Welcome To The World Of Ian

August 2000

Wednesday 30th August 2000
    I got my motorbike out yesterday. Wow!! I'm hooked on motorcycling all over again. I only had a short outing to Chester and back but I got it out again this morning to go into town. No doubt I'll be on it again later. Tonight Chester play Boston in a league match. Ordinarily I would have gone, but not this time. We have a home game on Saturday against Southport, it's a bit of a derby game so there should be quite a few there and hopefully a good atmosphere. My sunburn from the weekend has turned into peeling skin and there is little chance of topping up in England. The weather is OK but nothing like Thailand.

 Tuesday 29th August 2000
    I got back last night but not all my luggage made it. I am still waiting for one more bag although the airport insist I have two outstanding bags. I have been copying my web page on to my home computer but it takes ages and not all the files will copy successfully. It may take a few days before normal service resumes.

Sunday 27th August 2000
    I've just got back from my final visit to Koh Samet. I got sunburnt yesterday, but I only spent one hour sunbathing. I walked from Ao Wong Dueran past Candlelight Beach, past Ao Wai and on to Ao Kiu Na Nok. It was quite a journey, more snakes, more rocks to climb etc. I think it was the walking that burnt me only I didn't realise when I lay down to sunbathe. The strip of land at Ao Kiu Na Nok is very narrow. You can see the sea on both sides of the island from the middle of the island. The island must be no wider than 300 metres at this point. Not too many pictures as I didn't take too many. But here they are:

Here's a concrete horse at Ao Cho. It's ears had fallen off and a lizard was living in one of the holes.	This is a view across the beach at Ao Cho. I have posted a pic before but not from this angle.	This is a bloke juggling sticks but you can't see the sticks. Take it from me he was juggling them very well.

This is a stick insect in the tree I was sitting under. If he'd of fallen he would have landed right on my head.	And here's another view of the same tree showing the sun shining through it.

    I ate the worlds smallest bananas today from a bloke selling fruit on the beach. Very sweet and very nice. I also went into Oasis bar and said goodbye. I had my tea there on Saturday and my dinner there on Sunday. Chester beat Dover on Saturday and Man Utd threw away a two goal lead, what a great weekend (apart from the sunburn). Time to pack now and go to the hotel bar to say some "Goodbyes".

Friday 25th August 2000
    Today was my last day at work before I finish working abroad and return back to England. I have made a new page with pictures from work I have taken over the last few days. Here's the link: GM Thailand. As this is my last weekend in Thailand I will be paying a final visit to Koh Samet (My favourite place here) I have to go as my fingernails need a manicure and my toenails need a pedicure.
    I got a picture from Rebecca today. It was taken during their visit to London last week. They went all over the place, including Madam Tusseauds (?)

    I still have to pack my things and I doubt I will get much packing done tonight as I'm out for a few beers. When I get back from Koh Samet I won't have a lot of time to do an update as I will be down in the bar to say goodbye to the people I have been staying at the hotel with. So there may or may not be another update from Thailand. If not my next update will be from England.
Bye for now......

Tuesday 22nd August 2000
    This last weekend was spent on the island of Koh Chang. The second time I have visited there. The driver turned up at the hotel late so we didn't leave till 8:20 am. This seemed to be a problem for him as he drove like a bat out of hell all the way. I was trying to catch some sleep on the journey but every time we went round a left hand bend my head was thrown into the window and woke me up. In the end I had to tell him to slow down. He did but only by about 5 Km/h. Koh Chang is a beautiful place. This time round it was a lot wetter on the island and waterfalls that I had visited previously were much more spectacular thanks to the extra water. One of the small bridges on the island had partially collapsed due to the power of the water. Cars and trucks couldn't cross it but my trusty moped could. It was worth crossing too as I found a small village built on sticks over the water of a large bay. The buildings there were varying; some were very luxurious others were tin huts. I started to walk around the headland and met a group of local kids playing football in a clearing. So I joined in and felt I had to play until I had at least scored a goal. Due to poor football skills I had to play for 15 minutes before I could score.
    I had breakfast on Monday morning and suddenly realised I was supposed to take the 11:00 am. boat NOT the 12:00 pm. boat. The problem was it was 10:45 am. when I became aware of this and all the taxis had left for the pier which is a 20 - 25 minute ride away. So I started walking and trying to hitch a lift. With help from 2 different pick-up drivers I got to the pier but the boat had left 20 minutes earlier. I jumped on the next available boat but it took me to the wrong pier on the mainland and I had to get a taxi to the correct pier to pick up the minibus back to Pattaya. When I got there the travel agent told me that when I never arrived on their boat they had sent the driver to Trat (20 kms away) to collect other passengers. She phoned him on his mobile and he came back to Laem Ngop to collect me. I didn't get to take many pictures as my camera battery was low but here's what I took.

