Island Hopping

A spot of 'island hopping' is in order one thinks!! This is Koh Mak (Koh Makems while we were there!!) A simple life is the order of the day. The island is only small (about 16 square kilom's) so you can walk and cycle most places. The hammock however is only 1 metre from the front door and look who's 'baggsyed' it! The rickety old chair for me then.


This is me attempting to play frisbee with the owner Pom (I couldn't get the song diddly-om-pom-om-pom here comes....out of my head). He was a master and would throw the frisbee off in a odd direction and shout 'don moov don moov don moov' and surely enough the frisbee would float around and practically land on your head. Then I would throw it and he would end up running all over the beach after it - no probs, he needed the exercise.

All my life at home all I ever wanted was a car blanket but that step mother of mine wouldn't get me one. But look - at last, a dream fulfilled.

More testing of the local hammocks. This one was particularly good and induced 'z's' in a matter of minutes.

Out and around on the bikes. beautiful scenery and although we kept getting lost, it doesn't really matter on a small island.

Elvis swinging - then a swim. If any of you have swam in the North Sea and remember that feeling as you run down the gorgeous sand on an English summer day looking at the nice blue sea, you think, I'm going in that sea for a nice swim and a cool off, and then your toe touches the water, develops frost bite in half a second, turns black and breaks off. Imagine what it is like for me then to put your foot in the Gulf of Thailand sea and it is actually warmer than your body. I have never in my time experienced anything like it. The water is so shallow in the bays of the island that it actually gets very warm from the sun. For sheer novelty factor it is something to experience.

Just as I thought we were riding through a forest I noticed how 'un-random' the trees seemed to be, in fact they're all in lines. I wonder if a voucher could persuade you to tell us what kind of trees are these?

On our way to getting lost!

After this ride my toenails turned red and have remained that way. Just in case any of you think I've 'turned' when you see my 'painted nails'.

Big tides here mean big piers!

A classical 'tropical island' picture - well done Elvis (if we're to believe Rusty)

Fishing boats heading off to work.

Sunset outside of our little beach hut.

Our beach hut - it's very uncomplicated. There's a bedroom with an en suite and that's that!

The Elvis eating chocolate cake picture - what took so long you're wondering.

Pom and I after a frisbee game. You can't tell from this picture but Pom has a canny old kite on him.

Yes -you're right, here comes the COT question! It's a nice little picture quiz. Take a look at these two master anglers. One is as big as a house and the other could fit in your pocket. We have been lucky to be able to just sit and watch them in action. The big one plucked a fish right out the sea about 30 metres from our kayak - a wonderful sight. So, for your voucher tell me their names please.
COT mutiny - I don't like this talk of abandoning the COT, my manager has told me that because of the revolt we can offer double vouchers for the remaining COT questions!

Rusty was right with the Glalangal ginger root, but if you think you're getting any Thai food off us after that cheek, think again bonny lad. Milly, I have counted those tea bags, watch it madam!! Ginny, I've told you about begging for vouchers before, is undignified behaviour. Jenny, never mind raiding the wine cellar, haven't you got some training to do?

Back to School - Thai Cooking

Elvis in a kitchen - is this some kind of trick photography you ask? No, it's real, this year Elvis has really gone for Thai food BIG style. Lots of things that were off the menu in 2007 are firm favourites - so we both went back to school to see what it's all about! Of course I've been before and could really have stepped in and took the class - but nobody likes a big head now do they!




This is me showing the 'instructor' how to make coconut cream. Well - not really, the instructor, Yaa, had a canny little sense of humour so we ended up having a bit fun with each other. She then started to pick on me and gave me all the hard jobs, like scraping coconut out of the shell to make the cream.














Always taste your food! Top tip from Yaa. In this picture you can see Yaa, she's saying to Elvis 'I said taste it not eat the whole bloody lot'. Thai food has to balance three things:- Salt, Spice and Sourness. Salt, mainly from fish sauce or/and soy sauce, spice from yer chillies and sourness from lime juice and tamarind. See we're experts already. We're hoping to recreate some of these dishes when we get home, something tells me though it won't quite taste the same!!




This is the famous noodle dish in Thailand called Pad Thai - we've ate this so many times we will look like noodles !













What's impressive with Thai cooking is the amount of fresh ingredients. Most of the vegetables are just variations of ones we are familiar with at home, but they do have some we don't get - like Thai egg plants which are about the size of a golf ball.







After a hard day cooking, there's nothing better than sitting over the river with the fruits of your labour! On the table are three curries (red, green and massaman), pad thai, chicken with cashew nuts, and a few side dishes - now how did we do it again!!!





