The Adventures of Web

Today was the day where I was going to have to say my farewells to both Adey and Flynny, and as much as I couldn't wait to go off exploring the best of what South Eat Asia could offer and have the chance to meet loads of new people on the way, I'd had a cracking time with both of them and was sad to see them go. When I made the decision to go through with all of this for such a length of time, I knew saying goodbye would inevitably mean saying goodbye to some people for good and probably meant not ever seeing them ever again, but after this trip these two were not going to fall into that trap and no matter what will happen in the future, I would definitely meet up with them whenever it is that I get back to the UK.

We yet again missed breakfast but were up early enough to check out on time and spent most of the day lazing around the pool. Unlike the day before when it was overcast, the sun was now out in full force an it gave us a chance to try and recover the tans we were starting to lost from Ko Samet. The guys didn't have to leave for the airport until around 8pm, but Adey did have to make his way to Bangkok bus terminal to pick up the t-shirts Mick had made for him so it felt like a good time to leave them and also gave me enough time to find my hostel on Kho San Road. Before departing, we ended the holiday just as we had started it and went for a quick farewell beer across the road.

It was around 5pm and time to leave so with both large and small rucksack by my side, I man-hugged it out with both of them and wished them the safest flight possible. I think both of them were a bit cut up by it actually...not because they were saying goodbye to me, but because if they were younger and their circumstances were different then I'm pretty sure they would of came with me for the whole 4 months of Asia! You're never too old to travel...

While in the tuk-tuk to Kho San, I knew straight away that I was now in this by myself, yet it still hadn't sunk in that I had left everything behind and that I was travelling - it still felt like a holiday. Someone back home said that it would take a good month or so until you realise how big a thing it really was and it hits you, so I said to myself that I'd make a big thing of noting the date of when it happens...so watch this space. I'm sure you'll recognise the day from these blog entries...it'll be the one where I'm having a full blown mid life crises.

I had booked the Neppark hostel in advance as it was recognised as being the best hostel in Bangkok and the facilities were fantastic really; nice showers, well looked after dorms, free internet, laptops and dvd players at hand , lounge areas - perfect to sort myself out before venturing down to Ko Tao in a couple of days time. The only problem? It was so quiet. There were loads of people there, but you could hear a pin drop, and instantly I thought there was little chance i'd meet anyone who I could go down to Ko Tao with. I'd read somewere that there are two types of hostels; backpacker's and flashpacker's accomodation. This seemed like a flashpacker's spot. I wasn't too bothered; as an only child i'd learnt to love my own company so 2 nights would be no problem...anyways, I had too many things to do to start thinking this play school and to get in with the cool kids...
''What you worrying about, you are the cool kid, they'll come to you''
Suddenly I realised that it was only easy to be as super confident as I had been over the years because I had loads of friends behind me where ever I went...oh well, part of 'finding the real me' I guess. As long as I didn't come across like some sort of Will McKenzie from The Inbetweeners and introducing myself to everyone, I was happy.

After having a shower, a quick stroll around Kho San to get my bearings and a bite to eat...it was time, for the first time in my life, to get used to sleeping in a room full of strangers...here's hoping one of them isn't a mass murderer and I make it through to the morning to continue this blog...

RW

Dead, unspectacular day. It had nothing to do with last night's events as we were in good spirits...it was just an uneventful day if i'm being honest. A I am backdatig these entries from being overly busy at the start of the trip, one thing I have realised is that not every single day can be an unbelievable experience or an unforgettable moment, you are going to have days when you're in an internet cafe all day or you're just watching dvd's all night - it's all part of the challenge and that's why backpacking is not for everyone. In theory, we were supposed to have a day trip to a place called Ayutthana but with the recent floods in Thailand, we had to take it off the radar and maybe that's why it was so quiet.

It was great that at walking in at 4am the previous night, Flynny was adament he wanted waking up for breakfast after missing the first morning. So when we did call his room, the only drowsy response we got was 'I'm not comin breakfast'. Me and Adey wasn't much better...
''Do you actually want to go to breakfast?''
''Not really''
''Shall we go back to sleep?''
''Sounds good''
Hence a 1.30pm re-awaken.

The weather was ovecast so there wasn't much point staying by the pool, so we just watched various european football matches in our room. I was proud of myself for going to the gym for an hour and it felt good to do some much needed exercise...until a middle aged German guy in far too tight a t-shirt and far too short a pair of shorts started making small talk in the middle of a bench press so I soon bolted back to the room faster than Bolt himself.

Once Flynny's worries were eased and the laundry was back in one piece, we headed back to Pat Pong as it was our nearest drinking spot, plus we actually wanted to say we had a good night there. I can't actually remember too much of the night in detail as it was the night I was most tipsy, butI do remeber having a really good night which meant we didn't walk through the door until 5am...standard really.

RW

Today was the day of culture. We had to put one day aside for some actual sight seeing right? Anyways, I'd heard great things about the Grand Palace and was actually quite looking forward to it, which made me think that waiting all these years to go travelling was the best thing for me because at 18 years old, I don't think I would have given this the light of day.

