Head Laos

Which brings me to the present day...

The London lads (Rob the Toby, Prit and Brad) and I spent the most uncomfortable 24 hours of our lives on a minibus (punctuated by a 5-minute ferry ride from Thailand to Laos) travelling to the town of Luang Prabang.


I'm here now, after four relaxing days living in a guest house with the boys on the peninsula of the Mekong river and the Nam Khan river. There are a series of waterfalls we visited yesterday that is literally most beautiful, awe-inspiring place on Earth I have ever seen...the water is an almost luminous turquoise, broken only by the meandering tumbling over wide, limestone shelves, and the dappled triopical sunlight filtering through fragrant coconut palms (and, of course, by tourists swinging into the water and leaping off the waterfalls!). It's a labyrinthine tangle of waterways begging to be explored, nestled amidst dense rainforest. If I was given the task to imagine paradise on earth I could never conjur up anything even close to this.







There! Such a place deserves some creative description! If you ever find yourself in Laos, come to Luang Prabang.

This morning I helped teach English in the language school with the London boys (probably why I went off on one about the waterfalls just then), and luckily the students consisted primarily of 19 and 20 year-old Laos girls. In case you're wondering, they're pretty much all beautiful and smiley people. Our guest-house owners' son is in the class, and he asked us a couple of days ago if we'd help which is why we ended up doing it. We learnt about grammar and taught them about the exceptions to the rules of our language. We then took the girls and teacher to lunch on the banks of the Mekong river, which was really helpful for learning the Laos language. What else?

I hope all is well in Blighty, and really want updates on the lives of others. What - as they say - is the coup? Brap!

The Apple of my Pai

Ok, so that was long break! Where to begin....
Chiang Mai = Ace. Muay Thai = Ace.


So, after Chiang Mai I went to a small mountain town called Pai in Northern Thailand. I planned to be there for three days to trek, but ended up not trekking and staying there for ten days! It's an amazing place where everyone gets to know your name within a couple of days, and because it's such a small town the locals know and greet you too. There's a large expat community of Oz, English and Chinese that own some of the shops and bars around town, and you bump into them throughout the day. There are a few bars and small nightclubs that look awesome and stay open until the last person leaves! Messy. More often than not.



I was living in a hut next to a river, and the only way to get there was over a bamboo bridge! I wrote a lot of music and met some fantastic people. There was a swimming pool and gym which is where most of the travellers spent the daytime; getting slowing sozzled on whisky, larking around in the pool and (occasionally) pushing some weights. All outside of course to a wicked sound system, but all very chilled. Below is a picture of "Team Alpha"; a select group of individuals that we founded; galvanizing our comradery by drinking whisky, imitating ghekkos, and driving around the mountains on a fleet of mopeds.

"Filth Hut"

As it's approaching monsoon season there have been some horrendous rain storms (most of which I'm managed to get caught in away from my dwellings). All warm rain, so it doesn't matter, but it really, REALLY blasts down from the heavens. 15 minutes and the roads are turned to rivers, then the sun peeps it's head out again.

So after ten days in the Pai Hole (as we dubbed it), I took the 3 hour mountainous bus journey BACK to Chiang Mai; primarily to DJ on the Friday night (it's the main city after Bangkok) in a club called "Fabrique", but also to see a super-cutie who worked in the guest house I stayed at the first time. I went trekking at last into the jungle and stayed on a mountain with a village tribe and it was one of the most beautiful places I've seen. We watched two separate electrical storms at night but they were far away so it didn't rain on us; just huge lightening forks in the distance over Chiang Mai.


Anyway, after white-water rafter and bamboo-rafting on the second day of the trek I had gelled with 3 London lads, so we stayed together in Chiang Mai for a few days partying and getting massages, before leaving for the country of Laos:

Bangkok Boomerang

Now Bangkok is something else. By the time I got to Khaosan road on Sunday I had been awake for 52 hours so I hit the hay for 16. Rooftop swimming pools, monsoons, cold beer and tanned bods...awesome. I was there for 5 days and really enjoyed it. The food stalls are so cheap! Delicious Pad Thai for 25 Baht (50p). I met a French guy called Neol, and we spent a day together exploring, then in the evening he took me to the red light district (Nana) which was seedier then a yeoman's bap. It was full of 50 year old sallow-faced Englishmen with 18 year old Thai girls / ladyboys. I resisted the very strong temptation to contract ghonorrea and low self-esteem, and opted instead to get pissed and go back to Khaosan Road. Where I was promptly crotch-grabbed and pick-pocketed by a gaggle of ladyboys. They only nicked 1000 baht and not my passport, so I wasn't about to risk getting bashed in with 10 stilletto heals or arrested for the sake of £20.


Then I took a day trip to the old capital of Thailand (called Ayuthaya). Very beautiful...many old temples sagging with gravity due to no foundations and being built on mud. These guys should've learnt a thing or two from the Egyptians. Met some really nice people on the bus there.


Then, Thursday night in Bangkok was the Edition festival in a venue called "Zen". I met up with Sammi Adami's friends (expats who live in Thailand), and it was AWESOME!! The best night I've been to in years. The venue was absolutely amazing, and DJing were Bodyrox, Sandy Rivera, Ferry Corsten and Marcus Schultz. I met them all and gave them my new track "Control"...so, hopefully I'll hear from them! The top floor was open air on the 20th floor and had a panoramic view from the centre of Bangkok.


I'm in Chiang Mai now in the north of Thailand (12 hour bus ride from Bangkok) and it's so chilled here. I've been here 3 days and will post a blog after I've been trekking in the mountains!

Thank you for reading my ramblings...
ta ta!

Bye bye India

So, now Thailand is the name of the game.
I've been here for 8 days now, and I have to say I far prefer it to India. Perhaps it's because of all the westerners and tourists here (I have people to speak to who aren't trying to sell me something!), but generally I prefer the people, the geography, the customs and traditions.

So, the end of India was marked by a trip to Mumbai (Bombay) to catch the flight to Thailand. I took the overnight sleeper train from Goa (but didn't sleep!), and from what I experienced the Indian railway is fantastic: It's efficient, clean, cheap and extremely well-organised. Take a lesson, Britain!


Mumbai was wicked, because I met an Austrian couple and we spent the day together. The sunburn I had from Goa was excrutiating, though! Yomping round with two heavy bags without sleep and blistered, red skin isn't so fun!


We went to Elephanta Island which had some fantastic temples carved out of the rocks (but no elephants), and then we went to Airport in the evening for my flight at 0130 am.