Bangkok is insane! Our overnight train experience was a good introduction - noisy, sweaty, cramped and lots of jostling around! We were impressed though by the little man who very kindly made everyone's beds for them with lightning quick precision - all neat and tucked in and cosy! We headed for Khao San road, backpacker mecca - mainly because the Lonely Planet assured us it was the cheapest place in town, despite more overuse of its favourite adjective - 'dank...

Chiang Mai, apparently the no 2 city in Thailand. Quite a nice chilled out place (although still very hot despite all the claims of it being the cool north!) with lots of bookshops and temples, and a system of canals running round the Old City. We were delivered straight off our overnight bus, bleary eyed and desperate to just lie flat somewhere, to a guesthouse where they plied us with tea and immediately started off on a sales pitch to try and sell us a trek. R...

Island Paradise...well almost! We settled happily into Ko Pha Nga after lots of buses and ferry trips and were pleased to find a quiet little beach called Hat Yao with sleepy guesthouses on the beach and a lot of dogs! It had lovely white sand, palm trees and hot sun. The only downside was that the sea was about half a foot deep, boiling hot and murky, sealed in by an offshore coral reef, but if you could get past the coral reef without being ripped to shreds it...

Ah Thailand! We'd waited a long time to get here!We arrived into Thailand from Malaysia, and stopped in a town called Hat Yai. It was a good intro because�there was no obvious attraction there so not crawling with tourists and all the things that come with them. We had a nice but rather�unexpectedly spicy meal (bamboo curry)�with some other�local diners, and followed it with�a pancake and condensed milk f...