Aug 2005

hollywood didnt exactly come calling for me after the 3 days of filming for Blackbeard.

caught the ferry back across to ko samui and then from there a taxi and another ferry back to the main land, where chaos engulfed us. due to the demand for extras shed loads of people had turned up for it so there werent enough buses etc to take us all and everyone got split up from friends etc. managed to get on an early bus and got a pretty nice bungalow right on the beach with air con, fridge and a tv. the best room we had had for ages. i had to go straight away for a fitting for my costume - a red coat no less, army dude type chap. got back at midnight and got up the following day at 4.30 for the pick up.

we were all driven about an hour into the middle of the countryside. had food and then everyone got changed and was ordered down to the set to start being extras. sounds like fun but straight away it was clear it wasnt going to be much fun at all. the first 2 days were the hottest that they had whilst filming and people were struggling with the heat. the main problem being that everyone had to stay in costume all day - for me that meant a shirt, a waistcoat a thick knee length jacket, knee length socks, long trousers, black shoes and chaps - plus a sword and a pistol oh and a hat. the sweat pured off me for the entire two days and at times i thought i was going to pass out from it.

other people were worse - one blokes shoes start to melt into the floor and one got water blisters up his back and arms from wearing the coats. anyway i only lasted two days of this (14 hour days dont agree with me) and contented with my acting and number of potential on scene moments i decided to stay in bed on the third day and sleep - which i achieved pretty well, managing 15 hours. after which i chilled out on an empty beach for the rest of the day - all for free.

that night there was a shin dig at one of the hotels and we hitched a ride to it and had a good night chatting to the crew and other random people from the set.

yesterday they drove us to the main city and then i had to decide where i wanted to go - two choices being back to either ko samui or ko phi phi. i missed the bus to ko samui so i caught the one to ko phi phi, which is where i am, after a night in krabi. the boat across was shockingly rough (again) and the weather is throwing it down still now a couple of hours later - the island is starting to flood due to it.

i am staying here for at least 10 days and got a cheap room on that fact, i plan to do some helping out with http://http://www.hiphiphi.com/and also maybe some diving if my cold clears up and if the weather improves maybe some sunbathing - who knows !?!?!

i am now in Koh Phangan, just north of Koh Samui after a couple of days more on Samui. did the whole renting a bike thing for a couple of days and went exploring around the island. the first day it prompty rained from just after i collected the bike till the early evening, but we braved it and went to meet some friends from my travels who were close by. the second day we and the landlord of the hostel went to play crazy golf in the north of the island. it was boiling and it took us ages to finish, but we got starting talking to the owner and he told us about a movie which is being made on the main land called 'Blackbeard' and for which they require extras. all three of us put are names down and i leave tomorrow to go back to the mainland to 'star' in the movie. it sounds like a laugh and you are supposed to get free transport, accomodation, food etc and also about 1200 baht (70 baht to a pound) a day - and its 3 days so we thought why not.

in the evening i went out to watch the footie and to have a few cheeky drinks, which turned into a all nighter and as a result i didint get to bed till stupid oclock in the morning. next day caught the ferry to Koh Phangan with lucy and also the guest house owner from Luis guesthouse in Lamai. i would reccomend anybody to stay there as its small, cheap but with a massive tv/stereo system and free pool table and a small bar. added to this Lui is icelandic and completly nuts and his mrs is a thai lady who is crazy - it made for a really good week - by far the best guesthouse i have stayed in so far on my travels. we all really got on so we invited him to come wityh us to the next island up for a few days untill the movie work starts.

first night on the island was the half moon party and as it looks likely that i will miss the full moon party i proceeded to enjoy the moment/evening. it was ok but nothing really special - the main problem is that everybody comes here especially for the parties so they are maybe on 2 week holidays and so they are clean, unsmelly, smartly dressed folks whilst i am none of the above for more than about 30 minutes a week (at a push). these people have been nicknamed - "makeup backpackers" and they are everywhere here. its not even an especially nice island - its ok but not as nice as Ko Samui in my view.

despite that we decided to rent bikes and see a bit of the island for a day, we were warned that the roads werent great and that tourists are always crashing into things. 5 minutes out of the main town area where we are staying we found the first crash site where a bloke had hit a car. managed to avoid anything of this sort for the rest of day and caught the sun nicely, as it was boiling all day.

today i have been diving - in 'one of the best dive sites in thailand' but dont believe the hype on that one. we dived sail rock, which is 40 minutes out to sea and it was ok, but not as good as other ones i have done. the best part was a vertical swim through called the chimney where you are enclosed all the way around apart from going up -it was pretty cool but the water quality was poor and there wasnt anything really big to see.

