Brief interlude

Here are a few lists:

Top 10 beers of SE Asia in order of my preference:

Singha (Thailand)
Beer Lao (Laos)
Tiger (Singapore)
San Miguel (Philipines)
Guinness Extra Stout (as brewed in Malaysia, popular in Chinese cafes in the region)
333 (Vietnam)
Chang (Thailand)
Angkor (Cambodia)
Anker/Anchor (Malaysia)
Bintang (Indonesia)


Some disease Jane and or me may have caught from swallowing Khao Sok river water:

Leptospirosis
Cholera
Typhoid fever
Amoebic dysentery
Schistosomiasis
The trots


Favourite Thai curry colours in order of preference:

Red
Yellow
Green
(they make a blue curry and I'm there)


Places I've acquired mosquito bites at time of writing this:

Right shin
Left knee
Right forearm
Arse (no idea how the fecker got up there. I've been DEETed to buggery every time I went out)

The python sleeps tonight

Day 4

Monday 9^th July

Baan Khao Sok Resort, Khao Sok National Park

We were awoken in the early hours by what sounded like biblical rainfall, though I suppose there are worse places for it to happen. You are pretty well placed to collect a lot of species here, though good luck finding a breeding pair of clouded leopards or tigers. Come to think of it, Noah would actually have his work cut out for him on the ability to collect two of every animal, what with the number of endangered species there are, if he had to do the ark thing now. Anyway, I digress. We thought “Oh, God! More rain!” as it continued for some time. We didn't think much more of it, but it was still raining when we got up finally and walked to the restaurant for breakfast before our planned trip to the local lake for a bit of jungle action (I do hope that's not slang for something sexual, which it sounds like it is). The owner said that the whole area next to the river had been flooded over night. It hadn't got over the steps into the open air restaurant, but it must have been close and this does have bearing on the later happenings today.

I was a little hungover after watching the whilst overindulging in Singha and started the day like Victoria Beckham. That is to say wearing sunglasses and regurgitating my breakfast,. We got our pick up for the lake trip which was a blue Chrysler pickup truck where we squeezed into the back seats which arrived at 8:30ish, took us to another lodge from where we set off in a songthaew with about 8 or 9 others. It was a bit of a squeeze and we were at the back so got a little wet with spray from the road. As we approached the place where we were to catch the boat the weather improved and the road dried and we even saw some sun for once.

We reached the lakeside and boarded a longtail boat with three Dutch girls and a French guy and his young son and we were away through the landscape of rugged limestone cliffs. Since it was sunny and we had forgotten to bring the sunscreen, I had to scrounge some from one of the Dutch girls or else I'd have ended up looking like a Coke can. I saw mentioned somewhere that this area is regarded as Thailand's Guilin, and as we made our way on the boat to the floating houses we were visiting I could see why. The scenery was breathtaking with the peaks covered in dense vegetation looking like dark green treacle poured over white ice cream. The impact was further enhanced by the billows of low cloud crowning a lot of the taller peaks. There wasn't perhaps as much wildlife to see as you might imagine. This is a man-made lake created for hydroelectric power so there are numerous dead trees poking up through the blue-green water where you might have expected to see birds perching, but on the way out we didn't see any. We did drift by a couple of islands to look first at a monitor lizard and secondly at a group of langurs leaping through the trees.

The pair of us in the boat as we set off.

Note the life jackets no-one else is wearing (after the day before we were taking no chances) 

Limestone cliffs

Another cliff view

Another stunning view

 A longtail boat on the same route as us

Eventually we reached the floating houses which was our base from which to go and see the jungle. As we approached you are met with the site of a few low huts perched on rafts in front of a backdrop of green-shrouded cliffs. We could have done a longer trip which involved staying here if we'd fancied it, but given that it was the rainy season at present, we had decided it was not likely to be a great thing to do, though today would have been fantastic in the sun. Here we ate some food (standard Thai stirfry) and I was a little disappointed to see I'd passed up the chance for a swim or kayak on the placid water. As it happened, for the hour or so more we just hung out, we managed to see a single macaque come down to the water's edge (again if I'd thought more about what we might have been doing, I'd have brought our binoculars and might have known exactly what this monkey was doing, though given the nature of monkeys and their general lack of inhibition, this might not necessarily have been a good thing).

