Chiang Mai New Years Eve

A very uncomfortable bus to Chiang Mai that took 12 hours (V.I.P bus me hole!)..of course in the spirit of all things they dropped us 2km short of town, where there was convieiently some tuk tuk's offering there service. We were told that we would be dropped into downtown, but this Canadian guy (who I was talking with before and was a nice guy) lost the head and started shouting at the Thai's and organised a sit-in on the bus, it was quite funny, after 20 minutes I decided to throw in the towel as we wre getting nowhere and pay the $3 to ferry us into town...it wasn't about the money but more of a principal.

We arrived and the accomodation things didn't look good, everywhere full or closed, we found another place that had rooms but it didn't have them until 10am (it was 7am at the time), we wanted a bed then and walked to about 20 guesthouses all were full except one that looked and smelt like a bad prison cell. We headed back to the 10am one hoping that they still had that room, they did so we chilled in a cafe for the next 2 hours in The Peppermint Coffee House, which made the nicest sandwiches ever (and lovely staff). We chatted to the Canadian guy and his Chinese wife for about an hour and she filled my notebook with places to go in China.

When we finally got to bed, I couldn't sleep but the other one had no bother, I managed to get about 2 hours sleep.
We got up and went back to the Peppermint Coffee House, and had great Green Curry and Massaman Curry and some New Years Eve Mojito's! We headed to the river and the sky was littered with hundreds of fire lanterns. I headed the direction of them and saw a woman selling them at the side of the street and bought 2 of them off here and some fireworks as well :D. We sat at the river with a Chang and there was a much better vibe then any pub. We decided to let off Lantern number 1 into the air, a Hawaii guy lent me his lighter and told me to write any worries you want to get rid off..as I'd none it was "Long life and Happiness" for me and "Peace to all" for Tina. A couple of hundred lanterns later we sent number 2 into the air with "Health to My family and a lottery win if your feeling generous" from me! and "I miss you Sooty" from Tina..this wasn't the perfect launch the first attempt fell on Tina's head, the second attempt which I through had enough hot air in it glided into the path of a crowd of people before it headed towards the sky! Bloody Falangs! :D.

Entering 2011 was abit strang as there was no countdown and we only realised when the pontoon of fireworks hit the sky, after which the place was like Dublin at Halloween with some of the most reckless use of fireworks I've every seen, people launching screamers from their hands! It was funny to watch, I set off my packet of Screamer rockets and it was food time, there was food stalls everywhere and by chance we found the nicest pad thai noodles in the world..so good there was a queue of locals for them. We ate our food and enjoyed the festivities, at this stage I've been on buses & boats 24 of the last 48 hours and were starting to feel drained, I think tomorrow will be a rest day, followed by a Thai Cooking class the next day. Plenty of stuff to get through here.

Bangkok 2

Well, as you've read our beloved workhorse of a laptop died today. So we headed into one of the many internet cafes around, not big news that but when I sat down there must of been dust so I sneezed twice and this American guy starts giving out to me, words were exchanged and he comes over and puts 100bath on the table in front of me and tells me to buy aspirin, I said "I won't say no to free money", at that stage Tina told me not to bother with him, the biggest wanker without a doubt I've met so far on my travels.

After that I decided to have a go at trying to fix the laptop, sat in a bar in Bangkok I stripped the laptop with a swiss army knife, and reseated the parts much to the amusement of the Thai people and flicked it back on, nothing happened for a few seconds then we had life again! MAGIC, if you've faith it will happen.

So off to the bus to Chiang Mai.

Out of Action (Laptop)

I may be out of action for a couple of days...after a good year long service it looks as if the mainboard is gone :( ....Flights booked for Hong Kong 8th January, so I may treat myself to some new toy when I arrive there.

Koh Tao to Bangkok

After relaxing in Kho Tao the last few days, which mainly involved snorkelling, massages and just chilling on the beach (and be being harassed by a cat that liked me) we headed for Bangkok - A 10 hour boat & bus journey which someone got seasick on, but SHE will remain nameless! Arrived in Bangkok and went to our usual spot. We managed to get one of the limited number of seats left on the bus going to Chiang Mai (or so we were told), the bus doesn't run on the 31st and the 1st. We headed out to this cool bar that just had these young wild thais in it and a thai band. We were the only 'falang' in there for a while. The band were playing really good music, but it was in Thai so didn't understand much of the song..until they started playing The Cranberries song Zombie..RANDOM! They had us up dancing and everything, the place also had the best Thai Green Curry I've had so far here...It's been along day!

A year of beer!

A year of Beer.



I always write about the places I see, the sights we see and the people we meet, but I decided to put this appreciation thread for all the lovely drink I've consumed over the past year :) . Apologies to my liver!


- comments on drinks (e.g Guinness) are based on the how it tastes in the country it's consumed.


Australia:

I was never much a beer fan until I arrived in Australia, some tasty stuff here.

