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'I love it when a plan comes together' We checked out of the Khao San Palace at 10 to 8 and headed over to the Stray office to drop off our big bags and jumped into a Taxi towards Bangkok centre. This time we were prepared and as soon as we arrived we were security checked and allowed in to the Consular office. There was an unbeleiveably high amount of British men with young, scantily clad Thai girls all there for the same purpose as we were but we shrugged that off and enjoyed 'Anacondas; Hunt for the Blood Orchid' on HBO. A bit surreal watching a 15 rated horror movie in the waiting room at the Embassy, but we had watched the first one before we left so it was pretty good! :D The whole ... read more

Koh Samui We checked in to the Lipa Lovely and headed straight to the pool. We had grand ideas of relaxing in the sun and getting a bit of colour. This proved to be impossible as after catching so much on the ferry, we were white and red all over and couldn't stand the heat. So we retired to the bar at Big Johns and indulged in a couple of pretty hefty cocktails. We then went up to the little shop at the top of the road and met a very friendly crazy thai lady who had a good laugh at our red bits and sold us some aftersun and some beer and fags and we retired to our balcony to relax. All of a sudden the heavens opened and we saw rain like we hadn't ... read more

We came down for breakfast and to find the mighty orange Stray Bus waiting for us outside with our Isreali tour guide Wan, and some other members of the group. Immediately, everone was very friendly and we found out that they had all been on the bus together since Bangkok, travelling through Chang Mai in Northern Thailand, into Laos in the north and travelled down. We took our seat on the bus and headed off on the 6 hour bus journey to Tad Leuk waterfalls where we were camping for the night. The place was beautiful with a section of the river which reminded me of the Falls of Dochart flowing down into a massive waterfall. We had the visitor centre to camp out in and a hut built on the edge of the banks above ... read more

Monday morning, 8 am we headed into bangkok centre to go to the embassy to sort out our affirmation to marry. It was one of the hottest days I have ever experienced and we were glad of the Air-Con in the taxi. We got to the front office of the embassy and before they would let us through the very severe security checks the woman wanted to check that all our paperwork was in order. We had to bring pre-printed copies of our affirmation sheets and we were confident all was in order. Not so. I, foolishly, made the assumption that my passport was issued by the UKPA the same as Cheryl's. It was not, it was issued by IPS. Everything else was present and correct except for these four letters. The woman told us we ... read more

We awoke early with bigs plans of hitting Dusit Zoo, a Wat and a Palace and after coffee and a croissant (I know, its weird. We come all the way to Thailand and indulge in a European continental breakfast) we headed off for the long and sweaty walk. We were not even a third of the way on our journey before we met a very nice Thai man named Chang who told us that today was a very special Buddhist holiday and that we could get a Tuk Tuk for only 20 Bhatts to take us to some very special religious places. So we jumped in the first governement sponsored Tuk Tuk and went to see the Big Buddha. It was truly awe inpiring, standing a massive 45 metres high. Once we had marvelled at this ... read more

Welcome Pilgrims! After arriving at Glasgow we checked our bags and grabbed a bite to eat. Through passport control and after a couple of jars in the Airport lounge we were off. The first leg from Glasgow to Dubai was fantastic with a massively underbooked flight, meaning plenty of space to stretch out, and my first experience of flying with Emirates. I know that our ticket was economy, but this still felt to me like first class as the food and free drinks were all new to me. Nonetheless, 7 hours and 3500 miles in a confined space takes it toll and we arrived in 39 degree heat in Dubai (at night!) at passport control, a little worse for wear and a little angrier than if emirates had allowed the smoking of my electronic ciggarette aboard ... read more