And the adventure continues - without Tuk-Tuk ;)

Well as I said on my post yesterday I finally arrived safely in Sydney. The Hostel I am staying in is called the Wood Duck Inn and located in Sydney City Centre which couldn't be any better for a first week! Once in the hostel I hurried to get a warm shower but no hot water left and get some breakfast. Instead of heading to bed I talked with a few people hanging around the hostel just to discover a bit further about Sydney and Australia. Most of the people I have met so far are only here for a week or 2 and then will continue on travelling. In my case I am fitting in the working case lol. In the afternoon I met a friend that I had met at the Down Under Exhibition it was nice to see a fimiliar face in this unfamiliar place :) the afternoon I went to check out the Harbour Bridge and Opera House.. It's great to see them with my own eyes and not only in pictures. Sydney seems like a very nice city, despite its huge size you can easily make your way around the centre without the feeling of being completely lost and the sea is there which is a Plus :D

Ko Pha Ngan - Full Moon Party pictures

Live Your dream don't dream your life

Koh Pha Ngan Follow up

My experience in Koh Pha Ngan will certainly remain my best time in Thailand. Even if I enjoyed the all of it, this place will be on my coming back list! Instead of heading to the crazy HadRin, I decided to make my way to Thong Nai Pan. Thong Nai Pan has beaches: Yai and Noi. As I found a cool accomodation on Yai my choice between the 2 was made. Each beach is 20 minutes walk from each other, that you can also replace by a boat or taxi ride. I staied in Thai Terrace Bungalow, not located on the beach but in the village there was a total of 8 bungalow surrounded by a tropical cosy garden. It really felf like home, we could sit down in the evening to enjoy a beer Chang and relax.
I arrived on Monday 18th of February and was followed a few hours later by Ivan. The main goal of this little vacation was = RELAXING. My day to day life was summerised with: breakfast, sunbathing, swimming, sunbathing, eating, reading (I finished The Witch of Portobello by Cohelo thx luce and have now started A million Little Pieces by James Frey) , sleeping... The weather was amazing until Sunday I experienced: no electricity, thunders and so...
In the evening we would warm up for the so famous full moon party... Wednesday night in the Funky Buddha: good music, cheap drinks ;), Following night the Hideaway on Thong Nai Pan Noi (that night I ended up losing everybody but without any problem got a taxi back to my beach... while the taxi driver invited me to lay down at the back of her truck and enjoy the stars and the moon lol) Following 2 nights rest.. well almost I first had to convince a Canadian living on Noi Beach that Yai was better lol Not sure it really worked lol! And to finalize all those warm up partys, Full Moon Party on Sunday night.. I started a night getting paint some crazy stuff on my body (Greg you gotta explain me why the "Hi Mom" on my back lololol), drunk way too much buckets and ended in hurting myself a little.. I don't know how but my eye looks now very blue and purple not so so good lol... Drinks Drinks...
As I lost my paint friends I ended up finding all the backpackersthai guys from Yai at the first bar and had a crazy, excellent time...
It's probably what I enjoyed the most in Yai, the fact that we werent so many tourists, the atmosphere was very chilled out and everybody got to meet everybody.. By the end we were all kind of friends...
But I had to leave this little paradise... very sad indeed but the adventure continues....
Another boat bus trip back to Bangkok where I got to meet some more ppl who for sure were interested to discover what happened to me with this black eye...lol
Ah Lilie!!!

Joyeux Anniversaire Audrey... Mwah!

Ko Pha - Ngan 18 to 25 Feb

I arrived in Ko Phan Gan on the 18th, Ivan joined me a few hours later... I previously rented a bungalow on Thong Nai Pan Yai beach... This place is amazing, it's a paradise... I love it so much I don't feel like leaving it... Ivan left this morning, so was I supposed to until they changed the full Moon party to the 24th instead of 22nd.. So I am staying 2 more nights than I first planned and will be back in Bangkok on the 26th at 5am to take my plane 12 hours later...

I will write a lot more about this week in Ko phan gan later at the moment I really wanted to let you know where I was and showing you a few pictures :)

KO Phi Phi 16 to 17 Feb

On the boat from Phuket town to Ko Phi Phi.. we saw the famous Beach from the Movie "the beach" (called here Maya Beach) but I could only realise that it completely lost its paradise idea... with like 20 boats full of tourists and a beach completely crowded... Once we arrived in Ko Phi Phi we took a boat (taxi boat) down to Long Beach as the lonely planet was recommending it to be the most beautiful and the best for Snorkelling ;)... and it was really amazing... Clear water -Perfect white sand a little Paradise, we didn't get too much hassle finding a bungalow but the prices are really high... probably the after Tsunami effect ?... Anyway I enjoyed a day doing nothing, only swimming, getting dry/tan... drinking some fruit shakes... reading a bit... and it was really good after the 3 weeks I spent in the Mainland :D The same night we went back to the harbour where all the action was / a night out drinking was the plan :D we got there and headed for a pizza, I had Penne Carbonara and it was hmmm :D then we got our bucket (Samsang / Coke / Redbull ) and played a few drinking card games before hitting the dancefloor... Surprising enough I met the 3 Swedish guys I also met in Ko Chang... The night out was good certainly not the best! but enjoyable enough... the next day we had to take the boat at 2pm so I enjoyed the beach for another few hours before making my way down to the boat...

