One thing Stacey and I both agreed when booking the holiday was the fact that we wanted to go elephant trekking -it’s a must when going to Thailand imho and to my surprise Stacey agreed. We rolled up to the elephant place¹ and I was a little dubious about it but as soon as we started trekking that disappeared.

Having ridden horses in the past I thought it would be similar a similar motion but it’s not at all. First of all you have to climb up a little tower to get onto the seats (they wouldn’t let me pull on its ear to get up…). On top there’s a seat large enough for two people and a massive seat belt (not something that you’re used to seeing in cars in Thailand so it was a touch surprising on the elephant ). Once you’re strapped in you’re off.

Sadly because it was high tide we wouldn’t have the opportunity to go into the river on the elephant but we soon realised that was probably for the best. The ride is somewhat uncomfortable and you soon learn not to sit back into the seat as the elephant almost lollops along.

We trundled up some dirt track and past the car park and into a field which was where they grew the food. The elephant’s not a particularly quick animal but it gets there in the end, it was really funny because as he went along the track he was grabbing the vegetation and munching away².

At one point the mahout (elephant driver) climbed off and offered to take some photos while I took control³. They sit on the back of the elephant’s neck and it’s really soft. They steer by pulling/pushing on the elephant’s ear mostly. Anyone that think’s its cruel has never been on an elephant trek. It was awesome but at the same time worrying thinking that I was in command of the elephant (in reality he wasn’t going to go anywhere as he was far too busy finding interesting stuff to eat!! I tried to get Stacey to have a go but she was having none of it.

After a little while the mahout turned his back which was the opportunity the elephant had been waiting for, she started wandering off to find more luscious greenery to eat. I have to admit I was in fits of laughter at this stage as there wasn’t a lot we could do other than hold on and hope for the best. He didn’t get far though as they’re surprisingly obedient –stopping almost as soon as she was shouted at by the mahout.

Then the real fun started, when the mahout got back on to take us home the elephant decided she wanted to eat some more and started wandering into the crop. This was something the mahout clearly didn’t want but the elephant was ignoring all commands to the contrary. It got to the point where the mahout stuck the pointy stick in the elephant’s ear, this looks worse on TV than in real life, I don’t think it hurts the elephant as such, it’s more an irritation. To elephant’s response was to start bucking his head which just made us laugh even more. When the elephant was full we carried on our merry way with a mouthful of food for the journey.

With the odd stop off along the way to get more supplies we did make it back to the camp after going down an impressively steep slope –the sort you get to and think “nah we’ll not make it down that”. We even turned 90 degrees on the way down to get more food. For their size, they’re very manoeuvrable.

As with our elephant show from yesterday I can’t say it was something I was overly looking forward to, I think it’s a little cruel to make a creature that size perform handstands and the like. None-the-less we were there so there was no point in missing it.

The show consisted of a baby elephant⁴ doing a variety of tricks, my favourite of which was when it took 20Baht from the spectators and took it to “shop” to buy some bananas. It then brought them back and waited for you to feed them to it. That worked the first time, however when Stacey did it, the elephant decided it was going to eat them before giving them back –much to our amusement.⁵

For those of you who wonder how they transport the food, I took this photo:

I have to confess that I’ve not knowingly watched the film, I knew a little about the history behind the bridge but beyond the fact that the Yanks tried to blow it up a fair few times I didn’t know a great more.

I’m glad we went on the trip, we had planned to stay in an authentic “old-skool” riverside hotel but there weren’t enough people for the trip so we did the one-day trip instead. Firstly we went to the JEATH war museum which documented the historical side of the war and included numerous photos, article cuttings and memories of the POW camps. It was pretty shocking but also fascinating.

One of the old POW’s had painted several of his memories of his time at the camp including the tortures they were subjected to, meeting the locals and a variety of sicknesses they had. It’s difficult to know what to say/think when you’re looking around a place like that, it was a truly terrible time and one can only hope it never happens again. On a lighter note though, the spelling of some of the captions were just comical I had to try very hard not to laugh. Some had been updated but they still had things like “A lot of men diwed when making the wailway” –they really do write how they speak. Sadly you’re not allowed to photograph inside the museum otherwise I would have got some examples.

