South East Asia

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Hello as usual we've been quite busy. We arrived in Bangkok, Thailand on the 11th of Jan , both very sad to have left Australia. People we've met warned us that you either love or hate Bangkok, but we loved it. There's a LOT of traffic and hustle and bustle, so we spent the few days we had there soaking up the atmosphere and enjoying the cheap food and drink. We also played the game of who could spot the most Lady Boys, Some where so good that the only thing that gave them away was there voice!!

After a few days we flew down to Thailand's largest Island Phuket. Fellow travellers had also warned us that this place was over commercial...they were right. We travelled around the island over a week and in that time only found one beach that we could really relax on. All the other beaches were full to bursting point with Scandinavians and Germans on package holidays. We probably wouldn't have minded except that most of the old ladies would walk around topless and the men would either wear speedos or thongs!! Once you've seen one grandad in a thong...you've seen too many. We would have taken some photos as proof, but we were always too busy laughing to get the camera out.

We then decided to take a 3 hour bus journey to Phang Nga where we did a days boat trip out to the Marine National Park. There we saw over 50 beautiful limestone islands, each of which had been carved out by the wind and sea. One of the islands is called James Bond island as it is where the "Man with the Golden Gun" was filmed (scaramanga's hideaway).

The next day we did another 3 hour bus journey to Krabi Town. We stayed one night there (though we wish we hadn't as the town wasn't very nice) before heading out to some of the lovely beaches in the Krabi province. Here we met up with Mom and Dad (Baggott) and had some lovely days on the various beaches, made the most of the fresh sea food and cocktails in the evenings. After 5 days we all caught a 5 hour bus down to Ko Lanta where we stayed for another 5 days.

At Ko Lanta we lived the beach bum life..again and stayed in some bungalows right on the beach. We made the mistake of telling Dad that they sold Sambucca in the shop near by. From then on it was a bottle between us a night along with many games of dominoes (which Rich has developed as passion for would you believe). One evening we went to a Thai Boxing match, which was amazing, we even got exhausted just watching it. Another day we hired some motorbikes and explored some of the other Beaches on the island. Mom and Dad also treated us to a day trip to Ko Phi Phi. The scenery surreal, we got to do lots of snorkeling and visited several beaches including the famous Mia Beach where "The Beach" was filmed. We had a great time though a day trip is all that was needed as both islands were heaving with too many tourists.

We all then flew up to Bangkok where we stayed for one night before flying out to Siem Reap in Cambodia. There we explored the Wats (ancient Buddhist & Hindu temples) including the famous Ankgor Wat (the largest religious building on the planet). Its impossible to describe how amazing they were, all i can say is go there yourself and see, you wouldn't regret it. We then took a 7 hour bus journey to the Capital Phnom Penh. There we visited the Killing fields and the Genocide museum (not the most up lifting things to do, but important to see to try to understand what they've experienced). Cambodia was very similar to Thailand though thankfully not as commercial. In the capital there were many people begging especially children asking for food and drink (Who always seemed to make a bee-line for me) One little boy asked for some milk, I thought I'd buy him a carton so took him in the shop, but he wanted a big pot of expensive powdered milk!! It's then only a few minutes until someone else asks, so in the end you have to be mean and say no to them all, which makes you feel continuously guilty. After a few days Mom and Dad flew back to Bangkok. We followed a few days later and then headed straight up to Chaing Mia where we are now.


Rich is happy as much to our suprise there have been lots of random Welsh flags about. At a bar in Phuket the bar owner was wearing a Wales shirt and the bar man had a pair of trainers that had a welsh flag on them...weird (see photos for proof). He's also managed to watch nearly all the six nations games, even in Cambodia, though this did mean searching very hard to find accommodation that had the right sports channel. I got my own back by getting him to do the elephant trek with me (i think he enjoyed it really) But we'll tell you about that in our next journal.

Well three weeks to go so will see you all very soon. Our updated photos are on www.flickr.com/photos/richandlaura

and older ones on

www.flickr.com/photos/lauraandrich

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