Sorry for the delay - Days 12, 13, 14.......

Sorry for the delay - Days 12, 13, 14.......

Apologies for the delay in updates, been a busy few days lots of things going on, so I'll just give you a brief walkthrough of what we've done since our last update. 

Wednesday was a fairly uneventful one in terms of the blog. We had yoga in the morning, and then went into the tattoo shop to 'discuss' me getting a tattoo done. This brief discussion turned from throwing a few ideas around, to writing a definitive design down and booking an appointment, for mid-day the following day. I was not expecting to book it and have it done so soon, and I'd not really had chance to build myself up to it, but that might have been a good thing. 

The rest of the day was spent in the usual way, training in the evening, then tea, skype and sleep, nothing major to report. We woke on Thursday morning at 11 to get ready to head down to the tattoo shop. After dragging myself out of bed and forcing down some nervous breakfast we headed down to the parlour, which, fortunately is located directly outside Tiger Muay Thai, so about 5 mins from the hotel.

Once we got there I was measured up, checked my design, had the stencil put on and we were away. I had opted to go with the more expensive, traditional method of tattooing, using a bamboo stick with several needles attached. It's a method of tattooing traditionally used by monks on Thai soldiers, with the tattoos designed as protection in battle. The bamboo method also has the advantage of healing very quickly, as the needles pierce the skin, not tear like a more commonly used tattoo gun. Another thing I'd read is that Bamboo tattooing is 90% less painful than machine tattooing, a piece of information that, once we'd begun was refuted by everybody in the shop, much to my dismay. It was one of the most painful things I've ever experienced, like having 120 stinging injections a minute. The areas where the artist had to put the detail in were the most painful, as the needles had to go so deep into the skin, it was not pleasant.

The painful bit had passed by this point!

The pain was 100% worth it though, I absolutely love my tattoo. It's another of those experiences that you're unlikely to get a chance to experience again, so to get tattoo'd, with the bamboo method in Thailand, by a Thai artist is something that will stick with me forever, literally. It's just a shame Nicola didn't enjoy the experience as much as I did. I thought I handled it like a baby, but she had to run out of the shop after 10 minutes as she thought she was going to pass out. I'd suggest it's put her off tattoo's for life, much to her Mum's relief I'd imagine! I'll just have to take her share for her ;)

Nicola
Wherever You Will Go

Admiring my new Muay Thai t-shirt

So that was 2 pretty exciting experiences in 1 week. Getting to have my picture taken with exotic animals 1 day, and a tattoo a few days later, not a bad effort all things considered, just could have done with squeezing a bungee jump and a sky dive into that week and it'd have been a perfect thrill-seeking week completed!

A relaxing late Thursday afternoon and Friday morning followed the painful experience of early Thursday, and allowed us to prepare ourselves for another experience, a night out in Patong. We'd visited Patong earlier in the holiday, and it certainly wasn't the highlight, but we were keen to go back and experience the nightlife. A fellow tattoo enthusiast in the tattoo shop we were in on Thursday told us that Patong didn't really kick off until 11pm, so we geared ourselves up for a long night. 

The night started with a little walk around the shops before deciding where we'd be eating, the Hard Rock Cafe. We'd checked out the menu briefly the last time we were in Patong, but weren't too impressed by the prices, but thought we'd go back and take another look. Turned out we'd just seen the specials section at the start and been put off, as the rest was fairly reasonable. 

We kicked things off with a cheeky Margarita, my cocktail favourite of the holiday, but insisted on a sugared glass, not the more popular salted rim. We also opted for the more expensive, 899baht version of the drink which meant we got to keep the Margarita glass at the end of our meal, to go with our Hurricane London ones. Then ordered a very tasty platter to start the meal, something I would come to regret when my monstrous double cheeseburger arrived. Once the platter had been devoured our mains arrived, and I was already struggling. My stomach just wasn't used to such mammoth portions, after mainly feasting on a diet of lighter noodle and pasta dishes throughout the holiday, so the burger didn't go down quite as nicely as I'd hoped. Overall, our Hard Rock experience was a very positive one though, and we walked away, large Hard Rock bag in hand very satisfied and proceeded to begin our bar crawl. 