This is a cool looking bike I saw on a toilet stop on the way to Laem Ngop to get the boat.	This is the view from the pier that housed a whole town. It was just after this that I played football.	And here's the town from a distance. It was called Ban Bang Bao

Friday 18th August 2000
    This weekend is my next to last weekend in Thailand. I have booked to go to Koh Chang. When I called the travel company to book the minibus they told me that the price was 1000 baht. Last time I went it was only 700 baht. When I asked them why it was now 1000 baht they said it was because petrol prices in Thailand are spiraling. To put this into perspective petrol here costs about 20 baht (33 pence) per litre. The same amount at home costs as much as 50 baht (85 pence) per litre.
    Last night I went to Captains Corner for a regular all you can eat barbecue. I never went on Wednesday. George the pianist there told me that there will be a guest band there tonight, all the way from England. So maybe I'll go back tonight with Paul.
    Jeff a Canadian colleague and my next door neighbor at the hotel was talking with a translator the other day. The translator asked him to choose three numbers between 1 and 999. When Jeff gave him the numbers; the translator phoned his Mum to ask her to put these numbers on a lottery ticket for him for that day's Thai national lottery. She didn't answer the phone so he gave up. That evening the same three numbers were the winning numbers on the lottery. He would have won 60,000 baht (approx. £1,000) which is close to a years wages for a team member at work. 

Wednesday 16th August 2000
    I'm having some problems with my computer. Uploading last night was supposedly successful but I can't open the pages to confirm it. I'm thinking of taking a days holiday this weekend and making the trip to Koh Chang. It really is too far to go for one night so if I can get the day off on Friday or Monday I'll go. If not I'll go somewhere else. I had a quiet night in last night watching a Dustin Hoffman, Sharon Stone film about a space ship that crashed into the sea 300 years ago and came from the future. It was good but I fell asleep 5 minutes before the end so I don't know what happened. I'm out for my tea tonight, probably Captains Corner.

Monday 14th August 2000
    I've just got back from my weekend away. I was supposed to be going to Koh Chang but Tom phoned me on Friday as there was a problem with the minibus. He told me he'd call me back if it became available. By Saturday morning he hadn't called so I went to the local bus station to try to get a bus to Trat and then take a taxi to Laem Ngop to get a boat to Koh Chang. They told me I had to go to the main road and flag down a bus as it went passed. The problem was that the destination of the bus is written in Thai on the front of the bus and I couldn't understand it. So I decided to stop the first bus that went passed and go wherever it was going. The bus I stopped was going to Rayong, close to Ban Phe which is where you take the boat to Koh Samet. So after I got to Rayong I jumped in a taxi to Ban Phe and got on the next boat to Koh Samet. It was a much more interesting way of getting to Koh Samet than the minibus I usually take.
    When I got to Na Dan, the port on Koh Samet I hired a moped and went down to Ao Wong Dueran the beach where I have stayed before. Here's the moped....

With the aid of the moped I was able to get to places on the island I hadn't been before so I had a proper explore of the island. I got a bit sunburnt riding round the island but I kept a T-shirt on so it was only my head and shoulders that went red. I went to some really nice places; Ao Phrao, Candlelight beach and Ao Wai. Ao Wai was the nicest. To get to Ao Wai I walked around the headland from Candlelight beach. As I entered the trees a snake about 5 feet long slithered across the path in front of me. The path led down to the coastline and I had to walk across some big rocks to get to Ao Wai. The rocks got bigger and bigger and eventually I had to scale a cliff to get to the beach. To get back to the first beach I took the road back. It only took 25 minutes whereas the trek around the coastline took about an hour or more. Here's a few pics from my travels.

