That's all folks. Cross another one off. Last day in Thailand today, saw the grand palace and the reclining Buddah. That is one bloody big relaxed looking dude. His smile is 5ft across!!! Have put the Hong Kong and Beijing weather on, we will soon be finishing 10 months of summer. Russia is currently -17!!! That's a serious brass monkey situation.

 

Bye for now.

 

Patrick

Hi all!

 

Well it was really brilliant to go on the elephant and clean it, but absolutely terrifying!  They are so big! Plus the guys working there didn't speak much English so we had no idea what was going on!  Sorry there was no photos because we had assumed that we would be in the water permanently, in the end that wasn't the case so sorry about that, it will have to remain a brilliant memory.  When we were in the water the elephant dives right it and you get soaked, also it kept getting water in its trunk and squirting it at us.  After we had gone I was upset with myself for not cleaning behind its ears and suchlike but at the time I was so scared about getting it angry I didn't do much!

 

Since then we have been to the Death Railway museum which was very moving and had kept meticulous records.  We also visited the cemetry of some of the POWs who had died here.  Very upsetting.  The conditions they must of faced are unimaginable.

We also went down to the Bridge and the train went past, I was scared on the Bridge as you had to walk on the track and it was all very open with a big drop below so we didn't get to walk right across it.

Later today we will get the train back to Bangkok.

 

We have also spent lots of time planning the next stage of our trip, not my usual style as I like to just turn up, but with the amount of visas and paperwork we have to get through it isn't possible to do that.  The stuff you have to do to get into Russia is incredible!  Have definately decided that we will do a short stay in Mongolia.  Have been looking at the weather, I totally miscalculated because it is going to be very very cold!  Tomsk (a place in Russia we want to go to) is -17 today!!!! Will be a shock after all the sweltering heat and humidity of South East Asia.

So when in Bangkok we are going jumper shopping and I will have to give up my tevos for some proper shoes!  Today was sad because we had to leave our snorkels behind, wont need those again (at least for a while!)

 

Anyway, bye for now have to go as the mossies are on the attack!

love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

Hi there everyone,

 

well we moved on from Bangkok (yippeeeeeee!) and we are now in Kanchanaburi (River Kwai).  Our accomodation is brilliant because it is floating on the river!  Very nice. Had a lovely, if filling, Indian meal last night, have been getting sick of all the fried food here.

 

This morning we are trying to sort out the next stages of our trip, we have purchased even more Lonely Planets as soon we will be entering China.  I had hoped to visit Cambodia whilst we were in South East Asia but it probably not to be now, but I want to return to go to Angkor Wat and also ride the reunification express in Vietnam.  So lots of ideas.

 

Then this afternoon we are going on a trip where we ride on elephants and then go swimming in the river with them and then we clean them with a big brush!  One for you Pat!

 

Wish us luck!

 

Bye for now,

love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

So we did the mammoth journey from Ko Samui (16 hours) by boat, songathew and double decker coach which was something like the Knight Bus in Harry Potter.

 

Arrived in Bangkok, on Kao San Road, tried to get accomodation and info, had to give up in the end and opted for a hotel a little further away. When we arrived we seemed to be in the middle of some elaborate scam that involved the taxis drivers telling us that there was no room and wanting to drive us around to other places.  Bare in mind this was 4am in the morning and I was in no mood to be 'taken for a ride' figuratively or literally.  Needless to say balls were broken as I hit the roof with everyone in sight, wow low and behold suddenly there was a room available and we got the early morning there for free.  Moral of this story, don't mess with a girl on the edge who has just travelled 16 hours to get there and has read up (and revised) on the preferred scams of Bangkok.

 

All left a bad impression I am afraid and I don't like it here very much.  Oh well, should move to River Kwai tommorrow, unfortunately we have to return here to fly out, but we were warned about Bangkok!

 

Bye bye for now, don't worry about us,

love from Katie and Patrick XXXXXXXXX

Hi there us again!

 

Check out our new pictures!

 

Bye for now, love from Katie and Patrick

Hello us again from Ko Samui, we just don't want to leave as it is so easy and relaxed here, so we thought we would make it to a nice round week here and then it is onwards again probably on an overnight train to Bangkok.

 

Just chilling out really we seem to have staked a claim at the hammocks and we have been getting "two pina coladas (I got have one for each hand)" - one for all you Garth Brooks fans out there!

 

I had another massage today they are great, an hour for about three quid, Oh me back was crackin though!  Must be my heavy rucksack.

