One of the things I didn’t account for in Thailand is how complicated it is to buy things online. I’m guessing this isn’t just an issue in Thailand but more a global problem when making online purchases abroad.

It is the rainy season in Thailand which means some times, like the last couple of days, if you go outside you drown. I like to play computer games every now and again and I use an Apple MacBook Pro which has no CD Rom drive so anything I buy has to be a digital download. There are 3 main digital game providers I’m interested in, Blizzard, Steam and Guildwars 2. I contacted my banks before I left, telling them I would be away for 12 months travelling and I will be visiting Thailand as the first port of call to make sure that there would be no issues. But oh boy are there issues.

This week has been pretty interesting. Now that I’m settled in to an actual routine and have made some friends I’ve been capitalising on the free time I have and making more of it. At least when we’re not in the middle of a torrential rain storm.

How To Properly Clean Boxing Gloves

The guys at the gym are pretty paranoid about Staph infections and advise cleaning everything in Dettol, including boxing gloves and shin guards. After every session I’ve been filling a sink full of water and Dettol, dumping my shorts and hand wraps in to soak and then dipping my gloves in to also soak them in the Dettol solution.

When Unseen Academicals first came out, I remember seeing it in the book shop, sighing and thinking Terry had completely jumped the shark. At the time the last thing I wanted to read was a book about a game of football, even if it was set on the Discworld. Five years later, oh what a mistake I made!! This book is amazing.

Focusing on the nuances of both the beautiful game and the team work that goes in to it, Unseen Academicals features the wizard, Ponder Stibbons, reinventing the game of foot-the-ball whilst the Unseen University try to put a team together!

One of the complications with this digital nomad experience is dealing with the UK. Not just time zone differences, that can be mitigated quite easily as the UK’s 9-5 is 4pm – midnight in Thailand. But lack of office infrastructure. I have to send some paperwork to my bank in the UK in order to make some account amendments, back at home this would have been as simple as print, sign, fax or maybe even print, sign, post. Out here though, working in a hotel room I’m stuck at the first hurdle ..

Every Tuesday morning Tiger Muay Thai organises a run to the Big Buddha in Phuket. The run is 4.2 km / 2.6 miles long and up hill all the way. You actually climb 1207 feet / 367 meters during the run, it’s hard. The record is something like 24 minutes!

The Taled Kaset Phuket Night Market is the largest night market in Phuket, loaded with food from different cultures as well as hilariously cheap knock off goods.

The first part of the market was rows and rows of little stalls and cubby holes selling either cheap Thai or tourist clothing, or cheap knock off sunglasses or other random things. e.g. the Beats by Dre Pill is £170 or you can buy something that looks exactly the same for about £17. For some reason Beats by Dre is HUGE over here and fake/cheap stuff is everywhere, even in the normal more expensive shopping malls. You can even buy fake Beats branded speakers in styles that even Beats by Dre don’t make!

The last Saturday of every month, Tiger Muay Thai hosts a BBQ Beatdown. 500 THB in advance, or 700 THB on the door, it’s a pretty cool party with free BBQ, beers and fights!

Due to the preparations the only class is Muay Thai on the beach, at 8am. This felt like more fun than training as we were taken down to the local beach, riding in the back of pickup trucks, or a bus, then did some Muay Thai practice on the sand before heading in to the sea for a swim.

Johnny’s last book, 12 Weeks In Thailand is one of the reasons I’m currently here, living it up in Phuket. I flew out almost 12 months after reading it, so when I learned he was launching a new book, Life. Changes. Quick. I bought it as soon as it was out.

I read the book, cover to cover, in just one sitting. It’s only 126 pages long, so not quite Lord Of The Rings, but every page was gripping and inspiring. Documenting Johnny’s journey from living it up in Thailand with no money, no budget and no responsibilities, to creating his own business, losing weight and falling in love, very inspiring.