Hey There mates Hope alls Very good. Had a Fablous busy time in Spain. Spent at least a week in Madrid and pretty mich managed to see all the best spots and took in all the most impressve archiecture. Went to the Prado (just to say I have been ;-)) and went out drinking until late all too regularly, but conserved limited cash by drinking Very cheap booze until 11/12 pm before going out. Also visited Salamanca for a few days and had a marvellous time and went to Toledo with my new friend Sahib which was well worth the effort. I owe thanks to my friend Oscar for recommending these great locations but regret that I couldnt see the other places he highly recommended i.e. Aranjuez and Segovia. But more exuses to visit again! Met many Great people in Spain. A trio of great guys holidaying it in Spain (working in Copenhagen) John Rae from the Phillipines, Sunai from India and Renarto from Brazil (so I could Finally communicate!!). Also I went out with very cool American ladies Erin and Tara and got overly drunk. Also went out with friends Sahib from India and Minna from Finland whom acually managed to drink me under the table more than once, My those lasses could drink, but was great fun, and typically cheap as I always started well before I went out. I extended my trip by 5 days so I could meet up with Oscar and his wonderful lady Caty when Oscar returned from a business trip to Beunos Aires. Oscar & caty treated me Very well and let me say in Catys fabulous house and took me for authentic, excellent Spanish Tapas and good local booze. I have 100s of Great pics and I will put many of them on the web site, but Im now in Egypt and internet sucks here, so will take me some effort to send/edit these - I just hope I can manage it before I go home to England - will have lots of Egypt photos and info to show you all then. One Big issue was actually the language barrier tho. Even more so than Japan (amazingly!) the Spanish dont understand English and have no wish to try, I was stuck on many occasions and took Loads of patience and typically asking a good few people, many of whom were rude and didnt even bother to try. It was great to have fluent Spanish speakers so I could get by! I Firmly plan to learn Spanish now so I can go to South America and Spain again more comfortably in the future. Well, Lots to advise you all about from my brief stay in Germany and my extended time in Fine Spain as well as soon for Egypt. I also need to further detail my time in Thailand and Cambodia, but giving up valuable time from exploring is a tough decision and not always easy to orchestrate! Lots of Hugs and Love Edward

Hey Ya

Just a quick note to start off.

Having a great time in Germany, saving some money by not going out much (tho will remedy that tonight ;-) )

Visited Magdeburge in the East, and enjoyed a unique look at Germany, not available to lots of people. Went for lots of walks around the Beautiful and historical city complete with many impressive churches and cathederal, lakes and rivers and lots of modern as well as past era architecture. I saw my friend Julia and had a good time, and also met some of her little rocker goth friends, which was an experience!

I checked out Frankfurt with its towers, architecture, clenliness and sense of dignity. As with most places I have visited - its better than I had heard! And what visit would be complete to Germany with out indulging in at least a few beers and a bottle or 2 of Jagermeister, (very cheap here ;-)) my favourite drink.

Tho Bottom!!! Its Damn cold here (grumble, sulk - bloody Europe, and Bloody wind and rain!) - I Seriously didnt miss freezing my nuts off half the time!

Also the jet lag kicked in full throttle, I was reall quite exhausted and drained for a few days, and I didnt sleep well on the flight back - combined with the cold - I had a hard few days to start back in to Europe!!

Will be in Madrid very soon and will try to send/add on photos and more notes for my brief time here.


Big Hugs

Edward

Hey Ya Fantastic Mates

This Email is actually taken from the Email up-date of Singapore - potential more to add, but not for now. This text is for those who cant keep up to date with the Emails.

Me Love You Long Time (^o^)/

I hope you are all very well. Im afraid I have been doing rather more poorly than I have done in the past at keeping you up-to-date with my current affairs and Odyssey exploits, I have been living a hectic life style with lots of traveling by buses, boats, planes and the occasional tuk tuk as wells as trying to maximise my time on a limited budget.

