3rd June 2008

Woke up and pottered around for a while until I got thrown out by the scruff of my neck and got conned by a nice tuk tuk driver to my new hotel in preparation for my intrepid tour. Very posh and nice hotel, sharing with only other guy out of 16 of us. I wandered towards the temples, batting away people trying to con me with Buddhist holidays and various suspicious foibles. Eventually after discovering the National Museum and The National Gallery was in fact closed via a coincidence of them being lazy on Mondays, I participated in some daredevil road crossing and headed on down to the Grand Palace, where I once more dodged some tour guides, got given some cool floppy trousers to wear, and headed into the Grand Palace/Temple grounds. My general conclusion was that it looked like it had been made with Lego and painted with tacky thick gold paint. Was interesting though, and I saw the only(?) emerald Buddha in the world, respectfully kneeling, with shoes off, not pointing feet at the Buddha etc. Melting some what on the way, I exited out of the grounds and fell into a coin museum, which was airconned but pretty dull overall. Collapsed in a dizzy state of starvation in a food supplying café and then wibbled back towards Khoa San Road. On the way a crazy birdseed selling woman CHASED me down the street trying to put the bags in my pocket.

To reward myself for surviving I bought a DV from 7-11 and as I was about to leave when I locked eyes with a random guy who looked strangely familiar. After 10 seconds we both finally twigged, and realised it was Mark and Kelly from Taupo and Wellington. Crazy coincidence and we had a good chat over what we had been up to etc. Nearly got lost going back to hotel and met my room mate (Karl), so chatted for a while with him. Meeting was at 6 with Pete (our Cambodian leader) and the 15 other members of the group (Debs, Steph, Lauran, Holly, Phillipa, Jess, Pren, Sarah, Harriott, Charlotte, Ellen, Lauren, Tereasa and Annie). All girls apart form Karl and I, and all UK apart from Annie who is from the US of A. Later in the evening Pete took us for a nice meal in a Thai restaurant just off KS road, where I had a yummy Pad Thai, and we went on for some drinks at a pavement side bar. Pete seemed to taken an (un)healthy liking to me, much to general amusement, and we had a number of beers before our group splintered, some returning to the hotel and the rest of use went to a bar in Koh San Road. A bucket of vodbull later (shared with Lauren S) and we were moderately tipsy and happy.

2nd June 2008

Started off with a nice free brekkie of omelette, bacon, c/flakes and fruit, before walking out in the heat to Jim Thompson's House. Quite interesting, nice guided tour and then cooled off in a small modern art gallery. His house was made of a variety of traditional thai houses, and apparently he revitalised the silk trade and disappeared under mysterious circumstances in the Cameron Highlands. Walked back and checked out the MBK centre, which was full of identical tiny shops stretching further than the eye could see. Apparently its where all the cool kids hangout, but I was a bit like “blargh”, so I headed back out to the World Central Plaza trying to find a bookshop. Then walked for ages to another shopping centre, which was awful, and so far, plus epic pollution, so I just returned to the World Plaza and wandered around until I crumbled and saw Narnia II in la cinema, which confiscated my camera for piracy related reasons. Had some food at Mr Lee, horrendous cellophane noodles salad, made me feel ill so I ran away, after paying of course. I then hit up Koniecka Bookshop, where I got two Fforde books: The Eyre Affair and Easy Side Up, which look quite funny. Spent ages trying to find a new journal, but no where sold moleskine ones and the other ones had a poultry number of lines per page. Headed back to hotel and collapsed.

1st June 2008

General packing, breakfasting, walking with pack, internetting, catching bus, finishing The Time Traveller's Wife (totally awesome) and arriving in Bangkok while forgetting to play Brand New's "Welcome To Bangkok". Wandered aimlessly for a while, got a taxi, once more no one knew where my hostel was and driver actually refused to look at my map, making me instead talk to someone on his phone whose english wasn't much better. Eventually found the Wendy House after asking another taxi dude, checked in and slumped in awesome room. TV/DVD etc. Walked out after some TV and investigated the extremely fancy Siam Shopping centres. Had awesome pork with Cashew nuts in the Discovery Centre, or wherever I was and generally played in varying shops. Couldn't find the books I wanted in any of the book shops though. Still, it's all very impressive, then I fell into an Imax cinema and saw Indiana Jones 4. I shall classify it as enjoyable but different. At some point I had a yummy falafel wrap and then walked really far on a sky walk to get to Central World Plaza or something, but it was already shutting at 9, so I head back to hotel. "Watching The English" is a bit boring. Watched Mythbusters and ULTIMATE STRIKE JETS!!11!!1!!eleven!! until 1am, then fell asleep.

