Dancing With The School Kids, Koh Lanta, Thailand

Another day, and more exploring on the scooters took us to a sea gypsy village and the Lanta Old Town on the other side of the island. Koh Lanta has a quite a large muslim population and we would often see people in full face-hiding outfits and hear the loud calls to prayer. The people are all so friendly and not averse to foreignors (or farang as we're called) ...yet. On our way home we stumbled across what seemed to be a schoolkids' field day, where 3 big teams of kids were dancing non-stop to loud music pumping on the stereo. Of course, all of you who know Michelle would know that she couldn't resist such an opportunity to jump in and boogie too! The kids thought it was fantastic and were absolutely ecstatic that we had joined in with them. We loved playing with them and probably enjoyed it even more than the kids! *Stub

Mud Puddle fun, Koh Lanta

It is so cheap to rent a scooter here that it is silly not to just have one so we rented ours for the whole of our entire stay and toured the entire island. We love exploring the little villages that we drive through... they are really just clusters of homes with grocery or fruit shops pegged on the front - mostly bamboo shacks or huts, and then numerous plastic-chaired restaurants that normally serve delicous food. One day we checked out some fancy resorts and investment housing opportunities (too bad we have so little money). In a way, sadly, there are many places popping up since the completion of the road last year. It'll be just a matter if time before the plastic restauarnats and the bamboo huts will be replaced by concrete and it'll be ashame - Lanta is such a lovely island and characters.

Another day of adventures - we toured to the end of the road, and then did some off-roading through mud puddles to get to the Southernmost beach in the Koh Lanta Marine Park. We had a good laugh at Kevin who got stuck in a huge mud puddle and lost his flip flops. Double click photo to see him successfully retrieving his shoes! When we finally got to the beach our chill-out time in the hammock was disturbed by an incoming helicopter, so Kevin and I went exploring and found them filming a movie up by the lighthouse. In typical Asian fashion, it was a fight movie called Mercury Man, and we watched the stuntmen film a fight scene. It was quite funny as Thailand is known for its 'Lady-boys' as they're called, and much to our amusement the stand-in for the female lead was male and dressed with the same underwear! Hmm! * Stub

Happy Christmas from Thailand!

Merry Christmas everyone! Hope you all had a great time this year. We missed you and thought of you all. Our build up to Christmas was very different. There were so many things that we missed - our family, our friends, the social gatherings and tree-decorating parties, the turkey and trimmings, and of course, the snow and the skiing. It was very odd lying on the beach in the baking sun hearing Doris Day on the breeze 'Walking in a winter wonderland'. However, somehow we rallied, and had a great time with the people we had met this week. Also, a friend of ours, Kevin, who we'd met about 2 months ago in Pingyao, China, coordinated with us to meet up with us for Xmas and it was great to catch up with him. We spent Christmas eve with the friendly staff from the little bar on the beach called Moonshine Bar. They are really a lot of fun and we ended up boogie-ing the night away at a local dance bar.

Christmas day at 3am we walked home on the beach and encountered some very cool phosphoresence at the edge of the water. There were also some locals launching huge paraffin gas lanterns into the air - we don't know why, but presumably for some celebratory reason. Xmas day itself was chilled and we hung out on a small secluded beach followed by meeting up with a crew of people for Xmas dinner. Unfortunately, it wasn't turkey, but it was probably the next best thing - pizza!! And very good pizza too! The melted cheese was fantastic - we don't get that very often here in Asia! * Mush

Life on Koh Lanta, Thailand

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Life, Koh Lanta-style is pretty easy! Hang out, walk on the beach, eat huge Thai-style prawns, scooter to the next beach, eat more prawns, explore the next town.... The weather has been good, though a little unpredictable. Apparently, before we got here it rained a lot, after that it was nice and sunny until we had one day of rain. Ever since though, it has been really nice and super-scorching hot. We have explored our beach called Long beach which is about 2 miles long, and it has great sand and clear water. It also has lots of different bamboo 'guesthouses' and more upmarket resorts, and restaurants and bars right on the sand itself which we have only marginally sampled! We did do a day trip of snorkelling which was fun and we visited some beautiful islands with powder-soft sand. We even swam into a cave in the dark which opened up into a hong - a secluded beach totally surrounded by high cliff walls with access only through a tunnel from the water (or if you're brave enough - rapelling down the cliffs!). It was a very cool adventure. * Mush

