A Year On

Today is the 1st May and come the 7th it will be a year since I left the sunny shores of the UK on a round the world trip. So far I've made it about half way, had many adventures, seen things that I would never see in the UK, met loads of interesting people, some rich, some poor, some very poor and others very, very poor. In the main these people, irrespective of their social status, have been rich in their imaginations, energy levels, love of life and willingness to experience new things no matter how much they have in the bank or under the mattress. When I look back on this blog I see I have written 66 posts which my bean counter estimates is more than one a week. I see this as very positive and a testament to how full my life has been in the first 12 months. Leaving home so far has been a good decision.

The year has ended with me getting a job at The Prem Center (the American spelling is theirs not mine), Chiang Mai, Northern Thailand as a director of The Prem Football Academy. My brief is to start, run and expand the academy by using the wonderful facilities here and tapping into the Thai and other national's passion for football and love of the English Premiership in particular. After 4 years of retirement I'm now back into a work mode, highly compensated by the fact that this, for me, is a labour of love. I'm very excited about the coming months, of starting such a brilliant project, seeing it work and progress - now that's not work is it. Do have a look at The Prem website www.premcenter.org and look at the pictures of the school, its facilities and surrounding area. Although this is a very posh school, with posh people in it, one of the girls has her own maid to cater for her every need, part of my vision is to offer free scholarships to the academy. Also I fully intend offering kids from local orphanage's, poor villages and hill tribes opportunities to come to the academy and play football. So I will still be pandering to my socialist roots. Part of the deal is they have given me a lovely 2 bedroom, 2 bathroom apartment overlooking The Prem grounds - see photos taken from the balcony and note the 1st photo has the Olympic sized swimming pool in the distance. This means that any of you fancying a trip to Thailand has a place to stay. Please take advantage it will be great to see you. In fact, the one downside of this new life is that I really miss seeing and socialising with good friends and family. Even though we are not meeting at the moment you are forever in my thoughts. The other great thing I've missed in the past year is storytelling - the company, the fun, the joy, the challenges, the conversations that I get from stories, storytelling and storytellers has not been here in South East Asia for me to enjoy. Maybe I can get to do some around Prem.

Khao Lak a great place

After the fun of Bangkok with the Farangutans I made my way to a lovely little ex fishing village called Khao Lak. I say ex as it is now a diving centre bordering on a tourist destination for people wanting a quiet and beautiful location. Khao Lak is located some 100km north of Phuket and was destroyed by the Tsunami in 2004 - see photo 3. Since then it has been rebuilt and looks quaint, pristine, attractive and devoid of rubbish or graffiti.

From Khao Lak a speedboat took me to the Similan Islands. I spent 2 days around the Islands doing some diving in what is apparently some of the best diving sites in the world. After seeing such beautifully coloured coral and heaps of fish I would concur with that opinion. I stayed overnight in a tent on the Similan Island itself. The electricity is turned on for 4 hours a night only but was put on again at 2.00am so as football fans could watch Manchester United play in the Champions League. The whole world stops for football. The first 3 photos in this post plus all the photos under, "Similan Islands The Fish I Met," were copied after raiding the internet. The last photo is of the speedboat that carried me out to the Similans, taking around 1.5 hours from Khao Lak.
I will be going back to the Similans in October after the rainy season as the visibility is better and the colours, I'm told, are crisper, cleaner and brighter. Looking forward to that.

Similan Islands the Fish I Met

Butterfly Fish
Trevelly





Seal Face Puffer









Ribbon Eel - rare





Pipe Fish

Grouper







Frog Fish


Damsel Fish





Clown Triggerfish

Blue Fusilier












Black Tip Shark











Bat Fish












Angel Fish

Farangutans Excel in Bangkok

The Farangutans relocated from Chiang Mai to Bangkok for 2 days, the 11th and 12th April 2009 to do battle in an international 11 a side football tournament at the Bangkok Patana International School. Let me first of all say that the pitches played on were superb, flat, lush, soft short grass very well maintained and they looked a pleasure to play on. The games are only 13 minutes per half and the rules being exactly as any other game except there are no offsides. Bit weird for me that one and not sure what instructions to shout to our defence, particularly when an opposition player parked himself on the edge of our penalty area. The whole event was run efficiently, on time and very professionally. The organisers were German - say no more - they did a great job though. The Farangutans covered themselves with glory by coming 6th out of 18 and the team that won the tournament only just scraped a 3-2 win against them after being 2-1 down. The heat was strength sapping and unfortunately the lads only had 13 players so no chance for a rest. The evenings were spent experiencing the pleasures of the various Soi's off Sikhumvit Road, Bangkok. My highlight of Sikhumvit Road was finding a Moroccan restaurant who cooked tagine's. Top photo is the final, next some of the team watching the final including Arek and daughter, next 3 are team photos followed by Lee, George and Ben waiting for their turn to go on. Chilling out watching a game (not sure what Andrew is screwing up his face for) next. The skipper Lee looking authoritative and the last photo is of the lads chilling out downtown Bangkok the night before the tournament - note the consumption of water.

Cricket at the Gymkhana

Between the 29th March and the 4th April 2009 Chiang Mai was invaded by cricketers from all over the world, the UK, Australia, New Zealand, India, Bahrain, Hong Kong, all south east Asia countries, all playing, supporting or spectating an event at the Gymkhana Club. The Chiang Mai International Cricket Sixes is one of the world's most popular amateur cricket tournaments. This year is the 22nd this event has been held. One of the cricketers involved is Trevor Chappell from Australia. It is amazing that he had a great career but the one incident that he is remembered for is when his brother Greg told him to bowl underarm in a one day international against New Zealand. The murmur around the Gymkhana crowd was "Oh yes he is the one who bowled underarm." I went along and watched a number of very exciting matches and some not so exciting, particularly the game between 2 teams of over 60's, the oldest being 85. The organisers had a go at giving the event energy by the use of commentators and the playing of rock music when a six or four was scored. The music being from the 1970's songbook, much playing of Led Zeppelin, Lynard Skynard, Jeff Beck, Rod Stewart et al. The last photo was of a team turning up late in a tuk tuk and going strait onto the pitch. Six in a tuk tuk takes some doing particularly when some of the team had expanded waists.