31st May 2008

Got up, went to a nice coffee shop then headed to a chinese temple by the edge of the beach. Quite nice. Wandered along waterfront road in the blazing heat, to fishing pier, then a bit of road tomfoolery and I got onto the beach, which I decided not to walk along as it REALLY stank. Next, I thought that a nice walk to Klai Kangwan Palace, in the searing heat, would invigorate me, as it didn't look too far on the map.

Curse my stubborness. And not reading: "Not To Scale" on the map. So after walking the entire length of Thailand, realising you can't really see the palace and getting a smoothie/frapp, I marched back towards the centre of Hua Hin. On the way, I got "Watching The English" from a book shop and checked out the Chat Chai Day market. I trekked more insane distance to the Hua Hin Market village, where I bumped into the couple I met yesterday, and I failed to go to the cinema as it was all in some strange foreign language, so had a mid arvo lunch.

Returned to central Hua Hin, I think I booked my bus tomorrow, and played on the net before finding The Time Traveller's Wife, in a book stall and scampered home to read it all night.

30th May 2008

Time to leave Koh Tao today, took taxi with girl, who had apparently only just remembered she had fallen off a bike the night before, to the ferry pier, where I got chatting to a really nice couple who were also going to Hua Hin, for about an hour. Gon on ferry and I spent the whole boat ride reading Pillars Of The Earth. Hour wait in Chumpton, then half empty bus to Hua Hin, took 4+ hours, finished Pillars of the Earth, woo! Got dropped off outside a very pretty shopping centre, tried to get a tuktuk to my hotel, but no one had heard of it, as normal, so I tried to find a net place, but failed in that as well, so just retired to a starbucks and pondered my options. After obtaining a useless map, I remembered it might be near the Hilton, so I got a tuk tuk there and fell into an internet cafe, found the address, and asked a helpful lady where it was, turns out it was basically on the road behind. Excellent.

Less excellently, the guest house is situated in the "entertainment" district of Hua Hin and the staff are all lunatics. Room is nice though, with TV and double bed. I headed straight out and wandered around, past a few 24 hour western fast food "centres" and found the night market, which I wandered through, quite busy, same old wallet/watch/jewellery type stalls you see everywhere and some interesting food stands. At some point on my wanderings I got handed a leaflet to a thai boxing match (Muay Thai), and decided it was a good bet. After the long trek there, and exploring a night market by it, it was time to go into basically a hall with a ring in and tables + seats for foreigners, as I suspect we pay loads more. Had cheap beer table service though.

6 matches in total, each 5 rounds. 1) Two 10/12 year old kids, very tough, one seemed to have a special punch-to-the-stomach move which did well. He won, and I liked him because he was less cocky. Though they both then came round asking for money. 2) Older guys, 20 or something, guy got randomly knocked out, no idea how 3) Older still, but very boring as they were too friendly and smiling 4) Tiny tiny kids, 7 years old? After a whole one appeared to give up/get bored 5) Half English dude won, no idea why, other guy just decided not to continue. 6) Good fight, lots of aggression, filmed lots of it.

Entire time some awful high pitch music was playing and announcer kept saying "ladies and Germans". I had an awesome time though, even if it wasn't exactly how Ong Bak portrayed it, probably for the best, KAPOW!

Walked back and collapsed in bed, after avoiding lunatic staff.

29th May 2008

Up early again as we couldn't get enough peeps to do an afternoon rib dive. Had an awesome BLT baguette at cafe next to dive shop, same old boating scenario etc. Next dive was mega deep dive, which was really annoying a my equalisation went so we could only get to 35m (still very deep) and didn't have much time there (or death) and we had to do a simulated 8 min (at 5m) decompression stop for the course, including 1 min of breathing from an emergency air source. Deco stop ended up at 12 min as just as we were reaching the emergency air source, the damn boat people pulled it up and the boat drove to a new position, so we had to chase the boat!