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Tooheys New - A favourite of mine, nice taste, easy to drink.
Tooheys Extra Dry (TED) - My favourite for a long time but misses out to New in my opinion.
Carlton Draught - My drink of choice when there's no Tooheys available.
Carlton Dry - Not for me!
Carlton Cold - Otherwise known as Cold, the cheapest carton of beer in the "Bottle Shop" Tastes just OK.
XXXX - Cheap and Cheerful, but not my favourite by a long shot.
Pure Blonde - Low Carb beer - Not a fan of it, SHIT.
VB - Victoria Bitter or Very Bad as I like to call it, which should tell you exactly what I think of it.
Boags - Tasmanian beer thats not a bad sup.
Crown Lager - Premium beer thats tasty but not worth the extra dosh
Heinken - even worse then the piss we sell in Ireland.
Carlsberg - Same as above, wouldn't give it to a sick dog.
Guinness - Generally pretty bad stuff, but the odd Irish pub serves a middle of the road pint
Bulmers - The English one, not to be confused with the Irish one, tastes the same as home.
Magners - Tastes the same as home, draught and Pint bottle.
Strongbow - Comes in 3 flavours can't remember them but not a fan of sweet cider.

Wine & Spirits.

Wine - I can't remember every brand I had, but in general any wine I've had in Australia has been tasty and well defined...both white and red.

Bundaberg Rum - The best rum in the world in My opinion!


New Zealand:

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Tui - Very nice beer and easy to drink.
Extra Cold - Best beer in NZ, but not available in alot of places.
Extra Gold - Nice beer that would be just a cut above Tui.
Monteith Dark Lager - More of a stout, comes off draught and tastes similar to Guinness from a bottle
Monteith Apple Cider - Tastes like Bulmers(IRL), infact probably better if your were to push we
Guinness - A couple of decent pints over here, much better then anything I was served in Australia


Wine & Spirits

Spirits - Nothing comes to mind spirit wise, but the teapots in Queenstown were good!

Wine - Again don't remember every brand, but strangely enough I think they are marginally better wines produced here then Australia...Apples & Oranges to be honest.


Malaysia

Most expensive place for Beer in SE Asia

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Tiger - Available in Big ass bottles, tastes the same as home.
Jaz - Best Beer in Malaysia but hard to find.
Skol - Awful stuff, but cheap.
Panda Lager - Served in a baby blue can with a Panda on the front, this beer is 12% and I can safely say the worst I've ever tasted.


Cambodia

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Angkor Beer - The Best beer by a long shot and cheap as chips at 50cents (US) a bottle.
Anchor Beer - Very cheekily uses a similar name to the countries most popular beer, but a decent sup all the same.

That's it your not spoilt for choice here unless you want the familiar: Tiger, Heineken and Carlsberg, which I don't bother with.

Wine & Spirits:

Mekong Whisky - Tastes more like rum but at US$1 a bottle you can't really argue!


Vietnam

I don't think I got a bad beer in this country! Fair play to the Commi's!

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Beer Saigon - I'd forgotten about this one, but it hits the spot for the bargain price of under US$1.
Nha Trang Beer - One of the cheapest beers around if you can find it, similar to Beer Ha Noi.
Larue Beer - Hoi Ans finest...using a Tiger as the logo as well...I suppose imitation is the greatest form of flattery
Festival Beer - One of Hues own brand, very tasty
Huda Beer - 60 US cents gets you one of these bad boys, serious good bang for the buck
Beer Ha Noi - 75 US cents gets you this top notch beer, some establishments charge more for a coke!
Halong Beer - We only found this in one spot at Halong Bay, can't even remember what it tasted like, so it obviously tasted OK!

Wine & Spirits:

Dalat Wine: The red is maybe drinkable, but the white is awful - very Oakey taste to it.

Vodka (Saigon) - Not sure what brand I had but I'd imagine paint stripper tasting better!
Vodka Hanoi - The closest thing you'll get to Smirnoff here and a steal at $3 a bottle.


Laos

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Only one beer to mention here: The King of SE Asia...Beer Laos

Beer Laos - Price is between 8,000kip to 12,000kip, but the general price is 10,000kip (US$1.20)...Really good beer.

Wine & Spirits:

You ALWAYS have to accept a drink in a Laos Household otherwise you'll risk offending the house spirits...like they need t
o twist our arm!

Lao Lao Rice Whisky - 50% to godknows what depending on who's brewing the stuff..as close to Poitin as you'll get, definitely one that'll put hairs on the chest & start the car at the same time.
Black Horse Whisky - 50 US cents for a massive glass of this stuff, but I'm afraid it's down the sink is all its fit for.
Tiger Whiskey - Just over $1 will get you a bottle of this stuff..not a huge fan of it, but at worst you can use it as a dettol substitute.
Lao Vodka - Another cheap and cheerful US$1.50, haven't tasted the stuff yet it's sitting in my bag for a special occasion.

