Playing tour guide to Gabs

Gabs was very impressed with her visit to Samui: being picked up from the airport, the house, the view from the top balconies, the Jungle club, the Mangrove restaurant.... it was so much fun to show someone around who was amazed by it all. We had such a brilliant time together. Dennis was an amazing host, Colin a generous neighbour and me well.... I kept her company!!!

After picking Gabs up from the airport and went home for a bottle of wine before heading up to the Jungle Club as we do on the majority of Sunday nights. We missed the sunset, but the view was still pretty amazing, I really should take a good camera and tripod up there one of these days!

We went into Chaweng on Monday, visited Colin in the afternoon, had dinner in Bang Rak and were picked up by Dennis on the way home and taken to the Frog and Gecko Pub for one (but that actually meant til 1am, however we only arrived at midnight so it wasnt too bad!).

Tuesday morning was spent in fisherman’s village swimming and eating, before we caught the boat over to Ko Phangan. We met up with a friend Chipy for dinner and then headed home, Had Rin was amazingly quiet - however with the monsoon season approaching and it being half way between full moons this wasnt too surprising.

The following day was spent on the beach at Had Rin, had a few cocktails in the evening and a lovely but not-quite-hot-enough meal. Again the beach was dead so after a night time stroll we spent the evening on our balcony enjoying the peace and quiet.

On Thursday we headed back to Ko Samui arriving in the early afternoon and spent the afternoon at Colin’s house. The three of us had dinner in Chaweng before watching a cabaret show at the Star Club. It was very good but Colin said it wasnt the same without Big Mamma, who had quite suddenly left for Bangkok.

We shopped on Friday, firstly for presents and then for food/wine. Colin had shown us where there was a supermarket full of western produce - real champagne, rocket -although no baby spinach which I was looking for - and excitingly.... real timtams - not the type made in Singapore or Malaysia or where ever!!!! They do taste so much better! Tescos is great for everyday shopping but Tops (the expensive supermarket) is much better for specialty stuff! That evening we were going to Tapas night at the Mangrove, a few of us met up at Colin’s for a few glasses of sparkling before heading around the corner for dinner. The food was absolutely amazing! Not that I expected any less. The huge surprise for me was the cost, about $10 a person for 6 incredibly delicious dishes each, I dont understand why they charge soo little, I dont think we finished all the food! After dinner Dennis was tired and Gabs didnt feel like going out so they dropped me at Green Mango for a dance. I had a great time dancing with Pan and Ohm. I expected Dennis and Gabs to be asleep by the time Ohm drove me home, but no! Dennis had convinced Gabs to have "one” drink at Q bar (I think), that one drink turned into quite a few, they did get home before us and had cracked open another bottle so I joined in.

On Saturday morning Colin had arranged to take us to the Aquarium, bird show, tiger zoo.... Gabs got up and managed to shower, but decided it would be best if she went back to bed instead of joining us, she couldnt believe Dennis had gone to work at 10 am! We saw a bird show in which the birds displayed some interesting tricks, the tiger trainer fed one of the tigers by holding food in his mouth and the tiger’s didnt seem that docile, they even refused to do one act! In the aquarium there were some beautiful fish, however Colin and I spent quite some time feeding some very hungry fish - they made a huge splash when ever you threw food in the tank and would splash whoever was walking by. After the bird show you get your photo taken with a tiger - another 500 Baht on top of the 400 Baht paid to see the show... one of Colin’s house boys - Tawan was getting a photo and decided I should be in it with him. I really didnt like the idea of getting into a cage with a tiger. Especially with all the signs up warning people not to use the flash on their camera, what if someone did just as I got in there and it scared the tiger??? Anyway I convinced myself to go in with Tawan. All went well and we had the photo taken, however 5 min later they told us one of us had our eyes closed and it had to be taken again. Going back in this time I nearly slipped in the water on the floor. This scared me - what if I had fallen and the tiger had been freaked out??? It really was huge. Anyway that photo went well, so I didnt have to go back in! They only gave us one photo so I told Tawan he could have it, he is only 20 yo and probably wants to show his friends! I was sort of looking forward to a quiet night and I think Gabs was as well - she only got up at 4 pm! However it was not to be, we were told we had to get to Out of Africa by 8 pm for a surprise birthday for one of the owners. It was a great night, Alex was very surprised. They put on a great cabaret show in the restaurant, followed by a delicious meal and lots of wine. Following the party we visited Green Mango, I had a dance, had my wallet stolen and we went home....

On Sunday we dropped Gabs at the airport and headed out for our Sunday roast at The Pub.

