Hitting Southern Thailand Crossing the border into southern Thailand from Malaysia was a breeze after some of our recent border experiences on trains. About 5 minutes in total took us from leaving Malaysia to entering Thailand and being greeted by a smiling border official, followed by an exhilirating 2 minute ride, backpack and all, riding pillion on a motorbike-taxi, to get us to the bus stop where we could push on straight up to Krabi, on the Thai west coast. Our first impressions of travelling through southern Thailand were of the large numbers of army checkpoints dotted along the roads, which became less common as we moved further north. Although we had been advised there can be some trouble with Muslim anti-Thai groups in the area, this large army presence did reassure us that things are ... read more

Langkawi We left China excited to experience somewhere different, and looking forward to relaxing for a few days. We flew out of Guilin to Kuala Lumpur and straight on to the island of Langkawi, off Malaysia's west coast, near the border with Thailand. We had chosen to start our time in Malaysia on Langkawi, in part to coincide with meeting Dean and Kat for a night on their honeymoon (congratulations you 2 by the way!). However, sadly for them, Kat's eleventh-hour apendicitis put paid to their visit (though, incredibly, not the wedding - Kat you are a trouper!) and they never made it to Malaysia. So we did the chilling out for the team ;-) On arrival in Malaysia, our first impression was just how much easier things are for travelling. Almost everybody speaks at least ... read more

Yunnan Province.......higher, wetter, cooler After the heat and chaos of the big city, we were at a bit of a loss as to where to go next in China. It's such a big country and the options are endless. However, to escape the heat, we figured going up in altitude should cool things down. With that, we booked a flight down to Kunming in the Yunnan province of south west China, home to mountains and fabulous hiking and biking. On arrival in Kunming, we moved straight on to the bus station and the 5 hour journey west to Dali. This probably still stands out as one of the most hair-raising journeys either of us has been on. The pre-requisite when building a bus in China (as in many parts of the world) seems to be ... read more

St. Petersburg We left a very wet and cold London on 7th June to arrive in St. Petersburg which was.....you guessed it, wet and cold. So much for trying to escape the unpredictable British summer then! Luckily it cleared up later the first day for our trawl across town to our first hostel of the trip. We stayed in a hostel called Friends and i have to say it was just like staying in a Russian version of the TV show. The show was on loop (dubbed to Russian obviously) in the reception, pictures from the show were on the walls and they even had that picture frame thing on the back of the main door. Sadly the staff didn't look like Jennifer Anniston! The first thing we noticed about St. Petersburg was how late it ... read more

On to the final country of the trip then and into Ecuador the hard way. From Trujillo, it was 3 separate bus trips, totalling 24 hours, to get the city of Cuenca on the Central highlands route through Ecuador. Unfortunately, bus comfort deterioates into Ecuador so it was no comfortable bus seats to sleep on for us. Instead pretty hard seats, that didn´t recline much, accompanied by that much loved South American synthesiser music and 1970´s Mexican musicals on the TV at full volume. Although all of this was interrupted by a 12:45am border crossing at a mosquito infested river with border guards who really would rather not have been there at 12:45am! Still, we made it in the end to Cuenca, our first stop in Ecuador. Cuenca Cuenca is another beautiful colonial city (Do i ... read more