London (16th June)

It had been a few months since I last caught up with my sister (Louise) and nephew (Daniel). We went into London along with Daniel's girlfriend Amy and wandered around. we walked along Southbank passing the Globe theatre, Tate gallery and lots of other things including the London Eye. Daniel and Amy buggered off and Louise and I crossed the Thames and passed the Houses of Parliament, Downing Street, The Mall, Trafalgar Square, Picadilly Circus, Leicester Square (is this a game of monopoly?) and Soho before ending up having dinner in China Town. and all that after my trip over there and no sleep having been had! The only celebrity that we saw was Kevin Godley (from 10CC) - better than nothing I suppose.

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Devon (17th June)

The next day I drove to Devon to see my mate Rocky - I stopped off for a while in Bristol to break the trip up and go for lunch at a favourite place of mine called Browns. Whilst there, a woman on the next table was showing off her new baby to friends and one of them said, "oh such lovely baby hands" - what a pointless thing to say - what else would it have? I suppose it is better than, "What a lovely baby other than those hands that look likes a grown-up's hands". Another thing that I noticed whilst sitting there was a song that was played where the main lyric was "I've got soul, but I'm not a soldier" - oh how very clever - it's a shame that nobody told the writer to go back and think of something better. It reminds me of the Michael Franti lyric of "you can bomb the world to pieces, but you can't bomb it into peace" - and these people get paid how much? Anyway.

It was great to spend some time with Rocky, his wife Tanya, his kids Zak and Theo and dogs, Bud, Stella and Taran. We didn't do much other than sit around and catch up with things and enjoy each others company. we headed off for lunch in Ilfracombe at Damien Hurst's restaurant which contains lots of his artwork and does good food too.

We also caught up with our friends Chris and Catriona and their daughter Amy which was great as I haven't seen any of these people for three years.

I went to school with Chris from the age of 4 to 18 and the fact that he still accuses me of once pushing him into the sandpit just shows that he learnt nothing - the man lives in a fantasy world. We met Rocky when we were 17. All this was in Leicester and then Chris moved to London where he set up a motorbike despatch company and Rocky moved with his parents to Devon where they run three pubs, restaurants and also bed and breakfast facilities. Chris sold his business in London and bought a farm in Devon (he is now farmer Brown who is known to tell people to get off his land) where he runs his various deals from.

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France (20th June)

I left Devon and drove to Bournemouth and picked up my mum and we drove to London to pick up an Aunt and then went to my sisters. Part of this journey involved my mother driving me and that can be quite a tense experience - she has taken to turning off her sat nav because it tells her to stop the car and get a cab! Enough said.

We then headed to the airport and flew to Nice and got a cab to Lorgues in Provence. I was staying in a separate hotel than the others and it was a lovely place called Maison Du Midi. When I arrived at my sister's, she had suggested that instead of lugging my big bag around, why don't I just take the things I needed for France and put them in a smaller bag - it was a great plan that I executed badly by forgetting my smart trousers, toiletries and battery charger for my camera. Bugger!

Anyway, the next day was the wedding of my cousin Victoria to Dougal. A bit of family history here: My mother has one younger brother called David. He married Judy when I was a very small kid - I'll show the photos one day. David and Judy have two daughters - Juliet and Vicky (who is now calling herself Victoria - she claims that she is re-branding herself). When I was living in Leeds in 1993, Juliet was there too and we used to hang around together. She has been with her partner Colin since those days and they have two kids; Jamie and Maddie. Vicky was living in Sydney when I first visited Australia in 1997 and she had moved there by the time I moved to Melbourne - so we would catch up when we could. On a visit to France, she met Dougal (a New Zealander) and after a long-distance relationship, she moved to London (where he lives) and they now have a place together and this was their wedding day. The connection to France is that David and Judy have a home in Lorgues and Vicky and Dougal met a chateau there and wanted to marry at the same chateau.

The wedding was a gorgeous event - and I was happy to be there. Everyone always attempts to make their wedding day special and I think that my cousin (with help) made that happen. The setting was perfect - a chateau in a village in Provence. The weather was lovely - I heard 28 degrees mentioned. The ceremony was personal and expressive and brought everyone together. The food and wine were excellent. The people were lovely and a pleasure to meet. I'd call that a success.

I heard part of a conversation between two people at the wedding that went like this:
"Are they going on a honeymoon?"
"Who?"
Good grief.

The village is an unreal place - France is just a lovely country and the south of France is unlike anywhere else. It is said that when god was making the world, when he finished France he was concerned that he had surpassed himself and that the rest of the world would be jealous - so he made French people to balance it out.

I was disappointed at the level of French that the people of Lorgues know - I repeatedly ordered stuff in French, but they kept bringing the wrong things.

The next day was spent with family and friends and enjoying the environment and then the next day, my mum, sister and myself headed off, by train, to Monaco to see how the rich people live. It is an incredible place and the wealth is just mind-blowing. Having said that, it isn't a place for me and I can't imagine going back there - but it was good to see. And so many yachts - some of them the size of small countries - they even had some with helicopter pads on them - it's true - I know because I was there.

Being in France was the first occasion I have had to use the currency of Euros. I do understand the convenience of having a currency that is accepted in many countries, but there is something sterile about it too. I was in France - I wanted to use their currency - something that is uniquely theirs - it is part of the experience of travelling. Having a common currency just doesn't seem right - it loses something.

