Bangkok

Travelling from Koh Samui to Bangkok was an experience that I don't wish to repeat. Following New Years Eve there was a mass exodus from the islands and all forms of transport were fully booked. I managed to find, with the help of some very kind travel agents, an escape route. We knew from the off that it wouldn't be pretty, but we weren't quite prepared for the ugly journey that ensued. 

We took the ferry off the island and got on a coach heading for Surat Thani train station. Our desire to get off the islands was due in part to the miserable weather that we had been experiencing; it had been raining heavily all day everyday for several days. . . The highways that we were on had flooded, I guess that the water was over a meter deep on some parts of the road, thankfully the coach somehow made it through;  but I wasn't looking forward to what I knew lay in store for us. . . 

Due to the shitty weather, and the dawn of a new year, fleeing tourists had bought-up all of the seats and sleepers on the train, our only option was to buy standing tickets for the 13 hour journey to Bangkok. I managed to get a hard seat, and hard it was. . . I spent several hours standing by the open doors 

Escaping Bangkok we went on a tour which took us to the bridge over the river Kwai. This is a modern bridge which I believe was built by the Japanese. 

After spending a night or two sleeping on a bamboo hotel and getting drunk with a bunch of Canadians, I went swimming with elephants. Quite an experience.

Rare photograph of me smiling, its doesn't happen often - I tend to gurn every-time a camera is pointed at me. Once on the elephant the keepers prod them so as to insight them to roll, all in an effort to get you wet.

Hell Fire Pass. I believe that prisoners of war were used to carve a path through this mountainous region so that a train track could be laid. Its difficult to get a sense of the scale from this single photo but I've included it because it shows an Englishman and his Australian wife, a lovely couple that I spend a day touring around with. 

Happy Happy Joy Joy. My friends and flat mates, couple from hell during the holiday - can't count the number of times they argued and 'split up'. Back together now and much more peaceful. 

Quite proud of this pic, I shot this at a tiger temple. Managed to catch the big cats playing and for once the camera cooperated and caught the action. 

Whilst waiting for our Vietnam visa's we signed up for a three day package tour - random tourist sights a few hours away from Bangkok. On the last day we visited a place with seven waterfalls. I ventured off by myself and headed towards lucky number seven, fortuitously number seven was the most beautiful of the lot. I had to put my camera into a dry-bag, swim through a pool and  scramble up some rocks to get there - but it was well-worth the effort. 

Koh San Road. It's notorious, purported to be hectic and CRAZY; to me it just seemed lively. I quite enjoyed the atmosphere, perhaps I've been in China too long.