The bar crawl begun with a trip to Scruffy Murphys, an Irish Bar, but I'm sure you could have guessed that! Murphys happened to have a very nice deal of 2 frozen Strawberry Daiquiris for 100thb, so Nicola helped herself to 4 of those, whilst I started with a Magners (couldn't turn down a cider, they're not easy to get out here!) before having 2 myself.

From here, it was to an area of Patong similar to a market, but full of small pop-up bars, many of which had dancing Thai girls parading themselves across the bar. We managed to find one that was a bit more reserved, with a few people simply sat at the bar drinking and chatting. After a drink each here we moved back towards the strip. It was around half 10 by this point, so the night was starting to really kick into gear.

As we got back onto the strip we were instantly offered the chance to partake in the viewing of a 'Ping Pong Show'. I'm still not 100% sure what goes on at one of these Ping Pong shows, as the 'menu' seems to have diversified beyond purely Ping Pong balls, but I can take a good guess, and I don't think it's something I am too keen to see. Talking of the menu, I have no idea what these poor girls were doing with these objects, but we were offered to see a Mouse Show, Balloon Show, Cigarette Show, as well as 20 or so others. We decided against seeing one in Patong, but it seems likely that we'll frequent one in Bangkok, just for the experience, god only knows what it'll be like!

We finally made our way through the Ping Pong advertisements and into another bar. Here, we took advantage of the Happy Hour deal and got ourselves 2 Long Island Ice Bulls, which is basically a Long Island Iced Tea but with Red Bull instead of Coke. If you're not sure what the drink contains, it's a 5 shot mix of white spirits; more specifically Vodka, Gin, Tequila, Triple Sec (Cointreau) and Rum, a potent enough combination in the UK where licensing laws dictate that they have to be 10ml measures, but in Thailand, it was a drink that went straight to our heads! That didn't stop us though, as we noticed the bar we were in sold Pimms. We'd not seen cider in Thailand thus far, let alone Pimms, so we couldn't leave this bar without sampling some. The bartender had to break the seal, and had no idea what the strange spirit was she was pouring, let alone what to serve it with. Luckily we told her to stick it with Lemonade, which she did, just nowhere near enough, it was strong as anything!

With our heads spinning, and stomachs beginning to give in to the potent mix of spirits and food we decided to hop in a taxi and go home. A bit of bartering and a 500thb taxi ride later we arrived home, slumped into bed and went to sleep, the end of a busy night!

I'll update the blog tomorrow with another big update which should cover the remaining few days I've missed! :)

I wanted to be left here, but Nic wouldn't let me

Enjoying a sip on my Cocktail

Nic posing with our fancy Cocktails

Hard Rock illuminations

The Video Unveiling - Day 11

The Video Unveiling - Day 11

Just a quick update to show off the video I promised in the blog last night. Hope you enjoy it :)

Edit: The video's been pulled due to the Coldplay song in the background, so I'm trying to get it back up on another site. Should be up tonight at some point :)

That Monkey Just Did A Wee on Me - Days 10 & 11

That Monkey Just Did A Wee on Me - Days 10 & 11

Day 10 was a fairly insignificant day in terms of excitement. I got up early for my first ever Yoga session, which was surprisingly enjoyable and difficult. I was expecting to be standing in a pose I wasn't flexible enough to do for a few minutes, but it was the complete opposite. It involved constant movement, and fairly simple, but straining poses one after another in a fluid movement. It was very good, and I'll definitely be going again.

