Ok, first of all, I find it hilarious that my ginger, Abraham Lincoln beard sparked a torrent of comments, however you may or may not be pleased to know that I shaved it off a while ago! It did come back for a while (with moustache intact!) but the ginger became slightly too offensive and so I have had to keep an eye on it!

Second of all, we arrived in the Thai island of Koh Tao this morning and need to update about a couple of places have been recently. After leaving Chiang Mai, we headed down to the old Thai capital of Sukhothai. The town itself has not a lot to offer as we soon found out, but the main attraction is the old historical park outside the centre. Our first day in town was spent lazing but the pool (a luxury we're not used to and so readily snapped up the chance to swim!) before eating in an overpriced restaurant and finding an overpriced bar as nothing else was open!

The following morning we caught a tuktuk out to the historical sight and hired bikes for the day. The historical part of town is full of old buddhist ruins and temples, similar to those at Angkor Wat but on a smaller scale. I personally prefered Sukhothai just because it wasn't packed with tourists and the ruins were well preserved in a much greener environment. After cycling the main part, we took an adventurous 3km cycle in the midday heat to see basically a massive statue. But it was really impressive, even though we were exhausted after the hike up there, and the views over Sukhothai were great. We we're all feeling pretty knackered and after getting some street food, caught the local bus back into town which took a while with all the stops and diversions along the way.

The plan was to move to Bangkok overnight which involved a bus to a bigger city nearby called Phitsanulok where we then booked our overnight train to Bangkok. Arriving at 6pm, our train wasnt until midnight, so we had six hours to kill with our rucksacks on our backs! We had heard this place was pretty lively, but there only seemed to be a smelly market and lots of thai jewelry shops! Then the wierdest thing happened. We were looking pretty lost not knowing what to do, when a young Thai guy asked if he could help us. He said he would take us to the nearest internet cafe where we could kill some time as we had no idea where we were. Thinking we would be following him on foot, he suddenly dashed down an alleyway and next thing we know, he's pulled up in his brand new luxury toyota and is packing our bags in the boot. The thing is, this kid was younger than us!! His dad had bought it for him as a birthday present! They must have been minted! Anyway, after a five minute drive blaring Usher out of the window, he dropped us off as promised and didnt accept any payment. Even better, and to top it off, his name was Boss! What a legend.

We killed some time on the computer and then ate a disappointing meal that probably wasn't good for a stomachs and then boarded our night train to Bangkok. Fortunately the train was really comfortable and the beds better than most of the hostel ones we had been staying on!

Anyway, I gotta dash, need to get back to the beach bar. Will update about our time in Bangkok and Kanchanaburi in the next few days.

Love G.