ciaranz.com

We spent about a week on the small island of Koh Toa, a very chilled place with bars on the beach and dudes who spin fire around on sticks. I would recommend it for couples looking for somewhere romantic. There were many such couples walking arm in arm along the beach gazing into the middle distance. It made me sick.

I can tell you in the meanwhile that a good volume of drink has made the return journey, the um, foreign heat has affected my judgement in relation to those girl things and we have now travelled to the island of Ko Phangan.

Erewan Falls. We swam in the pools which was good but there are fish in there that eat you. Literally chowing down on your feet. No amount of reasoning would convince them to stop.

“Argh! A lion!” Well a tiger. Check me out stroking some, uh, cat.

On the River Kwai.

So, we’ve travelled down via bus, moped, train and boat to the island of Koh Toa off Thailand’s East Coast, where we’ve put in some serious beach action.

Lewis – recovering from malaria – wasn’t feeling so swell the first night so Rosey and myself decided to go for a couple of beers to let the big man get an early night. As the beer flowed we came to the logical conclusion that the more we drank and the later we stayed out the more quality sleep Lewis would get and the quicker his road to recovery.

Needless to say he wasn’t particularly thrilled when I stumble in at half two, utterly toasted. He was even less happy when I decided the room needed some re-decoration courtesy of my stomach. Oops. The less said about that nights proceedings the better for all concerned…

We have been enjoying ourselves in Kanchanaburi near the bridge on the River Kwai. We have met elephants and tigers and gone bamboo rafting. Yesterday we woke up to realise that the military has staged a coup and THE GREAT ARMY CHIEF GEN SONTHI BOONYARATGLIN HAS TAKEN CONTROL OF THE COUNTRY. WE ARE RESTORING POWER TO THE PEOPLE UNDER THE COMMAND OF HIS MAJESTY THE KING OF THAILAND. LONG ENOUGH HAVE WE BEEN SLAVE TO THE DEMOCRATIC SYSTEM – IT IS NOW WE GIVE THE COUNTRY BACK TO ITS PEOPLE.

LONG LIVE THE KING. END TRANSMISSION.

P.S. Lewis has malaria.