Feeding (or kissing) the tiger




Had Rin beach, so quiet, so peaceful!




Gabs and I at Alex's surprise party at Out of Africa




The Cabaret show! The people you can see watching the show were not in fact invited guests, just people who happened to be dining at the restaurant that night....






Alex with the performers, Gabs and I were trying to work out if the person on the end in the bikini was male or female, I still stick by my thought 'she' has a Y chromosome, its the pelvic muscles which suggest this to me, but in person it was very hard to tell....




She was a little on the scary side!!!!

Im Home!!!

And what a welcoming I have had!

"whoooo ooo oooo bring it on girl.....

Been doin nought but work. getting trashed looks well on the
cards for the weekend. Care to assist?" - my gorgeous and most generous host

Oh my head really should have hurt after the first weekend....

I was picked up for the airport and taken home for a bottle of white and a shower before heading into Chaweng for dinner and dancing. We had a delicious meal, headed to a friends restaurant for a few drinks, then on to Q Bar and finally to the very dodgy Solo Bar (well restaurant, it manages to circumvent the licensing laws by running as a restaurant, doesnt hurt that it is run by the police/mafia/mafia police). Caught up with a number of friends that night, both planed and accidently! Got into the house at 4:30 at which point it was suggested we open a bottle of Verve, really not sure why we did but I think it was another of those WHY NOT moments......

Polished off the bottle of Champagne when we woke up at about 2pm. Went across the road to Colins place as we saw other friends arriving, taking another bottle and a few glasses with us as Colin wasnt home at that point. Dennis was dragged to work at 5pm, sending well needed bacon, sausage, egg and cheese burgers back to us on his way to work! We swam and drank the afternoon away, Colin really is too generous, cant stand the sight of an empty glass.... For Dinner we went to Mangrove - I think the best restaurant on the island. A French/Belgian couple run the place and the food is incredible, dont ever visit Samui without eating there! And thats saying something as I normally just eat Thai in Thailand! After dinner we headed into Lamai. On route to a party at a club we stopped off at a girly bar. Most of the girls were girls but a few werent. We stayed for a few drinks and I received a pole dancing lesson from one of the professional - it was fairly quiet in all the bars at that point! After my lesson we caught up with another Wagga boy at the club and a few of his friends. We had a fantastic night but I eventually had to leave to ensure I had a little sleep before picking Gabs up from the airport!



View from one of the rooftop balconies of our not so humble abode!




We face Big Buddha, which is actually on a little Island of its own - Koh Fan




And look out at Koh Phangan, in the far distance

Back to London..... again

I had three more days in London to say goodbye to everyone before flying back to Thailand. Its amazing how quickly 6 weeks flew by.

I had a wonderful time in Europe/UK/US, thank you to everyone I stayed with and everyone I caught up with, it was great to see you all and I cant wait to do it again!

I Love NY

Leaving Heathrow I flew to New York to see Mat. The flight was uneventful, however as I was waiting to collect my bag the friendly sniffer dog decided my bag nd coat smelt good, it sniffed around for a good few minutes while I tried to remain calm and everyone around me stared hoping to see a drug courier identified, luckily for me the dog didnt sit down and the human assistant just asked if I was carrying any fruit or had previously had any fruit in my bag, I of course said I currently had no fruit in the bag but quite recently there had been..... Once the dog moved on I was asked what "good stuff" I had and few other people told me I handled the situation well.

Got the train into the city and managed to find Mats work on Madison Ave. It is a very impressive building, marble everywhere! I walked around the city for a few hours before meeting Mat in the evening. We went to a roof top bar in the middle of Manhattan to have a few drinks before dinner. The view was spectacular! After a wonderfully greasy meal of bacon and cheese hamburgers we wandered around the city, watching people go about there life at 2am, rapping, dancing, singing and really just having an amazing time.

On Friday I went for a walk around town, I saw the world trade center site, the charging bull, Wall St and the Statue of Liberty (at a distance). The WTC site was quite interesting, there were so many stories told by different people effected in different ways by the destruction there. Amazinlgy an American guy asked me if a little bit of scaffolding near the Battery park where you catch the ferry to see Lady Liberty was "ground zero"??? I the Australian had to inform him that this wasnt the site, in fact "ground zero" was much bigger site, say the size of 7 or so incredibly tall buildings, not just the scaffolding around the new aquatic merry-go-round..... and pointed him in the right direction.

