KOH TAO, KOH PHANGAN, KOH SAMUI

Hello everyone,

Well, as usual my plans have changed. I am on an island called Koh Tao, which is on the east coast of Thailand. This island is so much better than the other places I have been to so far. Its really relaxed and has nice beaches and a nice lifestyle. Sam has had a few days of work at one dive centre so hopefully as things pick up in the high season there will be a bit more. We havent been doing much, weve been bike riding up huge impossible trails, swimming, sunning, hiking, visiting Koh Phangan and Koh Samui...and last but not least, practicing our new hobby: twirling burning sticks and chains of fire. Dont get too excited, were not good enough to light them on fire yet, Im still in the hitting myself in the back of the head stage. And for those of you who dont know what Im talking about or have never seen a fire show.... basically either you have two chains with a ball of cloth at the end, or a stick with a ball of cloth at each end and you twirl it around and look cool. Its really tiring and they really hurt when you hit yourself but its also really fun and I cant wait to light them on fire.

I have tried to make our room look as Christmas-y as possible, complete with a one-foot Christmas tree and home made decorations. I am hopelessly home sick for the cold, snow, family, friends and christmas atmosphere. I made a stocking out of my knee high socks, its pretty sad, just a sock with a piece of paper that says my name on it haha. Sam was pretty unfased seeing as hes never celebrated christmas before, which of course changed when there were presents under the funny tree...

Anyways if you guys all post your phone numbers on here I will get a phone card and try to call on christmas at a decent hour!! LOVE YOU MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!


PS JULES- I cant remember where you are planning to fly into, Bankok or Phuket or where you are planning to go so let me know when you will be where and we can make a plan to meet! (Im really excited!)

bye bye phi phi

Well after difficulties finding work we have decided to head over to malaysia before the high season starts to have better luck finding a job....its all so close together...and its probably cheaper for 2 tickets to malaysia than spending another day on the most expensive island in thailand! haha next blog will be from malaysia i guess....bye all!

PICTURES

Well these pictures have no order whatsoever but any pictures of horses and desert, thats from Egypt. Any pictures of jungle/bungy jumping/sea and coconut trees, those are from thailand. Enjoy!

PHI PHI DON

Hello all,

There were no jobs in Phuket due to immigration everywhere, so we decided to head to an island, phi phi don. It's right beside the island phi phi lay, where the movie the beach was filmed (the island looks a lot smaller than it does in the movie). There are a few dive centres around and the job that I have seen most of the backpackers doing is handing out flyers for bars at night time...(I hope it wont come to that haha)

Phi phi don is really beautiful. The main beach isnt that nice and its pretty crowded but Sam and I rented a kayak and went to some other beaches and they are amazing. Big waves, white sand and really blue-green water. When we were kayaking Sam jumped in the water but we didnt realize how shallow it was and got a giant sea urchin stuck into his foot. We were pretty far out so after lots of swearing when we made it all the way to shore to find some vinegar to make thesting go away, the thai guys just laughed at him and told him "pee on i', pharmacy of thailand." Eventually the spines dissolve but they're still stuck in his foot. He was finally on the mend until yesterday when we were on our way back from our epic swim he stepped on another one and we had to swim all the way back to shore so he could pee on it again.

Yesterday, before the second sea urchin spike Sam handed out a couple of resume's to some dive centres so hopefully we will get some work soon. We still havent been to phi phi lay, if we dont go before my birthday then we will go on my birthday. Anyhow thats all for now, nothing else much to report, other than a few sun burns, its really really hot. Enjoy the rain/snow!!!

Love, Mads.

Phuket?

Well I'm not sure if I have said that Sam and I are safe and sound in Phuket, but we are. No jobs, aparently you need to have a work permit...and you need to be young...and thai...

But anyhow, today we went to Ton Sai waterfall, actually we went to get some repairs done on the motorbike but we saw the sign so we decided to go to the waterfall instead. We didnt bother having breakfast or taking water because we assumed we would just take the motor bike along and see a cool waterfall. So in flip flops we wandered up a path which turned out to be a hiking trail through the jungle...the thai jungle is something you need a thai bodyguard to escort you through....and if any of you know about my fear of ants, well anyways, Sam saw thousands of super big ants crawling around so he got really close and stepped all over them to take a picture...and then the ants all started going crazy and climbed all over him and bit him (he says they sucked his blood but I think he might be exagerating). Then we got lost a few times and it ended up taking hours and after more ants and snakes and spiderwebs in my hair we (I) decided to go back. So when we finally hiked all the way down got on our motorbike and started heading home I kept on feeling something moving in my helmet and moving into my hair but I thought it was the wind and stopped thinking about it until it moved a couple more times so we stopped to take off my helmet and find the worlds biggest blackest spider curled up in it. Needless to say, I threw the helmet as far away as I could and saw the spider crawl out of it. So in the end now I not only have a deathly fear of ants, its spiders too.

Anyhow next time i'll try to upload some photos of the trip so far!
Love to all!

Bangkok

Well we arrived to Bangkok a few days ago, with no plans and no idea what to expect. All we knew was the name of a road -Khao San road and which bus we had to take from the airport. We havent been doing much apart from eating wierd food from the street carts and walk around and buy things. Sam insists on trying everything to eat, it doesnt seem to bother him what part of the chicken or pig he has. The only thing he didnt really like was the bag of deep fried crickets and other bugs. He also said no to "chicken ass" or something that sounded a lot like it.

We are now trying to figure out where to go next, I think we will spend a few more days here and then get around to the islands to see where the diving is good and try to find some work.

The food is the best part so far, you can get a pineapple or papaya cut right in front of you or a stick of meat or pad thai cooked with whatever you want in it.

Anyhow I'm running out of time, thats all for now! Lots of love and rice!

Ps. you dont want to know what a "ping pong show" is.

Still Here

Hello again,

We havent left yet still applying for visas and what not. Not really sure when we are leaving yet...not too fussed.

Nothing new to report really, we started riding horses to the pyramids at night time, which is amazing and scary as hell. I dont really understand how the horse can see in the dark, especially if I cant see anything. I had a phsyco horse yesterday, I picked it because it was the nicest looking and biggest. It quickly reared and chucked me off into a ditch, that was fun...and then it ran away from me, I switched horses after that...well first I got back on and it tried chucking me off again so I punched it in the head, lost the battle and decided I didnt want to die in a ditch on the way to the pyramids.

Anyhow, thats all for now, bye!

Back to Cairo

Hello team,

I successfully started a blog, without the help of GEORGE...so I hope this is working.

I arrived back to Cairo with horrible jet lag, but the weather aint bad so I cant complain!

I don't really have much to report here, this is more or less a practice run...so far I slept, ate a few times, walked around a bit, had a family dinner with Sam's family. (Didn't really understand a whole lot but I'm used to staring into space, haha)

Mostly they just force feed me, but there's nothing wrong with that either, I got three pieces of cake from various family members.

I also made crepes served with maple syrup for Sam's mom and brother. There was a lot of confusion about what maple syrup is made of and what its purpose is...(more or less sugar....and it tastes delicious...)

Well that's all for now love all of you!!