Sorry I've taken a while to do this, it's a result of too slow internet and too cheap beer, he, he!

Well - Since last time We've been through Kuala Lumpur, which is the dirtiest, smelliest most disgusting place I've ever seen, and hope I never will again! Then up to Georgetown, then Langkawi and then into Thailand. In general Malaysia didn't impress me, it lacks an identity and is a huge mix of pretty much everything. The people are really nice though.

We took a morning ferry from Langkawi to Satun in Thailand. After moaning about the price of all the package transport options in Malaysia, we decided we'd brave it on our own and see what happened, although everyone else (tourists and touts) told us that was a bad idea! Well, we ended up on all the same ferries and buses as them, but bought directly from the transport companies and paid a third of the price of all the other nobs that paid extra for a little sticker on their tshirt saying where they're going. So now we find someone with a sticker on them to where we want to go, follow them and pay the driver.

The west coast of Thailand was really Emma's thing, basically like Lanza, just much prettier beaches, but pack jam full of tourists, so not really my thing. That said it was good to just doss about, and the snorkelling was fab - I swam with two blacktip reef sharks, have filmed me chasing one of them, but can't upload it. Also the prices in Phi phi for example are ridiculous. After a week or so there we headed off to Surat Thani + stayed in a georgeous spa hotel complete with waterfalls and it's own lagoon pool for about 18 euros a night!

from there I had probably my most memorable experience yet. I wanted to get out into the sticks, and Emma wasn't so keen so I went to a place called Chaiya on my own. There was just one train there and one back before we had to get the night train to Bangkok. 3rd class, with rickety old wooden seats - was great for a short distance but felt sorry for the locals that sat in the same car on the train to Bangkok later on! Anyway, to cut a long story short, got there and realized straight away that I was really alone! Not even the ticket man spoke english. Wandered around, got my hair cut, which actually was an experience in itself. After making the guy understand he proceeded to shave my hair, then gave my whole face a shave with a cut throat razor, waxed my ears with some weird machine, and gave me a shoulder massage - all for around 80 euro cents! Photos of the rest of the town will come later, the funniest of which is an old dame selling pork, with two pigs heads on the table and flies all around them, and a sign from the Thai health and safety board over it! Anyway, I waited and waited for my train back, and if I went to the ticket guy he just pointed at an extra hour on the clock. After a few hrs he managed with rather graphic detail to get it through to me that the train had had a head on collision with a car (which I later found out was a pick up with 5 people in all of which died!) Anyway, 6 hrs late I got back to Surat Thani in a dangerously overfilled bus, 45 minutes before we had to take the night train! Luckily I had the hotels number with me so I could let Emma know that I was ok!

Ok, that wasn't really cutting it short!

Bangkok was pretty much what we expected, had an interesting experience talking to a young Thai couple selling tshirts on the street with their 3 yr old son. Felt really sorry for them, with the kid playing through the rubbish and stuff, till as they were packing up around 0100 the father bought his daily stash of heroin or whatever it was!

Anyway, managed to get my visa for Vietnam (Which Emma didn't need!!) and took a 2nd class night train to Nong Khai yesterday, and are heading into Laos today.

Hope everyone's well, take care and I'll write again soon (maybe).

xxx