The WTC experience reminded me of my visit to Israel, the first day I was there Dad had sent me on a tour of Jerusalem - the wailing wall, the old city, a Holocaust museum, all the usual stuff, that night we had dinner with a couple Dad worked with they casually asked what I did while Dad worked that day, I told them, they yelled at Dad for sending me on the tour - the day before a Palestinian bus driver had run over and killed 7 Israeli soldiers and a civilian - and it was widely assumed there would be retribution and the places I visited were likely targets so really Dad should not have let me go to the Wailing Wall... well I survived the tour and the dinner, but three months later the restaurant we were in was bombed and while no one was killed several people lost limbs.... I guess I feel really lucky I was there three months early.... that on top of being a suspect terrorist really made the visit interesting, let alone the country itself.

I walked around the city before calling Mat to see when he would finish work, I was told 30 min so I figured I had better catch a train.... however I couldnt find a station even though I had seem then everywhere 30 min ago... finally go one.... but unfortunately got off at 82nd street, having come from 5th St and wanting 28th St..... bugger those express trains.... ran most of the way back to Mats work, only 30 min late... I hate being late.... Mat had gone back to work... anyway... finally headed out... went to the Lower East Side for a delicious but not very filling (as it turned out) Vietnamese dinner and then on for a few drinks, lovely night!!!

On Saturday we walked to Central Park via Times Square. But I need to leave it there for the minute as the roosters are waking up... not sure why as its only 4am but... think I should give it a rest for today....

Central Park was amazing, I had no idea it was so big! Mat had previously only ever walk ~1/3-1/2 of it, but we made it the whole way, past two huge lakes, a pool/ice skating rink, numerous squirrels and dogs, people running, walking, riding, roller blading to love songs - this was a single huge guy.... having wedding photos taken, waiting for the first couple to finish so they too could have wedding photos taken on the bridge, playing ball, eating, sleeping.... from the top of Central Park, we caught the subway down 20 blocks to the American Museum of Natural Histories and here I saw dinosaurs, well dinosaur skeletons, as well as the skeletons of many other interesting creatures, it was fantastic! We had to rush though the last section as the museum was closing... after the museum visit we jumped back on the subway and headed for Williamsburg for some Mexican and iced margaritas! Absolutely wonderful. After dinner we walked around the Soho, went to a little comedy show, some of which was very good. We continued our walk and finally made it home.

On Sunday we walked across the Brooklyn Bridge, against the (Avon walk for Breast cancer) flow... beautiful day, really amazing weather for October!!! Then walked towards the city, met an interesting/overly friendly Canadian in the park, I was glad I wasnt alone! Then caught the Statton Island Ferry past Lady Liberty. Got off the ferry and along with the rest of the passengers, quickly boarded the return ferry without seeing the island (as advised by the lonely planet)! We then headed off for 'brunch' at 4pm. Lovely food and basically all you can drink.

The next day I got up at 5 am to get my flight back to London.

Back to London

Upon returning to London I had two very lovely meals, first with Gosia and Lukasz at their place and then I cooked Thai at Josh and Sofis. Again I made way too much food, 7 dishes for 6 people. Incredibly I didnt find any birdseye chillies in chinatown!!! But aside from that found everything else and the meal turned out really well. Even managed to get the heat level right again, I seem to be getting much better at this!

The following morning after 5 hours sleep I headed to Heathrow....

Cardiff

I headed West to visit some guys I had meet at Riss and Owen wedding in Perth back in March. Tim very kindly put me up in his gorgeous house. The first night involved dinner and drinks in celebration of Tims sisters birthday. Prior to dinner I visited a few local drinking holes, each very different from the last. Great night!

Saturday got off to a bad start with the Swans losing the grand final.... but after sulking for 5 min the rest of the day was very relaxing, spent strolling around the gorgeous old arcades in the city, enjoying cocktails, dinner and then meeting up with Chris and Johnny in Ha!Ha!. Very enjoyable night.

On Sunday I cooked Thai for Tim, Alan and Alice. I managed to find most ingredients I needed and managed to get the spice level right for everyone else, but this always leads to difficulties in balancing the flavours, I normally sweeten dishes in order to combat the heat of the chilli.... doesnt work if you dont add as much chilli... oh well it still passed, although even after we had finished you wouldnt have realised we had eaten anything as I made way too much food and 3 people bailed on the lunch invite, dont think they remembered accepting the invitation, but then again there is a very slight chance the invitation wasnt extended in the first place.... ahh its all good.

Headed back to London on Monday morning, arriving at Victoria with a phone number for when Im next in Nigeria.


My gracious host for the weekend, Tim and myself on Friday night in Cardiff




Chris, Tim, Johnny, a friend of theirs and me.