This is going to be a short post in 30 minutes I am heading out to start my night dive. So yea ye all know I was going to do my Open Water Padi Course but this is the thing I really like it so now tonight I am going to be completing my Advanced open water course. This means I have done 9 dives in the last 5 days. I am certified to go down to 30m. I am able to dive at night. I have done a course on navigation so I can navigate a new dive site from a map. I now have decent control of myself underwater and its the best craic ever. I did it with a place called Seashell Diving. They are a little more expensive than some others but small groups so if anyone is thinking of doing a dive course on Ko Tho I would recommend these guys. Oh yea I swam with sharks the other day, around 25 grey reef sharks. Now this might sound scary but it was one of the best experiances of my life. I have not seen a lot of strange things, but I have experianced them, learning what stomach and intestine equalisation really means. There is a lot of cool things and I think I have found a pastime that could be the one for me. Jonny has been going strong on the diving from as well and is doing the night dive with me tonight.

the Dive Group, (Zoe (instructor), Jonny, Ryan, Tim and Me)

Doing what is called the James Bond Roll entry.

Me and Jonny relaxing inbetween dives

Andres, Zoe, Jonny and Me. (This was the last day of advanced Dives)

Its not all fun and games some study has to be done as well

After all that hard diving you need a drink (Tim, Me, Jonny, Ryan)
I have had some close calls like running very low on air but with the training you are so relaxed and everything is drilled into and you always have backups. Its really good and I’m rambling as I don’t have a lot of time but its great fun, and its party night tonight because I don’t have to get up at 6 tomorrow morning, most dive morning are very early so I am looking forward to the sleep in.

Talk to you soon

Joe

Have not made a post in a while, me and the internet have not been getting on. Left Bangkok and went to Koh Pha-Ngan for the full moon party. We arrived 5 days early because all the accomidation fills up in preperation for the full moon. Stayed in the Sea Side Resort on Sunset Beach. It was a great place, a relaxed bar/resturaunt (Ask for Yao), spending all the days playing pool while nursing our hangovers and getting ready for the following night, it was pretty much 5 days of partying. So we met loads of people, English, American, Dutch, German, Icelandic and loads of Irish. We really have just infested the Island. All they guys working in the places have british accents and its very funny when a Thai guy turns around to you and goes “Alright Mate”. The phrases developed for the trip were legendary, like beer o’clock, bucket o’clock, let it rain. (times of the different happy hours). It was a great night for the actual full moon and did a lot of dancing, got destroyed by body paint by an artisticly challenged Bangor Girl(as you can see above).

Starting the Scuba diving tomorrow and should be good fun, got a nice bungalow and the resturant beside us is showing Hot Fuzz later tonight so looking forward, going to be staying away from the beer for a little while. After that we pretty much have a week to get down to Singapore so will decide what to do then. Hopefully back to a bit of proper travelling.

 Talk to you soon

 Joe

So met the lads in Bangkok, a lovely city, reminds me of barcelona for some reason.. Clean, quiet, pretty much the opposite to what I expected… Unfortunatly the price of things isnt either, phonecalls are mad expensive, dinner, internet, dvd burning for pics, even though our budget is nearly twice that of india..

kites and a merc in the park

Stayed a few days, took a walk around, more big temples, and got cought in a huge thunderstorm..

The best place ive ever seen to buy stuff though, I know work for AP as a photojournalist and can drive an artic lorry Also good if your into ping-pong.

Everybody wears these yellow t-shirts in support of the king in Bkok (Betya theyre free), the day we arrived there was a huge protest against him. He’s plastered himself up on every billboard and public building, surreal for a city that looks so much like a eurporean one.

 From there we headed further south, took the boat from some city (Cant remember the name), and headed to Ko Phanang.. Full moon party place, looks surreal at night, thousands of people partying on the beach..

(The view from my hammock, pretty much the only photo ive taken since the boat on the way here)

Decided on a whim last night to skip the full moon though, so myself and brian will head to indonesia (thanks pad) for a week or two before oz.. Parties are great here, but think ill be a fully fledged alchoholic if I stay. The aim is to climb the active volcano near jakarta Anyway, would reccomend these isalnds for a piss-up holiday, maybe a sample of the full moon, but not much else besides.. Everythings expensive, too crowded, and the premiership blasts out of every bar at night.. Each to his own though! Had a great laugh with the lads, and some extremelly strange nights out, and will miss the pool.. Heres a few pics anyways from the last while, havent managed to take very many in thailand, and a memory card failed too.. Some are in black and white because im messing with my new camera still..