So came the time to get into the jungle to start our trek to visit some waterfall. Unlike for the other possible activities here, we were well prepared for this, having encountered leeches in damp rainforest in the past. We had rugged shoes, long trousers and plenty of mosquito repellent. Our fellow travellers weren't so well equipped, having shorts and sandals, so we looked on smuggly as we set off. We were in the longtail for the first few minutes to get us upstream on a river where we got out onto the slimy mud. We set off along the trail over a couple of gullies and into the forest where we came upon a small stream which we had to trudge through and which lead to a river/stream we were to ford. I say were, since what should have been a mildly flowing watercourse of perhaps a metre in depth had become a raging torrent with the huge downpour experienced upstream in Khao Sok, so we had to stop here, just five or ten minutes into our trip. On the plus side, where we stood we could see a sleeping python in a tree nearby which was good for some photos.

I think I'll call him Monty. The Count of Monty Constrictor

I think it's a Burmese reticulated one, sleeping off its last meal in a tree

So we walked back the boat and, working against the current and facing the wrong way, was difficult to manoeuvre to get back to the floating houses, but our guide and pilot managed it eventually.

Since we had missed the jungle trail, we were given a beer each (Chang, Thailand's second plased one but they do sponsor Everton FC) and taken later instead to another location on the lake to see some impressive scenery. Whilst watiting for the next stage and whilst drinking my beer I watched another couple of macaques leaping through some of the trees. Macaques in the wild are amazing animals to watch. They tend to be quite small, perhaps the size of a Staffy dog, but in urban and areas where they have a lot of contact with people they are a total pain in the arse, bigger (downright obese in some places) and effectively like smart rats who work in groups. I also used the opportunity to change out of my jungle attire which had gotten muddy and wet trudging through the stream, and into something more dry and comfortable. Once we set off we did actually see a fish eagle perched in one of the dead trees. We reached the location we had been heading for, and it was something special. An inlet against a cliff with one large island one one side and three small rocky outcrops at the end. It was peaceful, almost eerie but quite special. After this we set off back to the harbour and got caught in rainfall. We could see it in the distance across the lake and had hoped to outrun it, but alas not so it was time to done my very fetching rain poncho as loaned by our accommodation. We passed through the worst of this for a while but the rain had the same idea about where it wanted to go so we caught it up again as it headed towards the harbour drenching us.

 A holy trinity of rock

Close up of one of the rocks

 Here comes the rain again

We couldn't outrun it

We disembarked onto dry land again, a little wet when I learnt that the songthaew we had arrived on was broken down and that they had a broken roof on the replacement which didn't bode very well. As it transpired, the transport that did arrive was the pickup truck we had been ferried to the starting point on. Jane made a beeline to get on the inside whilst I held back to allow someone else to go inside, thinking that the little boy shouldn't go in the back and that his Dad should go with him. I also held back to see if any of the three Dutch girls wanted to. The boy sat on the knee of the guide who sat in the front so there was a spare adult place and the girls wanted to stick together so I did end up inside. The rain at the lake had subsided by now and as we set off the weather actually wasn't too bad, since it was largely dry with the occasional spit of rain. That was until we approached Khao Sok when it started to rain heavily for the last 15-20 mins of the trip. This made me feel somewhat guilty since these poor Dutch girls were getting drenched. Never mind, the guilt did pass in much the same way that New Amsterdam became New York.

We got out and freshened up in our room before heading out for a night on the tiles Khao Sok style. This didn't amount to much, to be honest since this was low season. We needed some cash so went to an ATM where we had some fun. I wanted to get B5000 out but the machine wouldn't let me. I tried again with B4000 but still wouldn't let me. I then figured out that all it contained were B100 notes and wouldn't dispense anything more than 20 notes at a time so I did two withdrawals of B2000 so we had enough money to pay our food bill at Baan Khao Sok as well as our transport out the next day. Also, I was stood waiting for my card to be returned, but a Thai girl who worked at the minimart where the ATM was located jumped in to press a button that the machine was waiting on me to press. It was asking some question in Thai that I couldn't read although the responses were listed in English as accept or reject. I was told it would have swallowed my cards if I'd not answered within a few seconds whch is not ideal in a foreign country.

We had dinner at a restaurant called Pawn, eventually. We had noticed this was busy the night before so thought we'd give it a try. However, it as full when we first walked past (not difficult since they only have about 7 tables) so wandered further up the road to find another place. The only one that looked OK and relatively busy was the pizzeria and I'm not so sick of Thai food that I want to resort to pizza just yet. We wandered back to Pawn and there were tables free so we ate here. It was a good choice since it was some of the best Thai food we'd had. My dish was gaeng som moo, a southern Thai hot and sour curry with pineapple and it was fantastic.