For a whole COT voucher can you tell us what the special kind of ginger root that Thai's use a lot in their cooking, rumour has it you can also make a canny cup of tea with it, but being English we know that tea can only possibly be made using little paper bags that you buy in the thousands from git big supermarkets.

COT voucher stuff - Ginny was first on the blog and straight in with correct answer. She then spoilt herself by demanding vouchers for previous posts, but I've put her right on her ways!!
Come on Jenny, Andy, Rust and Shirley you need six vouchers at least. Milly you only need another five.

Jungle Trekking

Hello again. A massive thunder storm has decended upon us, so it's a good time to get some 'blogging' done!

Jungle trekking can be quite a sedate little activity - unless you go 'off road' as it were. Just have a butchers at what went on here!
This first picture is a nice little look out on the first stop of the trek, over looking over the bay. Everything is fine at this point!

In the instructions it said 'you will reach the top of a waterfall, follow the blue water pipes down the side to reach the bottom'. Never was there anything 'easier said than done'. We got to that well known 'stuff of nightmare' scenarios where we couldn't go down any further and couldn't get back up. I could see the headlines in the 'Echo' appearing in my head 'Silky lass and Pennywell nugget trapped arll neet on a Thai waterfall like'. The embarrassment! We decided eventually to slide down the blue water pipes 'Batman and Robin' style. We might of broke the water pipes feeding the village - but needs must!

See, all smiles now that we're at the bottom.







After the hike it was down the river in the kayak to visit the elephants at their watering hole. These are all female elephants - very placid creatures. We'll meet a male elephant later and that's a different kettle of fish! Think of the difference between a Cow and a Bull!



The elephant master chap on the neck gave the elephant a few taps and she filled her trunk with water and give us a reet old dowsing.






This is trek number two a couple of days later. Elvis' smile does well to cover the information given to us by a local right at the beginning of the trek. He said 'enjoy your trek but watch out, there's a male elephant somewhere on that trail and he's as mad as Jack McMad and he's bloody mad. If you see him avoid him at all costs! It kind of set a nice relaxed mood!

Here we are at a thick jungle point in the mountain with a nice cool river. Note Moses with the large stick ready to part the waves.






Get your heed in there for a nice cool off.










This is Elvis posing next to a big Pomello fruit farm.






At the end of trek two another waterfall - this one had some water falling too! We were both in for a swim and if you sit still the little fish chow the hard skin off your feet. It would have took them hours to get it all off our hooves though!










Someone posing under a waterfall - it's like one of those Timotei shampoo adverts, except the model in that one actually had hair.








When someone says, watch out for a wild bull elephant you kind of hope he's kidding. DEFINITELY NOT in this case. Towards the end of the trek the path came out of some trees and there standing in front of this was this monster - and he was not pleased! For a cup of tea voucher, can any one tell me what steps you take when confronted by a wild male elephant? The first thing I noticed was a funny smell of pap coming from my direction and then I noticed Elvis was off in the opposite direction. Fortunately we were warned so we back tracked and made a big circle around where he couldn't see us. But get this - four days later a German couple were walking and saw the same elephant - foolishly they approached him. The guy was savagely attacked and injured, the tusk went under his rib cage and out of his shoulder, the woman was only slightly injured. The English guy who owns the place we were staying said that they had to take the guy to Bangkok in a helicopter - somehow he survived.
After fleeing the 'bull' we met some females and we were able to feed them. The woman elephants are much more placid and nee tusks, a pity the human species isn't similar.





Only one cup of tea voucher in this weeks blog - I obviously overwhelmed you with questions in the last one. Rusty and Jenny have obviously given up, probably put off by the new voucher scheme. But credit where credit is due, Milly was first in with a correct answer (eventually!) I am I said by the Diamond is of course the song - but who was that following up with the precise lyrics verbatim. If I didn't know better I would suspect the return of the Outsourcer. And was that really the FIL (Father-in-law) posting a comment - getting a bit computer literate aren't we? Then another version of I am I said, I was just enjoying the lyrics then you lost steam!! But definitely worth a voucher for creativeness.
Here's some proper answers though: The boy isn't the last one in the tub on bath neet! He's looking for mussels and prawns in and under the piers of the fishermans houses built on stilts in the river. He wouldn't be able to get into the nooks and crannies with a normal boat.
And Ginny, you were right about the mangroves. A healthy mangrove 'selects' a leaf on each branch to dump the salt from the sea water. When the leaf eventually dies, it drops off into the river and another leaf begins to collect the salt. Bloody ingenious!
In the next blog there'll be all kinds of ingredients that come together to make a gorgeous dish - you'll see what I mean......

