We currently get so little free time these days that I’ve begun planning our only day of leisure to make sure we are still getting some fresh air, some exercise , doing something new and meeting friends.

Carey has returned to stay with us this week and after an early morning swim we headed to Chatuchak weekend market to explore the artwork and puppies there.

After a couple of hours we then headed to Suan Rot Fai Park and met up with my Thai couchsurfing friend Pom and her friend for a bike ride. The park is large and seems especially designed for cycling. Hiring bikes costs only 20-30 baht for the entire day and, although the brakes were a little unresponsive I can’t really complain for the nominal price we paid.

We cycled for about an hour then stopped by one of the lakes in the park to do some painting which was a nice novelty and in the evening we returned to a great Japanese cafe we found recently in our area.

This is the kind of Sunday I love having when we stay in Bangkok and I plan to return to Suan Rot Fai more often to run.

The full photo set is here.

We had a fantastic week with Alika, Chris and Ingrid when they came to stay.

I’ve seen Alika three times now. The first time she came to stay with us in Bangkok Garden when she was about 1 year old. I’m not usually so impressed with children but she was, without doubt, the most well-behaved and fun child I’d ever laid eyes on.

We met up again for about half a day last year when Chris’s family stopped in Bangkok for some dental work before flying to Europe. Alika was 3 at the time and, although she wasn’t talking, she was very giggly and was as fun as I remembered her.

This time around Alika was 4 and has very confidently mastered the art of talking.

I was certainly excited to see her again and she exceeded all my expectations. Again, perfectly well-behaved, a huge bundle of energy and the most positive outlook any 4 year old could ever have.

For the whole week Alika did not once complain, whinge, cry – despite getting about the same hours sleep as we got and having to trawl all over Bangkok every day.

Kudos to Chris and Ingrid for bring her up so well. I was so impressed by how reasonable she seemed to be. We took her to two places that were closed and she accepted it without complaining. Although most of my conversations with her verged on the silly side, when we sat down to discuss what she’d be doing that day it was as if I was talking to somebody 5 times her age. It’s the only time I’ve ever felt broody myself.

Every morning she woke up with a big smile on her face, desperate to play and, although Tik and I were busy, we made a big effort to spend time with her.

When they left, Tik and I both missed coming back at the end of the day to somebody so full of fun to enjoy our evening with. It was like having a toilet-trained speaking puppy dog.

We have some lovely photos online here.

For those of you wondering; Yes we are planning to start a family soon. Hopefully around the middle of 2010.

We booked into the Sunbeam hotel and upgraded to a large room with complimentary minibar (no alcohol though) and a much-appreciated large bathtub.

We visited the new floating market which is completely artificial, very touristy but attractive and the price of food was reasonable. It’s a good place to browse.

Tik treated me to a morning at KhaoKiew Open zoo where I got to visit one of my favorite animals – the Binturong (bear-cat) and, as a bonus we got to see some tiny hippos too.

The rest of the photos are here

Sam is Australian and Orna is Irish. They are traveling the world together and are heading to Koh Tao and then to Vietnam where they plan to teach English for 6 month.

Tik and I were both busy working this week but got the opportunity to take them for dinner at Fah Sai restaurant and, today to Crepes and Co for brunch.

I’d seen videos of this park online and looked forward to how close we could get to the giraffes. The park itself was great value; 300 baht for westerners, 130 for Thais.

Outside the park we had the opportunity to play with an excitable lion cub and have a group photo with a pretty lethargic tiger.

The park itself was as I’d imagined it, animals so used to tourists that they stuck their heads right into the car.

I found the zebras a little aggressive. They constantly snarled and jumped at the giraffes in a bid to get into our windows.

Tik didn’t appreciate me shoving a carrot down her pants as the giraffes tongue invaded the car but I think the giraffe probably enjoyed himself.

A few seconds after this photo was taken mr camel decided he’d take a bite at my entire arm. Thankfully Tik had a medi-kit in the car to clean me up.

We have many more photos of the weekend here.

