We had booked a 2 day trek out into the National park to see some of the countryside around Chang Mai as it is spectacular. We were picked up from our hotel at a reasonable hour and were then off in a group of 15 people - all of differing nationalities. The first stop was a market to get food for the trip - not too exciting. It was then into the hills for another hour or so until we stopped for lunch, which consisted of rice with the odd vegetable thrown in. We t...

The holiday is over - we had a really good time over Victoria's Birthday and Christmas - lots of lazing around on beautiful beaches with a bit of snorkelling, kayaking and elephant trekking thrown in. The best thing, however, was seeing the family again.We all left Krabi together and should have travelled together to Surat Thani, where we caught a train northwards and the kids went on to the New Year's eve party on Ko Pha Ngan. However, at the bus station when th...

WISH YOU WERE HERE We are now in Ko Lanta on holiday. Thank you to everybody for your Christmas messages and good wishes. Hope you all have a good christmas and a happy new year. The blog will resume in early January. Love Fran & Geoff

We started the long journey to Bangkok with a minibus ride to the Thai - Cambodian border at Koh Krong. (We had chosen the southern route as we had been to Ankor Wat before.) The ride was in a 12 seater minibus - except that there were19 people inside and 1 on the roof - plus lots of luggage. The drive was spectacular - along a new road that went through the national park. There were adverts saying that the park had wild elephants, tiger and deer - needless to sa...

We headed out of Phnom Penh today down to the south coast to Kampot - a sleepy little place about 3km from the sea. The journey down their was our first experience of Cambodian bus travel. The bus was a bit old but OK, the road a little bumpy and in general the progress was slow. The 4 hour published journey time took 5 ½ hrs. The countryside was very different to Vietnam - dry and dusty with lots of dirt roads off the main road. The bus went via Kep -...