There is a saying in travel that says, "It is not the destination that matters but the journey" and nowhere on our trip so far has this been more true than on the 2-day boat trip down the Mekong in Laos. We had left Thailand on a fish-tailed ferry boat for the short crossing over to Hauy Xai, lugging our packs up the boat ramp with a last, fond look back at Thailand before going through customs procedures and entering Laos. I had wanted to do the Mekong boat trip ever since reading Dervla Murphy's account of a similar journey undertaken [View Full Entry]

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Drifting in and out of sleep. Light from outside the room catching on the mosquito net. A guitar being played nearby, a Thai-accented voice singing the words to a John Lennon song - "Don't Let me Down." In Southeast Asia, it was sometimes hard to discern the difference between the waking moment and the dream. So many sights, sounds, smells and tastes. Colour and experiences beyond your wildest dreams.... or nightmares. Was I dreaming and where were we? How many times would we ask ourselves those questions during the course of our trip? We were still in Thailand of course, but [View Full Entry]

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2nd NOV : Doi Kong, Mae Hong Son The air at the top of the hill was much cooler than it was down below and the view extended out across the mountains of Myanmar (Burma) to the west. We had hitched a lift up to the mountaintop temple of Wat Doi Kong Mu with a Thai couple, who like us, were visiting to participate in festival celebrations at the temple. The celebrations were part of Loy Kratong, the "Festival of Light", and Thai visitors were sending up hellium-filled ballons that trailed a small paper cup - illuminated from inside by a [View Full Entry]

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Four days after our arrival, we cast about for somewhere we could go and acclimatise gently to the heat and tumult of Asia. Kamphaeng Phet was a six-hour bus journey north of Bangkok and seemed to fit the bill. “A small provincial capital”, the guidebook said, “dominated by a number of Sukothai-era temples, that sees few foreign visitors.” It sounded so promising that, a couple of days later, we were ensconced in a small guesthouse close to the walls of the old city. The journey there by bus took us across the flat central plains which now, in the wake of [View Full Entry]

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No matter how prepared I thought we were Bangkok was still a shock to the system - particularly after the cool, leafy confines of home in Cornwall. The temperature is the first thing you notice. You feel it the moment you step outside the air-conditioned halls of the airport: it’s like walking into a solid wall of wet heat. Within minutes, you’re sweating profusely and wondering if you’ll ever get used to the humidity. As if that isn’t enough to contend with, you quickly realise that you’ve somehow got to cope with Bangkok as well, no mean feat when you’ [View Full Entry]

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….”Six, Five, Four…” All Journeys have a beginning and an end. Ours began in Cornwall. The idea was born in the cold depths of winter. Most trips to hotter climates often are and frequently follow hot-on-the-heels of one too many dark winters. Life, we had decided, was too short to put things off. There are times in all our lives when we are reminded painfully of the fragile nature of our existence. You never know what’s around the corner and it really doesn’t pay to put off something you want to do until tomorrow. And besides, we both wanted [View Full Entry]

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