Times nearly up!

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Finding it hard to believe that by the time some of you are reading this we will hopefully be safe and sound back in Manchester wondering where the time all went. Finding it hard to deal with the mixed emotions of wanting to stay in paradise just a little bit longer and the overwhelming excitement of seeing people, which is now intruding on sleep and lots of my thoughts during the day as well. Struggling with the reality of home was always going to be hard but the news reports from the UK this week have made us realise just how difficult this transition may be. From TV reports and newspaper clippings it feels like we are returning to a very different country than we left-hoping and praying that everyone we know and care about has managed to stay safe throughout the maddness of the last few nights.
There is however so much to be excited about as just after we left you last time we were able to celebrate the long LONG awaited arrival of Max Andrew Callaghan. He kept us all waiting none the least his amazing Mum Sarah, for a while it looked very likely that he was going to arrive claiming the same birthday as his big sister Harriet but after a long 11 day wait, he arrived safe and sound and rediculously gorgous. Can't wait to meet him along with my beautiful smilely nephew Issac who is now 8 months old aswell as 4 other new babies we've missed out on meeting so far this year including 11 day old Flynn Murphy.
The rest of our time in Cambodia didn't go exactly to plan as our beach time was more than slightly dampened by a good few days worth of crazy rain, so lots of chilling out with, of course nice food and a few good books was in order. At this stage we are so excited for the arrival of the group from Manchester as too much chill out time was giving us too much time to count down the days till home so their arrival came in perfect timing. One last long bus journey in Cambodia before heading over to Thailand for a few days in Bangkok before Sme and Jenny, Gaz and Nicola arrive for thier 3 weeks out here.
Arriving in Thailand was HOT, alot more humid than we expected but we're finally getting used to it I think, we headed straight for the craziness of the Koh San Road which we weren't convinced we would like if it was as busy as we'd been told but we oddly fell in love with the place, countless cheap food stalls may have had something to do with it, as well as hundreds of sellers, amazing colours, weird and wonderful smells and a generally brilliant atmosphere. Spending a few days here before the others arrived wouldn't be a problem. Our third and final trip to the cinema in our 11 months away was disturbingly another trip to a Harry Potter film-Tom enjoyed it and the popcorn was yummy so wasn't a complete loss. We slowly got used to life in Bangkok but even after 11 months of travelling we still managed to get pulled into a few of the many scams in Bangkok most of which involve tuk tuk drivers taking you to thier mates shop before your actual destination-takes a bit of getting used to. We have quickly fallen in love with the food here in Thailand and other than mahusive steaks in Argentina it is fast becoming our favourite food place-Phad Thai from wee street stalls a must and one of my new favourite foods. We decided a cookery course was a good idea before we head further south and managed to find a school that crammed 15 yummy dishes into a 4 hour session. We had such a good morning although it took a shocked Tom a little longer to get into than me as he was horrified to realise, after we'd paid and parked our bums in the classroom that we had somehow bypassed the information that the course was a vegetarian one-oops. I could see Tom frantically looking through the menu list before the lesson started, checking and double checking if his suspicions were correct, which they were-my bad but the food was all still yummy.
The arrival of the Manchester lot finally came and not a day too soon, we were so excited to see them. As the time came closer for us to meet in our arranged spot the heavens opened. I have never in my life seen rain as heavy, within minutes the roads had started flooding with no sign of any let up. Tom and I waded to our spot and arrived more than a little drenched, Sme and Jenny, Gaz and Nicola had also been making their way through the rain and their first sight of the Koh San road looked more like a river than a road, as the level of the water rose so did hundreds of rats and cockroaches from the gutters desperatly trying to find higher, dry ground-welcome to Thailand. By the time we all got to our spot we were soaked through and potentially a little tramauatised by such a drastic welcome to Thailand although after a few wet hugs, catch up from home and a beer or two later, the river outside had started to disappear and we were able to venture out into street, for what was to be a crazy evening. Beers and buckets, phad thai and Shisha, straight into some bartering with the sellers and turning live music into a Karioke session, before late night chats about anything and everything, somehow the Matrix even got in there!! A great way to start our trip with the guys after not so great first impressions Bangkok redeemed itself.
