We enjoyed Koh Samui, swam lots and bought too many heavy Thai souvenirs!We spent a day on a bumpy speedboat travelling around the Angthong Marine Park where we snorkelled and kayaked. The scenery here reminded us of Halong Bay in Vietnam. Parts of this area were used in the filming of "The Beach". We continued our island hopping to Koh Tao where we stayed in the quiet Ao Muang (Mango Bay) in the north. Quite different to busy Chaweng Beach, we loved t...

Our first destination in Thailand was Chiang Mai. We spent a few days there taking a Thai cookery course and going trekking. We really enjoyed the cookery course which was held at an organic farm. We learnt lots of new recipes and techniques and ate all day! We were quite lucky with the weather on our trek (we only got caught in a torrential downpour on one of the days!). We enjoyed staying in the jungle in bamboo huts and going rafting. We then flew to Bang...

We flew from Siem Reap to Vientiane (capital of Laos) where we spent a couple of nights. We encountered our first real bout of the rainy season in Laos. We didnt get up to too much in Vientiane - pretty boring city really - but did have nice walk around and a beer or two on the river. We then headed to Vang Vieng. Here we went tubing - this involves getting into a fast flowing river in a big rubber ring and floating down the river for 4km. This would probably ta...

Our long journey to Phnom Penh from Vietnam was surprisingly smooth! We did a 3 hour boat journey to the border visiting a fish farm and Cham minority village on the way. Customs and the border crossing were a breeze, then we took another 3 hour boat ride on the Cambodian side to the mainland and a short bus journey into Phnom Penh. We enjoyed our time in Phnom Penh, learning a lot about Cambodia's tragic past. We visited the Khmer Rouge "S21" prison ...

Well, it is our last day in Vietnam before we take the slowboat up the Mekong River to Cambodia tomorrow. Vietnam has been great - we have met a lot of nice people and also a few that lie to you and want to rip you off! We have seen some great places, however, all good things must come to an end and another good thing begins - Cambodia here we come!! Since our last instalment, we have been to Nha Trang after another bad bus journey where Vietnamese music was pla...