Fun adventures

Hello everyone hope you are all well. just a small update on the last week containing mostly pictures, click them to enlarge.

Its been a lot more chilled out than the first week thats for sure and a nice change of pace, we have been getting are head down with poker and putting a lot of hands in, we get up as early as we can as that’s the best time to play, this only happens if we haven’t gone out the night before though. We have had some fantastic trips over the week to beaches, islands and Patong.

Are try and put them in order. where we are living is 10mins away from the nearest beaches, instead of going to kata again we tried a place called Nai Harn beach, this place is a lot smaller than the others and there’s a lot less farangs (tourist in Thai) we agreed that it was the best beach we had been to.
Monday we were trying to arrange a boat trip and are land lady who is very lovely said we could rent her boat for 18k baht for the day with a driver and lunch, we also went to one of the island trip shops to ask about the same deal, this place does all sorts of trips like you pay 1500 baht and have a day trip with a boat rammed full of other people so we really wanted to get a boat for are self’s, we managed to get it for 16.5k with lunch just the 6 of us all day on Tuesday which sounded great. The next morning we got to there shop at 8.30 and they walked us to the beach to board the boat, it was a two set speed boat and looked super fast, we asked that are first stop be to the phi phi islands, that is a 1 hour journey in to the tide so it was very bumpy, when we got there it was one of the best sites iv ever seen, I am a huge fan of the film the beach so just being there was a dream, its like paradise and the views are stunning. the enterance to phi phi island The beach out of the film

Marten giving a lesson on the optimal way to snorkel.

When we got back in the boat from snorkelling are driver had laid a plate of pineapple and melon, was a nice touch.

By the time we left that part of the island there was a lot of other boats there so it was time to leave, are driver then showed us loads of other really awesome parts of the island, we stopped of at a little beach, it must have been only 40/50 yards wide and was filled with moneys, never seen these guys so close and in the wild was a great experience.
More monkeys

After that are driver docked us at the little phi phi town and we had there buffet lunch, after we asked are driver if we could go to the best place for snorkelling, he drove about 15mins then stopped in the middle of the ocean, it was a rare part where the sea level is very low so you can swim to the corral, another incredible experience being able to touch the huge corrals and see how amazing the sea bed is, we then saw some more part of the island then headed back, this was without doubt my best day here.
snorkelling again but this time in open water.

The next few days after we were all very sun burnt and couldn’t face the sun so thought it was a good excuse to grind the pokers.

The Wednesday was interesting as we decided to go out to the snake show in chalong, we went for dinner early as the show was at 10pm, the restaurant has some great sushi dish’s and myself, Marten, Clara and Emil are addicted to it and having it most nights innless there Japanese chef decides to go home early which seems to happen a lot. We went back to the apartment for few drinks as we had time to kill before going to the show, this ended up in to one huge drinking fest and we started playing a drinking game called F**k the dealer, we all got way to drunk and instead of going to the show ended up going clubbing in Patong. When we got there I made everyone do those paper hot air balloons which you also see in the film the beach, this was really fun and a must do when in phuket in my opinion. We then hit the strip and had a great night, it ended with Sorn being sick multiple times in the tuk tuk back home, nasty really as it’s a 15min ride home. Marten struggling to keep it from flying away
Anton looking very drunk, also get a look at the random face Emil is pulling on the right.

Not sure what we are up to in the weeks ahead, although we do have to get a visa for Emil which is in bangkok so we will probably stay there a few days.

peaceeeeeee.

Travelling

Heey everyone sorry ive not updated sooner we have been on the move for last 5 days or so moving from different hotels and trying to find a place to live, so today and yesterday have been the only real time ive been on my computer. Ive somehow managed to delete my first blog entry which is annoying but it didn’t contain much anyways.

My flight to Sweden went well and Marten, Soren, Anton meet me at Stockholm central, they all had to sort out visa’s and get things sorted as we were leaving the next day, that night we went for dinner in stock at a really cool tapas restaurant, we then played high card for the bill which me and Shahin lost with both having 2’s. the temperature there is so low, after the meal we walked to the casino and I couldn’t speak to anyone as I was trying to mentally battle the cold. casino was fun with most winning if I remember right, I didn’t have much money at all and turned it in to more than I took to stock so I did well, Shahin and marten played a little live poker there which was cool to watch, iv never been in a real card room so it was interesting stuff. We then left after a hour or so and shahin carried on playing, he said that the people he was playing were so bad that he couldn’t leave lol. After that consisted of more freezing on are way home then bed.

