Dear Thailand

As we come to the end of our two month stay in your country, I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for giving us such a wonderful time. It really has been an amazing 2 months and we have done so much and such variety of activities that we have never been bored.

I would say that of all the travels I have ever done, that the last two months have been my favourite. Having such an amazing travel companion and achieving so much with her has been better than I could have hoped for.

From all the beautiful scenery,the mountains and paddy fields in the north to the stunning islands in the south, all the things we have learnt; massage, cooking, jewelry making, photography, how to ride a motor bike, the parties we have had in Bangkok, Koh Tao, Pai, Koh Yao Noi and Phi Phi and the great people we have met; Jordan and Alex in Bangkok, Raha in Chiang Mai, Cat, Charlotte and Jack in Pai, Rachel, Anthony and Thomas on Koh Yoi Noi and Caroline and everyone at Asalanta on Koh Lanta you have helped make it special.

But most importantly, Thailand, I would like to thank you for your wonderful people. From my previous experiences of Thailand, I had an opinion that the Thais were a jaded bunch of people who had seen too many drunken tourists pass through their country to really care. They suffered for them because they were walking cash cows, there to be exploited. I feel I was completely wrong. Everyone we have met on this trip has been a joy. I have been blown away by the smiles, the care everyone has given to us, the joy they experience in making sure we are having an amazing time and the happiness they seem to all feel that we are in their country enjoying ourselves. They have all gone out of their way to make our time here the best ever.

I am sad that I never saw this side of you Thailand before but I am pleased that I will leave this time with such a positive opinion of you and your people.

And so I leave you with one last top ten list of the things we have experienced and loved about Thailand

1. Travelling on Air Asia with Flex Plus. It is like the first class of Air Asia travel. We got to sit right at the front with extra legroom, get a meal included, didn't have to queue for check in and our luggage got priority boarding. Sometimes you need to be treated like a first class passenger.

2. Not travelling with contact lenses. I love my laser eye surgery.

3. Skinny dipping. No trip to Thailand is complete without at least one naked swim.

4. Long Island Ice Teas. Once you figure out to ask for it without lemon juice. This is a long island ice tea for god sake. Why put unnecessary non alcoholic substances in there?

5. Donna cuttin my hair. Yes she might have got a bit over excited and I now have several more bald patches than I had before but she did it on the balcony, in a thunderstorm with Michael Jackson playing on the speaker and a cute little kitten around my feet and we had just escaped from a yoga retreat so it was a little bit magical.

6. Winding up Scottish people enough to make them walk out of the bar.

7. Chris De Burgh's Lady in Red. Serenading some random Thai woman dressed in a red dress on some desert island on a boat trip from Koh Yao Noi with Chris De Burgh's Greatest Hits.

8. Yakult. The Thai version. very good for indigestion.

9. Man Utd scooter. The scooter I hired covered in Man Utd colours. It was a very good scooter.

10. Rotti. Another name for Thai pancakes.

11. Finding my wedding ring. After it slipping off my finger in the sea, somehow managing to find it again in the murky water.

12. The Italian restaurant on Koh Yao Noi. Following the map to the very north of the island because it said there was an Italian restaurant there only to find a small house owned by an Italian man who sold us some beer and said he could make us a spaghetti but it would take a long time because he didn't have any of the ingredients.

13. Sharing toilet habits with complete strangers. You really don't have to know people very long at all before it is perfectly socially (and even encouraged) to divulge intimate details about your recent/past/future toilet habits.

14. Rosti. a giant potato hash brown with some plastic cheese and ham on the top and a fried egg by the side. Exotic foreign grub.

15. The Thai singer in the bar on Koh Phi Phi. Had brilliant hair and and happy smilin/g face. Couldn't sing.

16. The pool at the Ibiza Hotel. Just like being on Sun, Sea and Suspicious Parents.

17. Dad's hut at Asalanta eco lodge. Where we lived for a week on koh Lanta. Sort of a cross between Uncle Owen and Aunt Beru's homestead and an Ewok village.

18. Protex. It is like talc but with extra cooling qualities.

19. Banana curry. it took ages for Donna to decide to try it but it was worth it in the end.

20. Between 3.30am and 8am on Koh Lanta. the only time of day when it is not swelteringly hot.

21. The giant black and yellow spider that built its web right across the path we had to take to get to Dad's house meaning we had to take a detour every time we wanted to go home. It was cool to watch it slowly eat a big dragonfly.

22. Tiny. The black cat that slept in the corner of our room. He wasn't very small.

23. The toilet at Asalanta in the daytime. Very chilled out and relaxing.

24. Sticky the stick insect. It took me three days to work out you weren't a stick.

25. Mosquito net. We are safe at night as long as we stay within the mosquito net then all the giant animals we can hear roaming outside our hut cannot get us.

26. Three day weeks. Only working 3 hours a day and then having a weekend. All working life should be this relaxed.

27. Fish finger sandwiches at Jay-Dees. The best homemade fishfinger sandwich I have ever had. Just don't try the sausages, they are just plain wrong.

28. Sugary goodness time. At the end of our shift, kick back and enjoy a can of suger in toxic colours pretending to be an obscure Fanta flavour.

29. Rummy.

30. Our Asalanta volunteer t-shirts. Currently on course to be the longest worn t-shirt of the holiday before it has been needed to retire it. Grey just hides the dirt so well.

Till next time.

All our love.

Jim and Donna