The only other key event of the day was the long awaited appearance of the infamous Stick. I was honestly beginning to believe that the stick was a myth, and was an empty threat, but Monday proved to me that the stick did exist, and man did Head Trainer Dang know how to use it. The killer task at the end of every session is 3 rounds of moving around the whole matted area, on tip-toes throwing alternate knees, with the threat that if you stop, or walk, you face the wrath of the much talked about stick. On Monday someone finally broke Dang's rules. A chap affectionately known as Big Baby, a 6'9" Danish  powerhouse with 2 full sleeve tattoo's which almost meet in the middle of his chest was the first to feel the power of the stick. Big Baby must have only stopped for 2 paces, but that was enough for Dang. He instructed Big Baby to stand by the mirror, and called for the stick. Dang warmed up his shoulder, pulled his arm back as far as he could and unleashed the entirety of his force into Big Baby's arse. Big Baby grimaced, had a look at the damage in the mirror, and then appeared fine, I'd have been struggling to walk for a week!

That's about all that's worth documenting from Day 10, a day of training and tiredness, getting up at half 6 was not easy! Now, onto Day 11, a day with much more to talk about. Day 11 was due to start with Yoga again, but that wasn't happening for me, as a clash of knees in sparring on Monday was enough to put me out of action for the day. So, instead of another day at boot camp, we opted for a day at the Zoo!

Around mid-day we set off in the sun, at the start of a 2 and a half kilometre hike to  Phuket Zoo. It was sweaty work to say the least, and we were incredibly glad we took a bottle of water with us for the journey, as we definitely needed it! After around half an hour of walking we made it to the gates of the Zoo and a little bit of excitement kicked in. We paid our 500thb each and headed inside. The Zoo experience started slowly, we didn't want to get ourselves too excited too early, so did something light to begin with, which was have our photo's taken with a massive tiger. Nice relaxing start. For 200thb we took a couple of pictures together, with me holding the Tiger's head up and Nic holding it's tail, then swapped having individual photo's holding the Tiger's head. The poor tiger was obviously sedated, but even so, it's pretty nerve wracking being that close to something that could, if it wanted to, tear you limb from limb. Definitely something cool to say you've done though!

Dan and the Tiger

Nic's turn with the cute kitty

Us and the Tiger

Once we'd finished posing with one of natures most dangerous predators, we moved on to a slightly tamer section of the trip, with the monkey show soon to kick off. The monkey show was probably the most disappointing of the 3 shows we'd go on to see that day, but that's not in any way a negative, as the show was still very fun and definitely worth a watch. The show included a monkey riding a trike, doing some maths and having a little Basketball session, as well as the usual posing and dancing that comes with these kinds of monkey shows.

After a look around at some of the animals, with a good look at the alligators, camels, elephants (which weren't being kept in the nicest of conditions) and a whizz around the aquarium we grabbed a bite to eat. Our dinner turned out to be the most disappointing food we'd had so far in Thailand. Although, to be fair, you can't really expect much from a hot-dog, chicken nuggets  and chips. Once our food was eaten, but not enjoyed we moved on to the second show of the day, and a show which turned out to be one of the most exciting parts of the day for Nicola!

The elephant show was one we weren't really looking forward to after seeing the poor conditions the elephants were being kept in, but it turned out to be easily the best. Once in the arena the elephants seemed genuinely happy, and appeared to be enjoying the attention and cheers from the crowd. After a bit of messing around, a little dance, some music and a few stunts there was a shout-out for 4 volunteers. It took Nicola all of 20 seconds and she was in the middle of the arena. I was then left with a task of my own, juggling the photo taking and video filming as the 2 elephants, one adult and one baby proceeded to walk over the 4 volunteers tapping them on the bottom as they carefully wandered over. It was a real crowd pleaser, especially with the 4 members in the middle, Nicola was loving her 5 minutes of fame!

