Disco and Rat

Day 186 -193 We arrived early in the morning and tuk tuk'd it to siam square, we wandered up and down one street checking out a number of fairly poor rooms before settling on the least offensive place which seemed stuck somewhere in the 70's. We spent the next 3 days avoiding the rain by shopping in the huge siam malls, ordering a taylor made suit and shirts for Stuart along along the way. We were trying to book a final beach relax before our return but couldn't find anywhere in Thailand that wasn't raining. So we sacked it off and decided to stay in Bangkok. one the first evening we went to see a Lady boy show at the Asia hotel which looked very nice. it was very funny but a little strange. Trying to ... read more

Days 182-185 Arrived in Chiang Mai about 5 am and found our way to a nice little guesthouse via Tuk tuk. We had a little snooze then checked out the city. It was a gorgeous hot day (if we'd known it would be our last we would have made the most of it) and a really cool city. Much more chilled than Bangkok. We had some breakfast and booked an unplanned 2 day trekking trip for the next day. Had a swim in the pool at the guesthouse then walked down to the night market. It was huge - neverending in fact, with loads of bits and bobs for sale. We didn't spend that long there as it was the FA Cup final and Carly sliced open her toe on the shoddy pavement. We had a ... read more

Days 173-176 We got a boat over to Krabi and jumped on a bus to Ao Nang, a beach resort. We had no idea where we were when we got off the bus so went to an internet cafe to find somewhere to stay near where the girls would be staying. Luckily we were right by their hotel and checked into the one next to it. Ao Nang is very touristy but it was nice to be somewhere with a buzz after being on quiet beaches for the last month. We had a look around town, had some lunch and Stuart had a thai massage. We went to a bar to wait for the girls to arrive then we all went out for drinks and dinner. We booked a kayaking trip for the next day before ... read more

Days 163-167 We left Bottle Beach and caught the boat back to the mainland. We waited around for our bus across to Phuket as the big luxurious buses turned up to take passengers all around Thailand. Then this rickerty old thing turned up and we joked it was ours. Next they were shouting for passengers travelling for Phuket and signalling us to get into it. It's ok, we thought, it's just a van to take us to our real bus. After a while we stopped and all started to get out expecting to board the nice big bus, but no, more people were getting into our van!! We had to laugh, otherwise we would have gone mad! Eventually we got to Phuket and stayed in a hotel which was less than plush! The next day we ... read more

Days 144 - 151 After a long bus journey followed by an early morning boat, we landed on a gorgeous white beach with clear blue sea lapping up onto the shore. We were at Coral Bay in the Perhentian Islands. We walked along the beach looking for somewhere to stay and checked into a bargainous beach hut a stones throw away from the beach. We got ourselves sorted and planted ourselves on the beach under the clear blue sky. The sea was so still and clear, it was literally like a luke warm bath, with lots of little fish swimming around and attacking Stuart's moldy old feet. This pretty much set the scene for the rest of our days on the Perhentian islands. A couple of days in, we went on a brilliant snorkelling trip. It ... read more

Day 139-140 We flew out of Darwin late afternoon and arrived at our next stop, Singapore in the early evening. We caught the train to Little India, where we were staying. We checked into our hostel, which was really nice, but were pretty shattered so had some pringles and went to sleep. To make up for our lameness yesterday we got up early and walked to the main shopping street - Orchard Street. It was basically a row of malls although each one seemed to have the same shops. They have every shop you could ever want from Gucci, Prada, Armani to Topshop and M&S!! We both really like Singapore and were pleasently surprised as we hadn't heard anything that great about it. In the evening we walked around Little India, which is such a contrast ... read more