Are flight time was 2.15pm I think and we cut it fine by getting there a few hours before or less, we were super hungry so had to get food before are 9 ½ hour flight, we didn’t really think it through though and they were all waiting for us they called are names out and when we got to the gate they didn’t seem happy.
Flight wasn’t as bad as I thought, it was a airbus thing (two floors) I was spectacle of how this thing would get of the ground, to my surprise it was one of the best flights iv had, the thing is so big the wind struggles to effect it. We then landed in Bangkok and got another flight which was 1hour 5mins to phuket. When we landed we went to meet Emil and his girlfriend Clara at Laguna resort, they had got to phuket few days before us as they had been in Australia 2 weeks prier, there was a big poker tournament out there so it was a good excuse to have a nice holiday as well.
The Laguna resort was very nice it’s a big hotel with its own private beach, when we were walking down to the beach there was elephants by the pool, we had to take all are stuff to the beach because we thought Emil and Clara were there, we looked so out of place and got some strange looks.



















Soren and me, not sure why he looks like hes crying, must be the heat.

We then found out that Emil had just said this place as a meeting point as it was close to the airport and wasn’t staying there, we got prices for a night and it was around £140, we were tempted to treat are self’s for one night as this place was excellent but we agreed that it was way to much. Got a taxi to karon which we heard was the best beach on the island and tried to get another hotel for the night, we ended up staying at a really cool place few mins away from the beach, it was still only mid day even though we had been up for 24+ hours we headed down the beach and chilled out

Everyone has told me not to have ice in your drinks when buying from little stands on the beach or markets etc.. because the water isn’t safe, but when you taste how good there fruit drinks are its sooo hard not to, I had a mango one and it tasted delicious. That whole day pretty much consisted of a lot of beer (singa) and cocktails, ohhh and bugs biting us.

Next day I don’t know how but we all woke up really early and headed to buffet breakfast, from any fruit to Thai noodles.
Anton had been saying he wanted to shave his head when he got there which I was looking forward to because he had pretty long hair, here are some pictures of the process,

This one reminds me of someone out of train spotting lol

That night we went out to a nice restaurant the name of which I cant remember, we all ordered cocktails and beers, I got a banana rama which are really nice.

The red one is Anton’s Singapore sling

We played a random card game for the bill, like a nl holdem hand face up so all luck, which I lost again lol. Are theory is that its not all bad though when you lose because its better to have bad luck in a $100 bill than a $2k pot in online poker, I think they are just trying to make me feel better but it worked. after that we played a really cool game called bluff poker which iv never played, it is awesome and one of the only card games you can play without money and still wana win super bad, I didn’t do to well in it as I am still trying to master/understand it. we went to bed about 12ish, I think the sun is causing these early night.
Emil showing to the camera is bluffing skills
soren pulling of one of many bluffs

The next day, sorry guys I have to keep saying the next day because iv gone this whole time without knowing what day or time it is lol.

I woke up super early at 7.30 and played a little poker for few hours while I waited for everyone to wake up, they came around at 9am, marten and Anton said they went for a run but im still not sure I believe them. After breakfast we headed down the beach for a swim and lunch and explored shops, Anton and marten got Thai sims, so now we can have some form of contact with are self and others, the plan was for us all to get them but my phone rejects it for some reason. On the way back we booked a reservation for 8.30 at a restaurant called two chefs which was busy the night before so we assumed it was a nice place.

The hotel we were in wasn’t a great price so we found 3 on the net which looked good and at a decent price, the plan was to get a taxi/tuk tuk to them before are meal to check them out, we got a tuk tuk which are scary as there are no seat belts and everyone drives like nutters. We got one at 8.10 or later im not sure but we didn’t leave enough time as the hotels were in kata, 10mins away from karon, we got close but after it was clear the driver couldn’t find the hotel we just went back to two chefs to make are table, we all got cocktails again I cant remember what I got but it wasn’t nice lol. Meal was very good.
Anton, Marten, me, Emil, Clara, Soren.

we played again for the meal another random face up hand, something like second worse Omaha hand, of course I lost again, I was winning in mostly everything else other than meals which are the most important thing, we flip for pretty much everything that we all do…taxis, drinks, lunch… the one everyone doesn’t want to lose is obviously dinner, oh well it will all even out in the end.