Elephant proceeds to pat Nicola's bottom

Elephant patting Nicola :)

Nicola congratulated on her brave and fantastic performance

Once the Elephant show had finished, we had just over an hour until the final show of the day, the Crocodile show, so we saw this as the perfect chance to claim ourselves a couple more photo opportunities. The first port of call was to the Orangutang area to get a picture with the cuddly, ginger primate. As soon as we sat down the Orangutang was immediately affectionate and slung his long, hairy arms around us. Once that photo was taken, it was straight into the arms folded pose, before it was made even cooler with the addition of some funky sunglasses. We then got individual cuddle photo's and a cheeky kiss before moving on to our next photo opportunity. It was an amazing experience to be able to get so close to an animal I have always loved, and to experience one that was so affectionate and clearly enjoyed human contact without the need for sedation was lovely. Here are a few piccies of us with our new friend:

Ooo, cheeky.

Nicola getting a cheeky smooch too

A cuddle from our new friend

Pretty cool

A hell of a lot cooler

After a few pretty cool pictures with Mr Orangutang we moved to an area a short distance away to meet a little monkey and have our picture taken with him. This didn't start amazingly, as soon as he began to settle in to Nicola's arms the little bastard decided it'd be a good time to have a wee, soaking Nicola's arms and my shorts. I think that was his way of saying Hello. Once we'd got over the initial teething problems we settled in to having our photo's done. We got a few together, a few holding him in our arms, a few with him on our shoulders and then with the little monkey on our heads. Other than the urine incident it was another nice encounter, especially considering we were a little nervous about it after seeing him have a panic attack earlier in the day after seeing another monkey. I'm guessing the other monkey it saw was some sort of mob boss that he owed money too, as that can be the only rational reason for the little terror to run away and howl like he did!

Our first baby, with built in wee function

Monkey standing on my head

Monkey on Nicola's head

Perched happily on my shoulder

Nicola nervously looks on, praying his bladder is now empty!

Once we'd had our photo's done, we had one last wander around, seeing the Ostriches, which, other than one, which I'm presuming is the big boss on site, had had it's feathers all but removed from it's back. It seemed that this loss of feathers had come from fights of the past, as the main, and most confident ostrich had only lost a few in the middle of it's back. We took another look at the alligators, and a quick look at a kangaroo before taking our seats ahead of the Crocodile show.

This was the one I was looking forward to most. I find crocodiles and alligators incredibly interesting. They're a real throwback to the Jurassic era, with their thick scales, and general appearance and I just find them fascinating. I have seen so many videos of supposed Crocodile tamers getting over confident and having their arms taken home by an angry crocodile or alligator, and I was interested to see if I'd be able to catch something similar on film myself. It seemed unlikely once we'd arrived at the arena however, as the Crocodiles seemed very dosile, and appeared to be heavily sedated, which sort of takes away from the danger and thrill of the act.

Once the trainer had finished a few routine stunts, dragging the croc's around, putting a 50baht note in one's mouth before sticking his head in another it was over. This was when I managed to get my hands on a croc, and managed to get a picture holding the tail of one of the smaller croc's. I was happy enough to do this, there was no risk of getting a hand bitten off, or getting gator rolled, but when the trainer offered me the chance to sit on one of the croc's for 300thb I immediately turned him down. I'm happy to get close to a tiger, or a cuddle an orangutang, but there's no way I was heading into a pit with 6 crocodiles, sedated or not. 

Me holding the croc

Nic had a go as well :)

That was it then, our day at the Zoo over with. We had gone in with low expectations, expecting to come away massively disappointed and depressed at the state some of the animals were being kept in, but in actual fact we found the experience on the main to be a positive one. Sure, some of the animals, such as the elephants shouldn't be in small areas, or chained up, but generally the animals are well looked after. Also, we were really buoyed by the fact that the elephants seemed to genuinely enjoy their time in the show, and seemed very well treated by the trainers. Phuket Zoo is unlike any Zoo I have ever been to, and probably ever will go to, but I'm so glad we went, as we did a few things I'm sure we'll look back on and be very glad we did. It's not everyday you can walk 20 minutes and get your photo taken with a tiger and an orangutang. Here are a few more pictures :)

An angry looking Alligator

Cute deer looking thing

The Messi of the Elephant world

Better at handstands than me

Pretty bird

What the hell is that thing? Turns out it's a Bearcat :/

Woop Woop Woop, this little fella loved making that noise

Another cute looking monkey :)

Check the blog early tomorrow and I should have made the compilation movie of the various shows, including Nicola's starring role in the Elephant production. I'm sure you're looking forward to that!