Thailand

Beer, Cider & Stout:

Chang Beer - You either love it or you hate it...Personally I love it and it's price tag!
Singha Beer - The Premium beer, a wee bit more expensive then Chang but definately won't break the bank.
Leo Beer - Awful weak stuff, avoid!

Wine & Spirits:

Samsong Whisky - Another Rum thats called a whisky but tasty when inserted into a sandcastle bucket with some coke & redbull...YUM!

..

St Stephens Day

Happy St Stephens Day...We left Kho Phangan after a relaxing 8 days here, more importantly our resort (Haad Tian Beach Resort) I can't fault it one bit, well maybe the staffs taste in music! But credit where credit is due everyone always had a smile on their face and the staff couldn't do enough for you. So a big thanks to Dang, Sow Elzanne, Joe the Driver, The Guy who says KAP alot and the Guy with Dreadlocks (sorry I'm not good with remembering names), and the rest of the staff...you're all a credit to your industry. So off on another ferry to Kho Tao this time, only 45 minutes or so it says...45 minutes equates to over 2 hours in Thai time! Arrived at the island an headed to the Sairee Beach area, with no booking we were winging it I minded the backpacks and Tina went off for half an hour only to come back empty handed, I found out before she came back the fancy resort (which we assumed would be expensive) had a bungalow for 400baht ($12) it was great but only available for 1 night, so feck it we took it anyway...so let that be a lesson don't assume anything! I met an Irish guy who lived here for 9 years I was easily identified by my Dublin jersey, he said he hasn't seen an Irish person in weeks and now there's drives of us here!

So now all the chaos is sorted, what better thing to do then have a swim in the ocean, have a chang and watch the sunset...we had the nicest curries (nice and spicey) so far across the road from the resort.


(Pictures of the Room and Bunglaow are Haad Tian Beach Resort, Koh Phangan)

A Koh Phangan Christmas

Nollaig Shona.....A mild disaster at the start of today..we went out for lunch and I realised I didn't have enough money so had to leave tina in the pub and drive back 20 minutes each way...I did meet an interesting English woman on the way back hitching a lift, she hopped on the back of the bike and we had a chat on our way into town. A roast dinner was on the cards and we knew of an Irish and English pub both serving roasts, we went to the Irish pub (The Harp) and in the true spirit of Authenticity the roast was nearly double the price of the English pub (The roast was over $20), that and there wasn't one Irishman to be found in the place, and the pub itself wasn't anything special. We went to the Mason Arms and had a turkey roast, it was so good 4 hours later we got another 1 to share. I had my first Guinness here in 3 months and it was a decent sup, I got a nudge off someone with a Dub accent asking me what the Guinness was like, the pub had a load of Irish in it, not surprising given the greed of the Irish pub. I headed long before the Queens speech and when I saw the David Beckham poster in the jacks I knew it was time to leave! We headed back to the resort and made our calls to friends and family and at this stage Christmas day was nearly over....Enjoy the snow folks and I'll enjoy the Sun for now!

Kho Phangan

We got a kayak today and it made an interesting journey...and lots of bickering, We took the kayak to Haad Salad for lunch and I had a delicious green curry for breakfast! We ventured to the next beach where we noticed the canoe itself had little holes in it and began to fill with water in the middle of the ocean, we'd travelled a good 20minutes before things started to go titanic on us! We turned around and got here to land OK..so the rest of the afternoon was spent by the pool and we hiked to Haad Yao beach later to have a beer while watching the sunset, there was 2 businesses setting off fireworks, very interesting technique of light and run!..A few of the rockets failed to launch so big explosions on the beach!

"The Hangover"

Laziest day ever, not feeling too rough today but certainly could be better, a dip in the pool was a god send...not much else happening today!

Koh Phangan - Full Moon Party

Full moon party day is upon us and boy is it going to be messy! We had a pretty lazy day and headed to the full moon party around 11 o'clock but not before getting painted up and polishing off a Whiskey bucket at our resort. We headed to the other side of the island to Haad Rin and a short while later we were among whiskey bucket vendors as far as the eye could see, burning skipping ropes and awful dance "choons".. I wasn't braving the burning skipping rope or fire hoop after the tubing incident, so I sat it out and supped my bucket instead :) , everyone seemed to watch in anticipation for someone to injure them selves, we saw countless people get the burning rope in the head and other places, including the rope wrapped around one guys leg...ouch!.

Watch the beautiful full moon shine over a crowd of people pissing in the sea, I'm surprised the ocean isn't yellow today! Got myself a bite to eat, some fried chicken as could as the stuff you get coming home from a match in Croker.

We got home in the wee hours of the morning with a few taxi changeovers and other messing, the police shined a torch in the back of the tuk tuk, obviously looking for someone with drugs to get some extortion money, their time might be better spent on the beach where I was offered drugs about a hundred times! The full moon party is good craic, the music however was the spoiler of the night for me (Father Ted comes to mind: "It sounds like somebody drilling the wall"), I expected at least one place to pump out some Reggae music or something different, but sadly I couldn't find one :( .