19.02.09 - Arrived at Sukhothai in the evening. Despite denials to the contrary from taxi and tuktuk drivers, it was possible to take a bus out to Old Sukhothai, where all the temples are based. We had a reservation at a guesthouse. When we arrived, tired and fed up, they told us they were full. We explained we had a reservation. After a long conversation with someone on the phone in Thai and much hand wringing, we were allowed to go to a clearly empty room. I don't know why the guy on the desk said they were full when they [View Full Entry]

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16.02.09 - We arrived at Ayutthaya and headed to the not so splendiferous Ayutthaya guesthouse, pausing only to grab dinner before collapsing to sleep. The next day we changed guesthouses and began our circuit of the Ayutthayan temples with Wat Ratburana. This was a really nice first temple, with plenty of carvings and statues still in situ rather than being in a museum. Our next stop was Wat Phra Ram, a temple which I found bereft of any reason to visit it apart from being thorough. Close by was Wat Phra Si Sanphet, which had three well preserved chedis housing the [View Full Entry]

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14.02.09 - We had decided to take the train from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi as it was supposed to be scenic. For scenic, read slow. And uncomfortable. And only vaguely scenic. I probably would recommend someone else to skip the train and take the bus, which we did on the return journey and which was dramatically more pleasant! It was Death Valley hot in Kanchanaburi. We were staying at Sam's River Rafts and whilst the room wasn't anything to write home about, the location was beautiful. It was literally a raft on the river, and so when you looked out the window [View Full Entry]

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09.02.09 - We caught a bus from Bangkok, then transferred with a Lomprayah boat to Ko Tao. Incidentally, I think they are the best company to travel with - we used another boat on the way back and it was way worse - more people, no air con. We had booked in to do our advanced diving course with Divepoint, a super efficient, German run dive organisation. This was not to indicate that we are in any way advanced divers but merely that we wanted more instruction before being let loose on the open waters with minimal supervision. We had a [View Full Entry]

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03.02.09 - We spent about a week in Bangkok, partly because I got ill but also partly because we liked it far more than we had expected to. We had read about scams, insane traffic and fumes. We knew there were sites worth seeing but we had intended to see them asap and then hightail it out of there. In reality, the tourist enclaves of Bangkok are incredibly chilled and relaxing places to pass the time doing little more than eating and people watching. We stayed in Soi Ram Bhuttri, which was much quieter than Ko San but still had plenty [View Full Entry]

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27.01.09 - Legaspi was our final stop in the Philippines. I have no particular thoughts about it as a place. Our hotel, Dreams, was one of the few good value places we stayed, with a cheap room with cable TV and hot water (albeit a little grubby). Mount Mayon remained mostly enveiled in cloud the two days we were there. The taxi/tricycle drivers were as dishonest as they ever are, and Shakeys Pizza continued to be our favourite home grown fast food outlet (try their garlic parmesan fries if you can!). We took a night bus from Legaspi to Manila on [View Full Entry]

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25.01.09 - We had gone to Sorsorgon with the intention of moving on pretty sharpish to the nearby Rizal Beach. However, the weather had other plans, with monsoon style rain bucketing down. In addition to this problem, we met two friendly Germans who informed us that the beach was somewhat of a hole; impossible to get to without your own transport, with only overpriced and shoddy accommodation when you get there. Great! We mostly used Sorsorgon as a chillout spot therefore, going for the odd wander around town. There were no sights of note, but the people were friendly. We were [View Full Entry]

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24.01.09 - We flew in to Legaspi, dodged the usual rip off merchant taxi drivers (getting a tricycle in the rain, fun!) and arrived at the bus station. I had thought it would be a quick thing to set off to Donsol but we ended up waiting around for just one person to squish into the last available centimetre of space... eventually the other passengers and us clubbed together and bought the seat. We met some nice people on the bus and arranged to meet up later that day to reserve a place on the whale shark trip the following morning. [View Full Entry]

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31.01.09 - We arrived at Singapore in the late afternoon and I quickly whisked Elliott away from Changi Airport (which he loves) to an overpriced taxi to Bencoolen Street, where Lee's Boarding House awaited. Mr Lee provided great amusement whilst we stayed there. He didn't believe in small talk but would only really converse with us when he was demanding money. A word of warning for the uninitiated - Singapore is Expensive and not good value for money when you compare it to most other places in South East Asia. Our first night was spent getting Thai food nearby the hostel [View Full Entry]

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19.01.09 - When we arrived in Alona, we booked into Alona Grove (formerly Swiss Bamboo House). The owner was awesome and immediately hooked us up with places that would give us discounts on diving, as we wanted to take our Open Water Course there. We ate almost every evening at Lost Horizon as we found the seafood to be particularly fantastic there. They also had a little shack with iced seafood which they would BBQ for you on request - blissful. The first three days we spent diving. It was somewhat rushed and our course was good value for money (i.e. [View Full Entry]

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