Wow, I can’t believe it’s come to this, the last few days of this monumental adventure. It seems like only 5 minutes ago we were sitting down first thinking about the idea. Well here we are back in Bangkok, our hub for Asia and probably the heart of this winter. The reason for our brief return is twofold, it’s about 5 times the price to fly directly from Saigon to Macau rather than back to Bangkok then over to Macau, which is double the distance. What it does do though is give Lisa the change to ‘Jimmy Choo’ shop. Yep, the ladyboys of Patpong market are in for a visit. As this is our last ‘proper’ Asia stop on the tour, pressies need to be purchased and where better than the knock off stalls of Bangkok’s ... read more

There is always a danger of coming back to someplace you really like, in case the old rose tinted glasses have been taking effect. This is pretty much the case with the whole of Vietnam for us but especially the delightful mountain city of Delat. Again, after the humid heat of Saigon the cool mountain air was most welcomed and as we came into the city the first thing that struck us was the amount of building work going on. It was lovely before but the improvements are really enhancing the city. It’s not just hotels and homes, when we were here last year the famous Xuon Huong lake had been drained and resembled the Mongolian mud pits rather than the ‘go to’ destination for Vietnamese love birds. After the bus dropped us off we quickly ... read more

We headed back to our temporary home Chiang Mai, which is one of those lovely places that makes you want to stay. As we mentioned in an earlier blog, it’s really nice when in a completely foreign country the locals start to say hello and greet you as old friends and even the taxi touts sometimes leave you alone. Well that’s how it has become with us and Chiang Mai. We headed up here because, unbelievably, it’s nearly time for the adventure to end - shocking to even think about it - so we had to spend a bit of time looking at practical things like somewhere to live and employment. All the better to do this when there isn’t a beach or coral reef distracting you every waking moment. We were lucky because a few ... read more

We were going to say in this entry went to Koh Lanta and laid on the beach for a week, then went to Koh Pha Ngan and laid on the beach for a week which about sums it up really but as that would be just too lazy we’ll expand on the opening. We left Malaysia and flew to Krabi, a new airport to us and yet again were subjected to the Thai (sorry Asian) tourist merchants. We brought a ticket for the airport bus after we were assured that the bus dropped us in Krabi town just by our hotel. Well what a surprise as we sailed past the hotel, off up the road and out of town before stopping at a travel agents office who met us with the usual ‘Where u stay’ and ... read more

We last spoke after a very comfortable bus journey, then we had a quick overnight in Bangkok. Although there was enough time to visit one of the most magnificent sights in the capital, the Baumraungrad Hospital. Now we’ve stayed in some magnificent hotels in our time but this blows them away, and it’s a hospital!!!!! Opulence everywhere, staff catering to your every need and patients from every corner of the world being well looked after, well every corner that has money that is. It really is beyond comparison with anything, if this is the shape of privately run healthcare, bring it on. We were here to get Lisa’s dressing checked and changed and remembering to put a credit card in the wallet this time Chris thought that maybe the gold card would be needed (just got ... read more