StuandRach

The single worst thing about a holiday is the ridiculous time you have to get up in order to leave. At 4am last Friday my alarm rang out loud and true and I rather grumpily extracted myself from the warm fluffiness of my beautiful bed. Rachel, as ever was bright and breezy and up and showered before my feet even touched the floor. My morning took a turn for the worse when I decided to knock the pint glass of water on my bedside cabinet all over the floor. Soon enough, our taxi to Gatwick was waiting outside and as is customary for Rachel, she spent the next hour worrying that we wouldn't get to the airport on time and whether the taxi driver was going the right way! An uneventful breakfast and flight to Lyon ... read more

We thought we would do a little summary of our honeymoon! Highlights: Stuart - Lighting our flying lanterns in Pattaya on Loy Krathong Festival; Meeting the people of Cambodia, sheer relaxation in Jamaica, seeing so may famous landmarks around the world (Grand Canyon, Sydney Opera House, Statue of Liberty, NZ Glaciers, USS Arizona Memorial); the scenery in Hawai'i Rachel - Loy Krathong in Pattaya, Rotorua, Christchurch, the boat trip where we met Tom, Jill, Jen and Daniel. Lowlights: Stuart - Ko Samui weather, Storm when we were at the glaciers which stopped our flight/hike, having a bad neck form driving and losing our enthusiasm for the road trip as we got to Florida. Rachel - Ko Samui, Las Vegas and shopping for suits in Vietnam (dont ever use Phuoc An Silks) Favourite Country: Stuart - USA ... read more

I thought I would finally get round to typing up one of the final blogs from our travels! Following the washout that was our first week in Ko Samui, we started the second week hoping and praying that the weather would improve and we could do some sightseeing and sunbathing. Friday 5th November brought no rain, but also no sunshine, so we spent yet more time at the villa with Rachel job hunting and me working on some things for Emerald Seas Villa before we decided that we would head down to the small village of Bo Phut and look around the food market. It was a relatively small but lively market compared to the huge sweaty markets of Bangkok, but interesting nonetheless. We made a few little purchases to stock up the villa kitchen and ... read more

Following our fanatstic time in Bangkok, we were soon back in Pattaya and embarked on what I can only describe as a week of indulging in the seven deadly sins! -Sloth (lots of staying in bed very late). -Gluttony (leaving the flat to overindulge in Thai food.) -Greed (eating desserts and snacks when we were already full to the brim.) -Lust (a visit to a go go bar or two - although when I explain what we saw, you will see that it probably wasn't lust, just curiousity!) -Envy (Rachel was very jealous of how good the ladyboys looked!) -Pride (I was proud of receiving a Blogger of the Week nomination from the people of TravelBlog where I post these blogs) -Wrath (Rachel directed her wrath at herself for getting drunk one evening and feeling terible ... read more

Sorry for the lack of regular blogs over the last couple of weeks, I have been slacking! Fear not though my friends; there will be this one and another couple to bring you bang up to date over the next few days. I’ll pick up the story as we left Saigon on the evening of Wednesday 13th October for our mammoth 17 and a half hour train journey north to Danang and then our final destination of Hoi An on the coast. After being ripped off by a very unscrupulous taxi driver (I think Rach was ready to stage a sit down protest in order that we paid the amount we previously agreed with him) we were at the station and ready to begin our next Asian rail adventure. After struggling to board through the ridiculously ... read more