The bus journey from Trat back to the capital was very long. We left at about 4pm and didn't arrive at our guest house until 11pm. It was nice being back in Bangkok. The familiarity of it made us feel a bit more comfortable than we had in Trat, but we were both still feeling a bit unwell so went straight to sleep once we got to our room.

The following day started slowly but we got better as the day went on. We took it easy and treated ourselves to a nice meal in the evening. I even decided for the first time whilst in Thailand to not have the local cuisine but to opt for a pizza. Little did I know this would be a choice I would regret. We went back to the guest house after the meal to go to bed, but I was awake again at midnight with horrendous stomach pains. Then came the vomiting and diarrhoea! That was me for the next 3 hours. Bangkok belly had finally got one of us and the timing of it couldn't have been worse. Just as we had been getting better and sorting ourselves out, we'd been knocked back again.

I spent the whole of the next day in bed sipping water and trying not to bring it back up, whilst Kirsty struggled with her problems. She was still recovering from her time in the hospital and her stomach was constantly giving her grief. The days were very long as we spent them lying in bed, feeling sorry for ourselves waiting to finally feel better. Something that seemed like was never going to happen.

On the 23 October my Dad arrived in Bangkok. We left our guest house and went for breakfast. After nearly 40 hours of not eating a thing, I managed to keep down a slice of toast. Both of us feeling on the mend, we then got a taxi to Sivalai Place; a nice hotel my Dad had booked for us all to stay in while he was going to be here. It was on the other side of the river and set in a more a residential area. It was nice to see a different part of Bangkok, a part that was quieter and away from the tourist hustle and bustle.

It was great to see my Dad. Although we weren't cured instantly it took a lot of pressure away from us and made us feel more relaxed. That night he took us for a really fancy meal at a restaurant right on the Chao Praya River. It was lovely, despite neither of us being able to eat that much.

The following day we spent just enjoying what Bangkok had to offer. We went down to Thanon Khao San and Soi Rambuttri, where you can easily spend hours just wandering the bustling streets looking at the amazing array of fake clothes, getting hassled for massages, tuk-tuks and suits or just relaxing in a bar having a chang beer. Which is exactly what we did! All of three of us decided to have a foot massage too, which was really nice even though they did pull your toes until they clicked.

That evening we did a little bit more shopping at the famous Patpong Night Market. Situated in the built up area of Silom, Patpong road was everything we had thought Bangkok would be like. The place was busy and chaotic, full of Go-Go bars and fake Rolex's. It was a bizarre but intriguing place to visit, where the stuff being sold in the market was about as real as the women dancing in the bars lining either side of the market. We brought a few bits and had a few drinks in a bar and headed back to the guest house.

25 October - Dad's Birthday - What we did today was down to him. So we started of the day by heading to Taling Chan floating market in a very quiet (by quiet, I mean in comparison to the hectic commotion of Khao San) area of Bangkok. The market was great to see but not what we had a really expected as it was more of a food market for the locals, selling fish and meat and an incredible variety of fruit and veg all on long bamboo rafts. We got a few bits to nibble on as we wandered around and then as the heat was becoming almost unbearable we got a taxi to Khao San Road to have some lunch.

After having lunch in a middle of a downpour we had decided to call our flight company to see if we could change our flight to an earlier date. This was for many reasons; firstly, my visa was due to expire by the end of the week and would cost 2000Baht and a trip to the Thai Immigration. Secondly and mainly because we were still not 100% and been through a lot in the past few weeks and were ready to come home. It just felt like the right thing for us to do and once it was in our heads that we were coming home fairly soon, it was quite difficult to change that mind-set.

I came off the phone in slight shock. Our flight had been moved and we were coming home the following day at midnight. We were both really pleased with that but also a bit stunned that our travels were coming to an end. Tomorrow night! It was a strange feeling. We knew we would be going home soon, but not that soon.

My dad then treated himself (for his birthday), to a 2 hour Thai massage. In this time Kirsty and I decided to do some major shopping. Up and down Khao San road we went buying bags, clothes and presents of all sorts and having a good laugh bartering along the way. We finished the day off with a nice meal on Soi Rambuttri.

Our final day in Thailand began by saying goodbye to Dad, who was flying down to Phuket for a week. We then spent the day in a humongous shopping mall in the richer part of Bangkok. We thought we'd find lots of nice things to buy, but it turned out to just have lots and lots of women's clothes. We soon got quite bored and tired and decided to spend the rest of the day back at the guest house.

The time finally came, after much waiting, to leave the guest house and go to the airport. It wouldn't be Thailand if we weren't given another little scare before we said goodbye. The taxi journey to the airport, which is about an hour's drive, was probably one of the most hair raising I think we had ever experienced. If there was a speed limit on the highway, then the taxi driver certainly didn't abide by it. Swerving in and out of other traffic in speeds of about 100mph was scary, but when he decided to talk on his phone and nearly drive into bollards it was unbelievable. We could not have been happier to see the airport.

A few hours at the airport, going through all the security checks and getting a few last bits, like some Thai rum, and before we knew it we were on our final plane of our year long journey. In fact, our 14th plane in 46 weeks of travelling around the other side of the world.

And what an incredible 46 weeks it had been. An experience we will never ever forget. From starting out in Hong Kong to the brilliant time we had in New Zealand with Kirsty's Dad, travelling the North and South islands, fishing and skydiving. Then a life-changing time in Oz, camping on beaches in Tassy, buying a campervan in Melbourne, living and working in South Australia, picking and packing oranges, meeting some great people and making friends for a lifetime, riding camels on the beach in Broome with the most sensational sunsets, shopping in the sunset market in Darwin and scuba diving the Great Barrier Reef. Then the up and down experience of South-East Asia, from Bangkok's hustle and bustle to living the beach island dream on Koh Chang, getting ill in Cambodia and spending our last days in Thailand with my Dad. And all the other little bits in between that made this the most amazing year of our lives.

And so we were on our way home, back to England, as this chapter in our lives was just ending.