Now my language skills have never been worth shouting about and learning Thai is not particularly easy!
I have to admit that, at this stage, it appears far harder than French and Spanish ever were (both of which I failed miserably in learning) so I have decided to book myself in for a beginners course at a language school here in Bangkok. Course starts 7th September and is 60 lessons long so will take a few months...
Partied late'ish last night so a relaxing wake up, some lunch in Pattaya and under the beach umbrella-roof for the afternoon:
Afterwards it's back to the hotel and watching the sunset from Jomtien Beach:
Back to Bangkok tomorrow.
We grab some lunch in a local restaurant and then spend the afternoon down by the beach chilling out and then getting some supplies and the like before heading back to the hotel.
You have to be careful where you walk though, especially at night...
Togged up, off for a Korean BBQ and then a night down 'Walking Street'.
Both of us want to get out of Bangkok for a few days so we decide to go to Pattaya/Jomtien for a break.
A blast from the past is on the bus! Spooky how things work out but we bimble down to the bus station at Ekkamai, stopping when the heavens open, deciding not to get this bus buyt the next one, kind of thing and in no real rush at all.
I end up sitting across the aisle of the bus from Paul Twyn, a bloke from Brecon who I met 22 years ago when I was posted their, and had a few beers with (on more than one occasion) all those years ago, strange coincidences!
Still raining all the way down to the coast it takes an hours or so longer to get there than normal. An exciting journey with like flood-water in some places.
Arrive in Pattaya, say cheerio to PT and then get a taxi to the Jomtien Boathouse.
There are lots of new and smart cars about but this is the first roller I've seen over here.
Temperature is down 0.2 C today so am feeling much better :-) Headaches is still there but that may be down to the Sangsom...!
Spend a couple of days at Jane's whilst we look for an apartment to stay in.
Look at around 8 -10 different places and they're all around a similar price but only 1 or 2 I would actually consider living in.
In the end we decide on a nice 1 bed studio near Phra Ram 9 MRT (underground station). This is only 2 stops from Jane's work, 3 stops from the sky train and makes the center of Bangkok easily accessible.
Sadly my time in Thailand, this time, is over and I have to fly back to the UK to sort things out.
A fairly crappy flight to Mumbai, and then a rush to get the connecting flight to Heathrow (swine flu checks!!).
The plane to Heathrow though is the best long distance flight I have been on, nice one Jet Airways.
Landing back in London I'm pleased to say that it's raining, joy!
Hire a car from Europcar and drive north...
4 hours and back in sunny (?) GY.
Ah well, never mind, have my [return] flight booked for the 4th August 
We board the Grand Pearl and seated, the boat slips lines and we head up the Chao Praya river passing the sights of Bangkok.
After eating and about 1 hour we get to the turnaround point:
and then back towards the Grand Palace:
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...go past the palace and then to the Temple of the Dawn:
All in all, a fantastic night!
Head down to central Bangkok for a river cruise...get there early so sit down and chill out for a while whilst we wait to board.
A trip to Trat Airport and an easy check in.
A one hour flight to Bangkok and then normality .
Bangkok is terrible for traffic with the exception being a Sunday.
Went to Siam Paragon then to the Erawan Shrine:
After that, onto CenterWorld and a look at the underwater photo exhibition:
Back to the hotel and out for a meal to the local Korean BBQ restaurant:
Lots of sea food, a couple of beers (for me), a good night and a great way to spend a Sunday.
My 30-day visa-on-arrival is due to expire and I want to stay here a little while longer.
I look at going to the Immigration Office in Bangkok but they will only give me one weeks extension because of my visa-on-arrival. This will cost 1,900 baht.
If I go to the Cambodian border, I can get another 30-days. There is a coach that leaves at 9.30 am, provides movies on-board, lunch and is air-conditioned and is back in Bangkok by 6.30 pm. It costs 2,000 baht. No option.
It turns out the coach is the most comfortable I have been on and the process is very straightforward.
The only problem (for me anyway) is that the Thai government have changed the law: if you enter Thailand from a land border [having initially entered Thailand with a visa-on-arrival] as I have done, then you only get a 15-day visa extension instead of a 30-day one.
C'est la vie.
Went to the temple at Chachoengsao today.
Anya, On, Jane and myself were driven by their friend, Prit to this large temple about 1 hour drive East of Bangkok.
