Forgot to upload the Christmas lunch I had with the office last week. Didn’t choose the traditional turkey but my selection was still very yummy. Hot vegetable soup on a cold snowy day:
My first decent steak in 2 years. Still dreaming of a proper-meaty one though. Will have to cook it myself I think.
Had a short trip to Bury St Edmunds on Saturday for a family lunch and to see my Dad’s new place. I recall visiting this town once in my life but have no recollection about it. So I was pleasantly surprised by how nice a town it was. Lots of shops and markets filled with Saturday shoppers. We even had a stroll around the Abbey ruins and their gardens. A very nice place indeed.
I had another chance to visit this beautiful country and to visit the guys in the office whom I communicate with by email every day. It was nice to take a holiday in what is still a very affordable country for travelling and to just relax in the beach resort and do nothing. No running around catching last trains or getting lost. Just taking it easy. Here’s a selection of photos from my trip. See my Thailand collection on Flickr.
Oh (on the right) and Heart (4th from left) went out of their way to take care and welcome us to the country. My first weekend was at Amphawa floating market.
Here ‘s Oh’s introduction to Amphawa and Thailand:
Another weekend, Art took us to Korat. But we stopped by this temple (can’t remember the name, especially Thai names).
In Korat, we visited a zoo. It was a particularly sunny day, so it was quite hot, especially considering we were cycling around the zoo. We did later cool off in a shopping mall.
At night, we tried a local pub in Korat with Art’s friends.
On 2nd August 2009, I was also invited to attend and take part in Lek and Neung’s wedding in Muak Lek. It was a Thai wedding ceremony but in some ways similar to Chinese style, where the grooms family bring lots of gifts for the brides family.
After the wedding party was a bit of fun in Khao Yai and bowling.
I spent five nights at the AANA Resort and Spa on Koh Chang. We hired a car to get round the second biggest island in Thailand. Here, the kayaks sit in calm river at twilight. It’s a nice 5 minute kayak to the beach or you can go the other way and check the mangroves.
The hilltop bar and swimming pool.
One day, we drove to the other corner of the island to try the highly recommended Salak Pet seafood. The food was absolutely delicious and very fresh. After lunch, we even got a massage. I’d definitely recommend a visit if you are in Koh Chang but a little far out from the main parts of the island.
I had a second go using my Sony DSC-T90 underwater. I didn’t get any results when I used it in Japan but practice makes perfect and I get clear shots this time. There was plenty of sea life to be captured too.
Another nice place we stayed at was Lebua at State Tower in Bangkok. A 5 star luxury hotel. We had a superior suite with everything you would expect from a luxury hotel. The drinks at the famous Sky Bar (blue bit in the far side of this picture) start at about 500 Baht (£10) which is even expensive for me but it was definitely worth it for the view and atmosphere, though it was quite crowded at the time we went.
This was our view of Bangkok from our room. Simply amazing.
There were also many nights out which made my 5 week stay go pretty quickly. It was nice to meet everyone I met out there and thanks to everyone for being such great hosts!
Currently enjoying some Rich Tea biscuits with some nice PG tips tea for breakfast. Haven’t had that combination for a while. I’ve forgotten I liked quite a lot of traditional English foods. I think I was spoilt with the Japanese and Thai food I was accustomed to for the past couple of years. Anyhow, back home now and working hard. Mum’s gone to Hong Kong to take care of grandma so it’s a little quieter. It’s a bank holiday weekend so just hoping to settle back down quietly, finish unpacking and tidy my room, do some work on my car and hopefully get a haircut if I can find a cheap barbers. I hope to upload my holiday pics too! I spent longer than expected in Thailand but it was fun pretty much almost every night. The guys out there really took great care of me. Thanks!
I’m unable to blog or upload to flickr due to my slow internet connection but I have managed to upload a few pics to Facebook. So I’ll have to wait till I get back to post a summary of my trip. Been taken out almost every night by Thai friends and they’ve made my first two weeks go really fast. Still longing for a good lie in but I’ll get some rest soon. Congrats to P’Neung and P’Lek, who got married today. It was my pleasure to be able to attend their Thai wedding ceremony and party. Not sure when I’ll next blog, but I’m in the process of extending my stay in Thailand, so watch this space 
I’m just 3 days away from leaving Japan now. At the moment, I’m living out of my backpack as I’ve flown all my belongings home already. I think I packed my USB card reader too so I’ll upload photos once I’m back in Cambridge. My old laptop doesn’t have a MemoryStick reader… I have a farewell party almost everynight. No time to do anything these days. I’ll miss all my friends I’ve made here, as well as life in Japan but looking forward to going back too.
A friend of mine, Ayano, just opened her own restaurant in Tokyo last weekend. She called me a few times to ask for help with construction and assembly of furniture but I never had time. I also missed the opening party last weekend but I hope I will get the time to check out her new bistro before I leave this country at the end of this month.
Hide Bldg B1 3-13-20 Nishiazabu, Minato-ward, Tokyo
Phone 03-54-10-8110
Website http://lesrendezvous-tokyo.com
This rare, 2000 Yen bank note finally circulated into my hands at yesterday’s BBQ. It’s readily available at most Japanese banks but it doesn’t seem to be used at all. In fact, this was the first time I saw it in the 14 months I’ve been in this country and I’ve handled more than a few million Yen in that time (not that I’m rich but because it’s a cash society here and I don’t have a Japanese credit card).
You may note the Shureimon gate in Okinawa is the same one depicted on the 2000 Yen note. Here is us posing in front of it in Okinawa:
It was a lovely day yesterday to have a nice BBQ by the beach down in Kanazawa at Umi no Koen, 30 minutes from Yokohama. Nice way to relax with friends on this long Japanese holiday. BBQing in Japan is very organised. You reserve your spot and equipment. All you need to supply is your food. We had spot 19 and 20:
Thanks to Hanako and Hiromi (two girls on the right picture) for organising the whole thing.
I also got this pretty nice shot of Ken drinking Asahi beer with a hawk(?) in the sky. Good enough to be used as a commercial I think.
Another one of my nightshots. Hakkeijima, which has an amusement park, reflected in the sea.
More photos on flickr: BBQ @ Umi no Koen
I’m going home for the weekend…to get proper food!! Been a bit lazy with cooking since exams have finished. I would have thought it’d be the other way round?!?Anyway, I’ll be away for a while and currently waiting for adsl to be activated at home, so no internet connection. Still a few things to fix on this website. I’ve tried to install Xaneon Extension component, which helps give nicer url’s for my web pages, which seems to work on the whole, except some of the navigation in my blog doesn’t work properly yet. It would be nice if there was some documentation, but as it is, their website is down, and google doesn’t return anything useful.
Went to play tennis yesterday, which explains why every muscle in my body aches now. I suppose exercise once a year is better than nothing 
I post a pic next time. Ciao!
