Back to Australia

My dog is high, the geese are pining and cherries are plentiful...

Arriving back in Australia, I headed to the vineyard to see my parents, my sister and my dog. It was lovely to see everyone, especially Boo who was incredibly lively, compared to my last visit. I soon found out she was on drugs, only a third of the dose she was meant to be on, but still climbing the walls.

Another treat for me when arriving back in Sydney was to see Amelia, Joss and Dave's baby girl. She was gorgeous and has plenty of attitude, I can see who will be ruling that household for quite a while!

And to top off all else there was an election and... finally a much awaited change of government! Yah!

And I went to the Opera Bar for Mim and Chris' farewell drinks

Mim, Myself and Chris

The top picture is of a box of chocolate biscuits my sister brought me back from Korea. Of course.

Back to Samui, briefly

Upon our return from Singapore I only had a few nights before I was flying out to Sydney. After cooking dinner for Dennis on my second last night, I headed to Ark Bar to meet up with Pan. We had a couple of drinks before meeting Kai and Beer at Solo Bar. From there we headed to Sweet Soul Cafe in Green Mango. We had a great time dancing and found ourselves with an audience. Some members of the audience bought a round of shots, then another and another and another... its all got a little messy after that for the other girls, so they all went home. The French guy who had been buying the shots was trying to pick me up, he didn't want to take no for an answer but I set him straight and walked off to get a taxi.

Ark Bar

Beer, Kai and Pan

Beer, Pan, Kai and myself

plus a few others

Once last bucket

The following day I had a first and last swim at Choeng Mon, a first and last meal at the Mangrove then headed back to Ark bar to meet Beer. We had a few drinks then met Kai at Dream Girls Bar. I hadn't been before. I think we were the only group of people with more females than male and I also think I was the only western girl in the place. It was an interesting experience, Thai culture is a lot more liberal in some respects, ladyboys, prostitution, pole dancing, these are all very accepted. After a drink there we headed back to Sweet Soul Cafe, more buckets, more dancing. At one point I saw the French guy from the night before. He was kissing someone. He saw me and came over, still trying to pick me up... I ignored him and he went back to kissing this person, a little later I realised the person he was kissing was a ladyboy... I think everyone in the bar knew "she" was a ladyboy apart from him. They were being very intimate in the middle of the dance floor when I went home.

I said goodbye to Nicki and Tim before flying out to Bangkok. The French guy was on my flight out of Samui... In Bangkok on the bus from the plane to the airport he spotted me and smiled, I couldn't help but smile back... once at the airport he waited for me and said hi, I asked if he had had a good night, he sheepishly smiles and said yes. He had no idea he had been kissing a ladyboy (and who knows what else happened), I was tempted to tell him but I'm sure he wouldn't have believed me anyway. Most amusing!

Also visited Big Buddha

Singapore - Champagne and Shopping!

What more could a girl want?

Dennis had some work to do in Singapore, Nicki wanted to catch up with friends and I wanted to escape the rain. However leaving Samui wasn't all that easy. Most planes were being canceled, so we didn't know when we were leaving, 5pm, 10:30 pm, 1 am.... a different story each time. But then at 4pm Dennis called and said we had to be at the airport asap. We checked in and were told the flight was going at 6:50pm. So we cleared customs and waited. While waiting we bought a bottle of wine at the Duty Free shop - they were kind enough to open it for us as well. And that's when the weekend really started. Our plane didn't leave until about 10:30pm by which time Dennis, Nicky and myself had consumed 3.5 bottles of red. Dennis was in fine form talking to everyone and anyone. I was a little concerned that after such a long wait Dennis wouldn't be allowed on the plane. He even smuggled the remaining half bottle on just for fun. Once on the plane Dennis interacted more with the other passengers than the hostesses did. A very amusing flight - for those of us who had been drinking.