After looking around the JEATH museum we were jetted up the river on another long tailed boat, this is our second longtailed boat so we knew it was going to be fun. Arriving very windswept, you disembark the boat just below the bridge itself. The one that’s standing now is a replacement bridge, the original bridge is about 100m below and is now only an opening on either side of the river. Original or not, it didn’t stop Stacey and I wandering across it. When a train comes, you simply have to dive out of the way as it makes its way across the bridge¹.

The river is a good 20m below you² but it feels a lot further away when you’re in the middle. For those of you who haven’t been in the middle of a river before (on or off a bridge) it acts like a funnel and the wind rockets down so 20m above the water with the wind trying to push you off is fun…

After visiting the bridge we went to the Kanchanaburi War Cemetery where around 8,000 soldiers are commemorated³, it’s an odd place with a lot of small headstones along the ground, each the same small and plain. We didn’t manage to get around even half of the British section but we saw a large number of names we recognised, whether they’re relations to our friends or not we’re yet to find out. Unbelievably, and bearing in mind it’s a cemetery people still insisted on stepping over the headstones!

After the cemetery we went on the railway which still runs! The train⁴ winds around the Cliffside on a precarious wooden structure and along the riverside, it’s most impressive to think that it was built so long ago and is still a vital part of the local community –sometimes good things can come from such horror. One thing I loved about the train was the fact you could jump off pretty much wherever you liked, no automated doors etc dangerous yes but so much more thrilling⁵.

On the way to the market we stopped off at a demonstration of how coconut sugar is made –I have to admit I never knew there was such a thing! It turns out they use the coconut for all sorts of uses -not only as a tasty drink but paper, soap, fuel, sugar and even eating paraphernalia (bowls). After being shown how they extract the various parts¹ they need we were allowed to wander off to look around the Orchid farm² which was full of various creatures and plant life, most intriguingly baring in mind we were inland –crabs³?!

After a relentless drive and learning all about how coconuts are one of the most diverse and used “fruits” grown in Thailand we got to the long tailed boat that would be transporting us along the river to the Damnoensaduak floating market.

The long tailed boats⁴ are great fun; basically just an oversized canoe with a huge engine bolted on and a mission to scare the hell out of the tourists. TBH though I loved it, every stretch of canal she could, our driver opened the throttle full whack which left us leaping off the wash of the boats in front and slicing through reed and all sorts –it was just like being in my kayak again*!

After about 30 minutes of weaving past houses on stilts⁵, men in rice fields and the odd building site⁶, we finally saw the first glimpses of the floating market. At first sight it didn’t look anything more than a few houses which opened onto the canalside and the odd old woman paddling around with a canoe of pineapples⁷ but that was just the start.

Just before we moored, we passed the main body of the floating market and it really is as colourful and vibrant as all the photos make out. Full of every colour of the rainbow imaginable it’s an incredible sight to behold⁸. Our first port of call was a huge warehouse type building full of little stalls selling the locally produced trinkets.

There’s two sides to the floating market at Damnoensaduak, the first is aimed primarily at tourists and is more expensive, the other is for the locals⁹ and has a lot of fresh produce including coconuts, pineapples, papaya and guava to name but a few. To get to the other side you have to battle your way through a small tunnel which is lined either side with yet more stalls –I’m sure this was done to trap the unsuspecting tourists. You’re grabbed from the left and right and offered all sorts of weird and wonderful items, I had to make Stacey go in front after an old woman with vice like grip got hold of her without me knowing.

The photos we got of the floating market really don’t do it justice, in all I would say there were only about 50 boats on the water but the canal was bursting at the seems. Well worth checking out.

*Ok the speed side of things may not be true but it was still fun!

I for one was (oddly) looking forward to seeing the Rose Garden as some of the plants and flowers we’d encountered so far on our trip were really beautiful. I can’t say I’m one for flowers generally but the colours were just so vibrant.

When we got there the first thing we were greeted with was an elephant show¹. I’ve still got my reservations about these shows, I don’t think elephant riding is bad, or having them work is bad but these just make me feel sorry for the gentle giants. Admittedly I did smile at the elephants as they were made to dance but more because of how ridiculous it looked.

There was also a guy with an enormous Yellow Boa Constrictor which you could be photographed with for about 100Baht –not something Stacey was too interested in oddly!

