Where to start?! Laos is one of the most beautiful countries we have visited, both in terms of its landscapes as well as its people - we have both fallen in love with the charm of the place and it's a definite highlight of the trip! So first…the journey here! It took a total of 2 days to travel from Chiang Mai to Laos - the first day being a rather grim 8-hour minibus ride to the border. Having not done a land border crossing on this trip, we weren't sure wh...

It took us 13 hours to get from Koh Phan Ngan to Bangkok, consisting of a very choppy boat journey (I was very nearly sick!) This was followed by an 8-hour bus journey, which saw our bus reversing down a motorway in Bangkok as he had missed his exit - only in Asia… When we got to Bangkok we instantly felt like we were at home in a weird way - we stayed in the same hotel we always do and it was reassuring to know our way around a place. We enjoyed coming back ...

Wow Thailand is crazy - I think that it has hit us harder this time around (our 4th time here!) as we have so many other places directly to compare it to… On the downside, the Thai islands really are built for tourists and every other person is English. So we planned 10 days on the Thai islands just to chill before we finish off the rest of South-East Asia. Dave also planned to do his diving course in Koh Tao, which is basically built around diving. We flew ...

After a 45 minute speedboat ride onto the mainland and 6 hours in a minibus, we arrived in Georgetown in Penang. Georgetown is the other city in Malaysia (as well as Melaka) to have the UNESCO world heritage status and it was easy to see why. There were many impressive government buildings and temples within a short walk from our hostel. Although it was visually impressive, it didn't have the historic or cultural feel to it that Melaka has - Melaka is easily ou...

Our journey from Melaka to Cameron Highlands took 9 hours as we had to get a bus to Kuala Lumpur and then another one onto Cameron Highlands. When we got to Tanah Rata in Cameron Highlands, it had a real ski-resort, alpine feel. Being up in the mountains, it was much cooler which was a welcome rest-bite from all of the hot, sticky weather of SE Asia thus far. We booked a full day tour to ensure we took in all of the sights whilst in Cameron Highlands, which is...