Melbourne GP: Friday Free Practice

Despite the ever improving times in the simulator Sir Frank didn't give me the nod for a drive this weekend, so I spent the day in the stands with my friend and fellow F1 fan, Clint.

The Australians really go for their motor sports in a big way. All tram rides around the city are free if you have an F1 ticket and even though it was "only" Friday free practice there were fly pasts from Army Helicopters, the Australian Red Arrows and Air Force fighter jets. I'm looking to see how they up their game for race day!

With the rule book almost completely re-written for this season it has made predicting the form rather difficult. Here are my impressions from day one of the season:

Williams - the car looks to be reasonably stable and balanced through the corners, but didn't appear to be overly quick. However, Rosberg topped the testing time for both sessions. Would love to think he could continue the perfect weekend, unfortunately I think it is unlikely.

Brawn GP - the car looks quick and very bolted to the road, I don't think they were show boating during the tests. Barichello looks a bit faster than Button.

Toyota - similar to the Brawn, the car looks very good through the corners and easy to drive.

Ferrari - best of the cars without the controversial new diffuser. Kimi looks smooth and like he isn't having to put in too much effort at the wheel. Masa was more low key.

Renault and BMW - had very uneventful test sessions. I was expecting both teams to be a bit nearer the front. It will be interesting to see if they up their game for tomorrow.

Red Bull and STR - they were pounding round the track, but at the same time remained under the radar. I don't think they will be challenging for the front of the grid this weekend.

Force India - the car seems to be a real handful. They definitely look the slowest team.

I am in the grandstand on turns 9 & 10 at the back of the circuit. Look out for me on TV!

Aussie Sports

It was back to the F1 simulator again today. I managed to knock a blistering 14 seconds off my previous time. I think that tells you a lot about how slow I was yesterday!

Above is a picture of me attempting to play some golf. It is around 10 years since I last held a gold club and it showed. My search for a new support continues....

I am flying down to Melbourne tomorrow for the F1 GP. Following Melbourne I will be going to Adelaide to meet up with my friend Emily, returning to Sydney in about 10 days time.

I'll try and update the blog while I'm away.

At the wheel of a Williams F1 Car

There is currently a Williams F1 simulator in Martin Place, Sydney. The joy of being unemployed is that both Clint and I could pop down there for a drive earlier today.

I would love to say that I was amazing, but unfortunately my time was depressingly slow and Clint comfortably beat me. The brakes were phenomenal. I am going back again tomorrow for another try!

The perfect warm up for the Melbourne F1 GP this weekend!

UPDATE: Clint has also blogged the event and included a little video.

Thai conversation partner wanted

Having taken my month long Thai language course in Bangkok, I want to keep practising aware that anything I have learnt will quickly disappear if I don't.

If you know of any Thai people in the Sydney area that would like to meet up for a couple of hours a week for Thai / English conversation practice please let me know!

I am going to put a post on the Lonely Planet forum, if you can think of anywhere else I should advertise please let me know.

Welcome to Sydney

I arrived in Sydney yesterday morning and was picked up by Pen and Clint who are also kindly putting me up in their lovely terraced house in Rozelle.

Within the first 24hrs I have managed to fit in a few Aussie cliches. Visiting the pub for a schooner of beer, had a BBQ and been to the local park where we had the above view of the bay.

Dad - there was a mirror race going on if you recognise the sails?

Virus Troubles

Been having a few issues with a Trojan virus, which I have hopefully now fixed.

Despite running Windows Defender and an some antivirus software (can't remember which one now as I have un-installed it) it got through. I think I may have got onto my machine while using a wifi network at Bangkok Airport.

Oddly it was only causing me issues using Google Blogger and Blog Reader.

I have now installed Comodo and it seems to have fixed the issue. Fingers crossed.

Travelling in the digital age

When Olivier arrived for his visit a fortnight ago, it stuck me how many electronics we take with us on holiday these days.

When I first went travelling back in 2001, the only thing electronic I had with me was my 35mm camera which took AA batteries. At the time the thought of taking my mobile phone seemed absurd. The battery wouldn't last the journey and it would be completely ridiculous to carry a charger!

Above is a picture of everything I have with me on my world tour:

1. Laptop and charger
2. Back up hard drive
3. Ipod and cable
4. Phone and charger
5. Webcam
6. Skype headset
7. Camera charger
8. Camera (which of course you can't see as I am taking the picture with it)

All seems a bit silly really!

