We are back.... and I have an apology to make ... I am SORRY PHUKET... Last year I never gave you enough credit... I hated you, but that has all changed after 3 short nights... :-) From Phuket Town we headed straight to Patong.. and a few nights on much needed luxury at the Holiday Inn.. WOW! This place is really great.... as nice as Merlin Beach Resort was last year, it still seemed a little overpriced, and the remoteness (along with their taxi mafia) left me with a not so great impression... Holiday Inn on the other hand.. well.. it has my vote! It was smack bang in the middle of Patong Beach RIGHT across the road from the AMAZING OTop Markets, and the beach... the staff were fantastic, the rooms beautiful and we totally ... read more

I promise this will not be a long blog, but there will be lots of crazy photos!! On the 24th we finally got to attend the full moon party! I was a bit wary as to what to expect, having heard the numerous stories of it being an 18 years old's paradise... however we had managed to round up some people in the 'older' age bracket off Trip Advisor before we left and so were feeling confident we could tackle it head on with a group of us... and tackle it we did!! The night started at the Outback Bar. This was our pre-arranged meeting point, and typically Rinna and I were first there.. we started with some Pimms n Lemonade. When McKay, Matt, Julian and Dennis rocked up we got them on the Pimms too, ... read more

Or as Rinna affectionately calls it ... Stubbtoesville.... Rinna and the footpaths of Chiang Rai do not agree with each other... there has been blood, sweat and tears... several times! Sooooo after we hightailed it out of Laos we headed over the border to the dodgy little town of Chiang Khong which we promptly realised had no money exchanges open on a Sunday.. kind of a problem when all you have are travelers cheques... luckily the 2nd ATM machine we found was working, we loaded up on Baht and decided to be stubborn "NO WE DON'T WANT A TUK TUK" and walk the 2.5kms to the bus station (Like we hadn't had enough walking that morning hiking out of the jungle!) - our sole intention to hightail it straight to Chiang Rai where we were due ... read more

Hi everyone, Its been a long time since our last blog and alot has happened... This blog covers the Luang Prabang and Slow Boat part of our trip: Freezing our a$$es off in South East Asia! Well its been a loooooong cold few days.... and we cannot believe we are in the tropics of Laos! It is freezing.. seriously.... Luang Prabang was lovely. A quaint little town listed as a world heritage site, full of cafes, bakeries and tuktuks.... we had a good time, but it could have been great had the weather played ball with us! It is sooooo cold.. you cannot imagine how much so! I bought a Beer Lao hooded sweater in Vang Vieng and I seriously have not taken it off since.... I have slept in it every night.. along with long ... read more

Well we have had a crazy few days since the last blog... its hard keeping up with everything we have done! We have had so many moments where we have just looked at each other and said 'what the hell have we gotten ourselves into?!' - at least all we have done is laugh about it!! Floating Markets & Railway Markets We were up on the 6th at 5.30am for a day tour with Tong and a couple from Melbourne (Alisha & Justin)... way too early considering the night before... First stop was a little market place just outside of Bangkok which is known as the Railway Market. It is basically a little local market (no tourists) which is held ON a railway track... a train comes through about 8 times per day and the locals ... read more