Anyway, next dive was fine, in fact I use 20 bar less air than Rich, which I was quite proud of. We say moray eels, devil scorpion fish, HUGE groupers, squid, panda clownfish and a vast array of other things. Completed paper work with Rich and then had thai for luncheon again. That evening, and the afternoon, I used masses of internet and tried to find more books but still failed to find any I wanted.

Started reading Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follet again, and began to get back into it after being all monked out.

28th May 2008

Up at a very silly hour, and had some form of cooked breakfast, which may have been overkill. Met up with Rich(my dive dude) for a quick chat and to check equipment before we marched down to beach and overfilled a tiny boat, so water was very close to spilling in,m and then went out to clamber, in a very undignified manner, onto the bigger dive boat. Took about an hour to get to the south west pinnacle. Dive was similar to the deep dive in my Advanced course, did a timed task above and below water and looked at the effects of narcosis, if it affected my reciprocal heading nav skills or not. It didn't apparently, though I found it harder as he put it on my left wrist. All the while I had the same air consumption as Rich, which I was most chuffed about. After a surface interval of 1.10, during which we briefed on next dive site, I ate some pineapple (which was really nice and it proves it's quite easy to force myself to like something) and swapped tanks. Next dive we looked at what the pressure does to a packet of crisps, a bottle and a squidgy ball. Well the well inflated crisp packet turned to rock, bottle was cranched up and ball was less inflated. Saw trigger fish. Returned to land, had a nice lunch from the Thai place from yesterday and met Rich at 1.30 where we spent 2-3 hours chatting about the knowledge reviews, which I got all right. He told me some cool anecdotes which I won't go into, but basically I REALLY don't want decompression sickness or extreme narcosis. Apparently the world record for deepest dive was set by a group of people who had to recover their friends body who had got so narked he was too disorientated to do anything.

Anyway, in the afternoon I was totally and utterly shattered. Dosed a bit, got a cheapish Italian and then listened to some Flight of the Conchords on my nokia, while dozing, and got my passport photos, photocopies and couldn't find any good books to swap.

27th May 2008

After a nice breakfast and some net usage, I caught my 10.45 bus, which got us to the ferry pier 1.5 hours early, so I read more of Into The Heart of Borneo, which is really a very good book. Clambered on the boat, all got ordered to stand at front of it for some odd weight balanced turned manoeuvre , and then settled down to trying to drown out Superbad, with Death Cab For Cutie, while reading my book. Found enough coin to buy a roll as no where can change up 1000 baht bills, which makes them redundant money.

Trip took about 1.5 hours, at the Koh Tao ferry port I was harassed by 25000 people,but just got a taxi to the Rex-recommended Davey Jones' Locker diving centre. Only rooms left were huge double bed and single bed ones, had little choice and wasn't too bad price really. Dumped stuff and attacked the dive shop full on. Pondered options, deflected her suggestion that I stay here forever and decided to do the deep dive speciality. 2 days, 4 dives, one down to 40 metres to get narked! Does mean I will have lots of homework now though. I finished Into The Heart of Borneo, got dinner at a nice Thai place, though got eaten alive by mossies, used the interwebs and then worked lots on the deep diving manual, finally completing the entire book and settled down to sleep as I had to get to dive centre by 7.30am! Unfortunately, not only was there the thumping bass of the club to sleep through, but mother nature threw a party of her own with a HUGE thunderstorm erupting, I drifted off eventually.

26th May 2008: Evening

There were lots of books, but none right for the Tom, so I headed back and foolishly swam in the pool for a while, which resulted in eye blindness and pain for rest of afternoon. Chilled in eatery/bar from 4-8 in a bleary state, much to the sympathy of the waitress. OR she was mocking me or she thought I was a lunatic on drugs. Koh Tao tomorrow!

In other news, I'm running out of space in this book, so I need to get a replacement in Bangkok, as the one I told Rex to get was wrong. Curses. I also need to decide how long I should stay in Hui Hin, 1 or 2 nights, it all depends if I want 3 or 4 nights in Tao, depending on what diving lunacy they rope me into. ARGH, huge hornet in toilet, I hear they turn you to stone if you look into their eyes. As I was saying, trip to Koh Tao seems like it will take quite a few hours. All these islands would be way cheaper if I was travelling with someone rather than getting a whole crazy bungalow to myself. Really looking forward to Hue in Vietnam as the LP map looks like a UO map, must show Ruffle. Vietnam in general looks awesome, mainly as I can fit most of it in and I know the places already. I need to find out if I Can buy China LPs in Hong Kong, as I've heard that they don't like maps without Taiwan on, or something, and they get confiscated at the Vietnam/China border. I also don't know if I can blog past the great firewall of China, perhaps though some cunning proxy server using a blah blah blah jargon blah, hats blah blah blah flux capacitor.

