Thai Table Tennis

I consider myself an open minded woman. Although I strongly believe in girl power, I can understand why some women earn money stripping. Besides I have lots of friends who are pole dancers - whether they earn money, perform or just go for classes. They are all elegant, glamorous and beautiful people. They have the ability to bewitch men, but keep their diginty at the same time.

Personally, I think dancing around a pole is fun, an amazing work out too. Then again I've never danced on a pole in a club! So liberal as I think I am, I was still horrified when I found myself at a Ping Pong show near the Pat Pong Market in Bangkok.

I guess I'd expected stunning girls doing amazing tricks. I was shocked to instead see them in tacky bikini's (I'm talking gold plastic), some fat, some with disgusting big ugly tattoos, others without make-up on or with their hair scraped back like they'd just finished a shift in the fish market!

They stood on the stage obviously bored and unengaged. Sure, they pulled string out from inside themselves, they squatted over paper to draw pictures. Admittedly I was impressed when they popped balloons using darts and blew out Birthday cake candles...... For those of you who are a bit naive and innocent - I'm referring to the women doing these tricks using ONLY their lady garden!

Despite feeling the tiniest bit impressed, it was when one offered to light someone's cigarette that I thought, how vile. Why would he want to smoke it after it had been in there! Surely he'd risk getting Chlamydia or worse on his lips!! And shame on the woman, everyone knows smoking is bad for your health, but doing it in between your legs - well surely there's some sort of law against it!!

Despite all the negativity I am glad I went to see what all the fuss is about. You don't find many young backpackers/ holiday makers who have not been to one. The 'dancers' were pushy though, they over charged and wanted a tip for everything. I always thought that going into a seedy place like this I'd feel a bit self conscious, but in there the competition wasn't all it was cracked up to be!

It's opened my eyes as well, I never realised how many things you can do with your downstairs department! How did they even come up with the idea to start with?!

Unfortunately, I won't be testing it on my Fletch It First blog, sorry guys! And to be honest, never will I see a Birthday cake with candles in quite the same way ever again!

Could This Be Under Water Love?

I was told that going for a dive in Thailand was a must by my pal Mel. She's a professional diver - well kind of - she's scuba dived everywhere, got her Padi, so she knows!

I've been on a few fun dives before - once in Cyprus with my brothers, and done three other dives in Egypt. In Koh Pha Ngan we met so many people who had gone, loved it, so we thought it was time we followed suit. When we walked into the booking place, they asked if I as a beginner or had been before. So I told them proudly it would be my fifth dive. The lady behind the counter started looking into arranging the open sea dive for intermediates, then she asked 'do you have your certificates?' So i replied no, I'd just gone on a few fun dives before. The look of horror spread across her face. 'You've been diving four times before and never had a certificate?!!'

Apparently there is no such thing as a 'fun' dive. Scuba diving is extremely dangerous - you need proper training - in a pool, classroom, a test and then certificate before you even head into the water. I'd never learnt about breathing under water - the effects it has on your lungs, how to retrieve my oxygen mask if I was to lose it, how to give air to a friend in need, how to surface or anything like that. I couldn't believe I'd not practised any of these things before.

I'd always felt safe with the previous instructors but what if something had happened to them? I'd have been stuck at the bottom of the ocean on my own with no way of knowing what to do or how to even get back up to the surface! I'd even booked these dives through what I thought was legitimate companies run through the hotel. It really freaked me out. There were even children under 10 who had gone on these dives - apparently you have to be over this age with a lot of pool training to go out.

So I booked to go on a Padi Discover Scuba Diving course. We did a lot of pool training, had a test, then headed to Koh Ma (north of Koh Pangan) for the open sea. Swimming in, which felt like ages, we reached our point and went down. I didn't realise at this point that Lyns had some trouble with her mask and had headed back to shore with one of the teachers, but I headed out with another.

There was a lot of plankton at first, but we swam out, saw lots of fish, we even played with a clown fish and turned over lots of shells. It was beautiful, like being inside a giant fish bowl, and I felt so much more at ease. If anything were to go wrong - I'd be confident to sort it out.

