Welcome all, to my last blog of what has turned out to be 18 months of travelling overland (not a single flight!) to and around mainland south east asia, an eventful time indeed... for next thursday night (26th february), ekk and i will board a Etihad airlines flight bound for london (via abu dhabi). it is also the first flight i've taken since april 2007, so slightly apprehensive... i wrote my last blog from the southern thai city of hat yai at the beginning of january, after just coming back from koh lipe for new years eve. ekk and i spent a few more rainy days there, including visiting the nearby beach resort of songkla, where it rained some more! ekk then had to return to work in hua hin, then i went onto bangkok. i ... read more

i am now in hua hin, having safely arrived from bangkok last night. its been quite an long and very varied adventure since my last blog from phuket.... i spent another 12 days in phuket. i had a great time there, so much so in fact, that i am going back there next week, to spend my 40th birthday, christmas and new year.... should be fun! spent the evenings seeing a lot of lip synching ladyboy cabaret, maybe too much, mainly in kiss bar, but also other establishments. boat bar sadly continues be become less popular, it is a shame, but they really to change their act... if anyone is wondering what the hell is going on in thailand right now, let me tell you it is still a safe place to visit, that is if ... read more

welcome again to my blog, i am back in Bangkok again, with my friend Ekk, after a solo foray to Laos and Cambodia. more on what's happened in Bangkok later... meanwhile let me regail you of the tale of the past 2 weeks of my travels, to pastures mainly new... after my last blog from Pakxe, which is the main town in southern Laos. i spent a couple more days there, enjoying the hassle free and laid back ambiance, that is so typical of Laos. i wanted to visit the Bolaven Plateau, an elevated area east of the town, notable for its cooler climate, many waterfalls and lots of tea and coffee plantations. there were no day tours going as not enough tourists about, and i still dont trust myself with a hired moped, so had ... read more

i am now back in Thailand having just spent the past 3 weeks in Malaysia and Singapore. after my last blog from Hat Yai, in far southern thailand, i took the direct overnight sleeper train from there to Kuala Lumpar, as my thai visa had expired. the ticket was only 518baht (about 8GBP). Although it starts in Hat Yai, it is a Malaysian train, with initially just two passenger carriages attached to the back of a very long and extremely slow goods train. the goods carriages are replaced by a lot more passenger ones at the Thailand/Malaysian border. compared with the freshly laundered sheets, that you could probably eat your dinner off, on thai sleepers, the bedding on the malaysian train left a lot to be desired. it didnt look or smell as if it had ... read more

ekk was thankfully certified tb free a few days after my last blog, and the certificate has to be used for entry into the uk before december 12th 2008. getting a uk settlement visa will take 3 months, and cost about 500quid! immediately after the last blog, i spent a week on koh samui, while ekk was faffing about in bangkok with the tb results. had a great time there again, even though it was my fourth visit since february! the first few nights i spent on lamai beach, far from the "hurdy gurdy" of chaweng beach!! though i then spent the next 5 days on chaweng... after samui, i took the seatran express boat to chumphon, spent one night there, before taking a bus to hua hin. the bus frustratingly dropped me on the distant ... read more