It was with a strange feeling of joy that we boarded the boat on Sunday to leave Ko Tao. Funny, but with not feeling well for a bit I was definately glad to see the back of the paradise island. I felt like I had overstayed by a week or so. We had originally planned to leave Ko Tao and go to Krabi and Ko Phi Phi. This was not to be. The boat trip to Ko Samui was about 1hr 30 mins on board a Catamran. We stopped for passengers on Ko Pha Ngan before finally arriving in Ko Samui. [View Full Entry]

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Michael is out of hospital after having Dengue Fever........great news!! Dengue fever is contracted from a mosquito bite. It is from a specific type of 'white mosquito' normally only around during the day & likes living around puddles! (There have been plenty of them recently). No matter how much Deet & anti-malerial tablets you take, they are immune & like sucking the life out of people......quite literally. Unfortunately, Mike was bitten at some point over the last 8 weeks. Symptoms are severe with vomittig, extremely high fever, sweating.........you get the picture!? Thankful [View Full Entry]

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Thanks to everyone for your emails and messages from home. We love getting them and hearing all about what is going on while we're away. Getting messages on the blog is great too, however if you send a private message it is more difficult to reply to you. Can we ask that you send comments attached to the entry you are reading as we check this more often & will be able to reply to you! Thanks Sarah & Michael xx [View Full Entry]

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Ko Tao, mecca for scuba divers from all over the world was our next stop. It was here I wanted to complete my Open Water PADI course. After alot of research & talking to people about diving, I decided this was the place for me! Arriving in Ko Tao was easy, it's a short boat journey from neighbouring Ko Pga Ngan. When the island was within our view, we both realised why so many people love it here........it is certainly the closest I have come to a paradise. Some research about beach huts had limited our search to around Sairee beach. [View Full Entry]

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Ok there are only a few pictures from this entry as I dropped Sarah's camera in the water at the Full moon party and it stopped working. In our haste to save what we could, we got the memory card out of it and dried and put saftely in the kitty. Unfortuately though, the card took a tumble in the pickup truck on the way home as we fumbled for some money. We are trying to get some off a disposable but this could take a while.... Anyhow, we flew from KL to Phuket on Monday & took the advice of [View Full Entry]

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Well the main reason we came to KL (Kuala Lumpur) in the first place was to see the Moto GP, so we figured we better talk about it on its own. What an experience.....We arrived out the Sepang Circuit early on Saturday morning, just in time to see the 125 practice session. This was followed by the Moto GP bike and then 250's. The noise was deafening as the bikes raced around the track, racing against the clock to get their grid positions. There was and autograph session at 12.00 and Sarah left early from our seats to go and get [View Full Entry]

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We arrived in Kuala Lumpur from Chiang Mai & found a modern, fashionable city with all the comforts of home............in tropical heat! We had been experiencing so many things throughout SE Asia, that we hadn't really thought about KL. Our focus had been the moto GP race over the weekend (the primary reason we were here in the first place!) so it suprised & delighted us to gasp in awe up at the Petronas Towers - all 452 ft lighting up the sky on our arrival to KL. We stayed at the Ancasa hotel in Chinatown, it was lovely with white [View Full Entry]

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Arriving in Chiang Mai from Luang Prabang, we were surprised to be back in a bustling Thai city as we had expected a sleepy tribal town. After so many temples & museums, we were ready for some adventure sports. The choice was easy, although the options were endless......we chose White Water Rafting with Chiang Mai adventure company. The safety briefing was interesting & did leave me wondering whether I was mad in the head! Once on the boat with Kieran, a new friend & another girl from Spain, we set off on the 10km stretch of rapids. The rapids range from [View Full Entry]

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Day 34 was my 27th birthday! Way hey!! We got up at 6am for a flight from Vientienne to Luang Prabang (about 30 mins flight), only to discover when we arrived at the airport Lao airlines has changed the time from 9am to 11.30am! Aw well, we're in no rush so we headed back into Vientienne & had a superb breakfast at Joma bakery. Arriving in Luang Prabang, we were struck by the beauty of this place. It is surrounded by mountains & jungle with the Mekong river flowing through. It is also VERY relaxed & a great place to chill [View Full Entry]

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A warm welcome to all from Vientiane in Laos. Well after a gruling 13 hours on the bus overnight which we slept very little, we arrived on Sunday morning about 9am in Vientiane, the capital of Laos. Border crossing was pretty smooth at the Friendship bridge, visas on arrival, pay at the kiosk. Arriving on Sunday brought a surcharge for entry though, cheek of it!! Anyway, on arrival the place felt like a ghost town and we had no local currency and only a few dollars. Straight to the cash machine for some kip (local currency about 10,000 to the dollar) [View Full Entry]

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