We are currently hosting Eddie, a lecturer from California and Teague from England. We were also joined by Patrick and Simone.

I’m a few hours away from being able to juggle but even after an hour with Eddie I’ve made a lot of progress. Tomorrow I’ll go out and buy my own balls to practice with.

We enjoyed playing Wii with them.

The most memorable guests are usually those who cook for us and Elisa, Hector and Sameer came at a time when we weren’t too busy with work and could all relax together.

Elisa and Hector are Spanish although they’ve been all over the world for the last 7 years. They have just completed a round-the-world journey and are heading to Koh Phangnan to study to become yoga instructors and, when they complete their course will head to Brazil to teach at a school there.

Sameer is from El Salvador and is probably the biggest Couchsurfing fanatic we’ve yet met. Current he has about 145 positive references and is one of the ambassadors from El Salvador. Sameer’s had a very interesting life and is in Thailand to complete some advanced diving courses in Koh Tao.

What made this hosting experience so fun was just how comfortable everybody was with each other. Elisa and Hector prepared a delicious Spanish Omelette for us and served me fresh juices in the morning when I began work.

Suan Lum is one of our favorite attractions in Bangkok with live music (albeit really bad music), a great food court and a cheap, well-organized market.

He’s going to be staying in our apartment whilst we visit Japan and will be living the enviable lifestyle of working remotely with his clients who are in the UK.

Tik and I have been busy preparing our life for our Japan trip so we’ve not had as much time as we’d have like to spend with him however so far we’ve been out to MK for dinner, I’ve introduced him to some of my e-commerce friends and last night we invited P’A and Ying over, ate some nice Thai food at our local restaurant in our street and then headed out to State Tower to meet up with our friend Sophie whom we’ve not seen for some time.

After that I did manage to introduce Carey to one of the Patpong go-go bars but left pretty soon afterwards as the experience wasn’t very impressive.

Modeling her lovely red dress is Jessica, the 2-year old daughter of our friends David and Anna.

He came back to Bangkok with his friends Lee and Mark and we were lucky enough to host them for the day before they head to Samui.

They had a really long day with us, arriving from the airport about 9am. We took them and our current Couchsurfing guest Pascal to Molly Malones for a cheap Irish fry-up then gave them a few hours by the pool to relax.

In the afternoon they did some shopping, met us at Lumphini park for the Couchsurfing picnic, spent some time at Suan-Lum night bazaar and finally returned back to our place for some Wii games.

There were about 50 people there and although we met some great people it wasn’t as friendly as our new years eve party.

I was really delighted to have reunited with May – an old colleague of mine from my teaching days.

We decided to take a lot of food with us and, you’ll see from the photos, as I spread the word about the virtues of Marmite on bread, Tik was ready with her camera to snap the consequent faces-of-discomfort.

View the rest of the photos here

You’re a single 30-year old western male in Bangkok. You live alone, you’ve recently upgraded your apartment to something much nicer than before.

Why Barry is there a pink stuffed doll in your bed?

Best wishes,

Martin

She’s been known to confiscate our Couchsurfer’s cameras as soon as they get settled here and; using a combination of feminine wiles, mental and physical torture and heat-exposure wearing down their resistance.

Here is shocking evidence of the outcome of such session. She is making our couchsurfing friend Greg perform arial aerobics until she’s satisfied with the results.

After a battle of minds, drawn out over days Tik finally defeats Couchsurfer Greg into submission and strips him of all masculinity.

- Philippe and Amelia, a really lovely couple from Switzerland who’re traveling the world and are on their way to India.

- Alex, the guy we met in Kanchenaburi last week who’s on his way to the Philippines.

- Toon, Tik’s sister who came to Bangkok for a meeting.

We had a few other friends in Bangkok as well so took the opportunity to invite everybody over for dinner and drinks.

We ate at a great restaurant down the road called Fah Sai which serves Thai food.

Phillipe and Amelia has spent time with an American called Steve who joined us along with Jen and Matt, a couple who’ve stayed with us twice already but unfortunately third time around we didn’t have room to accommodate them.

