Well apologies all for the break in communication - I haven't read Janie's blog yet but I assume she told you why. I will try and cover things she may not have talked about. We are just so glad that Cal appears fine now.

Well the drive from Hua Hin to Chumphon was pretty uneventful. Only stopped a couple of times to take in the view just south of the town, and then at a national park just within Chumphon province - sorry but I can't recall its name, too much time has passed. Very mountainous area right on the coast, with large expanses of tidal flats in between the mountains - prawn farms everywhere. We saw some monkeys, one of which was overly interested in anothers bum (see photo).

The Novotel was OK, but Chumphon was just an overnighter. The golf course looked good, but no time to play. The beach was pretty ordinary. I'm sure we have not seen the Gulf of Thailand at its best, because it was very windy, which is typical of this time of the year, making the water murky and uninviting.

The next day was one of the highlights of the trip for me, driving from Chumphon across to the Andaman Sea side of the isthmus. It is not a long way but takes a few hours because it is so mountainous. The photos don't do it justice. If you come to Thailand check out this area - despite its beauty few tourists go there. Those travelling by road usually stay on the Eastern side and cut across to Phuket at Surat Thani, which is a four lane highway. The way we went was only two lanes, but I must say the Thai road system is fantastic.

This area is also right up against the Myanamar border, so there are army checkpoints everywhere. Most of them were friendly but one in particular was pretty surly. Usually they just wave you through when they see you are a westerner, but some like to chat.

The rest of the drive into Phuket after Ranong was one of the lowlights of the trip with poor Callum spewing all the way, without that I'm sure we would have enjoyed it as there are a number of nice beaches on that stretch of the Andaman coast.

We really haven't done that much in Phuket, with the first two days taken up at the hospital. Georgie and I did manage to get out yesterday and go "white water rafting" in the hills behind Phang Nga. This was fun if not exactly a high adrenalin rush. It was a case of too many rafts or not enough creek, or both. Because it is the dry season there is not much flowing down the creeks - thus while it is pretty and there are waterfalls everywhere, raftiing is an impossibility. To get around this they hold back a good plug of water in a dam and release it through a sluice gate when everyone is positioned in their raft just below the dam - instant running water. You go with the flow for a while bumping into each other until you get ahead of the water - then stop for a while until the water level rises again. There were at least forty rafts. As I said, a lot of fun, yelling and splashing. Unfortunately no photos as you can't take a camera on the raft. Georgie bought one of the photos they take, and I will scan and load it at some stage.

Anyway, now we are at the Hilton and have Cal back and can relax I must say the hotel is amazing. Doesn't even approach the real world. let alone the real Thailand. That is OK though as we have seen a lot of reality on the trip. Some time out getting pampered and fat is OK I suppose. I'm really glad we did the trip in thge direction we did, going from luxury to Cambodia and the madness of Saigon would have been tougher.

Overall impression is that Thailand is very practiced at taking tourists money. Things are relatively cheap but dear compared to Cambodia and Vietnam. This is amplified by the fact we are paying resort prices if we get anything at the hotel. Beer outside is about $1.20, inside it is $4 - not bad for a resort but expensive for Asia.

Anyway Janie and Cal are waiting so got to go. I will write some more later because I really want to share some thoughts on driving in this part of the world, which has to be experienced.

Cheers

Shane