As mentioned before in blogging we needed to make a trip to Ranong to do the visa run to get some extra time in Thailand. Managed to find a nice little guesthouse near the Visa Run area but my word Ranong is full of alot of seedy old men hanging around with young thai girls. Pretty disgusting but we ignored that. Got told loads of different stories about this visa run to Burma and back with people saying it was going to cost a small fortune but luckily it didnt, although was a riddiculously complicated process for a simple thing Got [View Full Entry]

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Well would you believe it... Frances took her sickness tablet (2 in fact) and wasnt sick the whole way back!!! She even enjoyed it!!! IN fact hardly anyone was sick this time round even though the seas was just as rough... strange!! Got back safely to Chumphon where our coach picked us up to take us to town. They then tried to screw us over by insisting that they would only drop us all off at the train station and not the bus station (just down the road. If we wanted that then we were going to have to pay another [View Full Entry]

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Staying at Mr J's guesthouse is proving to be an interesting ride since he wants you to use his service for everything!!! As Frances says even homemade condoms!!! I think he's like the delboy of Koh Tao and most people on the island think hes a bit of a gangster but oh well!! The weather on the island is a bit unpredictable as the monsoon season is well under way in Malaysia and affecting the East coast of thailand greatly!! we have spent the last couple of days on a motor bike exploring Ko Tao. Its not a big island, only [View Full Entry]

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After boarding the bus from Bangkok at 10pm we arrived at Chumphon at 4:30am. We hd hoped to arrive slightly later when places were open so that we could buy a ticket for the boat over to Ko Tao...... anyway we ended up sitting at the bus stop for a while in the dark wondering what on earth to do, there were a few other backpackers around but they had already bought their tickets for the boat in Bangkok and when their organised lift arrived the woman told us that all the boats were full and tht we would be [View Full Entry]

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Hi honey we're home is the cry, and yet after our very first visit to Asia, and initial arival in Bangkok we felt much more confident. I love this city.. its so disgustingly dirty and smelly bt incredibly vibrant and energetic!!! Made our way to the Siem Square section for a bit of relief rather than the noisy Koh San but am need of a bit of light relief! Alas, this did not happen and we found ourselves at midnight wandering the streets looking for accomadation. Since weve been away high season has come in and taken most of the beds [View Full Entry]

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Caught the bus today to Kanchanaburi from Bangkok southern bus station and took a little over 2 and a half hours to get there! Kan is a really nice place but has many normal (rich) holiday makers coming to see the Kwai river and the bridge that makes it famous. so lots of fat middle aged people in very short shorts trying to get their tan! We made our way the first night to the backpacker scene and got a nice little room right by the river. Spent that evening wandering up to the night market and exploring. Loads of go-go [View Full Entry]

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Well we left for Bangkok at midnight arriving in at about half 4 in the morning. Pretty halmless journey although felt a little cramped. Managed to jump straight on the coach headed for Pak Chong at 5am taking approx 2 hours. Pak Chong lies at the gates of one of Thailands most scenic national parks, Khao Yai... This wasnt originally going to be a destination for us but have decided that seeing it was so close it would be stupid not to visit before the long journey South! - Hearing in great detail at the min how bad the weather is [View Full Entry]

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So we managed to claw ourselves away from a lush hotel in Chang Mai..... Borded a bus at the station that was supposed to take 5 hours south but ended up taking almost 8 hours.... (no surprise there then) Phi-Lok is not very touristy at all but houses a very unique youth hostel which is where we spent the night before spending today (11th) roaming around the city.... You will be pleased to know that we ditched the buddha images and temples for a little bit of English and so we set on an hour long trek. or pilgramage up the [View Full Entry]

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Well on our return to chiang mai we decided that we deserved a bit of luxury, especially as it was lukes bday. after arriving at the bus station we headed straight for the Montri Hotel which we had seen on our previous visit. For 15 dollars a night we have air con , a fridge, cable tv and a big double bed.....luxury!!! Due to this luxury we have found it very difficult to leave our room....in fact in the last 2 days we have only left for food and to get our clothes washed... we have directed our efforts towards creating [View Full Entry]

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we left Chang mai along with Rob and Brian and headed to Pai. The bus crawled up the mountains for 4 hours in 4th gear all the way. We eventually reached Pai just as it was getting dark. We had heard great things about this place and it seems so had everyone else as all the guesthouses were fully booked. Eventually we found ourselves an overpriced but comfortable room for the night, dumped our stuff and headed out to explore......the bars. Pai has a great atmosphere at night and after a few bottles of rice whiskey we flopped into bed about [View Full Entry]

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