We'd fancied another drink at Morning Mist but they were just shutting (well, it was past 9:30) so we returned back to our treehouse and enjoyed a whiskey and Coke before bed. For once it hadn't been raining, but it was still stupidly damp and none of our wet clothes from our time here had dried. The dampness is best exemplified by the fact that there we had acquired a small frog in our bathroom, probably also pissed off at the weather and looking for somewhere to keep out of the rain.

Where'd you learn to drive a canoe, you fucking cowboy?

Sunday 8^th July, Ban Khao Sok Resort

Adventre, peril, danger. It's all in today's blog entry!      

Our third day started well. The rain had subsided from the previous day and the sun had even come out, though everything was still pretty wet. We could hear birds singing unlike the previous day. So we went over to the restaurant to get some breakfast which was good. We then headed up towards the village to see what else was about here. This gave us our first proper view of the local scenery, and it was stunning. Huge limestone peaks, draped in velvety green vegetation with billows of llow cloud cascading over the higher points. The rest of the village, however, was fairly low key being not a lot other than more resorts, a few bars and a couple of mini marts, but should make for a decent night out at least. I had been looking for some anti-fogging spray for my specs which seemed to be in a constant state of fine condensation because of the humidity. We didn't find any. We did stop for a drink at one particular restaurant, at the Morning Mist resort where they had Wifi so I could update the blog, check up on stuff online, etc.

 Some of the views of the Khao Sok locale

These pictures were taken just from our accommodation as we walked into the main village

We had arranged a canoe trip down the river through our accommodation to begin at 2pm, so we had a little lunch (pad Thai, or fried noodles, for me) and got in the canoe. I was a bit disappointed to find that I wasn't the one doing the paddling as I had been looking forward to a bit of exercise, it being about 4 days since I last hit the gym. However, no. The driver was a young Thai guy who didn't speak much English. Anyway, we set off with our life jackets on and it was a pretty leisurely trip on a fairly fast-flowing river (due to all the rain), but not apparently dangerously so. We spotted a couple of very striking birds (which was what I think was a stork-billed kingfisher and something else which I think was either a Gurney's or a hooded pitta - they look different in these references, I know, but it was the striking electric blue around their head that stood out - which get their name, presumably, because they're well-bred) and it was going well until we came upon a narrow tree trunk (maybe 20 or so cm across) across the river, half submerged. Now, I noticed it fairly early on and was thinking “how do we negotiate this?” then a few seconds later the driver used three of his few words of English to exclaim “Oh, my God!”. We hit the trunk and stopped, running aground on it. Again I was thinking “OK, now what do I do to help us get over this, I hope it doesn't puncture the boat” (though it was a canoe, it was actually air-filled, a bit like an inflatable dinghy) when all of a sudden the stern got caught by the current, dragged under and the boat flipped over backwards. We ended up in this brown, river, underwater with a strong current. We'd both worn life jackets and I remember thinking a I saw this dull brown of the murk “OK, the life jacket will start to bring me to the surface soon”, which It did, but took a little longer than I anticipated. I can't remember if I was past the log when I emerged or got over it afterwards, but I was moving down river. Jane was around somewhere and I saw what looked like some safe area on the bank and I think I may have pulled her over to it somehow (or not, it's now all a bit hazy). Our pilot/driver/guide had also made it over there. We got out and were left on the bank and he was clearly mortified. We stood there for a few minutes as he went to recover the canoe, still held behind the log a few metres back. It was at this moment I realised I had lost my specs in the incident. Jane later said she had initially been trapped under the boat (though this must have been for no more than a few seconds).

Once our man came back, we got back in the canoe and carried on down the river. There wasn't really much choice in this, to be honest, since there was nothing around there and nowhere to abandon the trip and go back until we got to the end. We reached a major road bridge over the river and I helped him drag the boat up the concrete slope to the roadside for our pickup. It came a while later. Too bloody long in fact, but I guess we were supposed to have stopped at some swimming hole for a bit etc and had no way to communicate what had happened to the tour company (and even if he did, his phone would have been knackered in the ducking).

