We arrived in Chiang Mai, in Northern Thailand, after a 17 hour journey from Bangkok on the Night Train, we were in top bunks again but this time we were in the posh air con carriage! We were hoping for a bit of relief from the heat, since up north it is higher so we hoped it would be cooler - no luck unfortunately the 36oc heat hit us as we stepped off the train, but it seems to be a drier heat than in Bangkok so that is a nice change from dripping with the hum...

Our first visit to the crazy capital of Thailand has been good, if not a little hot and sweaty!! It started with a taxi, boat, bus and sleeper train from Koh Pha-Ngan. We had to wait for over 3 hours for the Night Train which was running late, no surprises there! The train itself was strange, neither of us having been on a sleeper before, we had 2 top bunks in a fan-cooled carriage. When we boarded the train all the bunks were already made up so we had no choice ...

So we have had to endure another manic journay - sorry they are probably getting a bit boring now! This one entailed us leaving Hat Ton-Sai on the West Coast of Thailand and getting a longtail boat to Ao-Ngan which only took about 10 minutes. From there we were picked up by a taxi (a pick up truck with two bench seats in the back!) and driven for about abother 10 minutes to a travel office just outside of Krabi, where we had to wait for 1.5 hours!! From there we ...

After a hellish 10 hour ride in various minibuses we arrived at Krabi Town, little did we know that we were still quite a way from where we needed to be to get the longboat to Hat Ton Sai. After getting suitably ripped off in a taxi (our excuse is tiredness!!) we got to Ao Ngan beach which reminded us of a Spanish seaside resort, very touristy, we left as soon as we could get on a longboat. When we arrived in Hat Ton Sai we immediately fell in love with the place...

Well we left Penang on the 'Fast Ferry' to Indonesia, advertised as 4 hours, some 7 hours later we made it!! Thankfully we gained an hour as we arrived in Indonesian time. We then had a few hours on the bus along a windy, dusty, pot holed road before reaching our jungle getaway, a small place called Bukit Lawang in North Sumatra. On arrival we liked the place immeadiately, the local people were incredibly friendly and there was lots of smiles at us. In 2003 the...