We woke up early to the beautiful sounds of a group of 10 Irish boys and girls playing in the pool after enjoying an all-night lock-in. Gemma went for a morning swim and struggled to explain that she’s not always up that early and, in fact, the only reason she was there was because they’d woken her up. They seemed genuinely surprised, apologised for their noisiness and were then quiet for a few seconds before resuming activity, in the way that only very drunken people can pull off. The day’s highlight was the Thai cookery course we’d signed up for. [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Chiang Mai at around midday we found accommodation and then managed to work on some errands, such as buying our last flight tickets from Chiang Mai to Luang Prabang (Laos) and Luang Prabang to Hanoi (Vietnam). Not so long ago we would have travelled overland but with the end of our trip looming we are losing enthusiasm for travelling rough and by flying we save ourselves 3 days. We had a superb lunch in a restaurant called Moxie which is in the plush D2 hotel. The Thai Green Curry was probably the best Ed had ever had, and the [View Full Entry]

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Today was much like yesterday as we had to while away time until our 10pm train from Bangkok to Chiang Mai (a town up in the north of Thailand). We explored more of the Bangkok merchandise that is on offer and also managed to sample a number of different restaurants. It was pretty tough. The sleeper train that we were on this evening was very functional, with about 25 beds in a carriage along each of the walls. It was very comfortable, at least as far as sleeping in the same place as 23 other people can be. [View Full Entry]

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For our day of leisure in 36C sunshine we didn’t struggle to work out that our time would be best spent in the rooftop pool (where the tattoo parade continued) and on the internet in Starbucks. What a great day, and a Monday morning as well! [View Full Entry]

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An early start today for the drive out to Kanchanaburi, a town a couple of hours from Bangkok made famous by the nearby railway bridge built by WW2 POWs. First we wandered around a WW2 grave and were mightily impressed by the absolutely immaculate condition in which it is kept. Then we visited a museum describing, with some vivid photos, the harrowing story of the construction of the railway to Burmah - evil Japanese soldiers overseeing an enormous workforce of malnourished Allied POWs living in dreadful conditions. So many died that the name ‘Death Railway’ was quite apt. We walked [View Full Entry]

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An early drive back to Paro and we were soon on our way flying to Calcutta, or Kolkata as they now want to be called (a Bombay vs Mumbai thing designed to confuse the world). In England we visit our local curry house once a week or so and are big fans, so it was with much regret that our first visit to India just involved sitting on the plane rather than pigging out. But hours later we were back in Bangkok and after weeks and weeks of often disgusting Asian food, and illness-induced weight loss, we found ourselves as [View Full Entry]

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After a mostly inedible rural breakfast we visited another dzong - we’re basically up for anything when it comes to trying the native food of places we visit, but lately it has been defeating us. This dzong was similar to the others we’d already seen and we were kind of losing our interest in their uniqueness compared to buildings in other countries. The reason we came to look around this particular one was that the person who built it observed 4 ravens flying in 4 different directions, and this clearly auspicious moment was taken to be a good omen for building [View Full Entry]

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Today we headed further towards central Bhutan, which first involves a climb up to the Dochu La pass at 3140m. Although we were on the national highway it’s not particularly wide and at one stage we clashed wing mirrors with an oncoming car containing what turned out to be a very angry man in the passenger seat. At the pass itself you can see a wonderful panoramic view of the Himalayas, or at least that’s what you see on a clear day; all we saw was cloud. So we contented ourselves with the 108 stupas that the eldest of the [View Full Entry]

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The animal the Takin - heard of it? Didn’t think so! This is an animal that is said to have been made by a “Divine Madman” who after devouring a cow and goat used the bones of the said animals to create a new animal that came alive after he uttered a few words and it started to eat in the meadow. This is how the Bhutanese believe the Takin was created and so it is Bhutan’s national animal. And in the flesh it is just as weird but strangely mesmerizing, as it has such a gentle inquisitive personality, as [View Full Entry]

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Waking up with the sun we soon found ourselves walking among the evergreen trees and rivers towards the Tstong Monastery or Tiger's Nest, a Monastery that was built in the 17th century on a rock cliff 900m high. As we made our way up the steep path there were many times when we could have been in England due to the surroundings and weather. The hour or so hike up to the monastery is well worth it for the many different views you get of the buildings as well as the exercise. From the top we got to look around [View Full Entry]

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