Number of Times I've been Semi-Concussed So Far: 2

Apart from the Byron Bay incident, I have now just walked directly into a large shop sign, thanks to my ever tall height and the sweeping generalisation of Thai height. Upon removing hand from said head, and assessing the amount of blood, I thought it pertinent to return to the resort post haste before I looked like I'd been hit by a moped. One shower late, I'm not sure it had stopped bleeding, and it was stilling hurting, but it was pouring everywhere, so it's all good. My vision is fine as well, and I don't feet drowsy, just annoyed. I'm about to munch on a cheese and ham baguette though, so that'll solve all. It's MASSIVE.

Last night I finished The Road by Cormac McCarthy, which wasn't great and nearly sent me into a death-fearing spiral, but I started reading Do Andriods Dream of Electric Sheep by Philip K Dick (or Blade Runner if you so desire). When I woke up, after a cool thai style brekkie of rice and pork soup, eges and fruit, I swam a bit but made sure I Washed out my eyes after, and finished Blade Runner at some point, possibly during brekkie. Went for a walk to fin dthe post office, which is about 1 km away, stopping off at net shop quickly en route. Sent off a parcel of goodies, walked back, brained myself on low flying signs etc etc.

I saw a book exchnage so I may check that out.

25th May 2008

Woke up at 6.30am, no one around so just dropped key on a random ledge. Got over priced transport (probably) to airport and checked in pretty easily. Had an awful burger king, no idea why I chose it, and then leapt on your tiny prop. plane, just 75 people, and very ornately decorated. We had a tiny brunch type package and before I knew it we landed at Samui airport where I was shunted to a hotel booking desk, chose somewhere called Hutcha Resort, which was cheap enough and on Mae Nam. After a moderate mini van ride I got there and was very impressed, and it would appear I was one of the very few guests there. Have a little fan cooled bungalow, with double bed and ensuite. I dumped stuff and went for a wander to take some photos while it was sunny. Resort is very nice, and only 2 people at the pool, beach is 20ft from the bar and the sand was scorching hot so had to scamper to sea while deflecting a massage request. Wandered back, got pool stuff, chilled by edge, went in and splooshed around getting sued to forcing myself not to breathe underwater. Got out and sunbathed while reading The Road, which is a bit odd and a tad boring. I'm sure it's poignant or something. Headed back and collapse on my bed for a while, dreamt of superheroes, woke up with blurry vision from chlorine and its still not fixed at 9pm even though I washed my eyes out! Bit worried/annoyed.

Went to explore town, saw a cool Chinese temple, and walked down the main street which is made up of restaurants, massage parlours and internet cafes. Found one and did some interwebs for quite a while, including blog and listen to the latest russell brand podcast, very funny. Walked back and grabbed a thai green curry, extremely yummy. Now chilling in restaurant/bar, only guest in here, very odd, couldn't communicate it to the waitress though. Sounds like the kitchen fell on someone and they sounded like a cat. Wish my vision was alright. I can focus close range, but everything else looks like when they do a really band dream sequence in Sunset Beach or Hollyoaks. With James Blunt playing in the background.

I'm not sure what I plan to do tomorrow, I guess the normal sun, sea and sound combo, but I don't fancy boiling to a crisp or burning to a hot liquid mess. Or something.

24th May 2008

Woke up at 7, and got down to dive shop surprisingly chipper. After a variety of busses we got on our huge boat with hot showers. Seeing as there were only 5 of us diving, much awesomeness. After our briefing and light breakfast, I spent the 3 hour journey to Koh Phi Phi finishing The Beach, very good book. Turned out I was diving one on one with dive instructor. Had a very good dive, got used to it straight away, saw some cool nudi branches, shrimpie things, puffer fish and the usual moray eels and clownfish posse. Had a really nice lunch between dives, then went to a new dive spot and I saw a bright yellow and very cute sea horse.

