Thailand #2 - Kata!

What upppppp, got some time for updating tonight. Now in Kata with Craig and Andy. I absolutely LOVE it here. The town is so chilled, great places to eat, beach is amazing, a bunch of cool bars. Much more things to do than Phuket Town and much less trashy than Patong. It's really quiet today, some sort of public holiday, a lot of the bars are closed so we're having a night in.

Some new pics up on Facebook.

Hotels
We stayed in a couple of different hotels before settling in this awesome guesthouse, we've got 3 rooms within this cool apartment type bit up some windy stairs. The owner's really nice, she rented us sweet new motorbikes too... mine only had 450miles on the clock when I got it! Big room with en-suite, etc and bike are working out at like $30 a day, great find. We're above a bunch of bars, they're a lot of fun and are great for eating or catching football matches, lots of nightlife which is cool and quietens down at 2-3am.

Lifestyle
So the past week or two have been a lot more chilled... with a couple of messy exceptions of course ;) At first I felt pretty weird not having as much to do around here but I started filling my days with the different things Kata has to offer and it's a lot more fun. Daily routine is something like get up around 11, grab breakfast at a nearby bar with the guys, head back and work until 4-5pm, 2min bike trip to the beach and run along it as the sun sets and it's a bit cooler, eat out at a different restaurant each night, work a bit more or go out in the evening. Loads of awesome bars to hit up around here, sports, pool or hanging out with girls it's pretty much all here, really like it. Days off at the beach playing footy or taking the bikes out to other nearby towns is cool too. Just so chilled!

Health
Eating a lot healthier here than back home. Thai food is real healthy for sure, meals are really good and eating pretty much no snack type food. Drinking tonnnnns of water. Started exercising regularly too running along the water at the beach with Craig. Managed to run 6 lengths of the beach today in 60mins. Will keep beasting the cardio to lose a bit of fat until next week then hopefully join Kata gym and work in some weights.

Hustling Locals
Getting pretty skilled at haggling now, you can get pretty much everything here cheaper with some bartering skills. It usually involves you picking out the item you want and asking the shop owner how much. They'll then bring out a chunky calculator and type in the price, you then do your best to act offended and discouraged by the price they give you and they normally chop some off right away. After that you clear their price and type in something ridiculously low, they bring their price down again and eventually you meet in some middleground... if you're doing it right usually half of their original offer!

Looking forward to the next couple of weeks. We're headed to Patong Boxing Stadium tomorrow to watch what looks like a good Muay Thai card. Place looks like something out of Streetfighter! Night after there's a pool competition on at an awesome bar down the road owned by some real nice Swedish dudes, we usually hang out there to watch the footy. The staff and people are just so nice and friendly they always chat a ton, the food's fantastic too.

New House
On Saturday we fly out to Singapore for a few days, then when we get back to our house in Kata will be ready to move into. Can't wait, the place is so sick. It's on the side of a huge hill that overlooks Kata, 3 bedrooms over 4 storeys including a rooftop with completely stunning views over the town/beach. Master suite is massive, practically on a floor to itself with a jacuzzi and a huge balcony with the same awesome view... not sure how we'll figure out who gets that yet. Will post some pics when we arrive, didn't take any when we viewed as we needed to remain unimpressed to negociate a good price! We're very lucky to have the place.

Coaching
I've started work with a new student, Jay aka Cheers Self from Adelaide, Australia. He seems like a really nice guy. Check out his blog from the links on the right. To all of my students: apologies I've not been available for coaching over the past few weeks. I was expecting to have the house sorted out sooner, but I will definitely be available from the 17th onwards for sessions.

Right, I'm off, there's some crazy pro gamer tv channel on this TV... has Warcraft 3 matches with strategy commentary, maybe it's Korean or something. They have Pro Evo and Guitar Heroes in the arcades here, how sick is that!
Actually... some random stories involving Thai girls...

We're relaxing on some big leather couches streetside at a Shisha bar watching people go by. This Aussie looking guy and a Thai chick walk past and they're looking over at us a ton, eventually they stop and come over for a chat. The guy asks what's in the Shisha we're smoking wondering if it's weed or something and Craig and I explain. At the same time is Thai chick rests herself on Andy and asks if he likes to smoke, Andy tells her that he likes to smoke a little weed now and then at which point the Thai girl blurts out that she likes to smoke crack. lol, q shock and amazement! ... they leave shortly after.

This was just before some girl came up and tried to sell us innocent looking home-made wristbands... until looking a little closer and they had some funny sayings on them... one of them was "I *heart* RAPE" lol! I'm sure an I *heart* rape wristband would go down well on nights out.

That reminds me... we were at some pool bar and Andy's chatting to a crazy Thai girl who offered him 500 baht to sleep with her lol. Then she extends her offer by saying that if he's shit in bed she'd CUT HIS DICK OFF! We were killing ourselves laughing, Andy looked a little worried!!

Some of the Thai girls are pretty nuts, but most are really chilled and approachable. We went out for dinner a couple of hours ago and as I got on my bike and started it up a cute Thai chick jumped on the back and started messing around and asking where we're headed. A little more forward than the UK for sure :) They're really giggly and playful and stuff, I liiiiiiike! The bikes are wicked for messing around too, driving past chicks tooting the horns and shouting random Thai phrases is hilarious... especially in our attempted Thai accents that sound like Borat.

Oh yea another story actually... jeez this post is gonna be a beast by now... I got pulled over by a Thai cop a few days ago for not wearing a helmet. I explained that the helmet was locked in the bike and we were taking it back to get it fixed, he tried to get the compartment open but couldn't... thank god. He seemed pretty sound and let me go without a bribe or having to show my lisence, etc. Speaking of bike stuff Craig semi-crashed his like 5 days ago when a car stopped quickly in front of him and he lost control while emergency stopping, only a few cuts and bruises though. God the bikes are sooo much fun to ride, so quick, squeezing the throttle back full to overtake never gets old.

Right, I'm gone... will post from the house after we get back from Singapore. Hope all is well in the UK/US!

Peace!