Life little less ordinary

So sorry everyone I have much catching up to do :) The journey to Koh Lanta ended up being quite taxing as both Sarah and I were nursing ourselves back to health after the events of the night before. So the serval hour hot boat ride wasn't helping. Once we arrived at the dock we decided to splurge and treat ourselves to a private bungalow with a pool are, and the whole journey suddendly seemed worth while!! Perfect place to rest us up for the new years celebration we had a head of us, with a resturant/bar that had every song imaginable on their i pod and left it up to the customers to chose and connect four and jenga on all the tables. So after a solid three days of lounging about the pool and ... read more

As planned I was heading down to the South of Thailand to meet Sarah... this involved two very lengthy night buses, a total of 36 hours, and alot of patience... The first one was fine but after the second night of not really sleeping and a 15 hour bus ride some how transforming into a 21 hour bus ride I was ready for a beer on the beach. So after checking into my over priced guesthouse in Patong beach I headed straight to the beach. Now for those of you who don't know Phuket is world renouned for old single men paying for young Thai ladies. And the moment I rocked into Patong (apparently the worst part for it) I hated it. But after one beer at the beach by myself, I found myself befriended by ... read more

So life has been going great, internet has been slow and expensive so I have a bit of catch up to do. After another crazy journey back down through the mountians, with a driver who seemed to think it was okay to drive in the middle of the road, even around blind corners, we left the mysterious plain of jars and headed down to the backpacker haven that is Vang Vieng. It has gotten to the point I don't even flinch anymore at the near misses of cow, or the swerving into the wrong lane to avoid a truck coming straight at you. I am not sure if that is a good thing or a bad thing. A small town with lucsious mountians and a stunning river catering to backpackers coming from around the world to ... read more

Only in Laos does a 250km trip take over 6 hours to drive Woke up early yet again to sqeeze in a quick job before our 7 hour bus ride to Pohnsavan to see The Plain of Jars, and I couldn't of ask for a better run. First let me explain that Luang Prabang has tons of beautiful Frech buildings and is also situated on the meeting point of the Mighty Mekong River and well as the smaller Nam Khan River already the makings for a beautiful run. So I started my run from the guesthouse and followed the Nam Khan River as it curved through the old quater of town, seeing a set of puppies on my way. Then the road curves as the rivers meet so I continued to follow the Mekong for ... read more

Note to self, eat before taking malaria pills Waking up early as per what seems to be normal right now, I went for a run, came back showered and packed, all before Adrian got out of bed. Knowing I was flying into Laos in a bit I decided to take my malaria pill before heading down for breakfast. Needless to say I will never do that again. By the time I go down and ordered I was already running back up the stairs, and getting that pill out of me again. After about 30 mins sat in front of the toilet I moved to the bed, leaving Adrian to finish up all the last minute errands, including mailing all my post cards... By the time we made it to the airport again I was beginning to ... read more

A half marathon that made me happy to have legs Arriving in Siem Reap rather late on Friday we decided just to settle in, as I had to pick up my race package before noon on Saturday, then we figured we would just amble about seeing the side of Siem Reap not many tourist get to see. As most of you know Siem Reap is renowned for the famous Angkor Wat temples, well most people come just to see that than leave. Adrian and I had both seen them before so we had already decided my Half Marathon through them would be more than enough, but right from arriving we were getting hassled about when we were going to see them and blah blah blah. After some broken English conversation we would EVENTUALLY explain to ... read more

A visit to the beautiful National Museum, the brutal Killing Fields, and the devastating S21 Prison Arriving mid afternoon on the Thursday we decided to make the most of our time and first went to the guest house to drop off our bags then straight to the outstandingly built National Museum. Before even getting near the doors you are blown away by the beautiful gardens and the pure size of this unreal building. Inside was even more amazing when you look at the age of some of these sculptures. Blown away by the Buddhas and the Ganeshes that cover every wall, I trekked my way through time and history of a little country called Cambodia. They had tools, rings and other articles used ages ago. An amazing Museum really. After we decided upon just touring ... read more

Our desperate journey to try and escape the unrelenting bracelet girls, and my ADVENTURE diving So after being hassled repeatedly the Bracelet girls, I had more bracelets than I could shake a stick at and we made the executive decision to try out a beach recommend by this Irish fella living in the area. Otres Beach it was called and when the tuk tuk driver told us 5 dollars to get there, I thought we were getting ripped off. But once we started the journey I could see why as it was 5 bucks as it was an old unpaved red dirt road that took us a solid 20 minutes to get down. Once at the beach it was all worth it, white sand beaches with crystal clear 29 degree aqua water. Absolute heaven! Although ... read more

Paradise with a few minor annoyances Walking from my beauty sleep at about 9 30 am I firgured I have lots of time before the 10 30 bus. Get up pack then order some food. 5 minutes later a tuk tuk driver shows saying he'll take us to the bus and it actually leaves and 9:45, but the guy from the hostel knows I haven't eaten and talks to the guy in Khmer, then looks back at me (standing looking between the two of them completely lost) and tells me this is his friend and I have time to eat. So I think sweet get to eating, half way through breakfast the guy jumps up explaining we need to go NOW. So I drop my fork and gather my stuff up and off we go! ... read more

Bangkok and Border guards So after one night in Bangkok where the world is your osyster, the bars are temples but the pearls ain't free... Focusing on the pearls ain't freee bit we decided to head onwards, after scoping out the situation we decided upon one more night in Bangkok then off to Cambodia, winging the whole visa situation as everyone was telling us it would be about 5 days to get one. So there we were with one more day to burn in a city where everyone is trying to sell you EVERYTHING. We started the day off with a light breakfast we learnt very quickly not to sit anywheres near the road as you will swarmed by the hundreds of frog ladies who I swear all look excatly the same, forcing you to ... read more