Boat ride back to the mainland was pretty boring as I had nothing left to read, but we had a HUGE platter of fruit. When we got back it was pouring down, and as our bus had no sides, we got soaked, so went back, changed, and bust out to Andaman Coffee to print out my flight info for tomorrow. Then had Thai from "the best Thai restaurant in town". Was realy nice actually and saw some guy fall off his scooter, which is why I won't get one. He looked fine though, as it was slow, but he had no helmet and was just in a t-shirt and shorts. Muppet. Headed back very stuffed to packed for an even earlier start tomorrow.

23rd May 2008

Holy moly, pudding and pie, I needed that sleep (until 10.30!), didn't get of hotel till quite late and had a nice Thai meal for lunch, black pepper pork y'all. Then found an awesome coffee shop called Andiman Coffee Shop, that gives you 15 minutes of free net time with every drink. Wrote some blog and journal and had a mocha plus a coffee. Then went on the beach (after visiting my DVD selling friend) and chilled on a sun lounger for the arvo until the sun set. I read vast amounts of Alex Garland's The Beach, which is something I really should read, especially if I'm going to Koh Samui, and it's really good. Smug that no one charged me for using a lounger, though the beach was mostly empty anyway. I got a smoothie from the coffee shop but it was far too sickly sweet. I saved money on dinner by eating what I had in fridge and bag. Watched Epic Movie, nicely didn't use brain power, was better than Date Movie, but still awful. Also saw some kids hero type film with the guy from home improvement and he was training a group of kids who had power, was quite enjoyable. Sleep for diving tomorrow.

22nd May 2008

Woke up, breakfast, packed and got to Karon beach surprisingly quickly, at least by 11 or something. Place I planned to stay (who didn't actually email me back), not only looked a bit meh, but it also failed to have a reception desk. So I perambulated to a nice looking place, though the crazy shouting woman made me sceptical so I asked to check out the room. Twas a paradise, so I was like:

Yes.

I desweated and chilled for a while, watching tele and noting my A/C, DVD player, wardrobe, fridge, kettle, ensuite and double bed before taking a stroll around my room. Oh the tribulations of a backpacker. I then actually ventured outside, melted, had a chat with a dive dude, found the beach, walked along, tried to buy 2 t-shirts, and some boardies, but failed to have any money, or at least enough. So I then broke my rule for thailand and went on the back of a girl's scooter to the atm and back. I survived, bought said merchandise, then bought Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark off of a rather sketchy man, but I'm sure it's legit considering how cheap it was. Ahem.

I bought some sandwich making supplies from the next door supermarket. Returned in a pool of sweat, and couldn't stop myself watching it while rehydrating myself. Ventured out again, internet, booked a Dive excursion for Saturday for Ko Phi Phi, which is nice and wandered around.

Showered, tele, blah blah, went out for dinner. To an Indian restaurant, yeah I have it in for my stomach, that I could see out my window. Only person in there at 7pm? Low season apparently. Chef cooked me up Lamb samosa even though it wasn't on the menu, very delicious. Had a lamb biryani and mixed veg curry for main. To which the waitress remarked "lamb lover" to which I didn't reply with "Don't phrase it like that Lady". And we didn't all laugh merrily. Food was great, a crazy Indian guy stared at me the entire time and I had to order a beer at the end to allow me the time to finish this. The things I do for the love of writing....

21st May 2008

Up earlish and had brekkie while some girls watched Sex in the City, not really a morning show. Then mostly been trying to organise what I'm gonna do next, and decided I'm not really well enough to do a live aboard so may just chill on Karon Beach and get some trips to the Similian Islands. Then fly to Koh Samui, then boat to Koh Tao then off to Bangkok. You really need 3 months for Thailand, it's foolish doing it this quick.

My stomach still hates me though and everything in the Juice Bar is very loud.

The greatest idea I came up with, since mixing water and electricity, was to try and walk to an outta town shopping centre that I was told could supply me with DVD/VCDs. This was quite an epic walk. Probably took 45-60min, though I'm not sure that the passage of time was consistent and I ended up drenched in sweat. Wasn't that bad though, better than trying to walk home from a random place in Orlando, Florida with my Dad. Anyway, the most contrasty thing was that after this walk of dodging diseased dogs, strange nauseating smells and mainly walking in the road, I came across a huge out of place western haven. A pristine shopping centre, with Starbucks obviously, over priced goods, people who open doors for you and then salute you (note: how do you politely acknowledge a salute?) and a 7 screen multiplex cinema. I sauntered around the shops, tried to dry off in starbucks, bought cloverfield, beowulf and rouge assassin VCDs on the cheap (but legal) and decided to catch Iron Man for 100 baht (1.66pounds according to my drastically revised exchange rate).