The next day me and marten went to check out some hotels in kata, we saw 3 all of which were nice and decent price, as we were checking out the beach we saw another across the road and asked for prices, it was really cheap and the rooms were all little huts, these things weren’t that good but it was only for few days and it was 20 yards from the beach. We done a lot of looking for apartments that day and went for a meeting with the person in the first link I put in my first blog entry, house in phuket.com, that house with the snooker table wasn’t available as they only want a family, what we asked for she said is really difficult to get as we really want to live on the west side of phuket as thats the beach/swimming side, the east doesnt have much of a beach and is mainly for boats. She showed us a place In chalong which is on the east side and where people get boats to a lot of the small islands that have day trips, this place was very impressive and looks classy, we said we would talk it over and get back to her tomorrow, we agreed that we wanted to get out of staying in hotels all the time and we could stay in that place for a week or so while we try and find a 5 bed house.
That night we went to the famous patong where all the clubs are, it’s a road about 300 yards long and its packed, the place is full of Thai woman everywhere and people handing out tickets for deals to try and get you in there club, we walked all the way through then back as we had no idea where to go, we settled on what looked like a normal bar/club but the place had all different types of bars within it and girls pool dancing on each bar (clothes on of course) we walked all the way to the back few bars and got drinks, its strange how these places get full because they are huge, there must have been 30 different bars in one building. There wasn’t really a dull moment in there as something is all ways going on, the girls got some games out for us which we played with them, connect 4 and another dice game which is luck but very addictive, everyone there was friendly and we had a great time.after that we tried one really heavy club, again was huge and filled with mostly girls and good music, after that it was late so we called it a night and got a tuk tuk home, drunken haggling with these guys on price is very funny and we come out on top a good amount I think.

The next morning we called about staying in the apartment we looked at the day before as we wanted to see if we could go there that day, me and Emil tried to bluff the owner of these villa’s through are agent over price but it didn’t work, so we paid a normal week price but said that if we stay for a month then we could get the monthly rate which isn’t bad at all I think, they were also available that day as well so we got a taxi there and set up camp, here is the link www.houseinphuket.com/houses/LTR/a0766/
There is 4 apartments in total all 2 beds and we have 2 of them next to eachother, you can see they are all king size beds so when we got there we played a poker hand to see who would sleep where, the winner of each hand would get to pick his room and villa, leaving the last two in the same room, we all really wanted to win this as it was a big one, I raan hooot and won the first hand so I had choice on any apartment/bedroom, so I have my own room with TV, bathroom which is great, soren won next so he was safe then Emil, Clara, leaving marten and Anton, was unlucky for marten as he was hung over from the night before and went straight to his room to sleep at 1pm.
my room

We then went to see what was around the area, we are 50yards from the sea, it’s a dock full of sweet boats and a pier which as im writing this the others are walking down I think. There is also a really nice restaurant down the road with a great view, we have eaten there the last few nights.

Marten spreding the love at the restaurant.

The first night we were here I went to bed early at 10ish and some of the others stayed up watching the TV series the Wire, well at 12am there was a massive bang like a boom and all the electric went out, It woke me up and I had no idea what was going on and couldn’t see a thing, I was pretty scared lol, got my phone and stubbled out to see the others who had been still watching TV and all was good and electric cam back on 30mins later, we asked about what it was afew days later and we think it was a generator or something, other than that we have just been chilling out and playing a lot of poker early in the morning and laying in the pool. The time difference works out that the best time to play is 6am on wards which is great because we are fresh, not that were up at 6 more like 8ish but its still good for us to play to midday, we are hopefully going to plan a trip in next few days to one of the islands for some snorkelling which should be really cool.
For the moment we have paid for this apartment for another 5 days but I feel we will maybe stay here a month as its so nice, after that we have seen a awesome modern new built place in phuket town which we might check out for a week or so then look at the patong area.

Hope everyone is well, take care and wish me luck:D