Coincidentally it was also our friend Stella’s birthday. Stella is the mum of David – the friend I play tennis with every morning. David and his family live upstairs from us. They were unable to join us for dinner but came to our room afterwards with all the family – including Jessica, their 2-year old daughter, who – after a lot of coaxing finally managed to play my harmonica.

In all there were about 12 of us who sat talking and relaxing until just after midnight. It was a great start to another fun-packed weekend.

All photos are here.

We made the most of CouchSurfing this new year and joined up for our first group event.

We were to meet in Charley Brown’s Mexican restaurant on Sukumvit 11. They had a great promotion where, for 1,000 baht we were served a refillable variety of Mexican snacks and could order any drink on the menu except for Corona.

We invited P’A to join us and also one of Tik’s new colleagues Vivek. As we’d not actually eaten all day Tik and I were first to make use of the offer and we arrived about 30 minutes before anybody else.

Between 6 and 10:30 more people rolled in, to make a total of about 15 people. I thoroughly enjoyed the Sangria, even more-so when I learnt it was included in our 1,000 baht package.

We spent most of the time talking to new friends and learning about their life and travels.

The group divided at 11pm. Most went to Central World Plaza for the new year countdown. Tik, P’A, Vivek, Nicky, Marcello and I headed to Tapas Bar in Silom soi 4.

We danced there from 11:30 until about 1:30 and, pretty much missing any dramatic countdown during the dancing. It was busy but we did manage to find some space to dance.

Tik and I left about 1:30 and took refuge at Coffee World round the corner. By a stroke of luck as we sat down, pretty much all the other Couchsurfers arrived there too. P’A came to join us there and we spent the last hour of our night out talking and recovering from the exertion.

We were looking forward to our first CouchSurfing event. I was looking forward to mixing with new people and Tik was excited about the unlimited food buffet. We’ve made some great new friends and, although we’re both heading to Khao Yai tomorrow for a few days, once we’re back in Bangkok hopefully some of them will come stay with us.

Based on our first few hours of 2009, this year is certain to be the best year ever.

Click here to see our photos

Hailey, our CouchSurfing friend from Korea stayed two nights with us and taught us how to make the Korean version of Sushi. She is now in Hanoi teaching children English for a month. One thing We’ll always remember about Hailey is that she brought with her a big pack of balloons to twist into cool shapes for the kids. Whilst here, she made an umbrella and flower for us. Click Here for Photos

Tik booked us in to the Dvevan Dara resort in Hua Hin for the weekend. We’d booked it with no itinerary in mind but later discovered that a lot of our friends would be there that weekend for a music festival.

The resort itself was small and lacking in facilities. Tik had chosen a room with a private pool, although in all practical terms it was little more than a large (and chilly) bathtub.

We actually spent most of Saturday day relaxing on the bed, listening to music and reading. There was little incentive to go outside as it we had the luxury of good air conditioning in the room and just wanted to relax.

That evening we joined up with a large group of people who work for ‘South Pole’ – an environmental company close to our apartment where we are friendly already with the founders Patrick and Ingo. Ying and Sophie are also friends of ours who work there.

We met up for a ‘Preserve Hua-Hin’ concert which South Pole were sponsoring. The event was at the top of a mountain and we got seats by the mountain edge, about 50 meters from the stage. This was far enough away that the music wasn’t too intruding so we spent most of the evening meeting new people and talking. There was a huge assortment of food that was covered in the modest ticket charge and we certainly made the most out of that.

As the concert came to a close, Tik suggested we go to the Hilton’s pub where we could dance and listen to the live music.

The following day Tik and I checked out and joined Ingo, Sandy, Sila and Meiti at the Sofitel for their high-tea buffet.

We don’t have many photos of the weekend because most of our friends were happy snapping away with their cameras so we plan to get hold of their snaps. When we meet up with them again in the new year I’ll be sure to get some more to add to our photo pages.

For a few pictures of the Dvara Resort though click here.