When you finish a trip in Bangkok or Dubai surrounded by skyscrapers and money it's easy to forget the Philippines and Cambodia where things are very different. I found myself looking at the news to see how the Luzon would be hit by typhoon Maysak since being home, something I wouldn't have done a few months back. Hopefully when something doesn't go right at work one day, or a bill comes in a bit higher than expect I can think back to this trip and realise how mu...

The plan was simple. Bangkok airport, A380 number one to Dubai, change to the second A380 to head back to Heathrow. Like most plans, there was a slight flaw. We were delayed landing in Dubai by about a hour. This was because of a sandstorm reducing visibility. Actually landing in it was a different experience. The captain announced it would have to be done by the automated landing system (so a computer) with them trying a visual check a few hundred feet from ...

Another tall building A good chunk of the day was spent in the Bangkok arts centre. The building that was spread over 7 floors, with cafe's, Eco shops (selling wallets made out of plastic bags and such like), a few floors exhibiting photos a Thai princesa took last year. The highlights being a speciality drip brew coffee bar, I had a cold brew coffee (ground coffee brewed in water left for 24 hours) - brewing it this way reduces the acidity of the coffee, it has...

Bangkok Part 4 Today we went to Jim Thompson's house. Jim was in the American army, and travelled out to Asia during the Second World War (it had finished by the time he got there). He spent some time in Thailand and liked it so much that he returned to make it his home. JT disappeared in 1977 after going to the Cameron Highlands on holiday. The details of this remain a mystery until this day. JT was also an architect, and after a few years of living i...

Is it a bird or a plane? After the 4th day of waking up to a sea view it was time to leave Koh Samui. We hadn't seen much of the island at all but that was always the intention. We took a 20 minute minivan ride to the Nathon ferry terminal, followed by a 45 minute ferry journey across to Donsak pier on the mainland. A 90 minute journey got us to Surat Thani Airport and a flight (with Nok Air, the plane was painted like a bird!) took us back to Bangkok. A furth...