After a fabulous and eye openning time in Phnom Penh and Siem Reap (the gate way to the Ankgor Temples) I headed back to Bangkok via a more comfortable bus, tho it still took 15 hours and left me tired and slightly drained. I stayed briefly in Bangkok and made my way up to Chiang Mai with every intention of going to Beautiful and vibrant Laos. Unfortunately my time was limited and my funds have finally started to become a concern, so after some soul searching I decided to sacrifice my time in Laos and resign my self to visiting there (and Vietnam and Thailand again) on my next visit to South East Asia. After a short stay in Chiang Mai I travelled back to Bangkok for my flight to Singapore.

Well, Singapore!! I have heard considerably mixed reviews ranging from Awesome - definitely visit, to waste of time, only 2 days is enough. Im Most grateful that I am thoroughly inclined to agree with the first opinion!! It wonderful here - I have been having a fabulous time, tho I admit time with my friends here has enhanced my experience.

Great news!! - After Months of having my own room and struggling abit more to spend time with people living a very similar odyssey, Im back in Dorms - Hooray!!! Some might question my elated emotions, but it genuinely is the best way to meet cool young people. My hostel, recommended at the airport, was a very worthy choice in the popular district of Little India in North West Singapore. The area is cheap and easily accessible to other key locations in Singapore. The hostel is cram-packed with cool guys and beautiful women all raring for a good time and desperate to fit in as much action in to their limited stay in Singapore as possible. Surprisingly the majority of 50 odd people at my accom are actually English and mostly traveling around the world, so Im certainly never without great times and fantastic stories (and lots of advise) to share with other absolutely marvelous spiffing individuals (sorry, but its great to have a good old English laugh occasionally, and giggle about rough toilet humour subjects liberally). There were some great Irish and Oz chaps and chapettes as well.
I have spent most time with friends called Neil a great guy from reading, tho he left after a few days. George, a young man from Devon, Kate and Claire, two young girls from Leeds (starting Uni soon), and more recently Daz a cool guy from Nuneaton (quite near home), and a proper lad called Paul from Dublin.

I have been Very busy and have been active every day with no proper time for rest or relaxation, just taking advantage of good company and a vibrant city. Many have advised me that Singapore could be conquered in a few days, but Im having a red hot blue whale of a time every day!! I spent a day strolling around the town along the impressive, intensive Orchard Street, Central Singapore, with friends ambling in to any old shops and unaggressively window shopping. I spent a day walking around Sentosa Island and viewed the city from Sky Tower here. I have been to the tallest hotel here with a cool gang (cant quite remember the name (D'Oh!) and took great night shots. I have had the famous, world revered Singapore Sling in Raffles Hotel (and My it was good!!) and had a great night. I have been to Singapore Zoo with my little friends, which was a very good afternoon spent, I also did the Nght Safari which was fabulous and very up-close tho no worthy photos which is a tragedy. I even went to the Singapore Sevens World Rugby tournament on Saturday with a load of friends which was an awesome excuse to get absolutely plastered and bellow at the top of my little lungs for any team country I have visited (and even louder for England). Tho the Torrential down pour started half way through for a little while and washed almost every shred of make up from everyone (including all my hair gel!!) so we all looked like 'just woke up morning goods', but all part of the fun ;-). I also wondered around little India and China town as well as view the raffles/town hall area more thoroughly and checked out the tall towers of the business district with Daz and friends. Tho my weeks budget was spent early, so limited nights out!

Clearly I have been busy and Im loving Singapore. I will continue to have a great time here with my friends and look forward to my time in Europe - next on to Frankfurt and Magdeburg in Germany to check out Spring in that fair country and meet friends. Then to Madrid where I will soak up some Spanish ambience. After reading Niles and Heathers brilliant Blog site and their cool account of Egypt, I am very much looking forward to being awe inspired by my time in Africa's north.

