Kate comes to thailand

**I have a problem typing 'the', so throughout this there will be many 'teh's, i cannot be bothered to correct them all, and i will go to a master class in writing this little word one day - but until then you will have to deal with it - among all the other typo's i can't be bothered to correct.

Its now november and kate came in september - but have been too busy to write anything..... Kate came and it was great. We ate, and drank a little (mostly a little anyway, until we hit the backpacker road in bangkok....), we ate some more, we went to places that made me realise i am in fact actually really lucky to be living here (koh phi phi and phang nga bay) and then we ate some more. i thought it was important for koo to see how i lived - and this involves eating vast quantities. on the first weekend we went to phuket for a night out; we stayed at somones lovely flat next to the beach with a swimming pool - which we took full advantage of the next day, and got very sunburnt. the next week i spent mostly working - vey boring for kate, but was coming up to teh opening so i was gtting very busy. she did get to wonder around phang nga for a couple of hours though while i went a pointless meeting with the govenor, this must have been very exciting for her (?). but in teh afternoon shoo took us to see phang nga bay, and james bond island (so named for teh tourists cos a few seconds of a james bond film were shot here apparently). the island itself was kinda dissapointing, but the scenery on teh way in teh log tail boat was stunning. its about an hour away from my house and i never knew! then on the friday we went to patong for some ladyboy watching - real great. we managed to get a good priced hotel which was gorgeous, and that night met up with brian the american and went out to teh tourist centre of teh south of thailand i believe. it was abit much for me i have to say - coming out from teh middle of no where, to the farang filled streets of patong - bright lights and few clothes abound (is that an oxymoron? "few clothes abound"? you know what i mean). quite sad when we went down to the end of a street to go into a ladyboy caberet show. as we enterd teh damp pit of a former glamourous caberet setting, the queen on stage was startled by customers and resumed her miming once again. as we sat down on teh wet seats we decided it was time to leave; especially as we were asked to pay 200 baht for teh privelege of sitting on damp seats in a musty room with an uninterested drag queen on stage. the next day we had teh dilema of staying in our lush hotel for anothe rnight or missioning it to phi phi island - we chose teh latter and were so glad that we did. i believe that phi phi used to be idillic 10 or 20 years ago until the tourists (and alex garland) came, but apart from all the westerners with bum bags and red faces, it was very near idillic. one of teh most beautiful places I’ve seen.



Next we had another week in khao lak – which again was work filled for me, and koo entertained herself for the most part as I can remember. She did manage to see some of the local wildlife when she was chased by a snake at the beach one day. It is funny now (to me anyway), but at the time I think she was scared to death, so it wasn’t so funny (hee hee).



Then for her final 5 days we went up to Bangkok – more new stuff for me too.

We arrived late at night after our plane was delayed by a zillion hours, and went to find our hotel – that we had invested a lot of expectation and money in – wanting a bit of luxury. When we got there I was in the worst mood ever, and when I saw our room I got even worse (sorry koo). It wasn’t the worst room in the world but I was hungry (I turn into the incredible hulk if I don’t have food – literally, I gain about 10 stone go all green and veiny – its not the nicest side of me, so if I ever tell you I am hungry – your best bet for survival is to feed me ok?).

After we saw our room we went out onto the street to look around - this was after about midnight – and we both decided that we didn’t like Bangkok – it seemed dirtier and seedier than I had imagined, and coming from gentle khao lak, or even bosham, I started to feel out of my depth.

But the next day we changed hotel and everything started to look better. By the end of Bangkok we had had an excellent time, and didn’t hate the place – its not at the top of my list of cities in the world, but its ok, and lots of fun.



We saw the grandpalace (where we played “wheres wally” with the monks while they played the part of a tourist attraction for everyone, koo then in turn became the tourist attraction when the monks asked HER if they could have their picture with her! we ate, we went shopping, we went to a huge market, we saw loads that I can’t remember, and we had a great night out in Ko san road – the backpacker place I talked about. This night was typically ko san and random, something that you might have seen in the film ‘the beach’, as me and koo attracted random people on our bar crawl which ended at the only bar open after 2 in the morning down a back alley. The next day I felt like I might die. Thai whiskey = not good for you.

You’ll be pleased to hear (or not depending on who is reading this) that I haven’t drunk like it since. Not that i can remember anyway.

After Bangkok koo had to go home, this is the rubbish part of the story, and I did not like it.

The end