We decided on the way back that we weren't going to pay. Almost drowning on a holiday trip through the fault of an inexperienced guide is pretty solid grounds for this. Reflecting on this a few things come to mind, like what could have happened. We could have hit our head/s on the log or each other and been knocked unconscious. We could have opted out of life jackets and fared much worse. Our guide could also have gotten into difficulty (he wasn't wearing a jacket). On a less serious note, we could have lost a camera, wallet, something else difficult to replace. As it happened, all we ended up was wet and I couldn't see very well. Oh, and lost my flip flops which I had bought for about 40p in Borneo, so not happy about this. Worst of all is thinking about what would have happened if we'd done this with our new child to come. This really does freak me out. I guess the thing is we had no actual idea what the trip was about, what we would have needed on it. Given the way it started and went on for most of the time, I would have had no qualms about bringing a kid or a camera or anything else for that matter, but one incident made all the difference. Still, it's not healthy to dwell on these things

On arrival back we told the owner of the hotel and she was so apologetic. She immediately told us we wouldn't be charged, but that she might have to still pay the company who ran the trip (Bew Khao Sok Canoes, in case you're wondering. I'd give them a wide birth and I shall shortly be giving them a severe kicking on Tripadviser.com). I said she shouldn't have to because it was due to them using guides who weren't properly trained. He should have been more vigilant and known how to deal with this sort of thing. Personally I would have turned so we approached the log side-on,but I'm no expert, though it seems it would not have been so catastrophic, even if we did end up in the water.

We returned to our room, showered, changed and went out for the evening. This added a few more clothing items to our “wet list”, since the place was so damp and humid that stuff just doesn't dry. We headed out for a couple of drinks and a bit of internet at Morning Mist. Here we chatted a little to some Australian guys who were over from Perth to celebrate one of their number's 50^th birthday by doing a motorbike tour of this part of Thailand. Here I got some stick for wearing dark glasses, as you might expect from a bunch of respectably lairy Ozzies. We ate here also, later on, mainly because they do reasonably priced cocktails. Their Singapore Sling was made by the numbers (incorrectly if I'm being pedantic, it was made according to a cocktail menu book, not the original Raffles recipe, having no Benedictine etc), but not bad for that and very well presented with pineapple slice and flowers. Food was fairly Thai standard, where I plumped for the gaeng phed goong or red curry prawn which was quite good and quite spicy.

 Beer to destress at the Morning Mist

You can see where it gets its name from looking at the mountains in the background. Mind you, this was sometime in the afternoon

We had a few drinks in a bar nearby as we watched Andy Murray getting his arse handed to him by Roger Federer in the Wimbledon final. During this we were surrounded by very well-off British kids who'd just finished their first year at Bristol University on a trip that Daddy had paid for. Then after one or two too many Singha we were off to bed, having to negotiate the dark dirt track to our accommodation by torchlight which is difficult in itself, but made moreso by having to wear prescription sunglasses and the fact that it was raining (for a change).

Siam, the one and only

7^th July

Baan Khao Sok Resort, Nr Surat Thani, Thailand

We arrived in Thailand to warm sun and lousy beaurocracy at immigration (as per). We were met by a man from our destination in the jungle and we set off once we'd got ourselves some baht from an ATM. The trip took about 90 mins and the weather worsened as we got closer. As we turned into the area the resort is, the heavens opened and we were subjected to a tropical downpour which lasted, well, actually it's still going on now some 9 hours later. I took a picture of the downpour but it's not too clear it's peeing down, but you can see how muddy and swollen the river is

Baan Khao Sok on arrival. 
Wet wet wet. I definitely was feeling it in my fingers and feeling it in my toes (Thank you sports sandals)

The lodge itself is enchanting, on the river, surrounded by jungle. It's called Baan Khao Sok and I'd highly recommend it. The family who run the place are friendly and very hospitable. They have two adorable kids and a range of pets. The cat is so friendly that as soon as I sat down it was on my lap. We waited for the rain to subside and had a drink before getting shown to our digs for the next three nights which was a proper tree house, by which I mean a hut built on a large tree. It has a mosquito net and a ceiling fan. This is real jungle accommodation: no air-con, no telly though we did get a warm shower. I can't remember the last time we stayed at a place like this and it's great!

 Our first taste of Khao Sok animal life

 The latest in arboreal living

We had planned to go out and do a little exploring, off up to the local village, but the rain has put the mockers on that. We had lunch in the restaurant at the resort which for me was a tom tum gai (chicken tom yam soup) and Jane had chicken and fried noodles. It was good, if (from my POV) a little mild in the spice department and lacking in exotic veggies. As it turns out, the guy who drove us from the airport is the owner and we chatted to him and his wife for a bit before heading back to our room through the pouring rain.


