Organized tours shit me… It’s all go go go, no time to kick back and take it all in…

This tour was an exception, the guide was a good bloke and eased the pain of a 2 hour bus ride with constant one liners and aussie interpretations.

The waterfalls were good, the whitewater rafting was better but riding elephants through the jungle was alltime… The best animal on the planet is my dog Arch, but if I could accommodate an elephant in the backyard Archie would have to share his bowl… Mellow as, just plodding along at their own speed eating whatever their trunks can reach… Riding on the back of ‘em I couldnt help but flicker through images of ‘animals gone wild’ shows, I dont think I was the only one… Instead it was a cruise.

Smokey the elephant guide managed to roll durries back to back from start to finish…commendable.

To finish off the day we headed into Patong for dinner, being a Friday night the town was alive… It was pissing down but alive nonetheless, the night prowlers were out in full force but it was passing by a cabaret restaurant that had me grabbing for my camera… Not sure what they’re called in Thailand but a bangchong’s a bangchong…

This is John… John likes to butter his bread on both sides and watching AFL.

This is Jim and Tony they also love the AFL… Jim follows the Cats, Tony the West coast eagles.

cheese ya grater…

DAY 2- PATONG

Now heres a place where a single bloke could get parra, stabbed and STD’d in an hour… The amount of dudes gettin’ round with Thai girls under their arms is fucked up… Good on ‘em dont get me wrong, im sure they’re havin a great time. Nevertheless, the few things I noticed in Patong were 1) Thai’s are twice the bootleggers the Balinese are 2) Morning price is the same anytime of day and 3) ‘fuck! hows that old bloke with the 4 young Thai girls’… Nah, like I said, good on em just hope they dont bust a tarp before they bust a nut.

‘Livin’ in the gutter lookin at the stars’

Since arriving I have been snappin’ shots of every pay phone I see… Every one is different… I like that, so when I get a collection of pay phone shots I’ll post em up… Yeah I know, every g-string’s different as well but pay phones are easier to shoot.

How’s the grom with the gun handjive…

After 6 hours of trawling the streets of Patong with a backpack, camerabag and my girls shopping add ons we ventured home in a Tuk-Tuk… Heres a shot out the side…

cheese ya grater…

I learnt from years of going to Indo that the best food is in the markets or wherever the locals are lining up… I thought I was ‘pretty worldly’ before strolling into the Karon night markets, ive eaten snails, frog legs, eel, kangaroo… you know, thought I was ready to grab it by the horns so to speak… I was wrong.

I seen the biggest line in Market history… Made the satay stick line at the Eumundi markets look minor… I shuffled in for a look at what all the commotion was about… You know the old cartoon ‘double take’?… when Wiley Coyote has to take 2 looks before he realizes…’fuck off, thats an anvil’…Well that was the case when my eyes seen a row of woks full to the brim with every insect and vermon to ever roam the streets of Phuket… enjoy!

This is the only shot I got as the locals werent real fond of the laughs that came with each photo… I was pissin’ myself just watching a pile of crew frothin at the bit for a plate of vermon…’whats for dinner hun?’… ‘just scrape the grill off the falcon, the frypans hot’… GET FUCKED.

After a night that shook culture shock through my veins we strolled home… We seen hookers on bikes, hookers on gutters and hookers on smack… consistency wins in the end.

Its not what I expected… A new country never is… There’s more creepy old men than there is single mum’s in Coolum, the beer is cheap as chips but just as warm… The food is unreal and so are the people… 80% of the locals are all smiles the other 20% are over us tourists… If I had to work in customer service back home I’d be a prick too… people are pests at the best of times let alone when you have to sweep their floors and pour their coffee… 2 days in and my thoughts so far… Thailand is well worth it.

DAY 1- Phi Phi Islands

I’ll cut to the chase and just mention the stuff I think I would want to read about if you went to Thailand.

‘Monkey Island’ was the first stop on our cruise. When 50 tourists from 20 different countries hear they are going to see monkeys… they want monkeys. Within 5 minutes of getting off the boats I heard ’show me the monkeys’ in at least 10 unknown languages… it was like Jerry McGuire gone apeshit… people can be ruthless, but in a pack its a sight to see… Fucking amusing… But all went silent when the trees came alive with furry lil long tailed dudes… ‘click click click click’… The monkey family had arrived like it was a red carpet gala event and we were the paparrazzi.

The monkeys were over us as quick as I was over them… I wont deny it I was hoping papa monkey was gonna start terrorizing a few of the tourists but he got enough free food that european flesh didnt matter.

Cant recall the name of this place… It’s messed up how beautiful parts of this world really are… I’ve seen this backdrop in a pile of movies, now ive seen it in with my own eyes and I feel good.

The next few photos have no real purpose but I kinda like ‘em…

Til next post… cheese ya grater.

just bought myself a canon 450D… heres a few shots from the first few clicks

Here we go… first attempt at Bloggin’

Destination – CLOUD 9, Phillipines

We had a little layover on our way to the Cloud 9 contest… We weighed up our situation… We have 3 days, no waves, 5 star hotel and we were in Manilla… So what do we do?

LOBBY BAR

This placed served us well on our stay.

We met Mumph and the boys from Manilla, the first thing they said was ‘get into as much trouble as you can and we will get you out of it’… They weren’t kidding, they showed us a mental time, they had us in V.I.P rooms at model parties and all sorts… Theres nothing like getting shown the ropes of a town by the kings of the city.

We hired these crip little dirtbikes the first day we got out to cloud 9… We thrashed the things… I think we averaged out a crash a day.

Kendall got ran off the road by an ambulance… the ambo’s laughed and kept on driving. Dylan Longbottom forgot to turn on one corner and rode straight into a bush, I saw him go off the road then leaves and rocks went flying everywhere. Lozza hit a sand patch on the road and flipped over the hangers and slid along the dirt.

We had to pay a bit for damages but it was worth it.

The Runamuk bike team coming soon to a supercross track near you.

Funniest night of the trip

The day before my birthday Loz and Kendall found this little bar with these rusty old yamaha drums set up… So we all rode in to sink a few and play the drums.

We started to play and the bar lady busts out an electric guitar, a bass and a mic for us… Then shit hit the fan… The more we drank the louder we got, we ended up playing for hours… I dont know whether we were just real pissed but it actually sounded good. We were just freestyling mess, none of us knew how to play anything, except for Kendall who was ripping the guys a fuckin gifted drummer.

A local guy ended up paying for our whole night, he said we were the best band he’s heard in town.

We called ourselves the NOTHINGS… cause thats what we had… NOTHING

thats where Creative Destruction#1 ends… til next time… W.S.G