Hi all! Sorry for the lack of updates recently! We spent quite a few days in Haad Rin after arriving on the terrible boat. Seeing as it is a party town we quickly fell into the day of fun / day of recovering flow. We decided to have a look around some other parts of the island before heading back for the full moon party (tomorrow) in Haad Rin. We spent 2 nights on the almost deserted Bottle Beach (Haad Khuat) in the North and had a lovely beach front bungalow. Then yesterday we came up here to Thong Nai Pan [View Full Entry]

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Hello! My spelling troubles are multiplying by the second - I really cannot spell this island! We got here yesterday after a nightmare boat journey that saw us both a little queezy (very specifically into-the-bag type queezy) and then came down to party central here in Haat Rin, home of the famous Full Moon Party. Unfortunately there's no-one here yet (or not many). The staff in the restaurant we tried to eat breakfast at had a fun game though - see how many times they can not take our order despite our clear request before we leave. At the third time [View Full Entry]

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Hi! Well, we're now both qualified scuba divers! We got the PADI Open Water qualification over the last 4 days which entitles us to dive to 18m anywhere in the world, at any point in the rest of our lives. We're hoping to do some more dives in Indonesia (maybe Bali/Gilley Isles) and Oz (Great Barrier Reef!) We spend yesterday evening on the mini golf course here on Koh Tao. It was probably one of the hardest courses I've played (being the massive mini golf enthusiast I am...) and I ended up about 12 over par. Even with a hole in [View Full Entry]

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Hello! We've just completed the longest journey yet - 36 hours from Vientiane (Laos) to Koh Tao (S. Thailand). We got on a tuk-tuk to the border at about 5pm on the 13th, got across the border only to find out that the bus for the next leg left from the Bus Station in the next town - 5km away! We got another tuk-tuk there, had a 12 hour night bus journey to Bangkok, went from the north to south bus station in Bangkok, got another bus at 9am which arrived in Chumphon at about 4pm, then waited for the next [View Full Entry]

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Hi! It's our first full day in Vientiane and it's another scorcher! The weather has been really hot these last few days and we're starting to want to just stay in places with air-con! Our room isn't like that though, we're paying a measly 45,000 kip a night where most places seem to be charging a minimum of 100,000k, but we are sharing a bathroom with the floor, and it has a very temperamental shower and door that doesn't quite close. Still, it's cheap! Today we started the day at 7ish to get down to the embassy to get our free [View Full Entry]

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Hi! Well we arrived in Vang Vieng the day before yesterday after the minibus/tumbledryer trip from Luang Prabang and managed to get the name of the guesthouse that friends were staying in and then moved in. Then we realised that the one they were in was on the other side of the road. Then we found a big rat in ours. So we moved over to the other one at about 11:30pm. The next day we found out that even that one was the wrong one! Anyway, we went tubing yesterday and had a great time. Also picked up a couple [View Full Entry]

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Hi! Well, 2 days of slow boat along the Mekong river on top of best part of a day on a minibus have taken me to Luang Prabang here in Laos. The trip was good although the boat was a little crowded, resulting in the terrible (and frequent) occurrence of the bar running dry. Fortunately they could pull over at the local villages to prevent the mutinous overtones of the passengers coming to anything! The couple of days before were quite good as well, hired a car and drove to the Tiger Kingdom and played with the tigers, then drove along [View Full Entry]

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Hi! We'll both be in Laos soon, taken by the slow boat. In Chiang Khong at the minute at the most bizarre guest house ever. It's done up like brand new with fancy varnished everything and a swimming pool. You'd have thought with that they'd be willing to heat up the water for the shower a touch, even if I am in the cheap rooms. They also put me in a room next to some industrial equipment that spend the night going 'whirrr clunk' and served me a tepid coffee this morning. Overall not one to be recommended (Nam Khong Guesthouse [View Full Entry]

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Hi all, Quick update - off trekking in the jungle for 2 days from tomorrow and then going to play with tiger cubs when we get back! www.tigerkingdom.com Then there's a festival here on 2/11 which sounds like it's worth hanging around for, people put small gifts in floating leaf things and send them down the river to bring good luck. After that maybe a quick visit to Pai and/or Chiang Rai and then the slow boat for 2 days to Laos. Must remember to be out by the 8th - our overland visa from Cambodia expires then! Tim [View Full Entry]

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Hi! Well, it's been a long 36 hours. We left Siem Riep at 7am yesterday and travelled via 2 buses, 2 minibusses and a taxi (mainly the buses) to Chang Mai in NW Thailand, arriving at around 7am this morning. As a result we're both completely knackered. I put my head down this afternoon at about 1pm and was asleep for 3 hours! Early night tonight I think. Regarding Cambodia I'm sure that the rest of it wasn't quite as bad as Siem Riep (hopefully!) but we took a bit of a disliking to it and decided to go to Laos [View Full Entry]

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