 12 metres. Incredible! Nothing could have prepared us for the thrill we got underwater. The fourth day we completed 2 more dives at a depth of 18 metres. We had more fun on these as we were a lot more comfortable with the diving lark. We had a danceoff underwater against the diving instructors to Marcarena which we lost miserably. We also made a human pyramid. All of this is on video a long with some other stuff. The actors really cae me out in us and some are even thinking of hitting Hollywood after their on screen debuts!?!!?!!!?
We are now all certified divers so if anyone needs to dive to 18 metres, we're the crew. After Koh Tao we headed for Patong beach, Phuket. Here we met with Henry Ahern from Farranfore who was out here working. We also visited the Irish Rover bar which is owned by a Castletownbere man, Paul Stonewall. He made us feel right at home. One night we went to a Table tennis competition. Ping Pong is huge in Thailand. The weather wasn't great in South Thailand so just in case our lovely tans started to fade, we decided to head on to Malaysia. Our next stop in the rollercoaster adventure is Malaysia. Fingers crossed we make it ok!
On the third day we completed out first 2 dives at a depth of 12 metres. Incredible! Nothing could have prepared us for the thrill we got underwater. The fourth day we completed 2 more dives at a depth of 18 metres. We had more fun on these as we were a lot more comfortable with the diving lark. We had a danceoff underwater against the diving instructors to Marcarena which we lost miserably. We also made a human pyramid. All of this is on video a long with some other stuff. The actors really cae me out in us and some are even thinking of hitting Hollywood after their on screen debuts!?!!?!!!?
We are now all certified divers so if anyone needs to dive to 18 metres, we're the crew. After Koh Tao we headed for Patong beach, Phuket. Here we met with Henry Ahern from Farranfore who was out here working. We also visited the Irish Rover bar which is owned by a Castletownbere man, Paul Stonewall. He made us feel right at home. One night we went to a Table tennis competition. Ping Pong is huge in Thailand. The weather wasn't great in South Thailand so just in case our lovely tans started to fade, we decided to head on to Malaysia. Our next stop in the rollercoaster adventure is Malaysia. Fingers crossed we make it ok!
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
Tigers and Full Moons
So the past week was a bit of an up and down one. Following on from the trek that Conor wrote about, we pretty much all got pretty sick. There were 10 of us on the trek and everyone felt something. Basically, on day one, the driver/guide/chef pulled in about 11am to pick up chicken, then had it in his backpack for 24 hours before cooking it. Not a good idea. So while we were getting over that, we decided to get our lives back in order. A trip to the barbers, the dentist, and a massage parlor had us feeling right as rain again and ready to go again.
While we were laid up, we took a trip out to see some tigers. We presumed we would be looking at them through cages, but no, we arrived, the cages were opened, and in we went. First off we went in to see the newborns. These had just been fed so unfortunately were just like cute cats. After that it was time for the big boys. We had presumed that these would be on leashes, or at least had their teeth shaved or something. Not a bit of it. 5 of us flung into the Tigers cage, passing the "These are Wild Animals" sign on the way. Eventually, we got a bit courageous and started playing with the tigers, although any slight movement by them, resulted in us juming 10 feet in the air. Didn't stop Ed taking the "hit first, hit hard" mentality to the extreme, by biting a tiger's tail before the tiger could get him!
We had a long journey south then which was 2 overnight trains, broken up by a 10 hour layover in Bangkok. Our previous stay in Bangkok was ruined by jetlag, so at least this time we got to see the royal palace. Nice spot. We've recieved a few complaints recently about the lack of museum and cultural photos so here's a few nice ones for ye! After that it was back on the train to head south to Ko Phangan.
Now Ko Phangan isn't much of an island. It has a few nice beaches, waterfalls etc, but nothing out of the ordinary. It is however, famed for the Full Moon Party. We asked a few people for the origins of this party. The best answer was that in the 80's, some Aussie lad was staying there for a few months, and when he left he had a leaving party. By chance, there was a Full Moon that night, and all in attendance agreed that the moon brought the wildest out of people.
It has grown since then, and now it is a monthly party on the beach, where 12-15,000 people dance the night away drinking buckets, usually dressed from head to toe in body paint. Nowadays it has everything, with a central theme of fire. Giant flaming skipping ropes, flaming hoops to jump through, and locals playing with fire sticks. Thankfully we escaped without any permanent damage, and are now on the next island, Ko Tao, relaxing once again. Monday, June 1, 2009
Chiang Mai - What a trek!