Our Bamboo Hut, Koh Lanta, Thailand

After saying goodbye to Paul, Martin and I headed on down to the southwest of Thailand to Koh Lanta - a beautiful island off the Andaman coast. We had a crazy journey though trying to get a coach from the coach station. One bus that stopped didn't have any seats and we got offered the luggage compartment under the coach!! For seven hours! Can you believe it?!! Well, we refused that kind offer and decided to wait for the next one which actually had two spare seats next to the driver. The rest of the journey by minivan and two ferries turned out to be trouble-free, but we were grateful to get to our guesthouse so that we could crash out all day in the hammock on the little deck of our bamboo hut.

Sanctuary, where we are staying is a really nice chill-out place and our bamboo hut is four spots in from the beach. Our ensuite, outdoor bathroom is lovely and totally private with lots of exotic plants and lillies everywhere! A tropical loo! The food is absolutely delicious and I can't get enough seafood! All very good reasons to stick around - a welcome break from the rigours (yes, it's tiring!) of traveling! *Mush

Kiteboarding Lessons, Chumphon, Thailand

So, I got quite excited at the chance to finally learn how to kiteboard. We lived near the Columbia Gorge in Oregon, one of the best places in the world to kiteboard, and never got to do any lessons. So, now in Thailand, and at a quarter of the price, we made a stop in Chumphon on our way south to the islands and beaches. Unfortunately, after the instructors waited out the rains to eventually get too much wind to teach, we only managed to get in a beginners session on the trainer kite as the winds were too powerful to actually fly a big kite and try to board. Next time when we pass through we hope to try again. We did manage to watch the experienced kiteboarders enjoying the strong winds as we sipped our beers in the beach front bar, so not all was bad! I am keen to learn though, and then take up kiteskiing in the winter! *Stub

Friends in Bangkok, Thailand

When you're on the road as long we are, it's nice to have that feeling of ease and familiarity. For us that place is Bangkok - we funnel through it so often. And seeing familiar faces in foreign places makes all the difference! This time we met up with my friend Mandy from Portland who was visiting her friends who live here. Not only that, but our friend Paul (who we met in China) coordinated his life in Thailand so that he would coincide with us too. We visited a few of the must-see temples along the river (here we're making fun of the big statues at Wat Arun). And then of course, no visit to Bangkok would be complete without a cocktail at the very posh rooftop Vertigo bar on the 62nd floor of the Banyan Tree Hotel. Very nice!

Later on in the week we caught up with other friends - our tailor-tout buddies Veejay and Aran, and then friends Nina and Scott, and Claire and Ralph and their new baby, Ella. All in all it was a really pleasant Bangkok stop! *Mush

Large Taxi, Mae Teang, Thailand

How amazing is this???? After trekking through the jungle, we spent the night at the elephant camp, only to wake up to these gentle giants taking a bath! We rode our elephant Buka for about an hour. Here I am relaxing in the seat, but it is so cool to ride on the head of the elephant - you can really feel the power and stability in the shoulders, although, as Michelle says, a bit of an inner thigh workout!! There was a shack up in the trees where you could purchase a bunch of bananas to feed them. So, while sitting on the head, a very curious trunk would point towards you, searching for food. We would place the bananas in the snout of the trunk and the happy elephant would continue on. They even let out a deafening trumpet for us - unbelieveably loud! We got to hang out for some time with them afterwards, feeding and touching the trunks. A very memorable experience!

After the ride, we were swept away downstream on a whitewater raft with no real instruction (typical Thailand). Then it was on a rickety bamboo raft that could barely hold our weight, so we tried to tip the thing and had a blast trying to unload our guide. Good times! *Stub

Trekking into the Jungle, Mae Teang, Northern Thailand.