I'm definitely a different proposition at 24 than I was back then. It's only in the last year or so that I'v realised a lot of things about myself really...like I enjoy going to museams, I love getting into reading a good book if I have the time, I have a keen interest of world wars that have taken place, I would love to start learning a new language...all the stuff that I hated growing up I now enjoy, an the great thing about realising that the world doesn't consist on how many girl's numbes you get on a night out or how good you are at football like I thought when I was younger? I probably enjoy my football more now than I did then and I get female attention more now than ever...

Back to the matter at hand (if you have ever received a text or facebook mesage off me then you know I tend to drift of subject easily!), Me and Adey went for a spot of breakfast in the hotel while we left Flynny in bed. I actually made it to breakfast for once, me of all people...take that world, you don't know me! Once Flynny had risen from his pit (Dad would use that saying about me for the last 24 years, feels like a breakthrough for masculinity that I now get to say it), we were straight in a tax to the river and before you know it, we were havng a private tour of the river in our own longtail motor boat. Tad pricy, but decent.

One problem we had was that t\guidebooks would say you couldn't enter temples in shorts but trousers only, and Flyyny didn't bring any on the trip. Adey did say for him to get special ones made at a tailor (I still don't know if he was being seious or winding him up), but I don't think the bigman was too fussed anyways and agreed to meet us back at the hotel once we'd finished. We started off looking around one of the Wat temples close by which was quite impessive but once we had got to the Grand Palace, we were told that this was the one day we couldn't go in...the one day the King was there! Tails between our legs, we went back to th hotel and chilled by the pool.

Getting you're laundry done in Asia is ridiculously cheap and so the others decided to get their stuff cleaned to save doing it when they got back home (I'm sure Flynny living by himself and Adey's wife Jane being away for the weekend he got back had nothing to do with it...). Flynny had some great qualities, bust as I'd already mentioned earlier on in the week, his sense of direction wasn't one of them. So it came as no supise that upon hearing his words that there were loads of laundry places around our area, we spent half an hour burrowing through side road after side road without seeing one. Still, you can't say much because his best quality is to verbally kill you on the spot unfortunately.

Luckily on out first afternoon here we spent a couple of hours in a bit of a runned down bar close to the hotel, and being the only customers in there, the female owner waitered on us hand and foot for our service. It was only supposed to be a quick one at the time but so nice was her hospitality that we ended up staying for 4-5 pints each while she turned the fans on, continually poured ou drinks and even put on music just or us, so in this hour of need we turned to her...''Oh she'll know where to go''.

Upon arrival she actually took the bags herself while we waited at the bar...honestly, I don't think I've met a nicer group of people than the Thai's and it instantly reminded me of why I'd been wanting to get away from the UK for so long now.
''But Ade, your stuff is in a proper rucksack while mine's in a black bin bag, maybe she didn't understand...I bet she cleans yours but burns all my stuff, or worse - I bet we see all our clothes on sale on one of these stalls or something''
He was being genuinely serious, whilst I just laughed. For all his confidence, Flynny was actually someone who worried about everything...where as I'm the total opposite. ''nah mate...it's in a bin big...they definitely burn everything over here if it's in a bin bag...'' haha.
We had instructions to come back the following night to collect everything...I'm convinced deep down he was slightly worried about it or the entire time.

That night we ventured into the tourist hotspot of Pat Pong. They have a huge night maket open here amongst all the bars and I have to admit, some of the items on offer are quite impressive, so much so that I'm dissappointed I didn't buy any clothes there and am considering spending 1 night in Bangkok in the new year just to do some retail therapy! Once we'd had a look around and wanted to gab a beer somewhere, we'd got ropped into oing to a much talked about Ping Pong show. Don't get me wrong, it's like an unwritten rule that you go to one on you're first visit to Bangkok, but we got stung. Massively. Note: Always negotiate a price before going to anything over here, as that's what we stupidly didn't do. To make matters worse, the show was poor...apart from the time Flynny was holding a table tennis bat and was smashing incoming balls everywhere round the room - that was hilarious. I'll spare you the details of the show as you have to see it with you're own eyes.

The bad thing was that it effectively ruined our mood for the rest of the night no mattr what bar we went to, but it was a valuable lesson learnt for us all...especially for me and the next 4 months of travelling that awaited me.

RW

Our first day and night in Bangkok was largely a low key affair; surprising really considering some of the stories you here about this place. Oh well, this gives me an opportunity to ramble on about some meaningless topics and let's face it...it's what I do best...

Getting up in the morning seemed a lot harder for me than it did for the others. For starters, the others had nodded off early doors with the nights of back to back drinking seemingly starting to catch up on them where as I was, as ever, still up at 3am browsing the internet and watching t.v.

Now if you know me well, then you'll know that I always seem to stay up late and don't get as much sleep as I probably need. I'd been called nocturnal by friends, of having stress problems according to do-gooders and had been accused of being a vampire by ex-girlfriends (and not in the sexy Twilight way either). Whatever it was, this is how my life has been everyday since I left college and I couldn't help but think I'd be the perfect night shift employee....although with this pretty face, being a security guard was definitely below me.....(ok that is a joke by the way, don't roll you're eyes at me...)

