Jun 2007

hello blog fans

all is well in thailand. we flew from bangkok to chiang mai in the north of thailand yesterday with air asia for only 12 pounds each. the flight was little over an hour and for a few extra pounds it saved us an overnight train.

i'm glad to be out of bangkok. it's pretty nuts, polluted and full on. we are now really starting to get into travel mode.

at chiang mai airport i spot a guy in a retro scotland football top and a kilt and go over to say hello and offer my gordon strachan book that i have just finished reading. two books down already, although gazza and strachans books are pretty light reading!

anyway.........it turns out that this guy is called john robins and he played with strachan at dundee in the 80's. i have yet to find him on google but he knew all the facts. what a small world! he took the book and looked forward to reading about strachan's recollections of his dundee days.

we jump in a cab for 160 baht to our guest house by the river. it's nice but a little bit far out so we decide to only stay one night. after a wander and getting a bit lost we jump in a tuk tutk (one of mens greatest inventions) and head to the night bazzar. a huge market with rows and roaws and roads and roads of stalls selling beautiful flowers, jewellery, clothes, food and just about anything you could ever need.

we go to a fresh fish stall and have one of the best meals we have ever had sitting outside listening to some guy playing old 60's songs on an acoustic guitar, something that happens regularly in thailand. lynn has crab, i have grilled seabass and we also have a plate of huge and deeeeeeeeeeelicious oysters. yummy!

after that we wander around and sit down for a beer outside a pub with jenga. an older couple come to join us and it turns out that they are both well travelled and qualified diving instructors - graham and jackie. they give us loads of useful information and we intend to meet them for another beer or two tonight.

it is 12.30 on saturday afternoon and it is hot, hot, hot. we've just booked up a day trip for monday to the elephant nature park. check out www.elephantnaturefoundation.org

rather than book one of the usual trekking tours with elephants, where they perform tricks and do things they really shouldn't be doing, this day trip is eco-tourism at it's best. elephants are encouraged to lead as natural a life as possible - only eat, sleep and play. we get to watch, observe and learn. i can't wait. i bet lynn adopts an elephant. needless to say his name will be eric!

we're going to go a wander and get our bearings in the daylight. we've now checked into a new hostel/gust house in town called the north star guest house. it's only 350 baht a room per night with air con, 150 baht without. in this weather you need it!

we may book in for a thai cooking class tomorrow if we can find a decent deal.

i hope all is well back in the uk and around the world wherever you are reading this.

lots of love
murray and lynn
xxxx

well it's thursday and lynn and i are back at out hotel/hostel after taking a 1 hour boat trip around bangkok. we got out own traditional boat for a tenner (we could probably have got it cheaper if we tried) the breeze was very welcome! it is very humid here and the clouds are burning away. we are about to go up to our rooftop pool. it's a tough life.

yesterday started slowly as we were both suffering from a bit of jet lag. we'd gone to bed at ten, slept for a few hours andf woke up bright and breezy. we then read before goiing back to sleep around 7am - weird.

around lunchtime we hired a tuk tuk for an hour for only 60 baht (1 pound) and visited some temples, a huge gold bhudda statue before a hair raising ride to the royal palace. we then hired a tour to take us round. it was incredibly interesting. the tuk tuk ride was great fun and anyone reading this that is going to bangkok should take one.

we used the rooftop pool in the early evening, 6 floors up and with great views of the bangkok skyline. we headed out for dinner and lynn spied a street restaurant/vendor sellingpai thai. lynn opted for the chicken version and i went for the pork. both were absolutely delicious. dinner came to 320 baht, most of that was made up from sprites as street food is really cheap and incredibly tasty.

we had a few beers at a bar two floors above the main tourist strip and enjoyed people watching. we then stopped off for a cocktail on the way back to the hotel/hostel at a funky wee bar that is basically a VW camper van turned into a bar. the roof opens up and the guy has a bar there, specialising in cocktails. i go for 'sex on the beach' and lynn goes for something called 'gay pride'!

we then have another couple of beers sitting outside a bar near our hotel, just to make sure that we don't suffer from jet lag again! beers is cheap and we opt for chang beer.

our hostel/hotel is fantastic. 800 baht (around 12 pounds) per night for a double room with wet room. we are currently looking for accomodation for tomorrow night when we fly north. i think we'll drop down to 5 or 6 pounds up there. it will be interesting. you can go really cheap if you stay in dorms but we will try and book our own room and toilet whenever possible.

our flightto chiang mai tomorrow takes an hour and is only 12 pounds each. a lot of travllers opt for the train and you do probably see more of the country that way, but that takes 12-14 hours compared to an hours flight! no choice there but we will be taking more trains and buses as we travel into other countries.

i'm glad we only booked 3 nights in bangkok as we've seen practially everything (apart from the ping pong shows, although people have tried to get us to go and see them). i'm looking forward to getting up north to go trekking and bamboo rafting.