Our next three days were a lot of fun as we headed on a trek into the jungle. This entailed at least 4 hours of walking on the first two days. The first day was a real slog uphill and we could definitely feel that we were out of shape from the little exercise that we get while on the road. On our first night we stayed in a fair-sized hilltribe village (about 150 people) that was perched high on a ridge overlooking lush green jungle. Our guide, Wee, made fabulous food for us, and we sat on our bamboo balcony and enjoyed songs and entertainment by the village kids. * Mush

Dumb and Dumber, Pai, Thailand

The next few days we hung out with Renate and company, and hired scooters to get around. Driving around on bikes is great because we see so much more... driving through rice paddies and up to waterfalls, passing through hill tribe villages and waving hello to everyone. One day we came across a couple of elephant homes where the elephants, although tied up, seemed really happy munching away on banana tree stems. Pai is a very cool chill-out place with not a huge amount to do, and when we weren't on our bikes, we would be hanging out in the town and in the evenings we would go to bamboo cafe bars on stilts with lovely views over the river and the valley. We wished we could stay longer, but we wanted to do a trek into the jungle and get back to Bangkok to meet a friend of mine for the 12th. But yes, Pai got the thumbs up from us. What a cool place! * Mush

Off to Pai, Thailand

So it was off to Pai after Chiang Mai - a little funky town further north, set in a large valley surrounded by hills and ridges piled high with tropical rainforest. One of Martin's friends had been here a few years before and he remembered the sunrise over the rice paddies in the valleys... and the cheese you could get at one particular restaurant in town! Well, as we told him... it's changed a lot since then - we could get cheese pretty much everywhere! (thankfully, the sunrise and rice paddies were still there too). We headed up with a girl we'd met at our guesthouse in Chiang Mai, Renate. The drive up was stunning - the scenery reminded me of the island of Kuaui in Hawaii. It was a 4 hour winding road through lush green forest with the occasional village or food stall sitting on the side of the road. Renate and her friends, Sam, Billy and Liron, made it a fun journey and we managed to sing and dance most of the way up there! Later on we found out it was Billy's Birthday so we celebrated on the porch of one of our huts. * Mush

Thai Massage, Chiang Mai, Thailand

On our last day all together, we fit in a few more shops and a massage before Pat and Jules headed back down south to fly back to Australia. Pat and I had a light Swedish Oil massage, while Jules and Martin had a Thai massage. We were enthralled as we watched the last 20 minutes of Martin's : it looked horrendously painful - the girl was walking on his back and his legs with her knees, and then pulling him into all sorts of contortions!! Martin said it was the best Thai massage he'd ever had. Crazy!

That evening we bid a sad farewell to my two shopping buddies, Jules and Pat. Martin and I thought we were in for a chill-out evening, but some people from our guesthouse dragged us out for refreshments. Nothing super special there I know, but I have to tell you about our amazing burger that we had at 3 in the morning... It was at a little stand-up diner called Mike's and apparently his motto is he's 'trying to convert vegetarians'... well I think he certainly could with these burgers.. It was the best one I'd had since Portland (didn't eat any in England). The succulent beef and the sauteed onions were absolutely delicious! Mmmm. Just talking about it now is making my mouth water all over again! It's funny what you miss when you are away from home for a long time. * Mush

Exploring Chiang Mai, Thailand

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The next few days we crammed in a lot, walking around town visiting more temples and hiring a driver to take us around the beautiful countryside of Chiang Mai. We visited Orchid and Butterfly farms, the Princess' Palace (a beautiful summer home), and The Queen's Botanical Gardens with amazing plants.

Also, and perhaps, more importantly, we were successful in getting to the night bazaar without getting distracted by other shops, and were able to concentrate on more shopping! Pat and Jules certainly can shop, and shopping with them was great for me, but perhaps not so much fun for Martin as he would be waiting around patiently for us. The night bazaar also had great food and we ate there a couple of times. One evening, we enjoyed some performances by fire eaters, and then some singing and dancing by cute little kids dressed like little Thai princesses, followed by a couple of routines by some lady-boys! Hilariously interesting! *Mush