Farewell Thailand

Its finally happened and my two months in Thailand is drawing to a close. Just like with my final week in New York there is a twinge of sadness to be leaving a place that I have called, albeit for a brief time, home.

Some people might view it as an opportunity missed as I have only left Bangkok four times during my stay (to go to Singapore, Pattaya, Ko Samet and Khao Yai). What of Chiang Mai, Laos or Cambodia? I haven't even been particularly active inside Bangkok, although I have ticked off most of the tourist sites on previous visits.

However, it has been exactly what I needed. The purpose of this trip was never to back pack round Asia, but to have some "me time" and recharge. John and I have certainly managed to fit in a lot of fun along the way.

The parents won't be pleased to hear that I don't exactly feel motivated to take on the world of work once again, but it is probably not too far way. One thing I know is that I will be returning to Thailand sometime in the future. It is an amazing place.

Khao Yai National Park

My friend Ann and I have just returned from a couple of nights away in the Khao Yai National Park, which is two and a half hours from Bangkok and easy to reach by bus.

We stayed at the Green Leaf Guesthouse which the first Lonely Planet “top pick” I have stayed in since they introduced the system. It was a friendly place that was clean and comfortable. I sometimes marvel at how business in Thailand can make any money. We were staying in a large family room (two double beds) for 300 baht a night, which is about £6. This included taxis to and from the local bus station, which is 20km away. How do they make a living and pay all the staff? The weren’t many luxuries knocking about, but I still find it remarkable.

The highlight of our trip was the full day tour that we did organised by our guesthouse. We started by driving into the National Park and along some of the trails. Our first stop was when we tantalisingly saw some trees / bushes being shaken by elephants, although sadly the elephants themselves were elusive. I’ve never seen elephants in the wild and frustratingly still haven’t as we spent the day chasing shadows.

Next up we saw a great hornbill, a monitor lizard…

…. and monkeys…


After the driving safari we set off on a two/three hour hike through the jungle. We were made to wear rather sexy leech socks and warned of the risk of ticks. I was feeling nervous every time an insect landed on me. We saw gibbons…

…and spiders…


Bear marks on the trees and elephant dung on the trails, but still no elephants. As in Costa Rica there were lots of parasites climbing the trees and killing their hosts.

After a couple of hours of hot and sweaty trekking, and a lovely snack of coconut sticky rice with egg custard, we arrived at our lunch time break spot which was a large hide for watching animals surrounded by meadows and forest. Again as in Costa Rica, from a distance I was struck how much of a green and pleasant land, like England, everything looked. However, up close the flora and forna was very different.

After lunch we had a drive through a different section of the park until we arrived at the Haew Suwat waterfall where we went for a swim in the cooling waters. Ann thought the waterfall was featured in the film The Beach. Never having seen the movie the full way through I couldn’t comment!

When they said a full day tour they really meant it, it was a tiring eleven and a half-hours! All of the drinks, snacks and food were included. Great value.

All my photos are here if you would like to take a look.

Thailand Photo Update

I've been uploading some Thailand photos today. Above is a video of some fire dancing on the beach one evening in Ko Samet.

I have uploaded a few random February photos here. I was at school every day, so there weren't too many adventures last month.

Here are my photos from Ko Samet. A beautiful island not too far from Bangkok if you ever get the chance to visit.

I'm off to Khao Yai National Park for a couple of days later today. I'll see you when I get back!

Restaurant Review: Shabu Shi

I was asked by Dave earlier if there was any food, other than Thai, that was big in the Thailand. The answer is Japanese food! Bangkok has a big range of mid priced Japanese restaurants that are only a bit more expensive than their local counterparts.

For Olivier's final night in Thailand we went to Shabu Shi, which is an all you can eat Japanese buffet. There is a conveyor belt winding it's way around the restaurant and at each table you are given a bowl of bubbling soup in which to poach the goodies you take from the conveyor. There is also sushi, gyoza and tempura to feast upon.

You are given a one hour and fifteen minute slot in which to gorge yourself and all for just over £5! I have to admit that I stuffed myself and for the first time since arriving in Thailand left the restaurant feeling a little bit bloated. Perhaps it was a bit too much ice cream at the end!