(Main train station in Bangkok)

more temples (in fairness, these ones were pretty cool, even if I didnt pay the entrance fee and go inside)

(sleeping dogs - like wellies and bikes)

(Boat on the river)

I can finally grow a unique beard now

So, have an overnight boat+bus to kuala-lumpur, and after a day there we fly to jakarta in java.. (nerdy jokes galore). Hopefully alot more pics once we get off the beaten trail and sober again

-Ian

So leaving the subcontinent, no more masala dosai or idly, roti or sambar dal, dont know about cows on the streets but definatly no fancy sari’s, cricket matches, bison or chai stalls… In the airport now, it costs $1 for 15mins, hopefully not a sign of things to come… Left Arugam bay by shared taxibus yesterday, 15 hours later arrived near colombo.. Got to hold a turtle on the way tho..

Anyway meeting the lads on tuesday, very strange, joe reckons we’re institutionalized Looking forward to bkok, but a busy few days nonetheless.. After this I dont know, islands, full moons, scuba and a long trip down south…

Overall sri lanka is like galway, good craic/ nightlife/ landscapes /people are friendly but a little cracked (in a good way), you can surf nearby and the music is cool.. the weathers a bit better tho. Then India is like a group of leprechauns and pixies, 60s hippies, shane mcgowan, gerry ryans head on a stick and the entire population of lietrim, under the influence of a multitude of psychedelic drugs, all partying on top of croke patrick in a hurricane (in a good way too, and with plenty of milk tea)..

Anyway have a flight now, air lanka, you get your own tv and it cost less than a tv liscence at home

Updated: In bangkok, jaysus its different than expected.. Definatly no cows on the road… But they did have cameras on the outside of the plane and you could watch them on your little tv…

-Ian

(Kandy)

This place is a strange one allright.. Started in colombo, to be honest didnt really like it, parts like dublin or any other big (read rich) european cities and then out of town shanty towns and stuff as usuall… I think the thing that attracts you to indian cities maybe is that this sort of segregation isnt usually that apparent (or even there at all) in some… If theres a four seasons or a taj, ther’l still be someone takin a dump against the wall… Anyway, the place looks like the north during the troubles, checkpoints everywhere, pill-boxes etc. Funny thing is, even the army “stop” signs at the checkpoints have advertisements, like ”stop now - army” on one side and “bold - for the whitest whites” on the other.. Unfortunatly and obviously takin pics is out of the question pretty much anywhere youd want to in colombo..

(Temple half way up adams peak)

We rambled on to kandy, really nice hill-town in south-central sri lanka.. Buddhas tooth lives there apparently, but its covered in rock  so I guess you have to take the monks word for it. Either way the whole beating drums and chanting is fairly good anyway, they sure know how to rock a mass.. 

(buddhas on the hill - Kandy)

Seen some nice dancing and fire walking too. Plenty of people there, a bit too much, so we saw the sites by tuc-tuc over a day or two, pretended to be gem dealers to exchange indian currency (your not mean to bring it out of the country), and wandered around tea-plantations, the national parks, and an elephant orphanage…

(Botanical Gardens)

Got lots of pics of elephants but to be honest was like shooting fish in a barrell, the whole lot of them chained up most of the time and about 200 tourists around em…

Everyone we met said dont go east or north, so we decided to go east (well away from the really dodgy parts) for a bit of peace and quiet, ended up in arugam bay, a surfers paradise wrecked first by the tsunami and now by government checkpoints looking for tigers in the neighbouring “strict” national park..