Ao Phrao resort. This is the snobbiest resort on the island. Very nice but a bit too formal.	This is Ao Wai, further south on the island and absolutely gorgeous. The thing on the trailer is a dolphin skeleton. I don't know the significance of it but it's a good picture.	Here's a cruise ship that was anchored just off Koh Samet on the way back.

Friday 11th August 2000
    I went to the pictures last night to see "Frequency" it was "As far fetched as a bucket of shit from China", as my Nan used to say. I almost fell asleep during it. The only thing that kept me awake was the sound of the bloke behind me coughing up phlegm throughout the film.

Thursday 10th August 2000
    I'm going to the pictures tonight to see what's on. If there's anything that takes my eye I'll go and see it. If not I'll go and have a roast dinner with Yorkshire Pudding. I have to have a bit of a shopping trip too as my time here is rapidly disappearing and I don't want it to be a mad rush on my last day buying things.

Wednesday 9th August 2000
    No updates for a few days as little has happened. I spoke to Tom at breakfast this morning. He may not be able to make it to Koh Chang this weekend as there are problems at work. He'll know definitely tonight though, so I'll speak to him in the bar later. Paul has made his booking for Koh Samui  so that leaves me with a potential solo trip to Koh Chang. No problem, I've done it before and I'll do it again.

Update: I ended up having to work overtime tonight. I was not happy about it but had little choice in the matter. I didn't get back to the hotel till 9:00 pm. I spoke to Tom and Koh Chang is on so I'm happy now.

Saturday 5th August 2000
    Paul and I went to Koh Samet again today, no overnight stay this time. This was the third weekend running that I've been to Koh Samet, one of the nicest places I've ever been. Next weekend is a long weekend here, a national holiday on the Monday. Paul was talking about going to Koh Samui but it's too far away for me, you have to fly there. So I'll go to Koh Chang again. I mentioned it to Tom yesterday and he fancies it so he'll get his driver to take us there. Here's a few pictures I took on Koh Samet today. We went on a speedboat trip. The sea was very rough and the boat was up and down all the time. After that I can definitely say I don't suffer from sea-sickness. Part of the trip took us to a fish farm, not just fish but turtles too.

This is when the boat had stopped. The sea doesn't look rough but this was taken in a bay so it was sheltered.	Paul on the other side of the boat. We watched some windsurfers and Paul decided he's going windsurfing tomorrow.	I don't know what type of fish they were but they were quite big.

Friday 4th August 2000
    I got to see H.R.H. The Princess of Thailand yesterday. We weren't allowed to take any pictures of her so I took some pictures of the team members in GM Thailand instead. Before she arrived we were asked to line up on either side of the road down which she would enter the factory. It was absolutely stinking hot and we stood in the sun for 40 minutes before somebody took pity on us and provided us with umbrellas to keep the sun off. Last night Jase called me and we went out for a carvery at Delaneys, Yorkshire pudding and everything. I realised last night that I'm nearly out of clean clothes so I took some laundry down to the local shop by the hotel. I asked  the lady in the shop if I would get it back today. She said if it was sunny I should get it back this evening, fingers crossed. I'm going to Koh Samet with Paul tomorrow but he only wants to go for the day and come back on Saturday evening. If I do that it will solve the laundry situation but if I stay over and can't get my laundry tonight I will run out of clean clothes.

Standing outside waiting for HRH.	Khun Pirat standing outside, no umbrellas yet.	Packed lunch picnic outside the toilets.
Another picnic picture.	The entrance to the toilets.	Adul, Somchai (1), Somchai (2) and others.

Wednesday 2nd August 2000
    Tomorrow at work is the "Grand Opening Ceremony." This is the third opening ceremony since I got here in March!! The guest of honour is HRH The Princess of Thailand. Also in attendance will be Jack Smith jr. the boss of all General Motors. I was in Poland for an opening ceremony. Jack Smith jr. was there too. So was the President of Poland. At the Polish opening everybody could view the press conferences, interviews and a big buffet afterwards. Not the same here. The minnions (me included) will be given a packed lunch and told to stay away from the "Grand Luncheon." Anyway, I hope to get a picture of The Princess tomorrow to put on my page.