That evening, again, not wanting to get stupidly wet, we just stayed around the lodge where we ate again (gaeng phed moo or pork red curry. Yes, Thai for pork is pronounced "moo". I'm thinking of becoming an animal shrink to make a killing giving therapy to Thai pigs with their identity problems). Even though we weren't doing anything in particular we were still surrounded by jungle wildlife. There were bats swooping around the restaurant area (good to keep the mosquitoes at bay), insects flitting about including a large, what I assume was some sort of green leaf insect which had a vivid pink abdomen presumably as camouflage to look like a flower bud. It was striking but got away before I could take a snap. There was also a huge brown cricket which I take manage to take a picture of. The most exciting thing, though was the appearance of what I later found out to be a mangrove snake of perhaps 1.5m slithering down a tree branch to the river. Again, since it was outside and it was raining I didn't risk the camera, but this is what it was.

Less a katydid, more of a Jiminydidn't

This cricket was about 8-10cm long with antennae at least twice that

  The only other guest staying at the time arrived, a French girl on a long trip around the world arrived, having been to the lake trip we were planning to do so we chatted to her. What a trip she is on, having already come through Russia, Mongolia, China and heading on to Indochina. Jealous, much?

Generally there wasn't anything to do so we had a beer then went back to our room and played cards over a couple of whiskeys and Coke before bed.

Saturday 6^th July, Kuala Lumpur Airport, LCC terminal

On checking in we're told we can use the BMI Lounge which worked very well. It's comfortable and had free WiFi, free snacks and free booze so had what I assumed was to be the first of a few bloody marys on this trip which I mixed myself. It kind of made us wish we hadn't bothered with the Sainsbury's sandwiches we'd got the day before. The problem with this is we didn't want to have too much to drink before our flight.

The flight from Manchester was fairly uneventful. We hit a patch of turbulence which added a little fairground excitement to proceedings, but that was it. We had a long time to wait around so wandered around the terminal and had a couple of drinks. Disappointed at Garfunkels where we had a bit to eat. Very expensive for Wetherspoon's quality and I'd expect Paul Simon would be rolling in his grave if he was dead at what was being prepetrated in his former music partner's name

Our flight from Heathrow to KL, when we eventually boarded, seemed to really drag. This was probably a combination of the fact that by the time we were on the long haul part of the trip, we had already been on the road for 10 hours, the fact that it was a night flight, and the sheer length of a 12 hour flight (the most recent long trips we've done have involved going on one of the Arabian carriers like Qatar or Emirates, making for a convenient break mid trip). The plane was a rather tired looking 747, as opposed to the newer 777 we were expecting. Service wasn't especially great nor was the entertainment system on board. Still, it's got to be better than the old fashioned way of having the old drop down screens shared between everyone. Food wasn't especially good either, being Asian in style, but made in London so not quite having that authentic feel. Worst of all was the fact that I couldn't get another bloody mary for the whole flight and had to content myself with a couple of beers and (the horror!) soft drinks. It was also the most bumpy flight I've ever been on, with a few spells of quite feisty turbulence. Despite this it was comfortable enough.

We arrived and queued for about 45 mins to get through immigration. It was rather annoying that all of us foreigners were waiting at 5 or 6 foreign passport desks whilst locals could go through an express barrier system then, when there was a slight rush of locals, a man in a fancy uniform with all his epaulets and gold piping, opened the furthermost foreign desk for more locals saving them a good 10 minutes wait. Then after that small rush cleared he shut up shop again. At least we didn't need to wait for our luggage as it was already on the belt as we came out

Getting through we grabbed some ringgit and got a cab into town. KLIA is a good 60+ KM out of the city. It's like a Ryanair city destination in that way, taking a good hour and a half to get to the city, though it is actually called Kuala Lumpur Internationl Airport as opposed to being actually another town. The driver was mental, tailgating, speeding etc. Well, speeding until we hit the city traffic. He said there had been heavy rain a little earlier which had caused disruption. Not, of course, that there was any evidence of rain. The roads were bone dry, but that's one of many things I love about this climate, that there can be a complete deluge then 30 mins later no evidence it had occurred. The excitement of being in Asia built as we got closer to the city, really hitting when I got the thrill of seeing the Petronas Twin Towers as we approached. They looked magical, subtly lit up in the dark, twinkling in the distance

We arrived at our hotel off of Bukit Bintang in the heart of the city, an area we knew fairly well. The hotel, the Hotel Capitol, was just off Bukit Bintang, really handy for a few bars and restaurants. We checked in and had a shower before setting off into the city for some food and a couple of drinks. On getting our room, we discovered a fantastic view of the city, taking in the Petronas Towers. 