anyway hollywood beckons so i better go..........

thought i would take a moment out of my busy day, of sitting in the sun on a gorgeous beach to fill you all in on the latest adventures.

since i last wrote i spent a day in KL, doing some tourist stuff - the petronas towers etc and a bit more shopping. left the following day to go back north and to teman negra, which is pretty much in the centre of the country. turned out to be a bit of a mission as it required a 4 hour bus trip and then a 3 hour boat trip up the river to the jungle, with various waiting around thrown into the mix. arrived quiet late at night and found the cheapest, dirtiest hostel around and duely took out a dorm room. there isnt much to do at night there, and there is no alcohol anywhere, at all, none. there is a few cafes etc on the river front, which float and a few hostels on the land but apart from that nothing.

the following day we went to the main attraction of the area - the longest canopy walk in the world. had to cross the river to get into the national park and straight away were confronted by a large, very poisonous (so we were told) green snake. its about an hours walk to the start of the canopy walk and there werent many people around so it felt pretty good walking through the jungle on little dirt tracks. the canopy walk itself is good but if you dont like heights dont do it - think basically ladders laided down and held together by ropes of various sizes, about 50-60 metres up from the ground, between the trees. there wasnt too much to see in terms of animals but we did see rabbits (!?!) a few birds and a couple of monkeys. from the cnaopy walk you can go a variety of ways back and we decided to take the hilly and longest route back, as we thought it would be a laugh. it wasnt and it took friggin ages in the mid day sun, with no water on a path pretty much overgrown for most of the way. we encountered more monkeys and a little black and yellow snake which wasnt very happy to see us.

on the way back you walk along the river and you can swim etc, so we cooled down and then headed back to the hostel for a long cold (cant remember when i last had a hot shower on this trip) shower. when we got back there was no water in the hostel and it remained off untill after we left the next day. found a cafe which amazingly enough had a tv and a playstation 2 and more importantly Pro Evo (football game for those of you who dont know) and spent a couple of hours beating all the locals at it - maybe my uni days werent a complete waste!

left the next morning at stupid oclock to catch a 2 hour bus, followed by a 4 hour bus, followed by a 2 hour bus and then a 2 hour boat ride to the perthian islands. it was all going swimmingly untill we got on the boat and as normal the weather turned and a storm blew in and chased us across the sea to the islands. half way there the heavens opened and it rained for the remainder of the trip across. the boat cant actually land on the beach so you have to catch a little taxi boat to get ashore - these are not covered and as it was throwing it down still, everything i owned got soaked - it was like standing underneath a hose pipe on full blast.

we didnt have anywhere to stay on the island but we were told that it shouldnt be to hard to get. this was wrong and i would advise anybody going to book ahead. people had been sleeping on the beach and on shop floors the previous night as there wasnt a single room free on both of the islands - even the expensive ones were taken. we walked the full stretch of the beach front on both sides (long beach and coral bay)and found nothing - bugger all. apart from a.....tent! a small smelly two man tent - which was sized in asia so it was more like a 1 man tent. we took this as there was nothing else and didnt fancy sleeping in the rain. so soaked to the skin we stuffed all are stuff in and followed suit, it was shocking and the smell and heat inside it was worse than the lack of space. i ended up going outside and sitting on the empty beach at 4 in the morning to cool off - i got bitten for my efforts.

searched and searched the island again for somewhere to stay the next day, but again everywhere was full and everywhere had waiting lists for the next 3-4 days. some of the expensive ones - talking $20 a night each were free but its just too much. also everything on the island is a rip off, from rooms to food to beer and the beaches are ok but not a patch on Ko Phi Phi. for all the above reasons we left the next day and caught a fast boat back to the main land, in the search of a shower and a wash. so that was the perthian islands in 24 hours!

the 2 hour boat back was smooth (ish) and we caught a taxi to the border of thailand, as there are no buses that go. it took 2 hours followed by walking across the border. we were told it might be closed to westerners and that people had been attacked recently, but we found it a breeze and a lot easier to do than the cambodia to thailand border. we had to get a moto taxi with all are, still wet geat to the train station in order to head north. we caught a 3 local train (think chickens on board) upto to Hat Yin. by this point we were bored stiff so start raving to some tunes on the ipod - much to the locals amusement. Hat Yin is the place were the thails and malays have been fighting recently and 500 people have been killed since the start of the year. we didnt want to stay, as you can imagine so we raced around the train station and just caught a connecting train to Surrantti, which took a further 7 hours, arriving just before midnight and still without a wash.

