Pirates of the good ship Team Adventure

Comrades.

Christmas has just passed and I hope everyone had a good time. It was an unusual few days being so far from home, and you at home and the other troops abroad were in our thoughts.

For about ten minutes anyway, then we spent Christmas eve and Christmas day listening to a local band playing Thai folk music. If you ever come to \Thailand, I recommend you order a Chang,or possibly a Mr. Spy for the ladies. We are currently in Ayuthayah. Its Just north of Bang kok, about an hour by train. Its the former capital of Thailand, and has a lot of history to see and hear about.
What you don't get from these pictures is a sense of scale. These Towers are literally HUGE.

Now you see?? Along with the ruins, there are many temples for people to come and pray. Buddhists pray a lot. Much more than us good Christian folk.

This is a photo of one of the biggest temples. Except peter is a jerk so all you see is his big head. Inside is a Statue of Buddha about 15 feet high. The entire statue is covered in gold leaf. No pictures of that though. The monks flipped out and kick a guys head straight off his shoulders for taking out his camcorder.

All the temples have cats. Loads of them. They cats are awesome, because the don't give a fuck about anything. This guy here didn't even open his eyes while I was petting him. A slight flexing of the paw to reveal his claws to tell me when to stop but other than that he just didn't care.


The deep spiritual feelings from the temples are infectious. You leave feeling good about yourself, as this picture shows.EVERYBODY GET HAPPY




Also just in case you are wondering, there's no cracks in Team Adventure just yet. 3 weeks together and Peter and I are still as good friends as ever.

Check you later peeps!

p.s.

For those of you wondering

For those of you keeping an eye out, you'll know that there have recently been flash floods in Southern Thailand due to heavy rains. For those of you who are actually reading this blog proper-like, you'll know that Simon and I passed through those regions (Hat Yai) a mere two days before flooding started. It was raining when we were there, a warm, soft rain thats actually pleasant to stand in (it's true!). What we didn't realise was that the same very rain would kill over twenty people.

These are the hazards that we "theoretically knew" we faced and now it's more real than ever. There were honest to goodness pictures on TV here of a place we were standing that was chest deep in water. Nuts!

But we're ok! Keep in touch y'all!

Well, once the dryer is finished. That gives me 10 minutes to waste giving you guys a quick update! This is not the best way to get over jet lag. This was also before we found that the sell buckets of rum and coke. Thankfully no pictures exist of that period of time:

Petronas Towers, I found out, are very high....


My feet hurt from all the walking. CHECK OUT THE LACK OF SOCKS GUYS!! Thanks to those who warned me in advance of that particular faux pas.


Found a place that serves good coffee in pretty coloured cups. I managed to completely ruin the nice atmosphere.
Lastly, and my favourite pic so far, LIZARDS!! These little guys are everywhere. While I was taking the picture of this little guy (I named him Thomas) his buddy tried to bite my finger. Those lil scamps, always up to their tricks...
Christmas is fast approaching, so just incase there's no update before then, everyone have a happy gift giving day, and a reasonable new year :)

Hi everyone!

Yup, thats right. Simon hasn't killed me just yet. I'm making this entry from the city of Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia, were humidity is the norm due to all those pesky tropial rainforests IN THE CITY. Yes. IN THE CITY. We're going tomorrow, on Simons insistence, to a butterfly cage in one of the forests. What a girlyman!

Anyways, let me recap a little. We flew into Bangkok a whole five days ago (or thats what it seems like to us!). It's fantastic. It's impossible to capture the place in words. Of course it's different, but I wouldn't change it for anything.

Here is what the view from our room was like. It is a temple:



The people (who seem a little "eager" at first) are the most friendly people I have ever met. In fact, two of our closest companions were Nok and Am, two food stall ladies who showed us around free of charge (and no it's that what ANY of you are thinking!). We visited Gold Mount, which was exhausting (320 steps isn't really that many until you climb them in 32C and open sunlight!). It's spectacular though. Then Nok and Am brought us to The Temple of Dawn, via nefarious backstreets and a dodgy ferry. This is what Nok looks like. Leave a comment and guess her age. Closest person gets a souvenir!



We were both (Simon and I) speechless. The temple is breathtaking, its one of the most amazing sights I have seen and probably will ever see (Amanda and Emma, you guys HAVE to go there!). We walked the "Royal Highway" which was heavily decorated because it was recently the Thai kings birthday. This is but one of the monuments on the road, the monument to Democracy:



In short, those five days in Thailand were magnificent.

Then after a few days, we decided we would keep some of the magic of Bangkok aside until THE OTHERS join us. So we headed south by train to Hat Yai, which is a border town between Thailand and Malaysia. It took 16hr by train, hooray! Then we got a bus to Kuala Lumpur which took about 9 hrs. Fun!

Kuala Lumpur is pretty neat. Quite an international city (despite the lack of bars). We've been to the Menara Kuala Lumpur tower which is HIGH UP! Here is the view:



Tomorrow we're going to the Petronas Skybridge (hopefully, it's tough to get tickets) and then on a little trip to a tropical rainforest - located in the HEART of the city. It's like their Phoenix Park I guess, exept TROPICAL. Then we intend to head further south to Singapore. Not having the girls here is bittersweet, there is so much potential for shopping in these cities! There would be arguments I bet...

Sorry about the few photos guys, I do have many more. It just takes time to upload them and time equals money!

Bye for now!

Bangkok is a big city! Also its quite warm. The easiest way to go here would be to upload some of the pictures we've taken since we arrived. However this wont be possible just yet, as the computer im using is apparently steam powered. I cant even find MSpaint on this thing to give you an artists interpretation of what the place looks like. I guess you can think of this as a TEASER TRAILER. More to follow eventually....

Some of the most amazing people in the world came out on Saturday to see me and Simon off. It was an absolutely fantastic night! We started upstairs in Thomas Reads, with a fairly subdued crowd.



Also there were strangers! Or as I call them WORKMATES.



However, then we went into THE BASEMENT. To get in, one of us had to defeat The Gatekeeper.



We were nearly defeated, until Rachel took the initiative and destroyed the evil Gatekeeper. With blue light. Somehow...



BEER PLEASE! Just one.



Simon and Frances did a little dance! Oh the spinning! it was BOOTIFUL! Get down TONIGHT y'all!



OH THE DIZZINESS. Moments later, there was vomit.



The Ronan and Ross show! It's like Podge and Rodge except RUDER.



Frances and Siobhan were havin a beer. Being all Asian with the peace sign. YO WHATTUP DAWGS?



Haven't a clue whats going on off camera here dudes... But wow.



HUG TIME! Ethna and Juaninne for the win!



Did I mention the dancing? I must have... I was sure I did!



There are maybe 80 more photos of the night but I jus d'nae have the time to put anymore up! Hundreds of millions of thanks (and much, much, much respect) to all of you who managed to make it out on our last night in Dublin. Remember that you're all welcome to join us if you can whereever we may be! See most of you at the end of next year. Until then you will all be missed ferociously.

Amanda, Emma and Rachel - hurry up and follow us. HURRY.


The rest of you what didn't show up are JERKS!