The Tharri Monastery and the Church at Asklipio Over breakfast, Monk decided he’d stay another night and fortunately his room was still free. He set out after midday to drive into the interior of the island to visit some of the small villages en-route to the Tharri Monastery. Driving in the interior of the island is an altogether more pleasnt experience than driving the length of the East Coast Hioghway. Monk passed hardly another car and stopped along the way a number of times to savour the peace and the smells of the countryside. Monasteries and small churches abound throughout the interior many dating back to the 12th and 13th century. The Tharri monastery is set in a beautiful wooded valley. It is still active and trains monks for other monasteries throughout Greece. The interior of ... read more

Rhodes Town Nellie and Monk flew to Athens and changed planes for a flight to Rhodes. After dumping his bags at the hotel at around 10, Monk ventured out to eat without any real hope of finding anything too interesting in the Neohori (new town) district of Rhodes. The whole area is dominated by down-market fast-food joints and pseudo-Greek picture-menu restaurants targeted at the mostly Scandinavian package tourists. After a reckie of the restaurant streets Monk chose one in Odos Nikiforou Mandilara that looked as though it was more promising than most despite having the most un-Greek name of La Casa. What a surprise - excellent fava, octopus and Greek salad. The draught retsina was also a pleasant surprise. So well did the the retsina go with the food that Monk managed to finish a kilo ... read more

Today would have been Irene's birthday. In Richmond Park in south west London, at midday, Nellie and Monk joined together with 30 or so others to celebrate their love for Irene by planting a tree in her memory. Irene was the freest of free spirits and Monk felt that the final resting place for her ashes should reflect this and he chose the hawthorn as the tree that best symbolised Irene's beauty and character. Like Irene, the hawthorn is beautiful, but strong, and generous and giving. It's one of the first trees to blossom in the spring with a mass of delicate white flowers that herald the end of winter. In the autumn, it produces lovely red berries that sustain birdlife during the cold months. Its botanical name, crataegus monogyna, derives from the Greek word meaning ... read more

The Eastern and Oriental Express from Bangkok to Singapore At precisely 6pm on January 31st, the green and cream carriages of the Eastern and Oriental Express pulled slowly out of Bangkok's Hualamphong station. Monk was on the observation deck at the end of the last carriage watching as the station and, later, the skyscrapers of Bangkok shrank into the distance. For a few seconds as the train passes by, the arc of the privileged lives of those aboard the train intersects with that of the poverty-stricken inhabitants of the shanty towns running alongside the track. The children though, always happy, shouting and waving as the train goes by, vainly chase after it before giving up and returning to their dangerous playground beside, and on, the main rail line into south east Asia'a biggest city. Tonight though, ... read more

On Sunday Nellie and Monk flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. Their flight arrived at 11:15 and Floss and Flower's flight was due to arrive at 15:40. Monk decided to hang around the airport to meet up with the girls. Their flight landed on time and by 5pm they were all on their way to the Lebua botel (see below). Over the next few days, they managed to see as many of the sights of Bangkok as they could squeeze in. Since they had only limited time, they decided to see the two most impressive wats - Wat Pho and Wat Phra Kaew. Wat Pho houses the Reclining Buddha, which Flower was very impressed with, and also has many chedi, buddhas, temple halls etc. They are irresistible for the photographer in all of us. Wat Phra ... read more