We arrived at the airport, checked in with no problems – in fact it was great as there were lots of empty seats on the flight, so we were given plenty of space to spread into – easily done. Nine hours and two meals later, we arrived in Bangkok at 22:30 local time. Good news was that the driver was waiting for us and whisked off to our hotel.

Our hotel was called the All Seasons as they probably wouldn’t get too much business if they used their real name of Don’t Bother. I know that you haven’t stayed there otherwise you would probably be doing time for assaulting the Travel Agent who booked toy into the place.

How to describe it? First of all, it had no colour in it, so it was like you were living in an old cheap black and white movie – probably titled 'All Seasons, No Reasons'. There were two small beds that left little room for anything else. The bathroom was so small that there wasn’t enough room to fully open the door to it. The room had a fridge, but there was nothing in it. The room had a cupboard but no drawers. It had a balcony but there was no way onto it as that door had been blocked off. The view from the window was only of the room opposite, as the rooms were surrounding (and facing) a light well. The walls were so thin that you could almost see the people in the next room. But it wasn’t all bad – they did provide three complimentary cotton buds and a sanitary bag – happy days.

The day started this day with a meeting with a representative of the travel company who expressed surprise that we would be staying at the All Seasons. I mentioned that I was even more surprised than them. She took us for a three minute walk down the road to the Century Park Hotel – about five minutes later we had said goodbye to the All Seasons and were walking our luggage to the splendour of the Century Park – now the holiday could begin – it felt like we had been let out of jail. The new hotel had everything that you could want from a hotel (except Kate Bush wasn’t working there as a masseuse).

We then wandered off to explore our surroundings and went into some of the wonderful shopping complexes that exist in the city – happily there was little damage that was done to our bank balances.

In the evening we went on a boat cruise/dinner experience that was great fun. The food was lovely and plentiful and we passed some beautiful buildings along the way. The meal was followed by some traditional Thai Dancing by some girls in traditional Thai dress – very nice. During the meal we had been ‘entertained’ by some cabaret type singing that picked up a bit after the Thai dancers. Think back over your years and think of all the cheesy songs that you have heard – I imagine that all of the songs that you have thought of were actually performed for us on the night. To add to our personal amusement, the songs had been learnt phonetically so they weren’t as much ‘covers’ as ‘sound-a-likes’. Some of the songs weren’t performed with words as much as sounds that were similar to those on the original recordings – this resulted in some words being ‘best guessed’ words/sounds and some had no bearing to either the songs or the language. It was spectacular in all ways and we loved it in all ways.

This was the day when I was going to revisit the Tiger Temple and Carolyn was going to visit for the first time (my review of my previous visit can be found in the entry for 15/06/07. To get there is a three hour drive out of Bangkok, so we booked ourselves a private car and driver as we had no desire to join a tour – who would? The experience was just fantastic – it was also different to my last time as there seemed less people around and therefore we could get into the experience more – we even had 45 minutes with four 2 month old cubs (plus two handlers) – that was great – tiger cubs are a mixture of cats and puppies in their nature. We spent three hours at the temple and here are the photos.

That night we went to the Vertigo restaurant that is situated outside on the 61st floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel – it is the most incredible experience to be a lovely restaurant and outside and so high - here is the proof. When I looked at this photo, it made me think that I look odd - it is like somebody has printed my photo on a balloon and then inflated it too much - I made the mistake of mentioning this to Carolyn who now calls me BH (Balloon Head).

Anyway, it was a great way to end our Bangkok adventure.

We were up early to go to Koh Sumui and arrived at the Bandara Resort (on Bo Phut beach) by lunchtime and began exploring the wonderful facilities as shown here. Whilst Carolyn joined a two hour yoga session, I managed to sit by (and in) one of the pools and experienced the wonderous Mai Tai cocktails that were available from the pool-side bar. We then both treated ourselves to two hour massages at the Spa and then headed to the beachside restaurant and partook of the Thai barbecue before retiring for the night.

Well, that was almost how it happened.

