Thursday 27th January 2011 We bought a 3rd class train ticket for 40p, but when boarding the train at Bangkok we accidentally (on advice from the station guard) sat in 2nd class – we thought it was a bit weird that the carriage had aircon! Shortly after departing we were advised of our error by the ticket inspector and moved on to the last carriage with cattle class. It was hot & sticky, but we managed to get a seat & then left the connecting door open for a nice breeze! Luckily the guy sitting next to us was keeping an eye out and let us know as we reached Ayutthaya - we could have easily missed our stop as it didn’t stop for long at the station. After arriving in Ayutthaya we wandered to the ... read more

Sunday 23rd January 2011 After a lazy morning at Phi Phi Hill we boarded our ferry to Phuket, but we decided not to stay there. We hopped on a bus to Phang Nga where we booked a tour of the National Park and James Bond Island the following day. Monday 24th January 2011 Our tour took us to Phang Nga National park where we drifted through Mangroves on the slowest boat ever. We seemed to be overtaken at every turn, which worried us slightly as we wondered how we would fit everything in when we were travelling at half the speed of all the other tours. After travelling past many ‘sights’ that our guide pointed at and announced their names, we went kayaking (well, we sat in a kayak while a local tour guide did all ... read more

Tuesday 18th January 2011 Our night train arrived late morning in Hat Yai and we arranged a mini bus to Krabi a few hours later. 4 more hours and we arrived in Krabi, only then being informed we’d have to pay a little more to get to Ao Nang on the coast (something we would have to get used to over the coming months). Ao Nang was very touristy, but we checked into Ben’s House, a small guest house with a pool and decided to stay a couple of nights while we found our feet. After walking past the many clothing and souvenir stalls, we finally made it to the bottom of town and had a lovely fresh fish meal by the sea front with Chinese Lanterns being let off all around. Wednesday 19th January 2011 ... read more

Friday 14th January 2011 After a final swim in the lovely pool we had a final walk around the town. We bought a couple of dresses and vest tops from the market by the beach after failing to haggle a decent price for several items from the stalls outside our hotel. They must have been gutted when they saw us return with hands full of bags. After a smooth flight, our first with Air Asia, we arrived in Singapore and got a taxi to Hotel 81 Palace which we’d booked online. It didn’t seem to be in the best district, considering there were prostitutes hanging around the end of the road, but it was only a quick cab ride to the centre of the city. As soon as our bags were dumped we headed to Clarkes ... read more

Friday 7th January 2011 After rushing around all morning to pack our spreading mess back into our small rucksacks, we caught a bus to the train station, but the tickets to the Airport were really expensive so we decided to spend a couple more dollars on a cab for a much smoother journey. At check in we were interrogated about our onward travel from Bali. We had fortunately booked a flight from Bali to Singapore just a few days before and had the details on out Netbook, without this flight they wouldn’t have let us board, despite a ticket out of Beijing 3 months later and an obvious round the world itinerary... a bit of a problem when airlines “cabin share”, but don’t “information share”). On arrival at Dempensar we organised to stay at Alit Beach ... read more