As it turned out, we weren’t there for the gardens but instead the Thai culture show they put on. As interesting as it was Stacey and I just couldn’t help but laugh at some of the acts that were put on. The first was a man demonstrating one of the nations games called “Rattan”². Basically it was an old guy (apparently one of Thailand’s greatest players) playing keepy-uppy with a loosely woven ball. It wasn’t until later we found out how this could possibly be a game but there you go. The grand finale featured the guy holding about 8 balls off the ground –Beckham watch out!

After he left you’re then taken through a story which depicts various aspects of Thai life:

1. Thai percussion music
2. Classic Thai lullaby
3. Water dance (the Nagee Saran Dance)
4. Harvest Dance
5. Glong Sabutchai or drum practice
6. Thai (kick) Boxing
7. Sword and pole fighting
8. Thai wedding
9. Various dances including a Bamboo Dance –don’t laugh but that is actually pretty impressive

I have to admit though that we missed out on parts of the show because just after the water dance (and I kid not) the heavens opened to our first Thai rainstorm³. It was great –so much more entertaining than the show that when we had a power cut Stacey and I left to watch it. The rain was so heavy it was like a British summer, within seconds the courtyard was flooded with rain pouring out of every gutter⁴.

While wandering around in the rain we also saw some Thai fighting fish⁵ which were a really interesting shade of blue/purple when the light caught them. Each one was in its own jar with a divide between it and the next jar –I’m guessing if that’s removed they try to attack each other…

http://www.rose-garden.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=129&Itemid=194

On the way to see Phra Pathom Chedi we stopped off in a local craft centre where they carve all sorts of interesting items out of Teak¹, some of the items take months to do but look amazing when they’re done. I would have loved to buy one of their outside table and chair sets but I couldn’t afford the £10k² price tag!

Phra Pathom Chedi is the highest stupa (a type of Buddhist structure that looks like an upside down ice cream cone) in the world with an awe-inspiring height of 127m, it’s found in the town Nakhon Pathom which is about 60km South of Bangkok. According to what Shy (our tour guide) said, the stupa has been re-tiled 3 times but each time it was on top of the previous set of tiles.

The height of the stupa³ isn’t the only thing that’s impressive, around the base of the stupa is a huge collection of Buddha in various positions from lying down to sitting⁴, each slightly different and with an accompanying caption. Shy (our guide) said it would take 20minutes to walk around the base of the stupa and we would see 1,000 Buddha images. I’m not sure there were quite 1,000 but it did take around 15minutes to stroll around and there were a lot of Buddha images!

We only went around the outer wall of the temple, even though I wanted to go inside we weren’t sure whether it was allowed –though a few Japanese were checking it out. Apparently inside the temple there is a huge reclining Buddha image.

While we were there a monk was chanting away at the feet of the standing Buddha image while people paid their respects by burning incense and lighting candles. According to Shy you don’t need to be a monk for life, you stay at the temple for as long as you need until you find enlightenment following their 217 rules. However, every boy has to stay at the temple for at least 2months and you can only be called a monk when you’re over 20.

It’s an interesting religion and one I could easily follow from the little that I know about it.

Awesome. That’s the first and pretty much the only word that really describes Thailand. Interestingly it’s also a word that I’m using a lot at the moment –the last time was after driving the RX-8.

It’s (obviously) very different from England, we’ve not really seen any of Bangkok yet (other than the airport and a seemingly never ending sea of large buildings, but Hua Hin is great. It’s got such a friendly feel to it; everyone is courteous and polite, bowing to greet you etc -superb.

The driving is somewhat hair-raising, no, that’s not strong enough, it’s terrifying, a real white knuckle ride! I spent as much of the 3hour transfer from Bangkok to Hua Hin either looking out of the window at the side or with my eyes closed. The most commonly chosen form of transport is a small scooter with at least 3 people on it, that or an open back pickup with as many people as possible crammed in. Indicators are used surprisingly but that doesn’t mean they’re going where they’re indicating. Great fun but not for the faint hearted!

Personally I don’t think the photos on the Hilton site really do it justice, it looks nice but it’s much nicer “in the flesh”. The front of the hotel is enormous with big elephant fountain heads and about 10 big glass doors with plenty of bell boys on hand to carry your baggage. On arriving, they greet you with a fruit juice drink (I think it was melon) and cool towels to freshen up and you’re left waiting for the receptionist on massive soft sofas –a far cry from the fight to talk to the receptionist in the UK!