The following day was a very very slow one for Tom and I as we waited for our overnight bus to Krabi that night. Somehow this managed to be one of our worst so far, wasn't as long as we've done before and we felt safe enough but I had managed to pick the worst seats on the bus with every bump in the road making our whole seat which wasn't properly attached to the floor bounce into the air a little-oops, more than a little restlessness that night. The prize at the other end though was more than worth it, we were the first to arrive at our new home for the next few days-Mountain View Villa in Ao Nang-one of the most beautiful places I've ever stayed. It was huge with an incredible garden strecthing the whole way around the house, swimming pool with its own fountain, complete with gardener, pool boy, in house cook if we wanted it, our own tuk tuk that we could take out (dangerous) all with a beautiful view in the middle of a forrest with a herd of elephants as our neighbours, perfect. So after Tom and I relaxed and slept off our nightmare journey the others flew down to join us and arrived in time for a quick trip out for dinner followed by a few beers in the pool before bed.
The next few days at Mountain View was without much sun...boohiss but made up for with lots of fun and games...literally, make shift net put up across the pool started a fiercely competitive round of volleyball keepyupy's (if that's a word) and as Tom is still reminding me (3 weeks later) I was not part of the winning combination of people who managed the magical number 105-well done to Tom, Sme, Gaz and Nicola on that one...of course said through gritted teeth. We also managed a trip to Railay Beach, which was beautiful and a number of trips down to Mr Cocks Street bar-priceless, some random wee guy selling cheap drinks and a good bit of banter from a wee tent on the side of the road-great fun and Boofle got some good photos, which is always a winner. The Villa's own tuk tuk also made a few appearances an outing with the boys which seemed to go smoothly enough, well getting it out of the ditch with 3 big boys wasn't too hard a task!! It also had one extra special outing which was potentially one of the funniest moments of the year so far-we're calling it the 'mishap' and Jenny is your best port of call for more info on that one...
Giving up our very own villa wasn't the best but we needed to go in search of some sun, hoping that Koh Phi Phi would produce the goods, looked dodgy for a time especially as a nice big thunder storm hovered over head and waited until our boat was just about to dock to open the heavens but we all managed to get to our hotel/hostel without too much damage. Koh Phi Phi ended up being a lot crazier than I had imagined a little island paradise to be-fire shows, black moon parties, dancing on the beach and the crazy tradition of letting stupid tourists get into a Thai boxing ring for a free drink but we all came out the other side unscathed and laughing at the countless Irish people offering themselves into the ring to throw a few punches at their friends-thankfully our boys were more sensible than that and our ring side seats were as close as we got. Koh Phi Phi also gave us gorgous beach time and loads of sun-brilliant, a trip to the famous beach from 'The Beach' and a brilliant half hour of snorkelling in the most gorgous blue lagoon-hundreds of bright yellow fish not in the least bit bothered about how close than swam to you-beautiful. Gaz and Nicola celebrated their one year wedding anniversary and we all managed to get in on a bit of Champagne action 2 days later as Sme after 9 years together asked Jenny to marry him with a beautiful sparkler... the ring that is. So excited to be a part of their special day and have yet another excuse to abuse Tom about his lack of ring purchasing...although as he keeps reminding me after a year round the world I may be waiting a bit. Even randomers were getting in on the action as Jenny and Sme told us their news in the street my screams of course got the attention of a balcony full of drinkers who all started in on Tom-'Hey Superman (Tshirt of the day) when's it your turn??' To which another guy chimed in with the best comment ever 'Commitment is his cryptonite'. No pressure then Tom!