 

Bye for now, hope all is well, miss you all,

love from Katie (and Patrick)

Saawaat dii!

 

Or "howdo?" Patrick reporting from the sundrenched island of Koh Samuii, four days into a mammoth chill session, with the added bonus of a massage for Katie and another dream fulfilled for me. The jet ski - like being the worlds most irresponsible motorbike rider AND you land in water if you come off!!!! Peachy. Beer of the moment? Chang.

 

Watch out for a new music list coming soon and more on the book list.

Hi there peeps!

 

Me again, just to say we about to trundle off and cross over to the East Coast (Ko Samui).

 

Yesterday I was very brave as I went rock climbing on my own whilst Patrick chilled.  Krabi is apparently world famous for rock climbing so I decided to give it a go.  Let me say it is harder than it looks, in fact it was quite embaressing as I was the only one who couldn't do it!  I climbed about 7 meters and then bottled it, the others were climbing nearly 30 meters.  Oh well, I need to find a new hobby that is on the land!  But I don't want to let it beat me, so I may organise a session at Stockport Indoor Wall (when we get back!), if anyone wants to come and watch a grown woman turn to a big scardy cat as she clings to the wall designed for small children.

 

Well best be off time to leave Krabi town!

 

Bye bye love from Katie (and Patrick) XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Hi there Katie here.

 

Sorry not put pictures up yet, maybe tommorrow?

 

We have now left Malaysia and have entered Thailand.

Our last days in Malaysia were spent on the island of Langkawi.  The place was really nice and abit surreal as there was a massive Bolton Wanderers fan there who owned a bar at the hostel, he was called Big Joe (also his son Little Joe was there too).  The bar was full of Bolton FC things, and because they played that night and scored we all got free drinks! Plus it was Ska music galore.  The bar was frequented by lots of Canadians and we had a really good laugh with them, so good time was had by all.

 

The next day we did a trip island hopping and got to see lots of eagles feeding, swooping across the water.  Very chilled out.  As usual there were lots of monkeys to avoid, (I seem to have developed a real fear of them). Nice end to our very nice stay in Malaysia we have really enjoyed it, a real wealth of experiences and meeting the warm friendly people has been a joy.  One day we would like to return to explore the East Coast.

 

The trip into Thailand was a long one but we made it, using three forms of transport. We met two great people on the journey, Scott and Nicola from Wigan!  Small world. 

Inital impressions of Thailand are that it is very busy!  Far more hectic than lovely laid back Malaysia.  Already tried my hand at speaking Thai but because it is a very tonal language I haven't quite managed to get anything right so far!

 

Today we did a trip to James Bond Island, where they filmed Man with a Golden Gun.  Quite a good boat ride there and back plus some walking around, and we got to visit and have lunch at a floating Muslim village which was a real highlight.  We also saw Monkey Caves (oh no them again) and we did a walk to some waterfalls.  We met two lovely people, Pam and Tristan from Wales, so we have spent most of the day chatting!

 

Got back had a quick sleep and have been out for some food and a fruit shake!  Beach tommorrow and at some point we will move to the East coast, koi Samui.

 

Bye for now, lots of love from Katie and Patrick.  XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

 

 

Another great stop in Malaysia at Georgetown on the island of Penang. We went to the temple to see the Hindu festival of Thaipusam. The festival commemorates the birthday of Lord Murugan and is a time of cleansing. Perhaps what it is best known for though is the extreme piercings done as acts of devotion. It was really surreal to see in many ways. Hopefully we will be able to put some pictures up soon as words really don't do justice to what we saw.

 

 

Greetings as usual, this report from the field is being broadcast from the Malibu Bar in Georgetown, Penang. Since we last addressed our  readers (the foxiest damn blog readers in the world!) we have been in the Cameron Highlands. A mere four hour stomach churning mountain bus ride from KL, to some of the most beautiful scenery in Malaysia, cloud strewn hills, tea plantations and misty jungle. Which we shouldn't have attempted to visit. All I will say is this, never trust the abilities of a tour guide who thinks he can go walking in white trousers - its sunday afternoon jungle trekkiing not saturday night fever dammit! Still the good thing about getting lost up there is that there is always someone who was lost and has worked it out to help you along! On the bonus side however we finally tried "steamboat", which is a kind of brothy-soupy-thing that you have bubbling away in a pot on the table and you cook all sorts of things in it yourself and drink the soup as well! (That said the place down the road that sold bratwurst was pretty cool too.)