We were down a good 50 minutes and had gone down eight metres, which isn't deep but at least I was safe. Yes, so maybe it wasn't as clear as Egypt, the Mekkah of the diving world, but it was just nice to be out with an instructor who wasn't on a horse - like the cowboys I'd gone on previous dives with!

I think this will be the start of a very beautiful, safe and legitimate new hobby!

Ten Reasons Why Koh Pha Ngan Is Better Than Koh Samui

1)There is less tourism and it's not as built up, which is nice. In Chaweng, Koh Samui, there were McDonalds everywhere, Starbucks, 7-Eleven stores every other shop. Here there is only one 7-Eleven in town.

2) Nicer beaches, the sea is also calmer.

3) Koh Pha Ngan is beautiful - there is a lot more mountainous terrain than in Samui.

4) You don't get hassled into buying things by the locals. 'Cheap cheap,' 'we give you good price' - No I don't want an icecream after I've just finished one, and no I really don't need a tailored made suit for backbacking!

5) The night life is great - with pool parties, jungle parties, Full Moon, Black Moon, Silver Moon, Half Moon.... In Chaweng, Koh Samui, The Green Mango area is fun and busy but not quite the same.

6) Everything is cheaper in Koh Pha Ngan. In Chaweng and the southern beach in Lamai, expect to pay 600 baht for a nice room. Here it is 400 baht in the nicest hotel with A/C

7) The people are more friendly. Yes they think both Lynsey and I are called Jennifer, but they make the effort to talk to us, and are not trying to sell us anything.

8) Even though in Lamai everywhere you went you got a free buffet if you brought a drink, here you can get free transfers to hotels and a free bus into town.

9) The Hippies we met on the bus down from Bangkok said so.... Well they described Koh Samui as a place that boys in Manchester United tops and Fat Germans with prostitutes go. Which brings me onto the final reason....

10) Less prostitutes, in fact I've seen none so far! Even I have been chatted up by the lady boys in Koh Samui. I can tell you how much they charge, as they like to tell you. Here there are no 60 year old men with 21 year old Thai women. I find them scary. A drunk one on a moped had a go at us one night, and after a show we had a picture taken with one - who then asked for a tip. We managed to cobble together about 2 baht between us, but she bitchily said 'no, you keep it. You need it more than me it seems!'

Earning Our Stripes

Apparently there's a difference between travelling and backpacking. We are backpackers, as we found out on an eight hour bus journey down to Koh Samui. .


We met two 'travellers' called Paul and Dave. They were stopping off at Koh Pangan. They told us about a jungle trance party called Destination - apparently it's as good as the Full Moon parties were ten years ago.

You see Paul and Dave actually went to these parties ten years ago. Possibly even 20 years ago! They are leathery tanned, past it, and very hippy. I wonder if maybe they invented travelling!

They've been everywhere, they've done it all.

Wandering around aimlessly - India, Burma, Laos, Thailand - the full works.

They know every party.

To them though, we are not even worthy of being classed as travellers. We are merely backpackers. It's an 18 month holiday - nothing more. The reason - we have a rough route, a time limit, a budget.

They are, and have been, doing it indefinitely.

They also live in their own little world - one where they make all their own rules. They've earnt their travelling stripes you see.

On the bus they shouted, drank beer, smoked (even though it was prohibited), took drugs (Valium), even slept in the aisles. Hardcore... apparently.

After hearing an earful about hippy events over Asia and the amazing raves, I wondered, can you over do it?

The thought of staying out here forever is tempting but not realistic.




















It's made me want to make the most out of now and not end up as a 40 year old crazy 'traveller'/ hippy with no purpose.

They talked so loudly I'm actually suprised you couldn't hear them back in the UK!

I think I'll be sticking to the five months in Asia and year in Oz. If I do anymore I may get dreads, start my own cult and live the rest of my life in a campervan in Goa!