Again, depending on how well you know me, and I don't intend on saying this again so take it while it's hot off the press and store it in your memory as it'll come in handy....I AM NOT A MORNING PERSON.

I did always though that my parents might have misunderstood me on this note right up until the day that I left; I mean, this would be a typical Webster household occurance...

I'd wake up moody.
They would try to strike up a full blown conversation first thing.
I'd grunt.
They'd be sarcastic about my moodiness.
I'd grunt and get more moody whilst looking for the nearest possible exit into a different room with lockable doors.
= communication breakdown.

It had nothing to do with them personally or living with them or anything, it was just how I was programmed (sorry, just been watching Terminator Salvation, good film).

Luckily, other people knew this about me. I even remember one conversation at work between me, Adey and Melissa where they both used to wait until a certain point in the morning before even considering entering conversation with me, whether it was work or social, because they knew what I was like.
See, admit that sort of thing to me in the morning - I'll bite you're head off.
Admit that sort of thing to me in the afternoon - I'll love you for it.

Thankfully remember, Adey was one of the party and knew just to let me pack my own things at my own rate, no matter what time the bus to Bangkok was. As it goes, we got there in good time and the bus journey was as smooth as you like...which couldn't be said for our taxi driver at Bangkok who did his best to impersonate an Asian Manual from Fawty Towers who didn't know where we was going for large parts.
''Why is it that whenever you want access to the b@stard internet with these b@stard IPhones, you can never get it''
''I don't know Ade, being in Asia probably doesn't help your cause'' would of been my typically sarcastic answer if he hadn't of bitten Flynny's ear off for something similar moments earlier and I hadn't of got scared.
Maybe I knew how to deal with Adey better than most as well after spending 3 years with him, and that's the thing about the people you work with being so important, you see and spend time with them more than your own friends and family - scary really.

In the end, we got to the hotel, checked our bags in and immediately had a wander around town. We had no idea where we was in Bangkok, but our surroundings seemed pretty low class compared to our hotel which was splendid with a pool, gym and even a sauna if you didn't think the humid weather was enough to suffocate you. At night, I made the suggestion to get a tuk-tuk to Kho San Road, the most famous backpacker's destination in the whole of Bangkok. I was a tad weary whether Adey and Flynny were going to enjoy it there, not being typical backpackers and all but this was going to be my first overnight port of call once they had left so I was eager to check it out.

We ended up having a nice meal with a few beers in a couple of decent bars with the highlight being Flynny, as quoted ''Corr that's a bit of alrite ain't it'' *cockney voice* to a couple of 'girls' walking in front of us, only then to realise on closer inspection that one of them had a voice deeper than Frank Bruno's...all I would have needed from her was to turn around and say 'Alrite Harry...huhuhuhuhu' and I would of been in even bigger hysterics than I already was.

To get over his traumatised state of mind, we concluded the night by each of us having an unbelievably good valued half hour foot massage for the equivalent of 3 pounds and then tuk-tuking back to the hotel for some sleep.

RW

We woke up on Monday morning early in preparation to leave the island and get back to Pattaya. A couple of ropey breakfasts later, where Mr. Flynn continually took the bacon out of his sandwich and threw it to the plate claiming he wouldn't even feed the stuff to all the stray dogs on the island, and we were off trotting around town trying to find a speed boat to take us out of here. It took a lot of waiting around but we finally got our ride and were back on mainland, stuck in the herds of traffic once more.

On our way back, Eoin had agreed to introduce a few friends of his at his local cricket club, a few people Adey had previously met also. The team were largely made up of ex-pats and we not only saw them win the game, but also chatted to a number of them afterwards. The friendly, laid back atmosphere at some of the cricket clubs I'd been to back home had been great and this club seemed no different, with beers in a big cooler at the ready and even family members and pet dogs in tow. One of the guy's at the club, Mick, made a living out here by making and distributing t-shirts - Adey had arranged to take back a large number of these to his local rugby club so when we were invited back to his house after the game we duly accepted.

Mick had married a Thai woman who already had a number of kids and it was a great way to see a Thai family behind the scenes...not only to see how friendly and respectful the nation's people are, but also how much people in the community mean to each other. This wasn't ever more evident than when we were in the back garden, sitting around the pool, when in strolls one of the builders from next door who was completely plastered (excuse the pun, he was drunk) and casually takes a seat next to us. Did they know him? No. Did they mind? No. This was a household of 6 or 7 people anyways, that's how they lived. It was strange but refreshing to see a stranger walking into the house and taking a seat in someone's backyard...it certainly doesn't occur back home!

Leaving Mick's house and getting back to Eoin's, the 3 of us left Adey slumped on the coach and went for a bite to eat before getting back to the pad and saying our thank you's to Eoin for everything he'd done for us in our short stay and we wouldn't see him before he left for work the next morning. A good nights sleep for our exit to Bangkok in the morning.

RW