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It's terrible (and that's not the four letter word I used!).
Because of my recent reinstall of the OS I downloaded the latest iTunes and installed it.
Having learnt from past 'problems' about synchronisation I opened iTunes and deselected ALL 'automatic sync' settings (or so I thought!!) BEFORE attaching a device.
I obviously missed one!
I have two ipods (lucky me :-).
The old one is 60 GB and has all my music on it. Too many tacks on the Clipper race (flying across the saloon once too often) meant the battery is knackered and can only be used in the base station.
The other, new one, is 160 GB and has around 700 movies on it: all the Friends episodes, Band of Brothers, Bilko, Dads Army, Green Wing, Fawlty Towers, Monty Python, Shameless, the list goes on....I have spent ages, ages converting these from the DVD to iPod format.
Anyway, I tried a program called Anapod the other day. It's an application that allows you to view your entire iPod in Windows Explorer without needing iTunes.
Unbeknown to me, iTunes decides it's going to sync my iPod with my laptop.
Now, my laptop has about 10 GB free space on it, nowhere near enough room for the 200+ GB of movies stored on an external HDD that is IN THE UK!!
Jane was going to borrow my iPod today so I checked it and, lo and behold, it's completely wiped - NO MUSIC, NO MOVIES, nothing!
How stupid is that? No confirmation required, no question about, "Hey hang on Mr iTunes, here's an iTunes folder with nothing in it and a device which is loaded with stuff, I know, let's synchronise the laptop to the iPod without asking the user if he really wants to lose ALL his data - let's just DO IT"
Why would I want to do that?
I can think of NO situation at all where I would completely want to wipe an iPod or iPhone WITHOUT being asked first.
You don't format a drive without an, "Come on now, Are You Really Sure You Want to Do This-type Question?" and this is, in effect, what they have done.
I purchase a copy of Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 3 and try and upgrade my existing installation.
Unfortunately, this does not work so I take the disk back and get a replacement.
This doesn't work either so, throwing caution to the wind (and my laptop is running sooooooo slow) I decide to do a clean install.
This works very well but, of course, all my installed software is no longer there.
Bangkok's a great place for getting 'new' stuff though :-)
I remember - from my visit last year - that from the airport to Bangkok centre we go through at least one, and possibly two, sets of toll booths and it takes around 25-30 minutes for the journey.
Unfortunately, the taxi driver decides to do it 'on the cheap' and decides we're going to get off the toll roads straight after leaving the airport.
(Traffic on a good day)
To show me how well he knows the area he stops at a lay-by outside of Suvarnhabumi and asks a fellow taxi driver directions...!
After about 1.5 hours stuck in traffic (and still about 6km away from my hotel) he decides to get back onto the toll road and we're at the hotel in about another 40 minutes (and most of this time was spent trying to get back on the toll road)!
Welcome to Bangkok!
Back over to Playa Del Carmen and then down to Puerto Aventuras to sort my stuff out to [not to take] to Costa Rica.
My mate Dave says that petty crime can be a problem so advises me against bringing 'certain' stuff.
What to take, what not to take?
Isn't it amazing how easily qnd quickly we get used to 'luxuries' and take them for granted: laptop, ipods, etc.
I can't for one minute imagine travelling without my ipod so it's coming with me. Just hope it stays with me.
Get back to Adam and Emily's in PA and find out that Adam is on a fitness phase at the moment. Guess no hangovers between now and Monday then (him not me :-)
Adam and I go to Gringo Dave's bar and watch the Superbowl.
Neither of us know much about American Football so Adam goes for the Red team and I go for the Yellow team.
The pub is packed and there's a good atmosphere and the game, apparently, is an exciting one(!!!).
It goes to the wire but, unfortunately, 'my team' lose so I owe Adam a beer - ah well, best have another one 
Puerto Aventuras is a beautiful place and down in the heart of the marina - where the restaurants, shops and bars are - is a beautiful place to have some lunch and watch the world go by (oh, and dolphins
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Get across to Cancun and have a lazy day before heading down to Playa Del Carmen.
The antibiotics seem to be working and, after completing the course, there's no pain or discomfort whatsoever
On Monday, Adam and his son, William, come up to PDC to meet me and we drive down to Puerto Aventuras.
