The journey down to the Andaman Coast was long and very hard work. We initially took the train from Ayutthaya to Bangkok which took a couple of hours and cost the grand total of 15 pence each. From Bangkok we intended to take the overnight train to Krabi in the south of Thailand. However, as it was a Thai public holiday, the train was full for the next 2 days with only 3rd class seating available (a seat on a wooden bench for about 15 hours). So, after discoverin...

After arriving at Koh Lanta we jumped into the back of a pickup truck, along with our luggage. It was raining again, Koh Phi Phi's rain omen coming to mind. Our driver cranked up the AC / DC and outran the rain and soon it was blue sky's up ahead. The place looked a lot more relaxed, a few bars and restaurants along the roads edge. No tell tale signs of any beach parties here a good night sleep would be had! We quickly arrived within 10mins at the phrea ae (long...

We had initially read about ElephantStay in our Lonely Planet guide and thought it sounded great. It was a hands on experience with elephants whereby you were allocated your own to look after for 3 days. We had come across it in Fiji, booked it in Hong Kong and had been looking forward to it ever since. However, we then made the mistake of looking on Trip Advisor and although most reviews were very positive, some were scathing. Spirits dampened and a little defla...

We arrived in Kanchanaburi after 3 hours on the local train. It had been pretty uncomfortable and hard with wooden seats and air conditioning that consisted of a fan and the windows open (fly catching). At the station we were picked up by Mr Duck (as in quack quack he told us) in his tuk tuk. This definitely wasn't like any of the tuk tuks we'd encountered before: it was basically a motorcycle with a wheel, seat and frame welded to it but we boarded it anyway and...

We arrived into Bangkok at about 8.30am on the last sleeper train of our trip. It had been a relaxed and comfortable experience especially compared to the manic, cramped conditions of the Chinese trains. What they do have in common however is that they're all impossible to sleep on and it's an early start on both (in China due to the noise of your fellow inmates (wet sock across the face) and in Thailand it's a friendly hello from the staff called out as they wal...