The main area of the hotel has a huge water feature running through it, it’s almost as large as the local canal! That then flows into an inside pond which runs up to a HUGE glass wall and it then continues on the other side, down into another pool and then through a stream into the pool (on closer inspection it actually goes into a drain which runs under the pool). The pools are 3 inter-connected pools with a swim-up bar and funny island feature. The river then starts again and flows towards the beach!

All around the pool is the usual collection of sun loungers -already occupied with the traditional Germans! In addition to the sun loungers there are a number of straw roof huts on stilts for you to shelter from the sun. We’ve not had a chance to visit the restaurant yet but they look pretty nice, there’s even one on the 17th floor which Stacey’s vowed to take me to for my birthday, I imagine the views are pretty amazing.

The room is phenomenal, far more than I was expecting even though we are staying in the Hilton. Normally we’re crammed into some box room, only just large enough to slide around the edge of the bed but this room is HUGE. At a guess I think it’s 31ft long and at least 15ft wide PLUS a balcony!

The view from the balcony is pretty darn good to even though the most of it is over Hua Hin, we can see the sea/beach, Monkey Mountain and a local temple. From what we’ve seen, the Hilton is the only hotel actually close to the centre of Hua Hin, the others are about 15mins drive away.

So in short, so far it’s a massive thumbs up, if you can afford the £18pppn room cost (remember it’s buy 3 nights get 2 free too!!) I’d defiantly recommend it, beats anywhere I’ve ever stayed without a second thought and that includes the Headland Hotel!

Oh, I should have mentioned, another Thai tradition is to give the lady an Orchid -or that may just be Thai airways, still it was nice non-the-less.

I expect this will be the last entry before we go, its most exciting to think that in 24hours we'll be half way around the world!

I would have thought I would be more nervous, not about flying for 11hours, going to a fairly undeveloped/deprived area or even of spending 2weeks doing nothing but I'm not. If I'm concerned about anything it's leaving the business for 2weeks but even that doesn't worry me overly as I know that although I’ve left people in charge, I can easily log into the server or emails from one of the multitude of internet cafés that apparently done the streets.

How can I leave it to its own devices? I'm not too sure tbh, I just think it’s a culmination of nearly 3years without a break, recent good news about winning new contracts and my usual flagrant attitude to business! That or it's the lesser of two evils... Either way we're off on a trip of a lifetime!

I had a meeting with a lovely new client today and part way through the conversation they mentioned that the had been looking for my mobile number online, when typing my name into Google though you’re faced with an abundance of the messages that I leave on mailing lists all over the globe, I wish I could say that they stumbled across one of the messages in which I was helping someone but sadly it was one of the *few* where I was asking for help.

It left me thinking about how careful you have to be when sending out any sort of correspondence. We’ve only recently started blogging and it’s taken some soul searching to start -for two reasons primarily, the first is if people see a huge number of posts while you’re doing their project -does that mean you’re not doing their project? The second was because of the nature/tone a blog can take -should it be kept strictly business or have a personal aspect, should you discuss ideas you’ve come up with to help others or should you not let the client/the competition know how you worked something out?

Rather than operating under some guise like Eremo or BigTed on a public blog network, I decided that it would be better to have complete transparency as in reality we really don’t have anything to hide but we do have a lot to share, we’re often finding quirks in our environment or useful applications that someone else is bound to come across and they would be grateful of our post.

In regards the aspect of blogging during a client’s project, every developer knows that sometimes you hit a problem in your code and you really don’t know which way to turn. When getting to that point I’ve always encouraged people to take a step back, surf the web for a while, go outside for a walk and you’re bound to find the answer as soon as you come back. In addition to this, so far nearly even blog post I’ve made has been out of office hours and although Craig hasn’t really started his blog yet I expect the majority of his will be the same -so fear not oh dear client, we’ll get back to your project forthwith!

For some reason though I never thought I would see the day that I was being Googled, which is odd as I know there are many egomaniacs out there Googling for their name every day! I knew I was out there but it makes you think about all those archived mailing lists that are just waiting to be found!

Despite being found on Google, I’m not going to change the stance we take on mailing people, I like to think that we’ve always been open and honest with every business transaction we’ve been involved in but I don’t want the client to be left with the impression that we’re incompetent. At the end of the day, there’s bound to be something they’re unsure on and could do with a few pointers from someone that’s "been there and done that" so to speak, so when it’s not us, I like to think we’re able to offer the experience.

