The end of our journey .......

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We ended up staying for 5 nights in Ko Tao, mainly because if you stayed for 4 nights you got the next night free. It was a nice beach resort with a small town. The only shame was that the beach was very dirty, so much litter everywhere. Our hotel cleaned up each day but no one else bothered. Their main asset & they dont look after it. We planned on doing some trips, but as usual we couldnt be bothered. I was very tired & spent alot of the time asleep!! Goodness knows how I will cope being back at work.

Our next stop was back on the mainland in a place called Hua Hin. It was only 3 hours from Bangkok & had the second best beach in Thailand. We stayed in a cheap hotel that was only 2 years old & very modern. We were the only 2 guests for 2 nights. We wandered round the streets & into the red light district (very interesting if you like lady boys!) & had dinner in the night market. 2 fantas & 2 pad thai noodles cost less than one pound fifty, our cheapest meal so far. We went to the Sofitell hotel for afternoon tea which was built in 1922. It was the hotel that was used in the film 'The Killing Fields'. Very english.

We are now in Bangkok for 2 nights before our flight early hours tomorrow morning. We found a good deal & are staying at the Peninsula, rated 4th best hotel in the world. Our room was on the 30th Floor overlooking the river. Its beautiful & seems a ftting end to our travels.

So our travelling adventure has now come to an end, back to reality. It has been the most wonderful experience, far better than ever I could imagine.

We have been away for 250 days, visited 11 countries, been on 27 flights, stayed the night in 79 different beds & been on 24 organised trips. My favourite trip was the Galapagos & my favourite moment was seeing baby Annie on an ultrasound for the first time.

We have overspent (surprise, surprise), our budget was gone by the time we left Oz . But hey, you only live once.

We wanted to do some environmental/wildlife voluntary work towards the end of our travels, to offset some of our carbon footprints, but everything we looked at was an organised trip you booked from home & paid alot of money for the priviledge. There was nothing you could just turn up & help with which is a real shame. So in the end we just paid to have 5 trees planted in East Sussex. Its a programme supported by Bill Oddie. I know its not enough, but felt we needed to do something.

I have perfected solitaire in my spare time & can now get it down to 1 piece every time. Havent learnt alot else apart from the confirmation of how unhappy & stressed I was at work. Life is too short. I have vowed it wont happen again.

I have done 40 blog entries & you have sent us 136 messages via travel blog alone, as well as many many personal emails. Thank you so much for keeping in touch. It has meant so much to us & your reactions to baby Annie blew us away. We have missed you all so much & have realised how special our family & friends are to us.

So thats it from the Ganders until we see you in person. Thank you for reading our updates, hope you have enjoyed them. We promise not to bore you with any more about our travels when we see you, after all you have read all about them here.

Lots of love xxx

p.s. Lots of people & travel books said that you lose weight when you go travelling - they all lied!!

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Photos

Hua Hin Market
Our cheapest meal

Peninsula Hotel
View from our room