I don't think Ko Phi Phi is as nice as it used to be before the Movie but also the Tsunami... we could see a few pictures of the before after and it lost a bit of its charm although the island remain the most beautiful I have seen in Thailand... A pity all those resorts took the opportunity to set there straight after the Tsunami though :(

On my way to Phuket 13 to 15 Feb

After Pai, I headed back to Chang Mai got the night bus from there to Bangkok, 12 hours later I finally arrived (8am) and booked my ticket to go down to Phuket the same day. Only a few hours to kill, but enough for a shower some shopping but bot to sleep :(... At 6PM, goodbyes with Pete that I will certainly go and visit in Brisbane sometimes between the next few months...
I took my bus and finally got there at 1PM the next day.... 18 Hours Journey!!! There I met Ivan and he took me at the back of his scooter to the place where he was staying since a month for his Thai Boxing training... Luckily I only staied a night there... Phuket town looks like Bangkok the only difference is that there is the sea lol... Anyway after a good night sleep we headed the next morning to Ko Phi Phi...

Pai - Monday 11/02 to 13/02

My Lonely planet said of this city to be the most chilled out in Thailand and I can only confirm. 4 hours away from Chang Mai (by bus), probably the craziest drive I have yet experienced, going up and down the mountains, full of tricky curves on our way we spent half of the time on the oposite side of the road not knowing what would be there after the next curve. The driver could only bip to aware (can I say that in english?) the car/bus/motorcycle coming but I got really scared about 2, 3 times when the car coming in front of us didn't slow down.... But an highlight was that we travelled in the evening and the sunset on the mountain was amazing maybe better than on the beach!

Anyway we finally arrived in Pai, got ourself a lovely bungalow near the river... once we dropped our bags we went for a walk around the city and I couldnt help myself but only notice that this town had maybe more tourists than Thai People! Probably due to the fact that the weekend before was the reggae festival (for the Global Warming)... And Pai is the perfect city for reggae music with most of thai men with dreadlocks and continusly listening to Bob Marley :D The town was full of little comfortable eateries / bars... If I had more time I would have definetely see myself staying there for more than 2 days... Anyway chill out is good but sightseeing was on our timetable the day following our arrival... and we went on with our motorbike to see the Hot Springs (at the very top the water temperature would reach 80 degrees and it was smelling like boiled eggs).... then went to see the Pai Canyon and finally a waterfall ... It was an amzing drive around.. Pai s surroundings are absolutely beautiful!

Anyway... Back to Chang Mai on the 13.. Pete was going back to Bangkok the same night with the night train and for me cheaper option: the Night bus

Chang Mai... End

Where did I last leave you, I reckon when I completed my Thai Massage course. Well after those 5 days of hard brain labour lol I decided to take on another massage course: Oil Massage and Aromatherapy. This course was a lot more pleasant than the previous one: Given in an amazing spa, every morning we would get a home made tea (I asked for their recipe but secret of the spa!) and would then carry on with the course. First receiving the lesson, Second practicing and third receiving the massage. Hmm that was excellent and well worth it! (Spa Mantra - Chang Mai).

The course over I was feeling tired of those 7 days learning and practicing but am definetely happy to have discovered a part of the Thai Culture.

The following days, I headed with Joanne (Classmate) to Doi Suthep and got a good view overlooking Chang Mai citym unfortunately it was a bit cloudy that day and we didn't get there at the right time it was packed with tourists... but so far probably my number 1 of THai Temples. Next time I will try to get there very early in the morning ... around 8am for the sunrise and hear the monks chanting...

We mostly spent our nights between the front restaurant of Daret's (the guesthouse where we were staying), a little back street within the Moat also famous as the backpacker street: full of funky lights, good international food (I would definetely recommend the Mexican Restaurant!!!) and live bands.. ending up my evenings with a chang, near a fire listening to Thai musicians singing famous english tunes. And finally maybe my favorite the roof top bar... and half covered roof the rule: No Shoes, everybody siting on the floor perfect spot to meet people! (but there was a lack of Shisha lolol)

During those 10 days... I met some really good people as well as interesting.. A psychic told me a bit more about me but not my future as she couldnt really see it.... and also told me about the color of my aura: Yellow... for those interested here is a link that you can read about the Yellow Aura: http://www.geocities.com/goddesslit/yellowaura.html and a few more people who told me a bit more about: Zen Buddhism, Reiki, Western Australia and Asia

It was a very interesting week... that might change my future and direct me towards some new interests...

Joyeux Anniversaire Maman

Joyeux Anniversaire Maman
Pas de video cette fois ci, mais a tout de suite au tel / webcam :D
Plein de Gros Bisou
Je pense fort a vous ...