What Is That? - Day 9

What Is That? - Day 9

Our second weekend in Thailand had begun, and we had a plan sorted. A chill in the morning and afternoon before hitting the much hyped Phuket Town Night Market early evening. We felt good on the Saturday morning, no aches and pains from the Muay Thai session of the night before which to me proves that we need to stick to just 1 big session a day. The idea of doing MMA in the morning and Muay Thai in the evening seemed a good one, but realistically, it just isn't possible. 4 and a half hours of extreme training, in this heat just isn't going to react well with my body. So from now on I think I'm going to stick to just Muay Thai; maybe thinking of hitting a few MMA classes when we get back to England, and maybe with 1 or 2 more while we're in Thailand.

After a lovely afternoon of burn avoidance, or sun tanning as it was formally known we went back to the room and got ready to head off to the night market. Fortunately, the market isn't located too far away from our apartment, not walkable, but to be honest, nothing really is. However, it only took around 10-15 minutes to get to the outskirts of Phuket Town and the beginning of the market.

The market itself was an interesting place. Think Camden, but much more confined and about 3 times as large and you'll begin to get an appreciation for what it was like. Rows upon rows of stalls offering a huge range of goods, from knock-off sunglasses, perfume and handbags to cocktails, to 6ft scale replicas of the Terminator and one of those scary looking things from the film Alien. You could literally buy anything, including, much to our dislike, dogs. These poor, cute puppies locked up in small cages for Thai people to gawp at and potentially buy, before ultimately letting them roam the streets looking for food. They had some of the cutest dogs I had ever seen, there were a few Pugs, a few Maltese and various other fluffy monsters which I'd have loved to have purchased and brought home with us!

Another interesting part of the Animal section of the market, was the, what appeared to be, heavily sedated ferret's which you could pay 100thb to have you photo taken with. Not something that really interested me personally, but the Thai children seemed to be enjoying it. Also, if you're in the market for an Albino Hedgehog, then Phuket Town night  market is the place to go!

After scouring the stalls we began to work up an appetite and so headed to the heavily talked-up food section. Here we saw even more interesting Thai delicacies, that made our cuisine on our Bangkok Airways flight look Michelin star. Whole fried/grilled Octopus and Squid, fried frog with rice, chicken feet, and whole fish with the head still in-tact. In fear of sounding like Karl Pilkington, a lot of the food actually looked, and smelt fantastic. The sheer mix of smells was a real attack on the senses, and built my appetite further. All I'd eaten at the market by this point was a 'chicken sausage' which was basically a small hot dog, which set me back a massive 12thb and the oreo from the top of my oreo milkshake. 

Eventually we found somewhere that looked good to eat. This was more of a restaurant than a market stall, with tables and table service. I went with my standard favourite Thai dish, Pad Thai chicken, and Nicola had fried rice with Chicken. Our guest for the evening, Jenevieve, was slightly less adventurous, and just had a can of coke, no food, apparently the smells made her queezy, a real adventurer! The whole meal set us back 120thb, and it was absolutely delicious. It was the best Pad Thai I'd had thus far on holiday, probably because I got a big pot of ground peanuts, my favourite bit of the meal, so I could chuck on as much as I liked. 

Once our food was knocked back we decided it was time to set off back to the hotel. After Nicola forcefully negotiated a price for the Tuk Tuk ride home, settling on a price of 300thb, we were on our way. To finish the night off, we decided to pop to a bar only 100m or so from our hotel, which happened to have a live acoustic singer on. A few drinks, some freshly cooked salted peanuts and a good sing-a-long later we'd had a very pleasant evening, and decided we'd do something very similar next Saturday. I could get into this living in Thailand business, just a shame it's back to the rigors of training tomorrow!