got another horrible little hostel that was close to the train station and managed to have a shower after close on 60 hours without one. we got woken up at about 5.30 by an explosion from down the street and people shouting at each other. i was so knackered i just rolled over and went back to sleep - the next day it turned out to be a small bomb that blew up a car/truck. so we left there quick smart and headed to the pier on a couple of local buses, which took about 5 hours in total. the ferry across to Ko Samui was brillantly smooth and we found a hostel no problems on Lamai beach. all my clothes apart from what i was wearing was dispatched to the washing depart in an attempt to make them smell go (i can report this was quiet successful, but 2 t-shirts have bitten the dust) we went out to a foam party that night and had a few, to many well earned drinks.

the following day went and slept on the beach only to be woken up by a lady giving my 'baby elephant feet' as she described them a pedicure -lucy had set me up. in the evening we went out with the crazy owner of the hostel - an icelandic bloke and an english couple from the hostel for a few drinks. we went round all the seedy bars and clubs and got some wicked photos of us with various lady boys and semi attractive women.

basically as the islands are so close to bangkok they get alot of 2 week holiday'ers coming here so its very seedy in parts. but good for the male ego to walk down a street and have wonmen chase you and hold onto you etc, strange but true. also in the bars they give you free shots of rum etc and then you sit and play connect four with a semi naked, semi attractive thai lass - its weird, very very weird. needless to say if you want anything you can get it very quickly and i assume very cheaply.

i am planning to explore the island on a rented bike in the next few days and more importantly they have a mini golf course which will be getting my attention for an afternoon

most of my travelling is now behind me in terms of distances and i think i will stay here till the weekend - they have the ashes live and all the football a boy could want, planning to watch liverpool tonight, it starts at 1.45 in the morning. before going to the full moon party and then west i think. as i have come back into thailand quickly i am going to have to go to probably burma to do a visa run - which should be fun !

i have safely arrived in malaysia after a few bad journeys the flight was nicely smooth and comfortable and with only a short delay. since i last wrote i spent a week on Ko Phi Phi relaxing and starting to really chill out on a couple of beaches. after the tsunami warning on my first night the rest of the stay went smoothly enough. had a couple of days on various beaches, the best one is def called long beach and as its a bit of a mission to get there - think rock climbing and a walk through the jungle - is hardly anyone on it. is also the best swimming from the main land part of the island. the beach and colour of the sea really were picture postcard stuff.

also i had a day diving, with a dive team from the island, my 5th and 6th dives on the trip. it was similar to the dives in vietnam but with a little more wildlife and a numerous leopard sharks, which were quality to swim with and around.

another highlight was the trip i did around the islands to the surrounding bays and coves. this included a trip to Maya Bay (the bay from the beach movie), monkey cove and various reefs in which to snorkel. i would reckon doing it in a longtail boat, instead of a massive motor boat with 50-60 people on it - as it was there was only 2 of us. the fish in the coves were actually better than what i saw on the dives and the volume was huge. they werent shy in coming close and i got a nip off one of them.

also on the island i saw a couple of thai boxing fight nights, which is something i wanted to see. it makes boxing look like childs play and is alot more physical. everytime the boxers came out to fight the guy in the bar put on 'eye of the tiger' i couldnt help but smile.

the boat across to Phuket was rough and i duely return my breakfast to the world, twice. stayed in a hostel suggested in the LP, god knows why though it was a dump. jumped on a local bus down to Patong beach to see what it was like - stayed for about 2 hours before i had to leave. think costa del sol, with a rubbish beach. not my sought of thing. the other reason for going was to have a look at the hostel where a british guy murdered 2 tourists 10 years ago. acually made it inside by staying i wanted a room and asked for the floor were he killed them. so i had a one in three chance of being in the room were he killed and then cut up there bodies. nice.

so caguht the plane yesterday and got down here, checked into a suitably shocking hostel and went and had a shopping spree. well just one stall but it took me ages. i have acquired 35 of the latest movies on dvd - everything is a lot cheaper here than in bangkok, apart from beer and a room, so i am going to do my shopping here and travel with it back up north.

worked out that i have now done over 7500 km since i first arrived in bangkok and think that is quite enough travelling, so this is as far south as i go. i think i will return to the uk in september, i dont really want to see anything else in Asia so there is no real point staying.