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UK again (24th June)

Upon returning to the UK, I spent the day with Louise and Daniel and Jon (my brother in law). The next morning I set off to meet up with Jodi who had taken a couple of days holiday to spend with me. That first day we just wandered around catching up with news and gossip and then we went out for dinner with Stuart (Jodi's hubby). The next day we went to Windsor and just wandered around chatting and having a laugh and then went out to the pub that evening. Not much to report other than it was great to catch up with a close friend that I don't see very often.

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Thailand (28th June)

I had been looking forward to this leg of my journey for quite a while. It is nice to break the trip up, but the main purpose for doing so was to get to meet with some tigers. This is something that I didn't know could be done until a mate (Al) showed me a photograph of himself having been in the position to do so. I just knew that I'd have to do such a thing is the opportunity arrived - and this was it.

So another 11 hour flight was required. Once again, I found myself sitting between two people. The woman who had the window seat was so small that she was rattling around and might have been more comfortable in the overhead luggage compartment - I decided not to suggest it. The row in front had three blokes - one of them must have been on a world tour of collecting ear hairs that he was proud to wear unashamedly. The other two were mates who I expect were going to Bangkok with a view of watching girls playing ping-pong and to offer them extra pocket money for certain favours. On the other side of me was a lovely girl called Julie who was returning home To Sydney after a short trip - she was preparing her movie that is to be released before too long - she co-wrote it and also produced it. The movie is called Edge of Eden and it was interesting talking to her and hearing all about the project.

I booked to stay in Bangkok which is an enormous city - I can't tell you how big as the smog comes before the horizon. The stay went as follows:

Thursday 28th
I arrived early in the morning of this day and spent the day exploring and resting. I wandered the streets around the hotel where I was staying and found them to be extremely dirty and smelly - a big comparison to the hotel (Grand China Princess) which was lovely. It is amazing to see how many motorbikes there are in Bangkok and how tentatively rules are followed. There is often 3 or 4 people on a bike and not all of them with helmets. So dad is riding with two kids on there. And some of the women chose to sit side-saddle while being driven along - not that it's any of my business. I managed to entertain myself with a lovely massage in the afternoon, a long and hot bath and then sitting in the revolving restaurant on the 25th floor and reading my book and eating good food. I also found a good cocktail called a Bonsai but I discovered that it gets boring when you have three of them - I can't remember what was in the drink other than a straw. An excellent day indeed.
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Friday 29th
This day found me going on a tour to see the Tiger Zoo. I didn't book a bus tour but had my own car and guide - so that gave me much more freedom. My taxi driver was most comfortable when driving at over 130km - I wasn't. A ride with him is probably Bangkok's answer to Space Mountain. The roads over there don't seem to have markings - they just leave it up to drivers to work it out for themselves. It took us about 2 hours to get to the zoo which was an interesting place indeed. I was having my photo taken with a baby crocodile when they gave me a smaller one to hold and then, whilst I couldn't move, they put a baby one on my head. Then I held a large snake and as the picture was about to be taken, they shoved a large green lizard on me. Next were two orangutans that I sat with - very cute. Then came a special moment where I got to feed a baby tiger - it was a wonderful thing to do. There were plenty of large tigers that could be viewed, but we couldn't get close to them. There were other things at the zoo that I saw - there was a pig that as well as feeding her own piglets, was also mothering a couple of tiger cubs. And there were some piglets with tiger fur around them that were being fed by a tiger. Then there was a tiger show, but I left after 3 or 4 minutes when I found that they just had the tigers performing and that made me sad - I didn't want to see them that way.
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Saturday 30th
Another day trip where I headed off to the Tiger Temple - something I had been looking forward to for a long time. It took about 2.5 hours to get there and upon arrival there were about 30 other people there. The first thing they did was bring out three tiger cubs that were about three weeks old and they played around. Then they brought out a three month old cub that was a frisky little thing. Then the big ones were bought out - oh boy! The tigers were all led down to the canyon and each person who wanted could walk part of the way with the last tiger. I passed my camera to a chap who couldn't use it properly, so I only have a 2 second clip of me doing this - damnit. Once we were down in the canyon, we had the chance to wander amongst the tigers and have various pics taken, but it was quite busy and they had plenty of helpers who guided us and told us what to do - so it wasn't as relaxed and natural as I had imagined - and it was more rushed than I had imagined. But it was still a good thing to do. The tigers had just eaten, so they were happy to have a lie down and didn't bother about us.
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Sunday 1st July
This was a day of rest where I just went and wandered around shopping centres and bought nothing. It turned into a long day, but I had nothing else to do so that was ok - it was hot and it was raining outside. The transport around the place are three wheeled vehicles that are like motorised rickshaws - a good idea but not when driven by the maniacs that I encountered along the way. A lot of things are cheaper to buy in Bangkok than elsewhere, but then again, a lot of the things aren't genuine either. I saw a store that was titled Disney, but it seemed to only sell characters who were distant relatives to the characters that we tend to know e.g. I'm pretty sure that Pooh Bear was Peter Bear - a second cousin to the bear in question. And Mickey Mouse looked like something squeezed out of a constipated muppet. It was also strange to see so many western men who looked like sad single loners but they had themselves young Thai girlfriends - not that there is anything wrong with that.