But one fundamental thing here is that it is indeed Hot!! It basically on the equator, and Believe me you notice, its reasonably (actually) equatorial climate and rains hard (i.e. torrentially) quite occasionally, thus is very humid. Being a true Brit and a hairy beast at that I Certainly feel the heat (despite aclimatising for months in Thailand) and sweat buckets (along with everyone else!). This isnt a deterrent or issue, as given the choice of cold or hot... well choice made and obvious!! Just requires up to 4 showers a day and ignoring the occasional nasal assault.
Its also cheap here, tho obviously not as cheap as S.E Asia. I was expecting much worse, but careful (i.e. backpacker) bargin hunting will yield cheap grub, transport, accom and times in general. Some bars are ridiculously expensive, but there are always cheap night out for the weekday binge drinker.

I would certainly recommend coming here with reasonable expectations, tho not so much as a hotel oriented traveler - a hosteller will benefit much more due to friendly interactions. I will take good memories away from here and will certainly take my kids in the future as this is an Amazing family location also with many facilities and attractions for kids and parents.

On a more depressing and slightly melancholy note, my time away starts to wane... Less than a month and a half left and tho Im looking forward to being home and seeing my family, friends and ladies again, Im going to miss traveling. \(*o*)/

Once again I hope you are all very well and taking care of yourselves - please do Email me and tell me that you are all good and happy - I do check quite regularly, even if Im not able to reply frequently. I hope I can improve my Emailing, but please consider my previous few hectic and character defining months and limited Emailing opportunities and I hope look forward to some more (^o^)/

I miss you all and very much look forward to being home and giving 100s of hugs to everyone and many more to a special elite lucky few.


Very Big Hugs

Edward


Additional -

Tho I have my first Real Trauma.... I believed my flight to Singapore was on the 4th April... and I made my way in good time to Bangkok. But apon arrival in BKK on the 3rd... I checked my ticket and discovered that my flight was on the 2nd... I had just been playing with dates too much and lost track of my many changes!! Double D'Oh!!! So on the 3rd (feeling quite sleepy after my final and seemingly endless quantity of long haul bus) I calmly went to the Qantas/BA office and advised that I had missed my flight and how much would it be to change it. I was expecting a serious hit in the butt and 4000 bart odd cost - but they just told me - "we will change your ticket to tomorrow and change all your future dates to match the delay if you like".... I was confused! I just replied "but my flight has already gone" - the Nice lady just advised me "Oh thats OK, just please dont do it again". I didnt even have to pay to change all my other flights, so saved myself the cost of a flight and date changes!!!!!!! Who the daddy! Needless to say I was chuffed and celebrated with more than one Banana Shake and nearly broke my arm patting my back ;-) (I jest). Tho Clearly - lesson learned here - Dont miss your flights or you might not be a lucky barsteward like me ;-)

Another source of amusement (or perhaps another lesson learned!) - I didnt fancy another sleepless over night bus to Chiang Mai, and another lost day, so I purchased some sleeping pills from a pharmacy in BKK. Valium is actually completely legal for farang (foreigners) there so I tried to get some, but was recommended some weaker ones by the staff there. I was advised to have one tablet and if no effect have another 20 mins later. Well, I took one when the lights/power went out on the bus (annoyingly at 9.30pm) but it did nothing. So I tried another 20 mins later, but again to no effect, and then another. 3 gave me an hour sleep, but no more, so I took another and after 20 mins and no more effect took the pharmacy staffs advise had another... After 5, Yes I was put clean on my ass and passed in to oblivion until we arrived (no surprise!!). Most of the next day tho I was in a kind of gooey, sleepy daze and its a good possibility that I had taken 1 (or 3) too many. This is typically called an over dose and not typically considered a cunning plan. So lesson learned - Dont greatly exceed recommended doses of prescribed drugs or you may well be comparable to a 2 legged cow with half an eye and no ears for a day, I know. (#o#)?

Hey Mates

I will put the notes from my Email on to the site, hopefully with some more photos and a few more notes about my time in Chiang Mai and Bangkok before and after.

But in a few words - "Fun Had!"

Go to Thailand - you wont be disappointed! Just dont expect an easy time and a free ride everyday!! You have to work hard to play hard - and I play the hardest (^o^)/

More soon.


Lots of Love and Nice Stuff

Edward