Australian Road Signs

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One day, a long time ago. Aída and I were typing away in some McDonalds somewhere in Australia. She lifted her head from the keyboard and out of the blue she asked me what would I do if one day I didn't have anything to post. If we have a day with no photos and if nothing remarkable happened that day.

I thought about it for a while and replied that I would do a post just with all the Australian Road Signs...

As it happens, not even uneventfull days could shout me up and I've managed to keep posting and talking even on days with barely no photos nor anything remarklable to talk about so in the end I could never publish the famous "Australian Road Signs post" that I had always kept for a rainy day.

So, ladies and gentlemen...this is it!

The Australian Road Sign Blog Post

This is my full collection. The weird and the wonderful from Australia. Enjoy!

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The crazy way back to Europe

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As with all good things in life, they all come to an end and so did this trip. It was time to pack everything and flight back to Europe...

Although things didn't turned out to be as easy as that... My first flight was with Air Asia (I believe it is a Malayan company), it is pretty much like Ryanair or easyjet. Excellent for travelling throughout Asia on a budget and if you wanna splash out like I did, for 8 extra euros you can book an emergency exit seat with all the extra leg room you may dream of. :-)

My first flight was Phuket - Singapore, so I had an early morning and tried to fit as much breakfast as I could in my stomach. I have the theory that when you are hopping from airport to airport you never know when or what you are going to eat so it pays off to go well fed to start with. :-)

My main concern was my next connecting flight. Singapore - London. The problem being that my flight was supposed to leave at 23:59 and my previous flight would get to the airport at 12:00 hence a nice 12 hour wait. I thoght I would get grandchildren while waiting for my next connection but the Singapore airport turned out to be better than expected and if you've seen the movie "The terminal" you know you can make any airport your own home with just a few adjustments. :-)

This airport is the first one I see in the world offering free wifi and free internet to all passengers, all you had to do was going to the information desk and ask for a username and password and voila! you were in the cyberspace.

I've also noticed an area with no people around and a couple of free plugs...so free electricity and free internet, what else can you ask for?! 

So I spent the first hours quite entertained working on a couple of blog entries, watching some films, recharging my laptop and esentially making time until Aídas flight and in all that time I couldn't help to notice this:

Believe it or not, this is a motorised post office!, that's right, you don't need to go and buy some stamps anymore...the stamps come to you and you don't need to go and find a mailbox....the mailbox comes and finds you. :-) Modern times...

Aída´s flight made it on time, no delays so while we waited for her connecting flight to London (which departed one hour earlier than mine) we took the oportunity to catch up and eat some chocolate! for the good all times...we couldn't find an ice-cream parlour as we wanted but we can't really complaint.

It's was great to have a last catch up and get the latest gossip from everybody else back in Australia and also to have yet another chance to say goodbye to Aída who put up with me for at least 3 months!! You cannot imagine the amount of times I asked her to take a photo of me with something for the blog...all those photos where I am on the photo and she's not...chances are, she took the photo...hundreds of them! she got a bit fed up at times but didn't complain...too much...

Unfortunately, our last photo together didn't come out very well

Relax, it's not your eyesight it's the photo!

When the time came, she got into her terminal and off she went to London. By the time she got there she had another connecting flight to Madrid and from there yet another one to Tenerife. In my case, I had the one to London and then in London I had to switch airports.

Landed at Heathrow, went out and took the tube to Victoria, caught the train to Gatwick and boarded yet another flight, this time to Porto where my father and brother were waiting for me to drive me back home (well, my temporary home, that is...)

After that I spent one week in bed! I was sick as a parrot!

But in case you are wondering...yes, it was all worth it! :-)

I'm planning on doing one or two more posts before giving the keyboard some well deserved rest (until my next trip) but I would like to take this oportunity to thank everyone for reading the blog. :-) It's very motivating knowing that you are not just writing for yourself and that somebody, somewhere in the world, is reading it. We've managed to surpass the 4000 visits. That is far beyond what I would have expected when I started.

Thank you to everyone who's been travelling with me through my blog!

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Back in Phuket

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After the past 4 days I was really looking forward to go back to my palace, the C&N hotel in Phuket (I even dreamt about it).

Every muscle in my body was aching! It was time to try the famous Thai massage!

The hotel had a massage parlour as part of the hotel services, so I decided to pay it a visit and it turned out they do much more than just a Thai massage, the do all sorts. Check it out:

I didn't hide the prices on purpose, I'm afraid the photo was too bright but I can tell you the Thai massage was 200 Bath,  which is something like 4-5 euros...for 1 hour. I didn't need to think about it, I stepped in and asked for a Traditional Thai Massage.

First they washed my feet and then for my horror they told me to put these on:

Wearing these ridiculous lilliput shoes didn't inspire me much confidence on the place, nobody can take you seriously wearing those! and half of my feet were on the floor anyway! but as they say, when in Rome...

From there they took me to another room where things got worse...I thought I had touched bottom with the slippers but no...the best was still to come.

A shirt and a fat man's pants. My whole body could fit in one of those legs, you can't really appreciate how big they are on this photo. Imagine my surprise when they tell me I have to put that on!! I was starting to consider whether the massage was really worth going through all this traumatic experience but once you are commited you are commited so I decided to humor them, put the fat man's pants on and close my eyes with the hope they don't ask me to have a weird haircut before the massage or get the masseuse's name tattooed on my forehead...at this point anything was possible!