Our new pet snake!

Buy your tortoises here!

The market, it's not raining, just a dirty lens

Nicola looking nervous in the back of a tuk-tuk

Fried Octopus anyone?

If not, a whole chicken?

Nicola, Dan and our adventurous friend Jen

Fancy a hedgehog?

or an Albino one?

Bunnies

Tasty looking whole fish

Another house pet, Freddo

Lucky for him he's not for sale here!

Week 2 Begins - Day 8

Week 2 Begins - Day 8

Day 8 already, we're into our second week in Thailand, and the time has absolutely flown. It only feels like yesterday when we were sat in Gatwick Airport having food, it's crazy how fast this last week has gone. Hopefully time will start to slow down just a little, as before we know it we'll be flying home again, and that is going to be a really sad day!

There was no Yoga on Friday morning for Nicola, her body was struggling with the sunburn received on the previous day at the beach. She woke up looking like a patch lobster, which understandably left her in a little bit of discomfort. After another slavering of Aloe Vera gel she was right as rain though, and out of bed.

The late morning and early afternoon turned out to be a pretty lazy one, just chilling on the sofa with Nicola's newly reddened nose deep into her book; a book she duly finished before swiftly moving onto her second book of the holiday. Not a bad effort reading a book a week, she's just gonna have to hope she's got some left by the time we get away from the bootcamp section of the holiday and into something that actually resembles a 'proper' holiday.

4pm came around quickly and we headed off to my first proper training session since Monday, 2 and a half hours of Muay Thai! This session actually went a lot better than our first Muay Thai session. I completed the 20 minute warm-up run without a break, and other than the final round of bag work completed everything asked of us. My t-shirt certainly felt the strain though, it was so sweaty by the end of the session, it needed ringing out before being put into our bag.

I actually managed some success in the sparring section of the training too. Once you get over the fact that being punched in the face doesn't actually hurt, you become more comfortable and start actually trading strikes. I think the moment I gained this realisation came as a right leg came flying towards my head. I'd managed to block a few of these previous, but this one connected, and once I got over the brief shock of actually being head-kicked I soon got over it. By the time we moved on to round 2, and a fresh partner I was feeling a lot more confident. Partner 2 got a good beating. He landed a couple of strikes, but I was landing kicks on him with regularity, he didn't seem to have remembered the blocking techniques we'd drilled in the class! Was nice to actually enjoy the sparring section for once!

After the sparring we did 200 knees on the bag, 100 elbows and then a minute standing behind the bag, pushing it away, straightening our arms and holding it. When we were told Beginner Muay Thai was very Cardio oriented I didn't really think it'd be quite this cardio focused, it's a bloody good workout! We then sat down for the introduction portion of the class before lining up behind the head trainer (the dude with the stick) for the section of the class we both skipped last week, due to how brutal it looked. 3 rounds of walking up and down the matted area on your toes throwing alternate knees, much more difficult than it sounds, especially after already working out for 2 hours. I managed it this time, as Nicola watched on, and hoped that was it. It wasn't. 

For the final section we were given 10 minutes to do 300 sit-ups and 100 press-ups. I didn't quite manage that, but did the 100 press-ups plus 125 sit ups, my muscles were burning! Neither of us had ever felt like this after a session at the Gym in Kingston, which gives me the impression we're not quite doing enough. It actually feels good to do this much, and get this sweaty, because at least you know you're doing something, and it's going to have a positive impact on your body. Doing an hour in the gym at Nuffield before heading to the pool wasn't really providing the same impact I don't think!

8pm came around, after a dip in the pool and a quick Skype session and we headed out for tea, to our new favourite restaurant Tony's. Disappointingly our meal was more expensive this time, a ridiculous 200thb, which works out at £4, crazy prices! Nicola had the BBQ grilled chicken I had had the night previous, whilst I went for chicken and fresh chillies in a mild chili sauce with rice and chips, was delicious!

