Tiger On Tour: Down Under

Firstly, I regret to inform you that I found no pies in Pai. That aside it was a nice little place, in the evenings especially. For those that know Bangkok's Khao San Road it was similar to that for market stalls and shops but without the freaks. I was back in Chiang Mai to watch the Sheffield United game advertised on ESPN, only to get a re-run of another game instead (issues with FA Cup TV rights in Thailand, I understand). Later that night my girlfriend and I both suffered the effects of food poisoning, just adding to the romance of a Valentine's evening spent waiting for a football match which isn't even on. Unfortunately this illness took a while to go away and a whole 2 weeks were spent stuck in Chiang Mai, missing out on travelling around Laos, until we finally recovered and could fly to Australia. My time in Asia ended on a bad note and I was almost literally sick of Thailand. There were some great highlights but I spent twice as long there as I would have wanted or needed to. I wouldn't discourage anyone from going but if you are planning a similar trip to mine I would recommend spending no more time there than in Vietnam and Cambodia as I found them more interesting, less westernised countries than Thailand. I managed to watch the Tottenham game the morning after my (low-key) 23rd birthday. Sadly, no late present, which was a shame as I thought we more than matched up to their strong line-up and looked like taking at least a point. And so I have to think back to the very first game I watched in Hong Kong, Middlesbrough in early December, for the only Hull City win I've seen in Asia. I've been in Sydney for just over a week now. I couldn't find TV coverage for the Blackburn and Fulham matches, the first league games I've missed on my trip. Hopefully with the run ended at Fulham we can start afresh now and get through the last 10 games. We're in a good position at the moment and it's ours for the taking if we get results in the next 5 games against Newcastle, Wigan, Portsmouth, Middlesbrough and Sunderland.