On the way, Adam informs me it's 'Australia Day' today (him being an Aussie and all) so after getting to the yacht and saying hi to the rest of the family, Emily, Sophie, Gracie and their nanny, Kathryn, we head off to 'The Pub' and partake of a few beers, a meal, and a few more beers.
Back to the house and then a few more to complete the 13-hour session (!!!!!!).
Tuesday is not quite so pretty and even the hair-of-the-dog (early evening I might add) does not work - ah well, will learn one day!
Spend the last couple of days in Cuba seeing 'old' friends and then Norm gives me a lift to the airport.
The check-in and clearance through security is a doddle (now why did I think it was going to be a problem?) and the flight leaves only half-an-hour late.
Manage to book a hotel via Cancun airport and am safely tucked up in my hotel room by 7 pm.
After the touristy thing through old Havana, we decide to visit the Museum of the Revolution.
It's an interesting afternoon reading the museum articles and viewing the exhibits and photographs and outside, vehicles, aircraft and other hardware of sepcial interest to the Cubans and the Revolution.
After this we decide to head over to one of the popular tourist bars (apparently this was where Fidel, Raul and Che used to drink coffeee pre-revolution) and tucked into a couple more mojitos.
A few hours later we pour ourselves out of there and get in a taxi back to the accomodation.
I make it back to the accomodation and Dave, after a severe bout of the wobblies, finally makes it back to his boat!
Overall, a very good day.
Have the usual visit to the Hotel Palco to check email (internet is so expensive over here, the cheapest we've seen is 5 CUC per hour; is extremely limited, being restricted mainly to hotels and the 'odd' internet cafe; and the only place where you can get wifi is in the Bahia Melia hotel in Havana, about 20 minutes+ drive away), and then Norm drives Dave and myself into Old Havana.
Looked through some of the street markets (got the fridge magnet Dai Morris!!) and then had some lunch by Havana harbour.
The waiter brought the menu over and then disappeared. A few minutes later, after we'd had time to peruse the menu, another waiter appears and tells us that the only thing they have available is tuna. Fair enough but "...what's the point of giving us a menu then...?"
Ah well, tuna sandwich it is and a Mojito (or two), well it is my birthday :-). A couple of them and we're ready to do the touristy thing.
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One of the sporting events I have always wanted to see has been a game of baseball.
Baseball is a huge sport in Cuba and some are fanatical about it here. In season, there are games every night of the week apart from Monday.
Norm briefs me on a few of the rules and we go into Havana to the Latino American stadium to watch one of the 'local' games.
Unfortunately, it turns out to be a particularly poor game and, at times, is tantamount to watching paint dry. According to Dave this is not indicative of a 'normal' game of good 'league' baseball and is definitely not a good introduction to the game (and he's not wrong :-)
We didn't stay till the end leaving after the sixth innings. Ah well, tick that box.
Norman sorts me out some good cheap, clean accomodation in a place with lots of character.
Then, accompanied by Dave, we go to a local restaurant and spend the afternoon chatting and drinking Mojito's - now that's the way to spend the day!!
The next day was a little bit lighter in terms of bikes on the road. Overnight most of them had gone. The festival finished on the Saturday and - whoosh - 90% of them had left by Sunday lunchtime. Guess a few had a long way to go.
Decided to go and get a bitof fresh air so I drove south to have a look at the Ponce De Leon lighthouse and museum.
Building began in 1884 and the lighthouse entered service in 1887.
It is comprised of over one million bricks, is 175' tall and has 207 steps to the top...do I, don't I...
The view from the top, as you would expect, was amazing:
The lighthouse is a private aid to navigation and is maintained and funded solely by museum staff, volunteers and the Ponce De Leon Inlet Lighthouse Preservation Association.
After that I decided to go down to Fort Lauderdale to have a look around and to register with some crew agencies. A nice place but the actual purpose of the trip was wasted as I could quite easily have registered via the internet. C'est la vie.
Back up to see Gibbo & Sara before they go back to the UK and then time for some more diving...
Hired a car and headed off to Daytona Beach to see the last days of the annual 'Biketoberfest'. It's an annual event and attracts literally thousands of bikers from all over.
Managed to find a room which had a spare room (and I tried a few hotels) but didn't get up to much the first night as a little under the weather from something I must've consumed the night before :-(
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