Leaving Phi Phi gave us all a reminder that we were in fact back packing with a full day of travel to get to our next destination-Koh Phangnan. A full day of travel doesn't sound so bad until you count up all the modes of transport which of course includes stopping and starting and lots of waiting inbetween, walk to the ferry (bags and all), ferry journey, crazy crowded tuk tuk to the coach station, dodgy coach for a good 2 hours (bit of sweat box action as the air con fails us again), followed by another bus with no windows, house fans screwed to the walls and stools all the way down the aisle for the people with no actual seats, bags piled to the roof at the front, one last ferry journey before a bit of off road tuk tuk driving to our long awaited but really beautuful spot,a wee secluded bay on the northeast of the island. After a long day on the road I thought now would be a good time to throw a strop about having a fan room instead of air con-not my most grateful moment in life but one that kept Tom amused as I spat my dummy out like a little kid....I did however get over it pretty quickly, but not before I uttered the words 'I already can't wait to leave here'-less than 5 mins into a 4 day stay-oopss!!! Our time here was perfect loads of chilling out, gorgous sun, yummy food and some more game time in the pool-although poor Gaz missed out on a day's action thanks to a very neccesary close relationship between him and his bathroom. Thankfully Gaz felt better by the time we all decided on taking out some jetski's for a spin around the bay-glad I wasn't driving but great fun all the same. Our time here seemed to fly by and although I got told off by some silly old lady cos apparently my TV (in a detached bungalow a million miles from anyone) was too loud we managed some good relaxing time, although at this stage I'm not quite sure what Tom and I are relaxing from-our last lot of relaxing doesn't seem a good enough reason!
Our last stop with the Manchester lot was another treat for us in a gorgous Villa on Koh Samui. Much to Tom's delight we arrived ontime for him to celebrate his first United game with mates in style. A year away from football chat Sme and Gaz have been very good at catching him up and what better way to get back into it than a Derby win against city...who knew out of the whole group little Jenny would be the United singer amoungst us...she's only small but she got a good old sing song going-great effort. I made the most of the football atmosphere (which isn't my favourite place to be it has to be said) with a long awaited and very expensive Magners cider-it was worth the wait though, getting very excited about a Mixed Fruit Kopperberg when I get back to Manchester now. Palm View Villa gave us much of the same-chilling out, catching up-good food and drink, lots of sun, a pizza miracle and for once I was part of the winning keepyupy team with Tom and I managing a pretty impressive 210 (could have been more if Tom wasn't so weak though). Although the Manchester group were not as commited to my fear of loosing as Amy and Emma were and they left me alone in Thailand after 3 weeks worth of card games with not one single win to my name-not happy! Saying goodbye to the guys wasn't as hard as our last few vists as we are well and truly into the last leg and will see them all again in less than a week. It has been so brilliant spending time with them all, defiantly laughed alot, showed lots of pictures from our year so far, told lots of stories and as every day went by got more and more excited about going home (of course wanting to bring the sea, sand and sun as well). The guys couldn't have come out at a better time and made our last few weeks brilliant ones to remember so thanks loads.
All that's left for Tom and I is to head back up to Bangkok on our final gruelling overnight trip-hopefully picking good seats and managing to get some sleep before our last few days in Bangkok before home-but not before one final blow out as we again momentarily forget how much this year has cost and go for the 5 star option for our last night away-celebrating an amazing year in style with our last night away from home in the Hilton...you'd think we were millionaries the way we carry on, but I'm sure I'll not be complaining when we get there.
More for our sake than yours this won't be the last blog, not sure I can truly sum up a year that has crammed so much into it, until we've gone home, rested our head's, had all our long awaited reunions and taken a minute or two to sit back and really digest what it is we're about to complete. The incredible things we've seen, the amazing places we've been, the things we've learnt, the people we've met, time spent together and time away from home-I reckon it'll take more than a week or two to figure out how we really feel about this whole adventure. Although one thing we do know for certain is that this has been one of the most amazing opportunities of our entire lives, a year that won't be forgotton in a hurry that's for sure. With 3 days left to embrace, trip of a lifetime almost done, the only thing I've ever really dreamed of doing-has almost been and gone, what to dream of next.....

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Photos

The boys on their own tuk tuk journey
A dangerous wee outing but they came back unscathed

'The Beach' beach
Leo was nowhere to be seen but a beautiful place all the same

Mandatory last night photo
Feel like there is some unfair tans going on here seeing as we had been in the sun for nearly a year you'd think we would have been the brownest!