Hammy hamsters adventures by the river bank

After a 5 hour bus trip from Bangkok, here we are getting on the ferry to say goodbye to the main land and hello Koh Chang - also known as the 'Elephant Island' (good try Rusty trying to steal Ginny's thunder, but I think you'll find in the Oxford concise that 'heffalump' translates nicely to Elephant).







Our first few days we spent literally on the river - and I mean on it - suspended on posts from the river bed. The accomodation is a converted fishing house, the place is called Baan Rim Naan (don't worry - no cup of tea questions cos I don't know what it means either!). It's in a cracking spot though on a beautiful river and only 2 minutes from the beach. It's also owned and ran by an Englishman so it was nice to have someone who can give help you get your feet. This picture is looking down river from a favourite little coffee and massage joint.


Whilst on a little kayaking foray down the river one spotted the wildest of pigs. This little porker made off rather quickly when it spotted me because it probably knows as well as anyone that pork is well and truly on the Thai menu!!









A little furher down the river and now getting into thick mangroves. And now comes your chance for yet another cup of tea voucher*
Magroves are a bit of a natural phenomenon, they thrive in fresh and salt water environment. However, if you look closely at any mangrove tree, each branch has at least one very sickly looking yellow leaf on it. When that leaf drops off, another leaf turns yellow and eventually drops off. For your cup of tea voucher*, please explain what the bloomin heck that is all about please and thankyou.



At the other end of the river is the beautiful sea in the gulf of Thailand. Here are a couple of sunsets to ooh and arghh over!!













Ps - not a Thai person - Thai people are thin!!











Thailand's fine, the sun shines most the time, and the feeling is laid back.
Palm trees grow the room rents are low and you know I keep thinking of making my way back.
But I'm Pennywell born and raised,
But nowadays I'm lost between two shores

For a cup of tea voucher* can you finish my famous lyrics please and thankyou.







More adventures down the river, this time on a kayak double-yucker (that'll be Elvis at the front).











When you're all kayak'ed out, you can always park the arse on the beach and try and work out what you're going to feed your face on tonight!











This is the riverbank and the local taxi service. If you want to eat at a restaurant on the river, get the landlord to give them a ring and they send over a little boat to pick you up. They take you back afterwards but the poor Thai lad seemed to be huffing and puffing on the way back, probably because the greedy Westerners have about six dishes and fourteen s of beer in their kites!! It's a wonder the boats doesn't sink!!





When you live on a river, this may look like the western equivelant of the 'naughty step'. Eg. 'Kai, get in the naughty boat until you learn some maners'. But that's not what is happening here, any ideas what this young chap is up to - if so, write it down, you never know you could win a cup of tea voucher*








Another little kayak trip up the river. In the next blog there'll be elephants and elephant stories - stories so horrific it would make your milk turn and leave you without a cup of tea. Don't miss the next episode for tales of Germans, Elephants, blood and gore!!







COT millarkey - Rusty, you're a bloody Jonna - since you mentioned my world travelled shorts there's been a disaster (and I don't mean I've shat them!!) I sent them to the Thai laundry and they came back 'dissolved'. Milly - yes you're right, you knew I'd end up carrying the toiletries. Ginny - you won the COT voucher* for the heffalumps - don't worry Sis I won't let that Rust in with his preciseness. Jenny, you wouldn't? Not on the Chez - even I'm not allowed on that!

*Due to the world financial crisis, a cup of tea can only be claimed when the person answering the COT question is in possesion of six vouchers. Six vouchers can be used to claim a single cup (not mug) of tea (milk and sugar are not included). If you don't like it , blame the effing world bankers.

Preparation 'H' - Thailand 2011

Sawadee Krap, which meas 'hello' in Thai speak. It doesn't quite roll off the tongue does it? I always feel a little odd saying 'Crap' to someone you've just met (unless they're from Newcastle of course), but that's the way it is and the people seem to smile when you say it. Preparation H, which of course means 'Preparation for Holidays' and not a strange ointment for sorting out the farmer Giles (although it might be needed after four weeks of spicy hot Thai food). Take a look at the fully loaded 'Blackpool Donkey' in the picture - talk about travelling light. The little 'pully case' is full of Suzanne's toiletries.
Ok then down to business, cos I know you lot and you won't be looking at the blog to see where we've been, what you really want is free tea, preferably in a cup. So here is your easy earner to start things off and a simple 'googling exercise'. Our first stop in Thailand is Koh Chang, but tell me please, what does Koh Chang mean in English type speak?