Hotel room views.. well, almost...

Well, it's not quite the view from our room, but it is the street that the hotel was on, just up the hill on the right. This was Pak Bang, the overnight stop on the Mekong boat trip.. and as you can see, it's a quiet, quaint sort of place, where even the town generator gets switched off at 10pm! Good job it was only a 1 night stay!

The secret millionaire...

We crossed the border into Laos a couple of days ago and after filling in a few forms to get a Visa, we handed over a few hundred US$ and ended up both being millionaires! Mike was well pleased with his return, as you can see.
So we have nearly 3,000,000 Kip between us, but then it doesn't seem to be going that far, when a G&T is 20 grand ;-)

Cheeky Monkey

Dear Editor
So there I was, taking a picture of my girlfriend when suddenly this ferocious looking animal jumped out of nowhere - I managed to scare him off by playing Sophie Ellis-Bextor's first album really loudly - this sort of thing doesn't happen back in Wales you know?
Yours sincerely
Rhys S Monkee

Slideshow - Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai & Chiang Khong

Train food - part 1

Now, I know it's not a flattering photo, but then neither was the one of me in the pink hooded gown in Kuala Lumpur, so I'm posting it anyway!

We survived the 2nd overnight Thai train, arriving in Chiang Mai a meer 15 hours after we left Bangkok.

We even ate on the train.. pretty good food too.. and had a very friendly waitress who bought us a bucket load of Singha beer incase we got thirsty - and we did.

Thankfully no crazies this time, but little sleep... for me anyway. Ahhh.. I hear you all cry.

What not to do with a camera lens...

Our 2nd day in Bangkok took a bit of an unexpected turn... I found out the previous night that if you accidentally drop your camera on the hotel room floor that it doesn't bounce.. and doesn't work afterwards :-(
So it was off to Bangkok's electronics shopping mall for a spot of lens shopping. Mike of course wanted to have a go at fixing the lens first... this is what it looked like during the process. It's now still in pieces in my bag and I'm 10,900 Thai Baht worse off than I was...but I do have a spanking new lens to play with - which means more pictures for you lucky readers - everyone's a winner.

Tour de Chiang Mai

So, we got to Chiang Mai and wasted no time in getting on some bikes for a 30 odd km tour around the town. As you can see, we blended in perfectly with the locals... no-one suspected we were tourists.
More photos to come in a Chiang Mai, Chiang Rai and Chiang Khong album.

Slideshow - Bangkok

Slideshow - Koh Samui

1 night in Bangkok.. well, 2 actually...

Had a little tour of Bangkok yesterday, including a trip on a long boat, a few temples and a market with 15000 stalls.
As soon as we arrived at Wat Po, the home of the famous reclining Buddha, Mike had his arms around another local. They'll no doubt be some Buddha photos in an album, coming your way soon.

All aboard the Bangkok "Express"...

After the comparative comfort of our Koh Samui hotel, we arrived back down to earth with a bit of a bump on Friday night. We took a minibus, a ferry and then another bus to get to Surit Thani train station for the 8.40pm train to Bangkok.

Ok, it could have been worse. Some people do the train journey on hard seats, we at least had soft beds, sheets and a pillow. Each carriage has two rows of bunks, one low, one high, with a corridor in the middle. You need to sleep with all your bags to make sure you've still got them in the morning and there's a light proof (not) and sound proof (not) curtain to help you feel more comfortable. I was also lucky enough to be opposite a local crazy man, who started the trip by offering me a sip of his Chang beer (i politely refused!) and continued to work his way through half the contents of the brewery over the following 12 hours. He did break up his drinking with the occasional walk up and down the carriage, talking to his imaginary drinking buddy. As you can tell from the photo, I was totally chilled out ;-)

Koh Samui tour

So, our first day on Koh Samui was supposed to be on a speedboat, travelling to some islands in the national park to snorkel, kayak and chill out... but the weather put a stop to that - big waves predicted, so we opted for an impromptu island tour. We all did a deal with a local taxi (which from memory, are called SongChang's, but I could be completely wrong there!) and spent a few hours sitting in what is effectively the back of a pick-up truck.
To the left, was the first Buddha of the day.





En-route, we were also reminded by this very handy restaurant sign that you should at all times know when the next likely loo stop will be.

Also interesting to see that some enterprising local must have a deal with a mate in the UK to scan in a paper, email over so he can print it, staple it and sell it in Thailand!

Slideshow - Penang

Slideshow - Kuala Lumpur

Slideshow - Kuala Kangser

Slideshow - Malaka

Slideshow - Singapore