The following day Dennis and Ohm did some work, Nicki got her hair straightened and I shopped. I have never been a big fan of shopping, but even I enjoyed it in Singapore. That evening we met up with Nicki (our guide for the weekend, having lived in Singapore prior to Samui) and had a bottle of bubbly on the 70th floor of the Standford Hotel. Stunning views. Dinner followed at a fantastic riverside restaurant and more bubbly. Then it was on to some gay bars. We met some lovely lads before Nicki and I left the boys to it and headed for some straight bars. The first two were not what we wanted so we tried a third. The girl on the door didn't want to let us in as we were wearing shorts. But we were wearing shorts and heels... finally the manager was called and he was very happy for us to enter. Inside was another experience, most of the girls on the inside where there to work for the night, more prostitutes than I had seen in a room before! A drink there and then we headed to another bar, but the music was terrible, one decent song then another 8 bad ones, so being 4 am we decided to call it a night.

The view over Singapore

Saturday was a day for relaxing, I spent most of the day walking along the river. That evening Dennis, Ohm and I had dinner before meeting Nicki and some of her friends for a few drinks. We then headed back to the gay bars while they headed to some straight ones. I meet some interesting people that night. Including 4 young boys who decided to feed me at 5 am....

Sunday Champagne brunch is an institution in Singapore and we had ours at the Hyatt. The food was incredible and the champagne even better. After brunch we hit the hotel's martini bar.....

On Monday we did our last minute shopping before catching the plane back to Samui and as the weather had cleared up in Samui we arrived on time and in time to head to the Mangrove for a drink with Ilse and Yannick.

Wet Samui

It has dumped more rain over Samui in the last 3 days than it has in the past 3 years at Dads vineyard. The place is flooded, last night Dennis and I tried to get to Mikes for dinner, but all roads to his place were blocked and he was marooned. It was an amazing experience water was lapping over the bonnet and coming in through the floor..... Two years ago the monsoon season had been really bad, with motorbikes being "lost" in the water and "lakes" remaining for weeks. Last year when the weather was milder - we only had about 3 days of rain and that was spread out over a few weeks, the drainage system was improved and it has made a huge difference. While the water makes driving very difficult it subsides very quickly once the rain stops. That said its still not very nice being here, I have been trapped indoors for days and there are only so many DVDs I can watch. Therefore when Dennis and Ohm had to head over to Singapore Niki and I decided we would go along, with Tim joining us in a few days. I'm just really hoping that we will be able to leave. The Singapore plane is still in Singapore as it couldn't land last night.

Fingers crossed Ill be out of here in a few hours!

Samui II

The past weeks has seen me dancing at Green Mango with Pan and Kai - I don't think I have ever seen the place so empty, I actually got to see what the inside of Sweet Soul cafe looked like, and its quiet well done. Q-bar celebrated Halloween with a party, I met Pan and the girls there after dinner at a lovely next restaurant in Bang Rak. We stay for a few hours, but then headed to Green Mango once again. I'm not quiet sure how I got home, but I did end up in my own bed, unfortunately I didn't manage to take my shoes with me.....Also had my first visit to Mikes and Dennis and I managed to leave before Mike got us totally drunk - that has to be a first for Dennis as well as myself. From Mikes we went to Natalie's Art Palace for some ex-pat party, I decided swimming in the pool would be a good way to sober up, a friend of a friend decided to join me, unfortunately for him he hadn't packed his bikini as I had done, so he went in clothes and all. Q-bar followed the Art Palace, but it was so quiet and the music really bad so we left and headed to have a 3 am meal. This of course eventuated into a chilli eating contest. I was silly enough to eat 5 chillies before I realise my competitor could barely manage one..... From there we headed back to Saboey Resort to continue the fun. I again spent a few hours in the pool. Some guys were leaving the next morning so we had an early start with bloody Marys and then some Champagne interspersed with more swimming...

As it is Sunday - so I have heard - we are going to the Pub for a roast and then up to the Jungle Club for the sunset, but right now I think I will have a little nap as its all been very tiring!!!