Wat Pho

On Thursday Olivier and I went to the Wat Pho temple in Bangkok. This was my second visit to the temple as Wat Pho was the first place that I visited on my inaugural trip to Bangkok back in 2005. Back then the sights, sounds and smells of this city were slightly intimidating to someone who had never been to Asia before. This time catching the Sky Train and river taxi to the temple was a lot more relaxing.

The centre piece of Wat Pho is the the forty six meter long reclining Buddha, pictured above. Certainly very impressive, but my favourite part of Wat Pho are the ornate ceramic rooftops that are atop virtually every building. Back in 2005 the place had the feeling of faded glory and of somewhere in severe danger of falling into disrepair. I'm pleased to report that everything is in a much better state of repair these days.


Olivier and I both had a massage in the temple at the end of our visit. Olivier's first Thai massage and a pretty good one it was too. I had a comical young girl who was insisting on speaking Thai to me and stretching my vocab.

Ko Samet

Oliver, Paul, John and myself just got back from an idyllic few days on the island of Ko Samet.

Ko Samet is a three hour bus, and a short ferry ride, south of Bangkok. It is a favourite getaway destination for Bangkok residents and tourists alike.

We stayed in the Silver Sands hotel, which is where John, Matt and I stayed back in October 2006 on my only other visit to Ko Samet. I would have to dig out my old travel journals to find my thoughts on the place back then, as the blog didn't exist at that time!

It is the perfect place to relax, and we spent our days swimming, lounging around in the shade and eating the fantastic food. Going for a swim in the sea feels more like getting in a bath the water is so warm. You can see your feet and the sea bed most of the time the water is so clear. The clean sandy white beaches and BBQ'd freshly caught sea food isn't bad either...

The island gets a bit more lively in the evening with beach bars opening up late into the night. Last night was a full moon, although the party wasn't as hedonistic as the stories you hear from the full moon parties on Phuket. There are a few stories to tell, but what happens on tour stays on tour....

Chatachuk Market and a Sunday Update

I went to Chatachuk market again yesterday to buy some presents for family with birthdays coming up in the next few weeks. I went with a friend of John's who is also over at the moment. Rukky is native Thai and a fearsome negotiator in the market! I think that she definitely helped me to save a few Baht on my purchases. I would never have been so aggressive in trying to get the prices down. Techniques involved laughing, joking, pleading, feigning horror at the price quoted and most bizarrely tickling the shop owners.

We were still at the market at 6pm, so I tried to take a video of the national anthem playing and everyone standing to attention, with the bemused tourists looking on. Unfortunately it didn't go to plan! The anthem didn't start until about 18:05 and we were in a section of the market where you couldn't hear it very well so not everyone stopped. It won't be winning me a Bafta any time soon!

My friend Olivier arrives for a holiday later this afternoon. He's my regular skiing partner and also been part of my Chilean and Costa Rican adventures. It is going to be great to have him here. We are going down to the island of Ko Samet, so the blog is likely to go quiet for the next few days. I'll be thinking of you all while I am on the beach enjoying freshly caught and BBQ'd sea food. Enjoy!

Pattaya Floating Market

For a while I have been reading Thai Blogs which is a blog network run by some British (I think) expats living here in Thailand. They run an eclectic mix of articles on Thai food and slightly more off the beaten track things to do while visiting Thailand.

An article that caught my eye a while ago was for the new floating market in Pattaya. I haven't been to a floating market on any of my previous visits to Thailand, and they are supposed to be one of the sites worth visiting. Therefore I was keen to visit the new market while we were in Pattaya.

Rather than being an old floating market it has been purpose built as a tourist attraction. I have to be honest and say that I was a little disappointed and I think the Thai Blogs may have over sold the market a bit. Not all of the shops seemed to be yet up and running when we visited, and the ones that were open were aiming squarely at the tourist market with over priced gifts. But then that is perhaps what I should have expected!

We had some great food served to us from a boat sitting by one of the piers. It was phenomenally hot and how the cook was sitting next to a BBQ and in the full sun I will never know!

A little public service on The Bridge Over The River Kwai

I'm back from a couple of days in Pattaya and will write a post soon.

In the meantime I thought I would share this video of my friend John as it makes me laugh. Keep watching until the end folks!



Strange how it doesn't look the like the idyllic spot from the movie?

