Picking up from where we last left off - just about to leave Laos for Thailand, about December 20th.

As soon as we got on the bus we knew things would be different in Thailand, 'Step Up 2' was the film on the bus, not the Chinese version of Police Academy, which I can recommend. After the film, which Em loved, the Essex girls sitting behind us asked to put their Al Pacino DVD on, but when the credits rolled it turned out to be a bad copy of a film starring Leonardo di Caprio - so we put in our ear plugs and eye masks, took a sleeping pill and fell asleep hoping that another Thailand stereotype - of people falling asleep on buses to find all their stuff gone when they wake up - didn't happen to us.

We woke up pulling onto Khao San Road 5 hours later at about 5am feeling a bit groggy but we had the Redbull on hand and we managed to find a guest house with only minimal interference from drunk English teenagers. We found a bed after about twenty minutes, just as the Redbull was kicking in. So while Em had a kip, I went for a walk to see Bangkok waking up - this time of day is for the locals, apart from the odd tourist still up, like me. The rest won't be getting up for banana pancakes or a full English till about 8.30. So it's quite interesting walking round, I saw the sun rise over the city and read the Bangkok Post with the first instant coffee I'd had in Asia - blurgh!

The rest of our first day and the next two after that were spent shopping - Christmas shopping, suit shopping, flip flop shopping, wedding dress shopping and much much more.

We did manage to make it out one night for a bit of a boogie at a place we found advertised in the Post called 'Back to the Summer of Love III' - it turned out to be in a swanky new bar, near to Nana, a place of white men (generally ugly and fat) with Thai girls, stag groups and an elephant roaming the streets. Not many people turned up but it was so long since we had a dance that we didn't care, the DJ played an obvious set - no way did he play in Legends or Heaven as the flyer claimed. But we managed an hour or so on the dance floor before dancing alone in front of a massive mirror became too much.

In this day and age, you're a social retard if you don't bump into someone you know on Khao San Road - I don't know if this is good or not but that's just what happened to us on the way home. An old work friend called Carly - it was good to have a chat about old times - still need to email her like I promised! Two months later now....oh dear.

Next day I sold a load of stuff at the stalls outside the hostel. They have an array of used sleeping bag liners, torches that clip on to books, wind up travel chargers, travel pillows etc - all the 'essentials' people realise they don't really need. I added to the collection with most of the above and came away with 12 quid...I then spent 6 of that....6!...on a pair of pliers to fix the zips on the fake backpack I bought for 10 pounds the day before...only to break the zip even more and I don't recall using the pliers since. That's called 'Khao San Logic' or Lawrencada?

Next day we realised that we were expecting Bjarne a day early so with an extra day in Bangkok we decided on one more trip to Siam Square...(why?!)...lunch was the same as it had been for the last two days...Burger King...naughty, but we weren't to know that this simple chicken burger could deliver such a 'near fatal' bout of food poisoning. But 8 hours later Em was in and out of the toilet every five minutes and at one point after half an hour on the loo, contemplating crawling into the corridor outside the hostel room for someone, anyone!, to SAVE her.

She/It was quite a sight when I finally got back from the beauty salon, with a freshly waxed back and feeling refreshed after a Thai massage. I quickly got some medicine, water, lemonade, crisps etc but it was too late. The next two hours till about 2am were spent wrapping presents, emptying bowls of sick, packing our bags, running out for last minute presents and trying to fit 16 kilos of this stuff into a broken backpack.

We woke at 6 to meet Beej at the bus station on the other side of town and with some mild persuasion I got Em out of bed and carried all our bags down 8 flights of stairs etc. With Em out of action it was up to an exhausted me to get us where we needed to be.

Managed to get directions to the wrong bus station and then after we realised the error, managed to flag a taxi to take us to the airport instead of the bus station...arrived quite late to meet a very well held together Beej - considering he was 23hrs into the 33hr journey - but that figure strangely rose disproportionately with time as he retold the story to people we met along the way.

Beej had everything sorted so it was good to put our lives in someone else's hands for the week, and what a week it was! The phrase 'Best Christmas Ever' came up more than once...it felt like it at the time and in retrospect it was up there in the top 5.