This gave us a second wind after feeling lousy on the inward flight as we approached KL, wondering why we had decided to do the short stop-over in the city instead of using the airport Tune hotel where we'd stayed on our last visit to the country. As soon as we got out onto the street your senses are given a hearty kicking by the damp heat, the flashing neon, the sound of traffic and most of all the smell of a big city in the tropics. There's always the underlying smell of drains (not especially unpleasant, but always there), exhaust fumes and most of all the smell of food. All these exotically flavoured dishes, spices and strange meats from all over Asia and beyond (Malaysia, and KL in particular, is such a melting pot of people thanks largely to British colonial rule) and then the weird and wonderful fruit. Especially now since it's durian season and nothing screams exotic fruit like the legendary durian, a phenomenon in its own right. They look evil, like something that comes of the end of some mediaeval weapon of close-quarter combat, about the size of rugby ball, covered in nasty looking spikes. But its their odour that really hits home, the (in)famous aroma described as “carrion and custard”, sweet and heady but with an undertone of something three days past the Asda “Oops!” fridge. The smell is so strong they are actually banned from many buildings and public transport. They are also highly regarded as a delicacy. The smell of these things is so heady and evocative, and anyone who has spent any real time in this part of the world (or perhaps it's just me) will catch a whiff of durian and feel like they're home.

We made our way to Chankat Bukit Bintang, a real expat ghetto but with some rather nice bars and restaurants and settled for dinner at a place called 21 where we had essentiailly western food plus a Tiger each. After this it was back towards our hotel where we eventially found our way to a small covered area which has some really good places to drink and again stuck to the Tiger, ordering a jug for MR50 (+++, so including service and local taxes came to MR56). We had just begun to watch Andy Murray playing his Wimbledon semi again Tsonga and by this time could have stayed out all night but had to curtail the evening as we needed to bu up very early next day for a 10:30 flight to Thailand. We made it to bed at some time after 11 and realised how noisy the room was despite the fantastic view. However, this didn't seem to bother me as I was straight off to sleep once the day's travel (which was about 30 hours to that point) took hold

And we're off!

Thurs 5th July
BMI Lounge, Manchester Airport

We've set off at last! Usual largely taciturn taxi driver (not unfriendly, just not very conversational), Dewsbury Station was wet due to them doing building work there. This was annoying because the tannoy is behind the screens so you can't actually hear the announcements. We could have been getting on a train that was being diverted to Ispwich via Douglas, IOM, for all we knew.

As it transpired, it was the correct train all the same and I ended up spending the trip chatting to an elderly lady from New Zealand who'd been touring the UK for the last couple of months. Surprisingly, she didn't look like a drowned rat, despite the pissy rain we've had of late.

At the airport we checked in and are informed that we are allowed in the BMI Lounge. This is where I'm typing this now since they have free Wifi as well as free snacks and (best of all) free booze. Obviously, we have a long time travelling ahead of us (including a good few hours layover in Heathrow) so I don't want to go too mad, but I do think a wee bloody mary might be in order. It's the drink of seasoned travellers like myself, I think you'll find. Or did I just make that up? Anyway, it's what I usually drink when I'm at 38,000ft

 It's the only way to fly. Cheers!

Horbury, Wakefield, W Yorks, UK

Just over a day to go

It's a few months since I wrote the first entry of this blog which I only just realised hadn't actually been published. Ho-hum, I've rectified that.

It's around midnight on the day before we go away. I've not had much to write about. We've been quite blase about the whole thing. Normally we'd be out a few times buying stuff we need, but this time around we've barely done that. We did get some really cool binoculars for the jungle part of the trip, mind.

To be honest I suppose we've had other stuff to be concerned with, be it the adoption procedure or the football.

Having said that, all our accommodation is booked, our internal flights are booked and even checked into and we have either organised or at least know how to make our transfers. We've even checked out what films are on the plane (and they aren't that inspiring, it has to be said). Jane has done so much research in fact that we know what we're going to be doing on a lot of our nights and I have to say the cheap cocktails they sell at the market in the village we're staying in Khao Sok National Park do sound good.

So, I've one more day left at work, two more gym sessions, several meals, two sleeps then we're away