I know everyone's been waiting for my next contribution on the blog so the pressure is on but I've got some serious material to work with in fairness. After the tubing we headed North to a town called Luang Prabang which is about a 5 hour drive along some of the craziest road I've 
ever seen. When someone says carved into the side of a mountain they're talking about this road. The town itself was very quiet with a nice museum (being honest we didn't actually go in) and a temple at the top of the hill in the centre of the town. The highlight of which apparently is the Buddha's foot which as you can see for yourselves came about as the result of some lad painting a rough shape of the foot in gold paint on a rock. Needless to say after 350 steep steps to get there we weren't impressed.
We headed to Chiang Mai by air this time instead of getting a 3 day boat journey or another 24 hr bus. We were quite impressed by Laos Airlines which is not something I thought I'd ever say. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second city where you can pretty much do anything from massage and cooking courses to zip lining to playing with tigers and of course trekking. The first night we headed to some proper Muay Thai kickboxing in the local stadium. Amazingly it happened to be the biggest fight of the year with a Scottish guy called Sean Wright fighting in the main event. The fights themselves were pretty good with the Scot taking a bit of a hockeying truth be told. The higlight of the night though was Mick and Ed joining the band who actually signal the end of the round by changing the tempo of the song. I think the video explains it all.
The next day, after much deliberation we decided to go on the two day trek which would later turn out to be a wise choice. Our group consisted of the five of us, three English girls and a couple from Phoenix, Arizona.
The first day started with a ride out to a waterfall where we all jumped in. As you can see from
the photos we didn't really enjoy it! The power of the water was something else. At one stage Mark came out from under it thinking Mick had been punching him on the top of his head. After this we headed for the hot spring which were basically 3 pools of water formed from the hot spring half a mile away. The first two pools were too hot to get into but we 
managed to sit down in the third one eventually. There was also a swimming pool there filled with the hot water which was relaxing to say the least. Being told to get out of it to start the trek was heartbreaking.
The trek started with a little walk up to see the hot spring where the water is literally boiling on the surface. After that we started the trekking proper. Our first 30 minutes was up a pretty steep hill which would have been ok save for the bag and lifejacket on our back and the fact that it's the middle of the jungle. It wasn't long before the conversation dried up and the sweat started to pour out of us. A little longer and pretty much everyone was a) thanking God that they didn't do the 3 day trek and b) wondering why anyone would go trekking in the first place.
It eased up after a while and we got to the first of three hillside tribes. I didn't expect the big satellite dish and the solar panels on the way in but you'll do what you gotta do to watch MTV. The scenery from the tops of some of the hills, when we weren't staring at the ground in front of us or checking our shoes for leeches (oh they loved Darragh and his shoes so much) was pretty amazing in fairness. We eventually got to our camp after some dodgy bamboo bridges, many slips and falls and an awful lot of cursing the Thai countryside for being so mountainy. It contained some rather interesting livestock the pick of which was the giant pig, the crazy chickens who chased away the dogs and a cat who made the strangest wailing sound we'd ever heard. We had our dinner, a few drinks and a bit of a singsong before hitting the bamboo hut and passing out for the night.
The next morning I went to find the tap to brush my teeth only to find an elephant looking at me. There were 3 more down in the river having a wash but after listening to that cat since 6am
they were a welcome distraction. After breakfast we hopped onto the bamboo rafts (Darragh and Ed's raft had to have extra bamboo added......you'll understand why later). The rafting proved interesting at times especially going down the rapids with the raft veering into the bank and Mark and Mick bashing into a tree making a slingshot which caught me in the chest sending me sprawling into the white water. I recovered gracefully and managed to hold onto my bamboo pole. We stopped after about 5km to go elephant riding. Not something I ever thought I would do but hey, when in Rome. I shared an elephant with Darragh and let's just say it was leaning a little to the right! I've never seen a man topple an elephant but O' Keeffe was gunning for it.