Off to Pattaya aka Sin City

John and I are off for a couple of days in Pattaya today.

I'm not really sure what to expect, but there will almost certainly be lots of middle aged European men with improbably young Thai girls on their arm. I am sure they are all deeply in love! I might even see Georgio the sex tourist from my language course there as he told me he was moving to Pattaya this week for a month. The thought makes me shudder....

My mum has started reading this blog, so there will be edited highlights when I get back..........

Thai Language Achievement!

I finished my month long language course at the Thai Language Achievement (TLA) school yesterday.

We had an exam at the end of the course, 30 written questions in 50 minutes. The approach to marking seemed a bit lax and I was told I had got either 25 or 26 out of 30 correct. I am not going to complain with that score!

I've really enjoyed the course. I am by no means fluent (the school has 9 month long models for those that want to learn Thai seriously), I think I'm probably the equivalent of being two terms into learning French at school.

The best two things about learning Thai, compared to French and Spanish that I have studied before, is that there are no verb tables to learn and nouns don't have a gender. The absence of tenses means you don't have to learn endless regular and irregular verb tables of the past, present, future, imperfect etc... The tense is implied from the context and/or a fixed particle you may insert into the sentence.

With nouns not having a gender you don't have to worry about whether you need to put le or la before a word.

The two hardest things to learn have been the tones and the use of classifiers. As I mentioned in my previous post, Thai has five tones. Saying the same word with a different tone will mean something completely different. Once you get over how to pronounce the tones, it is difficult to remember the associated tone with each word and hearing them when native Thais speak quickly to you. Sometimes I swear they aren't using tones!

Also confusing is the presence of classifiers. Every noun has an associated classifier that must be used when talking about multiple items of the same object. There is no direct equivalent in the English language, as we normally just put an s on the end of the noun to indicate being plural. It would be like saying a gaggle or geese or a troop of monkeys, where gaggle and troop are the classifiers. However, rather than being the exception, in Thai every noun has a classifier. I have to admit I am not currently trying to seriously learn the classifiers and am just getting them wrong at the moment.....

I have found myself being able to understand more of what is going on around me and have basic conversations with people. I certainly can't understand everything being said, but I am beginning to pick out words and sometimes the meaning of what people are talking about. The key now is to practice!

More street food

The food in Thailand continues to amaze. As John commented the other day, there is no way you would open a restaurant in Thailand. There is too much amazing food around at ridiculously low prices and you simply wouldn't be able to compete.

Just before we visited the Erawan Shrine the other day, we popped into a little hut and had a noodle soup with pork and duck wantons. Delicious!

However, I am going to stick my neck out and name the above as my favourite dish served by my favourite street stall.

The stall is located at the end of my road and is frequent haunt for a late night snack or when I am having dinner on my own. The dish is called khaaw moo ghrop which literally translates as crispy pork rice. You get rice, crispy pork belly, Chinese sausage, strips of pork (cut unknown to me at least) and a soft boiled egg all covered in a delicious and slightly sticky sauce. You also get a clear soup on the side. Amazing value for 30 baht.

For such a vibrant 24hr city I am always slightly surprised that most restaurants seem to close around 9pm. Street stalls are you best bet if you want a late meal or snack. The only draw back is that virtually every street stall is closed on Monday. I suppose they need a break sometime!

In revernce to the King

The monarchy are highly respected here in Thailand. The royal colour is gold and it is very common to see people wearing gold/yellow t-shirts with the royal coat of arms emblazoned on the breast pocket, particularly on a Monday.

A few years ago the King left hospital wearing a pink shirt and since then a lot of people have taken to wearing pinks tops bearing the royal chrest too.

The national anthem is played twice a day at 8am and 6pm from loud speakers, mainly located on government buildings. When you hear the anthem you must stand to attention for the duration of music.

On Friday morning I was at the Skytrain station as the national anthem started on my way up the escalator. People at the top of the escalator stood stock still the moment they reached the top which gave the rest of us surging towards them a bit of a problem! There was quite a crush going on at the top of the stairs, but judging by people's reaction it is bad form to shuffle forward even a few steps.

The national anthem is played before the start of films in the cinema and you aren't allowed to lick stamps either. Disrespectful to his majesty apparently.....

I am going to try and take a movie of the "national anthem effect", but I haven't found the right opportunity yet.