Seats were extremely comfy, I even remembered you had to stand up to honour the king before each film! (Thanks Rex). Film was really good and I saw a trainer for a weird film that stars the huge wrestler guy that Tony Jaa beats up in a temple that is on fire in The Warrior King, and it was actually advertised as such. After the film I had the worse pseudo-chinese meal ever, that was so sweetly sickly that I could have developed diabetes while sitting at my window cove.

Due to my unwillingness to walk back the way I came in case of dog attacks or moped attacks, I got (probably) swindled by a tuk tuk driver but it was very comfy and she didn't drive like a lunatic, like a certain Rex I know. Twas pretty late so just watched Rogue Assassin, which was generic actiony. Indy Jones was better.

20th May 2008: Phuket Town

One of the issues with my crazy dutch posh accent is apparently ordering Americanos in Asian cafes. Mainly that I pronouce it "uh-meri-carn-o", and they expect "ah-meri-caaan-o". Or something. It's totally tipping down and today's supercharged possibly unsafely high strength ibruprofen is wearing off a bit. Surely 1 tablet shouldn't be 400mg. You're allowed to take 3 a day apparently, after meals, while under doctor supervision. Well maybe not the last bit. But 1 of those, a strepsil, and vast quantities of water semi-repaired me this morning, as well as a cheap breakfast by the hostel.

A note on cheapness: Everything here is silly cheap. 1.5l of water is 16bht (20p). This coffee in a swanky coffee shop was 50p. My ensuite, fan cooled, double room with TV and DVD is 6 quid a night AND this is a touristic place.

Anyway, after my miracle recovery, I ventured out and soon blasted a path through to the post office, which was far too busy to attempt any sort of business deal, with so I wandered off. Up Phuket Road found Juice Internet where I blogged a bit, had lunch and a huge smoothie for less than 1 quid. Checked out Ocean Shopping and Robinson's shopping centre, batting away tuk tuk and bike dudes at every step. I also perfected a fearless technique to cross the roads with little difficulty. Haven't been offered a massage or a suit yet. Bought some trainer socks for 1/200th of a penny. I kid, but still cheap. Also got billabong and DC shirts in a random shop, where a woman was literally throwing t-shirts in my general direction for me to buy. Anyway, they cost as much as a gram of lint and I now have some t-shirts after foolishly giving far to many to Rex to take back with him. Damn you rex.

I meandered back to the hostel, added another night to my stay, dumped off my stuff, and explained the issue of my shower filling up like some houdini-esque escape trick. Went for a walk around to see some shrines and then had to scarper away from some crazy dogs. The skies fell and here I am in a cafe with some crazy singing girls and an english guy drying his shoes with napkins.

Apparently I can successfully order a croissant in a pseudo-french accent. Which costs 25p. And is huge!

Note to self: Check actual exchange rate and not use one you possibly made up in your head.

19th May 2008

On awaking today I discovered I had a combination of man flu and dolphin. Very groggy, no strength, aching, dehydrated, sore throat, and massive headache. After vegetating for a bit and eating some cold 7-11 nasi rice or something, I felt even worse. Decided that I had to take a taxi as I was too weak to do any complicated train tomfoolery, and it turned out train goes to wrong terminal anyway.

Hour taxi ride was a bit hellish, couldn't understand driver and was far too warm in there. Eventually, after passing the Malaysian F1 track, we got to the airport and I staggered around until, via some fortunate and random series of events, I found myself in the cramped departure lounge. Dying slowly. Eventually I got some Hersheys dark chocolate, which partially recovered me a bit, and I got some more food and lots of water from a cafe while walking around in circles. Plane was delayed, but when we did board, as I got priority boarding for $1, I got choice of seats, so sat near front for a quick exit. Flight went very quick (just over an hour) and I had some weird chicken, ham and liquid cheese sarnie. Bag was first off conveyor belt!

Shared a really really nice taxi with a random guy, so only cost 2.50 quid, for the 30min journey or something. Checked into hostel, really nice room with ensuite, TV and DVD player. Spent evening dying in bed, watching southland tales. VERY weird film. Fell asleep in a delusional state.