The elephants varied from our guy who just wanted to eat all the time by traipsing off into the jungle munching leaves to Mick's who just didn't want to walk at all to the baby elephant who spent most of it's time swimming in under it's mother. We hopped off after an hour or so and went back for some more rafting before having lunch and getting the bus back to the hostel. Tomorrow we're thinking of going playing with some tigers. After the leeches, suicide chickens, moaning cats and elephant toppling sure what harm could it do!
ever seen. When someone says carved into the side of a mountain they're talking about this road. The town itself was very quiet with a nice museum (being honest we didn't actually go in) and a temple at the top of the hill in the centre of the town. The highlight of which apparently is the Buddha's foot which as you can see for yourselves came about as the result of some lad painting a rough shape of the foot in gold paint on a rock. Needless to say after 350 steep steps to get there we weren't impressed.We headed to Chiang Mai by air this time instead of getting a 3 day boat journey or another 24 hr bus. We were quite impressed by Laos Airlines which is not something I thought I'd ever say. Chiang Mai is Thailand's second city where you can pretty much do anything from massage and cooking courses to zip lining to playing with tigers and of course trekking. The first night we headed to some proper Muay Thai kickboxing in the local stadium. Amazingly it happened to be the biggest fight of the year with a Scottish guy called Sean Wright fighting in the main event. The fights themselves were pretty good with the Scot taking a bit of a hockeying truth be told. The higlight of the night though was Mick and Ed joining the band who actually signal the end of the round by changing the tempo of the song. I think the video explains it all.
The next day, after much deliberation we decided to go on the two day trek which would later turn out to be a wise choice. Our group consisted of the five of us, three English girls and a couple from Phoenix, Arizona.
The first day started with a ride out to a waterfall where we all jumped in. As you can see from
the photos we didn't really enjoy it! The power of the water was something else. At one stage Mark came out from under it thinking Mick had been punching him on the top of his head. After this we headed for the hot spring which were basically 3 pools of water formed from the hot spring half a mile away. The first two pools were too hot to get into but we 
managed to sit down in the third one eventually. There was also a swimming pool there filled with the hot water which was relaxing to say the least. Being told to get out of it to start the trek was heartbreaking.The trek started with a little walk up to see the hot spring where the water is literally boiling on the surface. After that we started the trekking proper. Our first 30 minutes was up a pretty steep hill which would have been ok save for the bag and lifejacket on our back and the fact that it's the middle of the jungle. It wasn't long before the conversation dried up and the sweat started to pour out of us. A little longer and pretty much everyone was a) thanking God that they didn't do the 3 day trek and b) wondering why anyone would go trekking in the first place.
It eased up after a while and we got to the first of three hillside tribes. I didn't expect the big satellite dish and the solar panels on the way in but you'll do what you gotta do to watch MTV. The scenery from the tops of some of the hills, when we weren't staring at the ground in front of us or checking our shoes for leeches (oh they loved Darragh and his shoes so much) was pretty amazing in fairness. We eventually got to our camp after some dodgy bamboo bridges, many slips and falls and an awful lot of cursing the Thai countryside for being so mountainy. It contained some rather interesting livestock the pick of which was the giant pig, the crazy chickens who chased away the dogs and a cat who made the strangest wailing sound we'd ever heard. We had our dinner, a few drinks and a bit of a singsong before hitting the bamboo hut and passing out for the night.
The next morning I went to find the tap to brush my teeth only to find an elephant looking at me. There were 3 more down in the river having a wash but after listening to that cat since 6am
they were a welcome distraction. After breakfast we hopped onto the bamboo rafts (Darragh and Ed's raft had to have extra bamboo added......you'll understand why later). The rafting proved interesting at times especially going down the rapids with the raft veering into the bank and Mark and Mick bashing into a tree making a slingshot which caught me in the chest sending me sprawling into the white water. I recovered gracefully and managed to hold onto my bamboo pole. We stopped after about 5km to go elephant riding. Not something I ever thought I would do but hey, when in Rome. I shared an elephant with Darragh and let's just say it was leaning a little to the right! I've never seen a man topple an elephant but O' Keeffe was gunning for it.
The elephants varied from our guy who just wanted to eat all the time by traipsing off into the jungle munching leaves to Mick's who just didn't want to walk at all to the baby elephant who spent most of it's time swimming in under it's mother. We hopped off after an hour or so and went back for some more rafting before having lunch and getting the bus back to the hostel. Tomorrow we're thinking of going playing with some tigers. After the leeches, suicide chickens, moaning cats and elephant toppling sure what harm could it do!
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