28th July and we're back in Bangkok for the fourth time. Someone said Bangkok was a good base from which to visit various places. The journey from koh Chang was rather fraught. We think we were scammed. Not much in terms of cost to us, but a lowering in our opinion of some Thais. For some reason 28th July became a day full of lies. The result was, we missed the ferry, we missed the bus, we had to pay for a taxi we didn't want, we were told to go to the wrong bu...

Koh Chang will soon be another memory! The chef really excelled this morning. Breakfast food at this resort is outstanding. Each morning we have been presented with different choices. An English palate would normally welcome some of the dishes more for lunch than breakfast, but the taste, fantastic. And the food sculpture merited careful study. It's nearly time to catch the ferry to Trat and then the bus to Bangkok. Shanghai Inn here we come, for the nth time. ...

As we needed cheering up after saying goodbye to Kate, what could better than an elephant trek in the blazing tropical sun?Ana bravely exchanged places with the mahout as we squelched our way through the dense rain forest! You see, Koh Chang has only been in the tourist trade for a few years; it's rather wild.On the way to the 'Paradise Resort' on the west coast of the island, the taxi had to negotiate three sections of the road that had been washed a...

Kate will leave tomorrow after a lovely holiday with us. We've been in Bangkok, Koh Samui and Chiang Mai. Tuk-tuks, taxis, sleeper trains, river and sea ferries, buses, mini-buses and a hire car have been our means of transportation.

We have now been in Chiang Mai for three days. To get here, we travelled on sleeper trains for two consecutive nights. Each journey took about 12 hours! So the first day was a rest day! Yesterday we spent the afternoon exploring Chiang Mai Zoo. It was very hot and humid, but we enjoyed being in close proximity to all the animals. To see small children handing handfulls of greens to Pigmy Hippos was very nerve wracking! It's as close as it looks in the photo...