Update: I was thinking about this after posting it and thought it would be a good test of our SEO skills to keep the "good" messages associated with The Site Doctor and me (Tim Gaunt) at the top of the Search Engines!

I don’t know about you, but personally I’m not good at complaining, I don’t like complaining and I don’t do it very often –except for when I feel it’s really justified. This past weekend however gave me cause to readjust my thinking.

What happened this weekend? Well Stacey went off for her usual expensive haircut in preparation for our forthcoming holiday, it’s her little treat that she always looks forward to, often planning an entire day around the event. Saturday was no exception, she was pretty upbeat when leaving the house at some ridiculously early time but on her return it was a different story.

When arriving at Halesowen she realised she had no change for the car park so popped into the local charity shop asking to get some change, instead of offering change the helper refused, which is a shame as we usually make a donation when someone’s kind and helps us out. So Stacey offered to buy something and donate it back in order to get some change. This made her 10minutes late for her appointment. When getting to the hairdressers, the assistant informed her that because she was late she could only do half the job she was going to (half head of colouring –don’t ask me…). Even though we’re going on holiday and she wants to look her best, despite having reason to, Stacey didn’t complain and let her get on with it.

I’m not totally up on the procedure but apparently you have dye added and then you sit under a heater. Well bearing in mind she was late, after having the colour applied she had to wait 5-10mins for a heater to become available –this wasn’t because she missed the slot, they just didn’t have enough equipment. While Stacey was waiting the hairdresser went off for a smoke –why didn’t she use this time to complete the job she was meant to? I don’t know…

After she had finished having her hair done, she had her eyebrows done, on returning a few moments later, the hairdresser was sitting chatting to another hairdresser –this was at least 15mins after Stacey finished which made her think “being late clearly didn’t mess up their schedule too much –she’s spent the time chatting when she could have been finishing my hair” and I have to say so did I when I was told.

Then apparently when leaving she mentioned that she was going on holiday to which the hairdresser went white and said that she’d completely forgotten –even though when booking the appointment she made a big fuss about it all. I realise that she may have a lot of customers and it’s difficult to remember everyone, but this is customer service, this is why Stacey used to pay around £100 a time -the superior service.

We worked it out and with all the products she buys and the fact she goes at least every two months, as a customer Stacey is easy worth over £600pa. Not only that, in the past she has always raved about the service –something I doubt she’ll be doing. It’s a shame to see a company that has been built on a good reputation, excellent service and forward thinking getting so complacent.

Instead of complaining on the spot, Stacey came home annoyed at how she had been treated, disappointed with the service which usually makes her feel like a million dollars. Why didn’t she complain? What would have happened if she had? We’ll never know but we will be letting the owner know about the service received because as a Small Business owner, if a client felt like Stacey I would want to know.

Then yesterday I was going through the company accounts and noticed that Fasthosts (who we have a shared server account with) have started charging separately for a service that was billed together, namely their “Standard Hosting Plan”. Originally it included 3 advanced inboxes, Web Statistics and a Web Control Panel however without any warning this has been changed to 3 advanced inboxes, Web Statistics and access to an API allowing developers to program their own control panel. Access to the Web Control Panel is now billed separately. Ignoring the inconvenience and underhand tactics used, this surely can’t be legal –can it?

This isn’t the first time Fasthosts have done something like this and I’m sure it won’t be the last so I thought I should complain but I’ve not got very far…

…yet.
 
For some time now I have always felt that if I only complain when it’s due it’ll have a greater effect but then it struck me, how is anyone to know that I don’t complain about everything to everyone? (The flaw in my justification some might argue!) Ok I feel good in myself knowing that I only complain when it’s justified but am I loosing out in the long run? Are we too tolerant as a society and are people who complain frequently getting further?

I guess this could have come under a heading of customer service but again that’s a rant for another day.

I know this is covered all over the web but I'm forever forgetting it so if Outlook has started blocking email attachments i.e. ASP files you can easily adjust this by adding a String Key called "Level1Remove" to the registry, navigate to: Current User --> Software --> Microsoft --> Office (x) --> Outlook --> Security (where (x) is the version of office you are running: 9 = Outlook 2000, 10 = Outlook 2002 11 = Outlook 2003

Then right click and choose "New" and "String Key", then add in a list of the attachments you would like to allow seperated by semi-colons i.e.:
.exe;.mdb;.url;.asp;.aspx;.zip