Happy Birthday Noeline and Clemence

Coucou Clemence et Noeline,
Je vous souhaite un tres joyeux anniversaire... et vous envoie plein plein de gros Bisou de Thailande.
Je viens juste de terminer mon cours de Massage Thailandais qui etait tres interessant :D... Toujours a Chang Mai je devrai bientot descendre vers les belles plages Thailandaises.
Je pense tres fort a toutes les deux et plein de bisou a votre Maman et votre Papa aussi :)

Petite Video devant ma guesthouse, j'espere que vous entendrez ce que je dis :)

You want Massache :)

I passed the test of my Thai Massage course.. I am now entitled to give Massage for 1 to 1h30 on anybody!

However I only learnt Front Massage, Feet Massage, Hand Massage and a bit shoulder massage...

Tomorrow I will start the Aromatherapy, Oil Massage Course... Can't wait for it! I should then be able to perform an oil Massage and a stretching one :D

Chang Mai - Follow up

Hmm I am just realising it's been already 6 days since I last updated my blog, sorry about that, but lucky you I made up a list 2 days ago of the things I had to mention in my new post :D So let's start with the beginning..
2 days after we first arrived in Chang Mai, we tasted the Thai Rain :( unfortunately.. A day with continuous rain, I didn't have a clue on what to do... sightseeing becoming less attractive under the rain :(. So after breakfast we walked our way to some various little shops (I actually found an amazing shop, walls made of stones, it's all narrow and very traditional... they were offering acrylic painting with some quotes of happiness and wisdom... loved it! I remember this one "Live your dream and don't dream your life") and finally a tuk tuk driver offered us a tour for 30 Baths an hour to the handicraft road... I knew what it was to be like and for sure wasn't wrong :D He brought us to a silk factory (I ignored silk was made that way), to a huge jewellery/silver shop - factory, a carpet shop and paper umbrella store... It was good to see all those things and even if you felt the pressure to buy something (with someone following every of your moves!) I didn't buy anything :D.
Finally the next day we took a thai cooking course and that was some real fun! First I learned how to cook 7 thai dishes and also our chef was the funniest thai man we yet met...
Part of those 7 dishes I learned how to make, Pad Thai :D, Chicken in coconut milk, Chicken with Cashew nuts, Chicken in green curry, Papaya Salad (very spicy), Spring Rolls (that s a winner for me I always wondered how to make them :)) and finally for the sweet tooth Mango with Sticky Rice (and yes Gorka I can confirm it kicks ass... very very good)... anyway all those dishes were easy enough to make and wouldn't take more than 5 minutes! Now you just have to wait 11 more months before I can cook any of those for you :D
That night we went to an Irish Pub and followed the opening game of the 6 Nations: Ireland vs Italy... I was happy to see Pete encouraging his team as back in Ireland he wouldn't really watch the match :)
Next day... sun sun sun :) The Californian girl we met in Ko Chang advised me on that temple where there is an english lecture about Buddhism every Sunday @ 3 PM so that was the main thing I wanted to do that day... I took my 2 feet and decided to walk half of the way (as it was like 5 kilometres away) and finally I didnt see the time pass and walked too far, at that stage I wanted to get a taxi as i was a bit lost, I waved at a few of them and instead of stopping the simply waved back at me.. lol
So I asked my way to a shop and they gave me few directions in English... Finally a thai woman stopped her car next to me and asked me if I was going to Wat Umong which was the case lol and she happily gave me a lift to my final point... how nice :)
Wat Umong was amazing only a few metres from the main city a big forest with a few underground chapels and loads of quotes of wisdom and happiness in Thai and English on the trees.... very peaceful... I went to the class but didn't get to learn that much about Buddhism unfortunately.
I finally returned to the centre with a taxi that time :)
Few hours later we headed back to the Irish Pub and I watched the Frenchies kick the asses of the Scottish (Allez les bleus!!!)
Right now I have started my Thai Massage course and am enjoying every second of it, the first day wasn't easy... But Pete will do a good cobaye!!! he he anyway he isn't complaining lol
Classmates are nice, from all around the world, It s good to meet people and discover their own experience and what is bringing them to Thailand...
I have also decided to take the Aromatherapy, Herbal, Oil Massage next weekend or next week depending on my timetable :) That is really what I want to learn!!! Once again you will have to wait about 11 months before I can give you one of my fantastic massages :D Hopefully I will find a few volunteers to practice on in Australia ....
I have also decided to stay longer in Thailand, minimum 1 more week, I have to reschedule my flight ticket check the available dates and will let you know when I will land in Sydney :D
Ok I am checking my list now on the things I was supposed to say and it looks like I covered everything :D
Ah Yeah I will have to give a good description of Chang Mai, but that will be for another post :)
And finally, just a few hours ago our class was offered to go to a Spa Steam Room (they have a Spa next door to the scool) and waou that felt really nice and their Spa is so beautiful!!!! I wish I could open one of those in Europe ....