The final piece of the day concerns some mystery bug that I picked up somewhere whose main role seems to be to convert your arse into a hose – not only that, but it takes charge of when the hose will be turned on. Lovely. So the fine Thai barbecue preceded a night of me repeatedly jumping out of bed for a dash – I can proudly report that no accidents or timing issues occurred.

Due to a night of little sleep and an energy-sapping bug, it was a very lethargic me that prepared for this day. I felt that I would only be fit for laying next to (and occasionally in) the pool. Luckily this had been the plan for the day anyway, so that was ok.

In the evening we risked me leaving the vicinity of resort’s toilets and headed down to the local Fishermen’s Village and browsed the shops and stopped for a drink at the Pier. Upon returning to the resort, my situation reverted back to that of the previous night – but to a slightly less severe extent,

Realising that my virus was consistent regardless of what I was eating, I decided to not worry too much about what I was eating – it wasn’t hanging around for long anyway. However, I did not go back to experiencing the pleasure that was the Mai Tai cocktail that I had enjoyed so much on my first day – not even I would be that stupid.

So another day by the pool relaxing in the very hot weather – cooling down by submerging in the lovely pool – it’s a tough life, but what choice did I have?

In the evening, we ate at the resort restaurant that overlooked the beach and then ‘the boys’ showed up. The boys were two chaps with guitars who seemed to be the happiest people on this earth. They knew just about every song in the world but chose to play/sing a lot of songs that you’d prefer that they didn’t. The boys: The one on the left played all the complicated bits and solos and tended to hit the right note nine times out of ten – and when he missed, he missed well! The chap on the right did most of the singing (though they actually harmonised quite nicely at times). Unfortunately his lyrical understanding wasn’t brilliant and he’d get one out of four words wrong. Their version of Hotel California cannot be described adequately – I think that I experienced it with a stunned look on my face and when the guitar solo kicked in, my jaw dropped – it was all so weird.

After breakfast I spent the morning by the pool and then in the afternoon we headed over to Chaweng to experience the 2km of shops and restaurants that it contains along its beach road. Chaweng was only 6km from where we were, but it had a very different feel in as much as it was a more commercial district though it still retained a lot of its local character. The sales pitches were slightly more pushy, but nothing that couldn’t be shrugged off - some of the more pushy sales people weren’t even Thai and that seems to make it worse and they were working for a time-share company there and they were really annoying and quite aggressive – I know that there is nothing wrong with time-share – it was the people who were the problem. There were a lot more shops, a larger variety of outlets and many more food options too – though it was disappointing to see that McDonalds, Burger King had Pizza Hut had got their feet under the table, but that is life – having said that, I needed some facilities urgently and Burger King was my nearest option and I found the best air-conditioned building on Koh Sumui.

That evening we went to a lovely little restaurant called The Shack that was situated in the Fisherman’s Village and enjoyed a wander along the beach back to the resort – and I actually didn’t have to rush back, so that made a nice change.

The same routine as had become our norm - a day by the pool and a nice dinner in the Fisherman’s village – easy life.

Our last day so keeping to the routine, we relaxed by the pool for the day before getting the plane to Bangkok and wandering the many shops in the huge airport as we waited for our plane to Melbourne.

Home sweet home.

Weather: gorgeous from start to end – some clouds every now and then and also some spitting rain, but it was all good.

Bangkok: It gets easier to handle each time – the pollution is certainly better than the first visit that I had in 1997. It is also a nicer place when you aren’t alone.

Koh Sumui: Gorgeous island and a place I would happily return to. The resort was gorgeous.

Health: I have had this bug for a week now and it's getting on my nerves. If only one of us was to get the bug, then I'd have preferred it to be Carolyn, but there you go.

People: Thai people are just lovely – even when they don’t know what you are on about, they are patient and polite and they always seem to be smiling.

Prices: Everything is a lot cheaper than in Australia, but the resort was quite costly for massages and food and drinks considering that down the road, you could get the same for considerably less. Having said that, the Spa at the resort was magnificent. The two restaurants at the hotel were nice, but the food was a bit disappointing.

Reading: I read a P G Wodehouse (Aunts aren’t Gentlemen), Jeremy Clarkson (For Crying Out Loud) and started Stephen Fry in America.