Hello everybody! Well, to be honest there isn't a huge amount to report since the last blog because as soon as we came to our senses and realized that we had picked a pretty darn perfect beach and lovely accommodation, we settled right down and adopted our old Cherating routine of eat-beach-eat-beach-eat-sleep. We have made a few minor adaptations to this rather hectic schedule. Our bungalow has a fridge so our breakfast is a much healthier yoghurt, fruit and juice affair, with bananas, mangos, mangosteens, lychees and vivid pink dragonfruit on the menu. And the beach here is much better suited to swimming and snorkelling, though very tidal so you have to get your timing right, so we slip in and out of this wonderful silky smooth, warm water much more frequently and either lie on our backs watching sea eagles gliding over the jungle backing the beach, or explore the underwater world. The snorkelling here is pretty good just off the beach, which is kind of lucky as the cheap snorkels that we bought here are crap. You can always tell when we're in the water as every few strokes one of us pulls up spluttering and pours the seawater from our air tube or wipes salty water from our eyes which always finds a way in somehow! I was planning to do some sort of snorkelling trip and I would have loved to do a proper dive course here, but as we reach the end of our trip we have now used up all our savings from NZ, Su is dipping into her savings back home and I'm dipping in to my overdraft, and Katie, you are right when you said it gets a little less fun when you are starting to go into debt! So they can wait for a return trip. Despite the occasional drowning we're seeing some pretty cool stuff just messing about here.

Something we adore about this place is the informality of it. At Cherating, being in a Muslim country, we always showered & changed before going out for dinner and made sure that we were reasonably covered or had a scarf to drape across our shoulders if need be. But there's none of that here - we drag ourselves off the beach, wrap a sarong around our bodies and haul our arses a few feet to our favourite dinner spot - the restaurant balcony here at our accommodation, Haad Salad Villa, where we sit on mats, cross-legged, covered in sand, next to a low table and eat facing west as the sun sets. We have eaten at a few places along the beach, but have found this place is cheapest, friendliest and does the best food. Salad Hut is probably the best alternative, but it is more expensive and often quite crowded. And we rather like our little spot where we sit, munching the most amazing prawns and squid in a variety of different rice, noodle, soup, stir-fry and curry options - when seafood is this cheap and this good I really can't understand why people would eat anything else! These are usually washed down with amazing fruit shakes and the occasional beer, in case you're wondering. The only minor complaint I would have is that often there are clouds in the way of our sunset! The Gulf Coast of Thailand (i.e. here) is still is its dry season while the Andaman and mainland is in monsoon, but there still tends to be a fair amount of cloud and the occasional shower, which is not really a problem most of the time, in fact it's a blessing when the sun is a little covered during midday, but it does tend to build up in the evenings. But seeing as that (and the pack of unruly dogs) are the worst we have to deal with here, I'd say we have it pretty darn good. And you know what they say about clouds and silver linings? Well, while waiting out a brief shower on the balcony at our bungalow, we realized that our little spot is actually quite a choice spot for birdwatching - we're usually surrounded by Collared Kingfishers, Indian Rollers, Greater Racket-Tailed Drongos, Lesser Cougals, Scarlett-Backed Flowerpeckers (love that name!) and Myna birds.

While I'm here I must clarify a comment made recently following one of my blogs, that SE Asia isn't as pleasant to travel in as NZ. Yes, we absolutely loved New Zealand; it is an extremely beautiful country with awesome scenery, amazing wildlife, and some truly wonderful people. And yes, although we still had our difficult times (generally concerned with work), it is a very safe country to travel in and it's easy - we speak the same language, things are pretty well organized and of course we always had IEP to turn to if we needed help. Southeast Asia is totally different. It can be overwhelming, it can be frustrating, it can be difficult, it can be challenging, but that's why I'm here! That's why I love travelling! We're learning so much every single day, both about how different countries and cultures live, and about our responses to that as human beings, and we will both return home as different, and much stronger, people. We've wanted to cry, to scream, to punch people, and we've also made friends with monks while watching sunset on a temple mountain in Cambodia, we've drunk silkworm poo tea while learning about traditional silk dyeing and weaving techniques in Laos, we've learnt how many bird's eye chillies we can handle before our mouths catch fire in Thailand, and we've met kind strangers and eaten amazing street food in Malaysia, plus we've got pretty good tans as well! It may not be as easy as NZ, but it has been amazing, we're both so glad that we came, and I certainly would like to return for a much longer period and explore these amazing countries in greater depth.

Having said all that I have questioned whether I would return to the islands of Thailand several times as it simply isn't as friendly as northern Thailand, Laos or Malaysia, nor as rewarding as Cambodia. Increasingly you see Thailand referred to as the 'land of scams' rather than the 'land of smiles' on chatrooms such as Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree, and it does feel that way sometimes. We've tried to make a few trips around the island, but have now given up. We went to the port of Thongsala to do some shopping, but were met with such rudeness and followed around shops like shoplifters, that we came back. At other times taxis have tried to rip us off before we even leave the village, so we just gave up and stayed put. I don't doubt that this part of Thailand has been ruined by tourism, both because some travellers are rude and thoughtless, and because some Thais have become greedy and looked for ways to scam people, and are perhaps more desperate at the moment because the country is experiencing a drop in tourism which is obviously worrying for them (though I could think of better ways to encourage people back!) But perhaps our response to this has been different because we are homeward bound. I think we would have been much more resilient if we'd just started out, but we will soon be home, after 16 months away, and we are thinking about this, dreaming about it, and talking about it all the time. Su reminded me of something Verena said to us when her & Gary came to visit us in Wanaka before they returned home. She was thinking of being back in Germany so much that she kept wanting to drive on the other side of the road, despite driving perfectly ok for the last year. And similar is probably true of us. We have one foot back in England now - we are almost home! So I think I will give this part of Thailand another chance at some point, I'll just be a little more prepared next time!

And that's it for now. Tomorrow we have one last day to spend on the beach here, then we'll return to the mainland for our flight back to Bangkok on 26th June, where we have a few days to explore and shop before our flight back to London Heathrow on 30th June, where we'll have a happy reunion with Mum & Dad at the airport, and a midsummer Christmas to look forward to, then a week's holiday in Wales to recover! And at some point I guess we'll have to think about work too!

Before I sign off we both want to send all our love to Don & Sylv who are mourning the loss of their beloved dog, Sam - we're thinking of you both.

With love, Jo & Su, xxx