I’ve been trying to cut down on my drinking lately, I didn’t touch a drop for three whole days! This brings other problems, I needed to find something to fill my time in the evenings if I’m not getting drunk.

So last night around 7pm I decided I would do something healthy and go for a walk, I strolled for about 15 minutes until I came across a bar! I thought hey, one drink won’t hurt!

I came home 12 hours later after spending the evening in the bar and then heading to Haad Rin to hit a club. And now I have one bitch of a hangover. I mean I don’t even like vodka and red bull, what the fuck was I doing drinking it by the bucket load? Probably because it was 90 pence a go actually!

As a result of this evening of merry making I seem to have acquired two things. Firstly a Thai girlfriend named Soda (who thinks up these names?) and secondly a sprained ankle after falling down some steps!

Oh well, such is life, at least it’s not boring.

It seems I am destined to share my house with all sorts of weird creatures. Here is a picture of one of a pair of mantis I found today in the bathroom. This one I managed to free, his friend is being a little awkward so he can stay in there!

I also found a cool place up the north end of the island, it’s a freshwater lake, I stopped to try out a restaurant there and when I sat down at the table and looked across the lake I could have been in England, check this out, doesn’t look like Thailand does it?

Actually, talking of food, it’s about time I dedicated a blog entry to the amazing cuisine to be found here, I’ll gather a few pictures over the next few days and write one.

Well I have been on the island a week and I’m already having money problems, but the good kind! I just can’t spend the stuff!

Let’s take a look at my spending for today;

Breakfast - Bought a pack of Marlboro and a cup of coffee.

Lunch - 3 glasses of freshly squeezed orange juice and a plate of crispy noodles with chicken and basil.

Driving back from Haad Rin I stopped at a bar and had a couple more glasses of juice cos’ it was bloody hard work driving over that damn mountain. One hill was so steep going up that I had to drop down to first gear on my scooter and lean over the front wheel to keep it on the ground. Why didn’t I listen when I was told that driving that road in anything less than a 4×4 was a silly idea?

Dinner was 2 glasses of watermelon juice, spicy fried squid and a big plate of fried rice with pineapple.

On the way home I popped into the supermarket and bought 4 large bottles of Chang beer.

I left the house this morning with 1000 Baht in my wallet, I just counted now and I have 520 Baht left. So I have spent a total of £7.50 today! Madness! Above is a picture taken from my chair in the restaurant I had dinner in just so you know I ain’t eating in dodgy back street places to keep the cost down.

As promised, here is a blog all about my house! I moved in yesterday, everything went very smoothly thanks to Malee from www.phanganisland.com

This is my place, it’s reached from a really long palm edged driveway that’s just sand, it’s hell at night on my scooter.

There are 4 houses in the development, I’m in the corner which means I have wild jungle to the left and behind the house, this is what the jungle looks like from my porch.

It’s not a big house, about the size of a single apartment back home but it’s well equipped and everything is brand new, all of the kitchen appliances still have the plastic wrappers on them. The bedroom has aircon which is great (and needed). The internet connection is awful though but better than the WiFi I had access to in the hotel in Bangkok.

When dusk arrives it gets real noisy with all the creatures in the jungle going mad, some very weird noises come out of it. Plus we have chickens running wild and a couple of roosters, they can be a bit noisy.

I’m trying to find a BBQ now, I need one for the front porch, chicken and fish are so cheap they might as well be free if you buy them in the night market in Thongsala. I have this idea for skewers of chicken with pineapple and mango chunks covered in sweet peanut sauce and done on the BBQ.