we didn't go for a thai massage last night, opting for cocktails instead, so we'll definitely get one tonight and may stay off the alcohol.

i'll be writing again once we get up north so stay tuuuuuuuuuuuned.

ta
murray

ps - i must say that it is great to be able to keep in touch by e-mail and the internet. how did travellers survive back in the 60's? they were true travellers!

so we have started our travels.

on monday 18th we flew from glasgow to london and then on to bangkok. a 10.5 hour flight. i passed the time by watching a united v chelsea game from the 00/01 season that ended 3-3 and featured a cracking paul scholes goal. i also watched a classic liverpool 4 v 2 newcastle game from 98/99, a golden episode of friends and a documentary on muhammed ali's greatest 12 rounds.

i also manged to read paul gascoignes new book while hanging about heathrow, finishing it on the plane. it is an excellent book and delves into gazzas addictive personality, his alcoholism, ocd, gambling, drugs, loneliness............buy it. it's only 6.99.

gazza was an immense player. i will always remember his free kick against arsenal while playing for spurs in the 91 cup semi and his hat trick for rangers to demolish aberdeen and win the league. my good friend dave taylor must have loved watching him play. i am sure kevin thomson will do a job for rangers next season!

bangkok airport is sensational, modern and air conditioned. as soon as we got outside we were hit with by the heat. actually i was hit by the revolving door which was so clear that i tried to walk right through it!

our hotel is lovely and has a rooftop pool. all for only 12 pounds per night. it is in the heart of the travelling district. tonight we ate outside for only 1.20. lynn had an extremely spicy thai green curry and i had a pork dish. we then had a couple of beers before going for an amazing half hour swedish oil massage - we'll try a thai one tomorrow. it was only around 3 pounds for the two of us and we both feel fantastic. we will probably get a different type of massage every day while we are here.

we are going to have an early night tonight so we can get up early and explore the city tomorrow. we have already heard amazing things about the north of thailand and we leave to go there on friday afternoon. our internal flights were only 12 pounds each and we intend to go trekking, bamboo river rafting, elephant trekking and much more when we get up north.

bangkok is huge and pretty full on. it will be nice to spend a couple of days here before moving on. there is a lot of cheap adidas gear kicking about and i am very tempted to buy some tomorrow and just send it home. if it is fake it is top notch. it probably isn't as it's all made over here anyway.

i do intend to try and update this blog regularly so stay tuned.........

take care
murray

well, one of the most frequently asked questions to date has been 'what areyou taking?', so here goes, in no particular order.

lower alpine 50litre rucksack
silk sleeping bag liner
a sleeping bag
hand trek towel
waterproof rucksack cover
first aid kit
toileteries (i won't go into detail)
a hammock (folds away to a tiny pack)
hankies
mosquito net and head net
a camelpak
waterproof trousers
north face micro fleece
berghaus long sleeve zip top
trekking trousers
shorts
swim shorts
passport and driving license
tickets!
a travel pillow
eye mask
wallet
head torch
playing cards
vip backpackers pass
glasses
sunglasses
i-nano
sunhat
wooly hat
4 pairs of boxers
2 pairs of walking socks
5 t-shirts
a north face shirt
walking boots
sports sandals

our flight to london is at 2.25pm then we fly out tonight at 10pm

all journeys have to start somewhere, sometime.......our journey starts today.

love
murray and lynn
xxxx

well i am very hungover. it was my mums 60th last night and it was quite a party! all our friends were there as well as my mums so it was a great way to celebrate my mums 60th and see everyone for the last time for a year!

it all kicked off at 6pm with around 30 people coming to my mums house for champagne- very civilised. we then got the bus to the robertson arms in carnwath. i was dj-ing and played some fantastic 60's tunes to get the dancefloor going.

the real party started back at my mums! me, lynn, dave, shona, elliott, martyn, kenny, marjorie, wigs, carla, deborah, harry, ross, dougal and kirsty popped openall the remaining bottles of champagne and anything else we could find!

me, lynn, elliott, carla, deborah and marty stayed up till dawn blasting music out. god knows how my mum, my aunt pat, harry and wigs got to sleep. wigs crashed out in the front room. elliott slept on the floor in the living room and me and lynn ended up over at ken and gwens!

it was a fantastic night and i'd like to thank everyone that attended for making it so special for my mum.

we all had breakfast ataround 10.30am, this was 5 hours after we had gone to bed!

classic wigs moment - the guy was born and raised in carluke but got lost walking to the station from my mums! he ended up walking up back roads and through farms before arriving back at my mums tomuch laughterand piss taking - classic!

i've now said my goodbyes to my mum, brother, sister and friends and weare spending our last night in scotland for a year at lynn's mums. dinner is about to be served and i am starving!

i'll update the blog after a couple of days in thailand.

take care

murray