We had planned on going out to watch the football, but the 1.45am kick-off time was too much for us, and we decided on a sleep instead. It did allow us to make our plans for the following day though, and a day that should lead to a slightly more exciting blog, with hopefully more pictures and hopefully a video or two! We're going back to Phuket Town for the night market. It's supposed to be hundreds of stalls selling all sorts of stuff, plus a whole section of freshly cooked Thai food, can't wait!

Ready to head out, just counting the dough for the evening

Nicola looking lovely ahead of our meal at Tony's

Is That Cat Dead? - Days 6 and 7

Is That Cat Dead? - Days 6 and 7

Day 6 began in similar fashion to the previous few days, Nicola rose bright and early to head off to yoga leaving me in bed to consider my choice of activities for the day. After much deliberation, and many struggles when it came to just getting out of bed, I decided  another day off extreme training would be wise. 

Nicola got back from Yoga at just after 8, we had a little nap and then got up properly to sort out some breakfast before heading to the pool for a nice relaxing sunbathe and swim. It was another much needed relaxing day, as we'd still not really recovered from the exertions of Day 4. 

After chilling by the pool for a couple of hours we decided to head inside, get dry and get ready to venture out for a trip to Phuket island's 2 main supermarkets, Big C and the somewhat more recognisable Tesco Lotus. These supermarkets are like no supermarket I have ever experienced. It's not just a supermarket, the building holds everything. Market stalls, electronic stores, a bowling alley, food establishments and as a side note, the actual supermarket itself. They're more like shopping mall's than supermarkets.

A solid 2 hours of shopping later, a new Otto Toaster in the trolley and after almost forgetting the main product we needed from the supermarket, Nicola's pest repellent spray, which, to her disappointment, is yet to get rid of me, we hopped in a taxi and headed home. Carrying what felt like 100 bags of shopping from the taxi to our apartment felt like the biggest mission of the day, not quite vomit inducing like the MMA training of Day 4, but a challenge nonetheless. 

Another swim was organised before we made the long journey to the hotel restaurant once again to finish off another very warm day on the beautiful island of Phuket. Dinner was again excellent, but we're staying to wear the menu options a little thin, and it could be time to perhaps try some of the other establishments located on the main road.

Absolut display in Tesco

No time limit if you're planning a MASSIVE party!

A 'bronzed' Miss Dunkeld

It was back to training on Day 7. The muscles had been restored to something close to 100% and the day had arrived for our 'Beach workout'. We'd been looking forward to this, as in our heads it was going to be a nice relaxing workout on the beach, running along the sand, taking in the sea breeze whilst getting a good workout done at the same time. If only this had been the case.

We were crammed into 2 mini buses, with everything that slightly resembled a seat being filled. This wasn't the worrying thing though, what was worrying is that 10 full size tyres were also loaded into the back of the van. I'd seen UFC training videos of guys running up stairs with tyres, and dragging them up hills, and it didn't look like the style beach workout we had predicted.

When we finally arrived at the workout area, it was announced that we weren't actually going to the beach, but had been taken somewhere with 'Beach views', and those beach views just so happened to come from the top of a steep, long hill. Perfect. The hill was the least of our worries though, as we started the workout. 5 laps of running up 2 flights of stairs all the way around the island area and back. It was fairly difficult, but nothing too challenging to kick off with.

The difficulty was ramped up for the 2nd stage of the 'warm up' however. We were shown a technique of how to crawl up stairs backwards. It sounds mental, it sounds insane, and that's exactly what it was. After practising the technique in the car park it was our turn to give it a go, and man, it is hard. All your weight is pushed onto your shoulders as you struggle to drag yourself backwards up the steep flight of stairs. We were told to do 3 laps, but I only managed 2, with Nicola doing one. Oh, and I got a nice grazed knee for my troubles too, cracking!