Took us 4 days to get there instead of one, in the mean time we climbed sri lanks 3rd highest mountain, adams peak to the temple at the top for dawn. We left 2.30 at night, figuring that since theres steps all the way up (and we stayed on a mountain before dont-ya-know) that it would be a stroll in the park… Unfortunatly 4,800 steps later in freezing wind and rain we arrived with dead legs and buns of steel, nearly killed us until we met some pilgrims who had come the long way (23km instead of 8km) through leech territory…

(It was feckin freezin and you cant wear shoes

The view is meant to be the most stunning in the country at dawn, but the clouds and rain meant be couldnt see more than 5foot ahead of us. Was well worth it though, learned all about the shrine and buddhism, and even got a sneak peak at the closed shrine in the temple.. The sun came out for about 20secs after:

(Dawn)

Anyway arugam is a decent place, laid back beach life as usuall, even managed to nearly stand up on the surfboard (in fairness the teacher is an international surfer). A late night and too much of the local coconut distilled spirit arrick after, coupled with dawn wakeboarding (which I can do) in huge waves and some hidden rocks has put me out of action for the next few days, but on the bright side the scars look pretty damn cool live and learn…

(Overexposed tea-plantation - part of a HDR)

By far the redeeming experiences of sri lanka in my eyes anyway was the hill country area (we toured it over 3 days by tuc tuc), prob the most stunning place you could imagine.. People brilliant, even heard a “namaste”… Learned alot from talking to NGO people here, about the conflict and piolitiacl situation.. Still dont have a clue though… Seems to be a common thread, both very complicated to solve, and incredibly stupid to continue at the same time for both sides… even if the majority of people want it stopped. Its hard not to notice the differnce in employment of the tamil and sinhilese population here anyway, have seen plenty of racism, and the tea plantation workers (allthough I dont think strongly tied with the LTTE) seem to mostly be tamil. (As usuall the owners are mostly western, according to people we talked to). Since the war strated again this place is getting worse, tourism has taken a dive, petrol prices are up and inflation is up too, not the best situation. Interesting though, have talked to a lot of people here in the last week or two, and not one really thought the war was a neccesity for either side. Mind you we obviously cant travel at the moment to LTTE territory or jaffna in the north, so not exactly a thurough survey! 

(Hill Country)

The army checkpoints we went through were no bother until getting here, one guy took a power trip at my expense on the way then, (think he was compensating for something with his M15), but anyway rings home how bad it must be for locals, especially tamils travelling in the south, considering harassing tourists is extremelly rare, and that wasnt much anyway..

(Hill Country)

As usuall throughout the trip, the people we meet every day are class, and its fairly damn amazing their attitude considering the things that have happened in the last few years… Country is stunning, wildlife is cool, seen giant bats, wild elephants, lizards, millions of strange birds, mad lookin insects, and the dogs arnt half as evil as the andaman ones.. Will stick here for the next few days and maybe stay a day or two in colombo before leaving..

(Hill Country by 3wheeler)

Some pics here, but alot ruined, I spent a fortune on a super-mega-master-camera 5billion-and-one but it has about 300 buttons and I still cant use it properly… Have plenty of time now that im out of the water for awhile so hopefully… The pics on the blog may look pixelated (or the funny thing on the corners), but dont have time to covert RAW/crop/make HDRs etc with them. Will put up all good pics on separete website in a month or two…

(mwah hahaha)

Oh tried to put the pics but my camera is live for some reason and it keeps electrocting me every time i touch it when connected to the pc…. Will do it later..

Ian

(Joe has just found enlightenment - The monk told him it was beside the index in the lonley planet)

So it means that we are going to miss a few things in India and thats India finished which I don’t think has sunk in yet. If that means I will never get good iddly again there will be war. I will have to come up with a highlights list of the India Trip but I will leave that to a drunken night. The great thing is the excitment is growing again in the travelling. The not really understanding how much things are. What way to deal with people. What are the correct protocols involved. For example we had some lunch for a very good price and everyone was using a knife and fork. My God it just takes all the fun out of eating. If you don’t belive me try making yourself a curry and rice and eat it with your hands, makes the whole experiance better. The only rule is never use your left hand for anything, the left hand is reserved for a far dirtier job.

So first impressions of Sri Lanka are really strange the place is in some ways a lot more developed than India and a lot cleaner but I am not getting the same vibe. In India there is a community feel even in the cities, you know everyone know each other but it more than likely will just take a couple of days to get used to the people. Its a lot more westernised than India and you see a lot of people in jeans and stuff like that but it has benifits we might sample the night life tonight and see if we can have a bit of craic. Oh yea and every third person is either working for the police and the army. Its a bit crazy that way I have never seen so many machine guns in my life. Coming into the city there are loads of check points where cars are searched and bunkers there with army people in them just incase there is a suprise attack. But the lads seem nice and smiley so it will probably be shanti.

Anyway off now and see what sort of mischeive I can get myself into for the night.

Talk to you soon

 Joe