Hi Everyone thanks for all your messages - they made us feel closer to home.

Sorry about the delay in updating but were on holiday!!!! lol

Well so far we were late arriving coz of a cancelled flight at Heathrow, so our first night was spent in The Park Inn Heathrow but we made the most of the restaurant and bar!

We arrived to Bangkok at 02.30 on 23rd - to a sticky 29 degees!!! We checked in to Rambuttri Village inn just off Khaosan Road - it wasnt 5* but it was clean and had aircon!! We stayed up all night wandering the streets, eating fresh coconuts and drinking Mekong n coke on Khaosan - luckily they dont sleep there!!!(for all our parents we didnt want to, it was only for the ice!!!!) haha. We had our first meal of PadThai at a local market and ended up sitting next to a crazy german he was the only other westerner there and we thought he was ok but after an argument with himself decided to turn to us - Jimmy stayed quiet, despite wanting to Muay Thai the bloke to the nose!!!! We were glad that he left after a rant, with his nose intact!!!Then went wandering around the back streets of Bangkok to see the real lives behind this weird city! We finally admitted defeat and slept for a few hours an then back down Khaosan and met an English couple who live and work here, then soaked up the backpacker atmosphere and all its weirdness!! We retired with a bag of deep fried scorpions, silk worms, ant salad, crickets - Mmmmmm - everything was fine except the scorpion - chewy and tasted of burnt plastic (not like chicken!!!). We can definately recomend the ant salad - it actually was nice!

Day 2 we left by bus for the Island of Kho Chang Southwst of Bangkok - 5 hours later we arrived at Trat for the ferry crossing (which luckily was only 20 minutes) - first impressions of the island was WOW!!!! Palm trees, mountains, clear blue waters!!! We got shafted by the taxi driver who charged us and all the other passengers 100 baht each - Thai d*** Turpin or what!!!!

We checked into Plaloma Resort and were taken to our stone bungalow at the top of a cliff overlooking a rocky cove, with fishing boats and catamarans!!! It was definately breathtaking - we couldnt stop smiling all day!!! We had a seafood BBQ overlooking the cove just in time for the sunset!!! wow Wow WOW!!!

The island was lovely but definately not untouched!!! On our second day (day 3 of our travels) in kho chang Jimmy hired a Midi Moto 150 when he arrived back the smile from ear to ear said it all! We took a trip to a view point for the sunset - that night consisted of drinking in a bar (sensibly) and playing pool and Jenga (Jimmy was victorious but theres time for my revenge) - a ladyboy took a shine to Jimmy much to his horror!!! I reckon more Muay Thai would have followed but we seen him take a dislike to a passing gecko with a brush - so he let it ride!

Day 4 began at 05.08 watching a tropical storm the island and the rain continued ALL DAY!!!! Jimmy never let the warm rain dampen him and snorkelled regardless,I was photographer and observer!

Day 5 was back to Bangkok for a night of drinking vodka buckets with a group of Bristol travellers at a make-shift bar on Khaosan with music pounding!!! Followed by more buckets with a lovely group of Phillipino travellers and a chat to 2 of the " red t-shirt protesters" they were full of passion for the cause - we hope it stays peaceful but the army is coming and so we are going - not quite decided where yet - but we will let you all know soon!! And will add some pics next time. XXX