I have heard that the Thai massage may be quite painful and judging by the screaming coming from the room next door I was bracing myself for the worst. I am not sure whether it was because all my muscles were already in pain or what but I didn't feel any pain. When I came out from the massage I was feeling like someone had just beaten the crap out of meand wondering whether having the Thai massage was a big mistake but I must admit the following day I was feeling dandy. :-)

I'm not sure about the screamer next door but if the pain he was in had any relationship with the amount of screaming he was delighting us with had I been him I would seriously reconsider getting a thai massage ever again.

Another thing that is worth trying in Thailand is the cinema. Yes, it is quite an experience. Check this out

Have a look at the last one. For 400 bath ( about 8-10 euros) you get a sofa for up to 2 people. A SOFA!!!
There is a cheaper option of a reclinable chair for 140 Bath (3-4 euros) but what's that in comparison with having your own sofa... .

As in other countries like India, just before the movie, they play the national anthem so everyone stands up and so should you before  going back to the confort of your sofa. :-)

Another interesting thing I found in Thailand is that I thought Australia had the funniest road signs in the world...well, brace yourself. This is a real thai road sign, I kid you not!

One at the beginning of the street and another at the end... during the day the street didn't look too bad but I'm guessing at night it's a completely different story...

Another interesting business in Thailand is the sale of dvds with the latest blockbusters. As you can imagine everything is pirated they all have like a little shop like below

So if you are interested on anything they have, you let them know so they take you to another nearby building and you get into a room full of dvds, anything you can think of is there, literally thousands of them and it's one of those rooms you can only open from inside and it's locked from the outside. You can take you time, choose what you want and when you're ready haggle a little with the guy and pay him there in the little secret room so nobody from the outside can see what you bought or what you paid. They even put the dvds on a black plastic bag so you can't see what the content is. Current prices are about 60 bath per dvd which is about 1-2 euros although it all depends on your negotiation skills and the amount of dvds you buy.

I remember in Cambodia they used to be more direct, no secret rooms or any other nonsense. You would step into a proper shop with air con and all the dvds on display if you saw something you liked, you just paid for it and that was it.

Some more photos from Phuket
during the day

At night, there was always some show of some kind going on

And this was a pretty good thai restaurant that was just in front of the hotel. It was always full with locals and foreigners, and the food was pretty good.

It was pretty relaxing but as all good things in life, they all come to and end at some point. After Phuket it was time to go back home but that's another post for another day
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Phi Phi Island - Day 4

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I had quite a busy day today. The plan was simple go to the lookout in the morning in order to get a good view of the island and in the afternoon try the rock climbing.

As with all good plans, no matter how simple and well laid out it seems...nothing goes ever according to plan. It turned out to be a day much physically demanding than I had bargained for.

For starters, the lookout it wasn´t a nice and easy walk as I thought it would be. In order to get to the first lookout, yes that's the other thing, there weren't just one...but 4 lookouts! you had to climb the longest staircase in the whole of Thailand.

What you can see at the end on those photographs it's not a ramp, it is still an even more steep if possible stair and it went on forever. When you get to lookout one, you see nothing more than palm trees. Yes, not sure if after the tsunami the views were better with no trees whatsoever, but give it a few years, the trees grow and now you can't see anything except for the signs indicating lookout number 2...so what else could I do but keep climbing up to lookout number 2...

Lookout number 2 was a different story. The views were spectacular and it even had a bar with some nicely overpriced drinks, which believe me, with the heat and all the climbing you are more than willing to pay...

There were some signs indicating a lookout number 3 so I went to see lookout number 3. Esentially you come down part of the hill and climb another one. For my disapointment, the views were just the same but from a different angle.

I never found lookout number 4 but by the time I made it to lookout number 3 it was almost midday and I still had to get back to the village and have lunch before going to the rock climbing school where I was meant to meet the instructor at 1 pm.

After all the stairs climbing the thing I wanted the most was laying down on the beach but that's not what was on the menu for the afternoon.

I met with the instructor at their place in the village and we walked to wall where we were going to do the climbing which was a 10 minutes walk from the village. It turned out to be a one to one class as I was the only pupil today....lucky me!

So after some brief instructions of how to use some of the equipment, he starting climbing in order to setup the rope for me while I was releasing the rope and wearing the equipment to keep him hanging in case he fell.

That very same equipment is the one he would be using on me later when I started climbing with the difference mine would be more secure from an anchor at the end of the climb whereas his was secured by hooks which he put up as he climbed (in case he fell) and that once the rope was set up he asked me to take them back on my way up.

It looks easier than it is and the first time I realised I was about to fall from 20 metres because my hands and arms were giving up on me, wasn't a very nice experience but once you fall and realise you are completely safe you relax and start enjoying  the experience much more.

It seems all climbs have a classification, the first one was a 5+ and so was the second one, the third one I tried was a 6a and unfortunatelly, my hands and arms were so tired by the time I got to the third one that there was a point I just couldn't continue any longer, I couldn't even hold myself for more than 2 seconds without falling so at that point I knew that was the end of the day for me, no point in trying to continue. My arms were made of jelly!

I was really exhausted from the exercise but I felt really great. It was a fantastic experience. One I'm sure will be doing again.

This is a view of the whole wall, the climb would probably go only to the middle of it or so.

From the climb I just went to the beach (which was on the way to the village) and just layed down there until it went dark... I was starving but didn't feel like moving... it was so nice being on the beach without moving...

The following day everything hurt. I think even my eyelids hurt...thinking hurt... with all the diving, the walking around the island and then the rock climbing...I knew what I was gonna do for the next 2 days! :-)



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