As good as it was, its a bit of a blur, a lot happened and all I can say was it was great to have Beej there to provide a sense of home, and a familiar face to say the least. He brought us loads of stuff from home, dvds, music, books - special thanks to Neil, Mouse, V, Freddie and Wendy. He made all the bookings which gave us a break. And his boundless enthusiasm gave us travel weary backpackers a good kick up the arse. So, on Christmas Eve we were able to open some presents, pull some crackers and drink plenty of rice wine!

On Christmas Day we hired a boat for some snorkelling and fishing with some guys Beej met. Em managed to hook a fish, and between us we had enough to get a camp-fire going on the beach - fusiliers with salt and lemon cooked in banana leaves as the sun went down has set a bench mark for future Christmas Days.

We then had a dinner of Thai green curry and tom yam soup with the guys from the boat trip. Me and Em were flagging by this point - beej had the stamina for a few drinks afterwards - I'm sure he has a story to tell about it (something about a girl).

Boxing Day was spent with cocktails and beers on a beach. The next day we finally managed to get a couple of bikes and head round to the other side of the island for some exploring and maybe find someone to spend New Years.

We had the usual quota of breakdowns. I think there were three this time, in these we got to see two ways in which locals help you when you're in trouble - the first one where a guy took apart some of the engine and fixed the clutch (I think) and didn't charge a Baht. The second one was not so nice and we got charged 200 to fix a puncture. The worst happened in the middle of nowhere again, next to a closed restaurant, a half hour ride on dirt tracks from any assistance. It did turn out to be inhabited and they were great about it - so we had a look round and found Long beach 'Treehouse', and a nice place to stay for new years...and beyond (see later). Fate has often been very kind to us.

The last day with Bjarne was spent at our guest house, snorkelling and cliff jumping/bouldering capped off with an amazing seafood meal in Bang Bao.

And that was that, good bye to Cliff Cottage and it's crazy English owner and goodbye to John - the man of a thousand coincidental connections - who we met randomly on the bus to Koh Chang. He's from Nottingham, stayed at the same guest house, was best mates with the bloke at STA travel that helped plan our itinerary, used to live in Borehamwood and his girlfriend used to work at BPL - which is where I used to work. And finally good bye to Bjarne who we missed loads.

Em here, I got the easy bit...return to Treehouse, Long Beach.

It is quite remote - a jumbo pick-up does a trip into town once a day through dirt tracks, takes hours.

Typical day:

Get up at 8-9am, do some yoga and exercises, eat some amazing Treehouse muesli and then wade to the beach. Read, swim, play waboba or bat and ball, or lie around in a hammock. Have some lunch (Thai food such as papaya salad or fried rice) then more of the same. Have a 'shower' by pouring water from a trough over head, watch the sunset and then read or play Chinese chequers 'til dinner. Eat some more Thai food (maybe a curry or sweet and sour, fried rice etc) with a beer or two and then go to bed. Bed was in a beach hut on a hill with sea view and easy access to the beach. The only drawback was when it was windy at night we first thought that we would get blown away and/or fall down the hill.

This went on for a few weeks. It was great. We decided early on not to speak to anyone - to avoid pointless conversations and have time for pure relaxation and reflection.

Other events…

New Year's Eve we had a small beach party and ate freshly caught red snapper. Saw some Thai fire-kite things and had some drinks and did some dancing.

We went for a walk and found a random restaurant which was more like a house. The people there were great. The first day there we just sat and drank coke while they got tipsy on homebrew and wine soda and shared their snacks with us. The guy rang up the radio station to get a shout-out for us, and we heard Lawrence get some props (or was it Dorrens?). We went there again, twice, and both times were great. There was lots of chatting, laughter and fun, playing with the kid. He was adorable, and loved our camera. He probably took some of the best shots of the year. He was not their child (perhaps grandchild, it wasn't clear) but his mother had apparently left him. He fell asleep on my lap and I felt my maternal instincts start to stir. We missed the dolphins that sometimes appear in the bay but we loved just being there.

I made a resolution to do more yoga.

We had no electricity apart from between 6pm and 1am, which was powered by a generator. No flushing toilets or hot water. But when you have sunshine, books, food and drink, we didn't need anything else. It was great and also very cheap. We saved money living in paradise. If you ever go to Ko Chang, go there.

Did I mention the hammocks, amazing sunsets and cold beer?...Enough.