It couldn't get any worse from here could it? Yes, it could. We were split into groups of 3, with one person at the bottom, one at the top and one person holding the tyre. The person with the tyre ran up the stairs, once they got to the top did 10 push-up squats with the tyre and handed it over. The person from the top then ran down, did the same and the cycle continued. The idea was to do 10 reps at the top, 10 reps at the bottom, and then go down to 9, 8, 7 etc. Again, this was incredibly difficult in the heat, and our group made it down to 5 reps a time by the end of the time limit, so a good effort overall.

Then it was time for the main event, jogging whilst dragging the tyre in our groups of 3, swapping who'd drag the tyre every 10 road signs. The 2km hill was a lot steeper than we were expecting, and dragging a tyre on tarmac is not as easy as some of the lads in the group made it look. We ended up doing the 2km hill twice before the end of the session, plus doing a few plank runs half way up for fun too. It was a hard session, but genuinely one of the best cardio workouts I have ever done, and I reckon we'll sign up to do it again next week, if our bodies are still running by then that is!

Once the session was over we ditched the group and stayed at the beach we'd been dropped off at to get some food. We got ourselves some grilled chicken, some watermelon and a bottle of water from the stalls and sauntered off to the white sandy beach. Paradise had shown itself again. This beach was just how you imagine it to be from the pictures. Perfect white sand, and crystal blue ocean, and unlike Patong, a clean, litter-free crystal blue ocean. Perfect!

The only thing that took away from the whole thing was the fact we were followed by a dog, who got a whiff of our chicken, to our sunbeds. The dog then decided to sit by our sunbed and watch us eat, clearly desperate for any morsel of food we could spare. It's quite sad seeing dogs suffering in such intense heat with little food, and even less care and attention. We tried to ignore the dog while we were eating, but once we'd finished the chicken off I gave a couple of the dogs the bones and whatever was left on them to polish off.

Views to the right of the beach

The Island off to the left

After sunbathing, reading our books and playing around in the somewhat rough ocean we found ourselves a taxi and headed back to the hotel. Once back at the hotel, we had showers, as somehow we were both covered in sand from head to toe, and with the suncream on top it had stuck to the skin and almost needed peeling off. Finally, when the sand had been removed we settled down for a quick relax in the air conditioned room before a mid afternoon swim was in order.

Whilst by the pool we noticed a little white cat lying under the sunbeds. It didn't appear to be moving, which prompted Nicola to ask if the little monster was in fact dead, it wasn't, it was just sleeping, but in a very strange position. The position it was in reminded me of how little Charlie Brown used to sleep in the lounge. Flat on his back, legs in the air. I thought it was something only dogs did, but nope, this cat had it's relaxation position down to a tee.

Dead kitten?

Nope, just a sleepy kitty.

It wasn't a simple minute walk to the hotel restaurant for tea this evening however, after hearing a very convincing review in the minibus about a restaurant just 5 minutes from our house, we decided to give it a go. Tony's was the name of the place, named after it's owner, a small, chubby Thai man, who for some strange reason, finds it incredibly comfortable to pull his shirt up so it sits on the top of his stomach, revealing the rotund belly beneath. Upon looking at the menu the first think we noticed was the prices, significantly cheaper than our hotel restaurant. Nicola went with beef in oyster sauce with rice, and I went for the highly recommended BBQ'd chicken with rice and chips. 

This, unlike our meal at Signature a couple of evenings previous was delicious. Nicola looked tempted to lick the plate clean she enjoyed hers so much. My chicken was also very tasted, with the chicken coated in a garlic and pepper coating. I had finally had a meal outside of our restaurant that filled me up sufficiently. Success. Another success came when we saw the bill. 2 soft drinks, plus our main meals, of which the rice with Nicolas and the chips for mine were extras, came to 190thb. So just £3.88 for a meal out, you can't even get 1 meal in McDonalds for that, proper bargain, especially for something so delicious. We will definitely be visiting Tony's again.

Another sizeable wave approaches

View of the sea

The beach from the sea

Me looking like an idiot in the sea

The beach again

Us posing on the beach again :)