Bangkok is mental. Huge, Polluted, Millions of people (and annoying touts), it is hot and humid and loads going on! On the first day we got a boat down the Chao Praya river and generally got our bearings. Our first thai food.... Pastie and a KFC, of course!

The following day we did the tourist things of visiting the Grand Palace and the Emerald Buddha temple which were awe inspirinf, but our camera was being quite tempremental and the rain was causing issues, so we had to cut the day a little shortunfortunately! However, we did also get to the Wat Pho Temple to see the huge 50ft reclingin buddha. We then went back to our base at Khao San Road, picked up our bags and headed down to the station for our night train to the islands ferry port at Chumphon.

The night train was suprisingly ok although we did wake up early and nearly got off 30 mins too soon! We caught the ferry to Koh Tao island which is beautiful, and had some gorgeous real thai food!

Next day we did a Discover Scuba course, we could both manage the skills fine in the water, but when Caroline had to fully submerge gherself she did not like it and was unable to complete it, Neal however loved it (and took to it like a fish to water!!!) and saw huge jelly fish and stingrays etc. that night we went to a party at another village and got horrifically drunk from the infamous thia whisky red bull buckets! result!

The following day, as you can imagine we battled an IMMENSE hangover and enjoyed Koh Tao's lovely beaches.

The following day we moved on and got a ferry to Koh Phangan, stayed at a lovely resort and enjoyed the comedy of the half moon festival (a HUGE party in the middle of the jungle filled with crazy thai people covered in UV paint- what could be better!?). The party was hit by an enormous storm and we woke in the morning to find the power had gone everywhere, meaning we had to battle the resultant hangover with warm water and no fan.

We later moved to Haad Rin (home of the Full Moon Party), we met up with Caroline's cousin, Jo and her boyfriend Allan, who were on the run form Chinese immigration!!!!!!

The next day brought about a Munchies boat tour- genius idea! we went to a huge cascading waterfall, some awesome beaches, and went snorkelling, and after enjoyed the magnificence of a huge whisky and coke bucket!

We woke early the next day for the ferry to Koh Samui, this island was much bigger with nicer beaches and LOADS of package holiday tourisits and disgustingly old men with frighteningly young female escorts. We met up with Mike and Lucy (who were on a health retreat on the island) who we travelled africa with had a few drinks, then fell asleep on the beach and were late to meet them for dinner!

We finally left Thailand's island paradise for the mainland at 6am the following day and arrived in Koh Sok National Park in the afternoon. This National Park is beautiful, lush lush lush jungle with striking limestone karsts and totally different to the islands. We checked in to a hostel then found a cheaper one so checked back out but not before we played with the resident gibbon monkey!!!\

The new place was a campsite, which reminded us of Africa a little, which was cool, we had the whole place to ourselves too and it was right across the road from the reggae bar- magic! this morning we went elephant trekking- which is BRILLIANT< the elephant takes you on a 30 minute walk into the jungle up a river bed, then drops you off while you swim and play in a waterfall then takes you back, then you get to feed him etc- brillinat! the rest of the day we sunbathed , went for a run and buzzed off 'our' elephant!

On our final day in the jungle we went for a long walk, enjoying the lush forest and listiening to the myriad of calls from the animals, before getting a bus back to Surat Thanni for our 13 hour train journey back to Bangkok.

This night train was not as good as the last one as crazy thai women kept coming on trying to sell us food at all hours- no i'm not hungry... i'm ASLEEP! When we arrive din Bangkok we dropped outr stuff off and went to look at the Golden Buddha, which either isn't impressive ever or wasn't impressive when we were exhausted! we did however, have enough energy to go shopping to Bangkok's crazy shopping malls (Caroline has reserves of emergency enrgy for such things!). We even went to a night market after our day opf shopping. and also had a game of Pro EVO, in the city centre!

The next day we went shopping again, then chilled out and met Mike and Lucy for a huge, random and 'eye-opening' night out all over Bangkok.

The following day hungover, we relaxed and went to watch Indianna Jones, which is made all the better by Thai cinema customs, such as watching a crazy propoganda video about the king before the movie.

Fro the last few days we chilled at a hostel that had a pool (not our hostel i hasten to add- we couldn't afford it!) and then arrived back in the UK- brighton on the 9th june.

The trip was INCREDIBLE from start to finish. I believe that i am writing for us both when i say that we had the time of our lives. Our favourite place (because EVERYONE asks this question) was definitely ALL of Africa and New Zealand, Australia was a little disappointing due to its expensiveness but all in all the whole trip was amazing, and we have som many more that we want to do now, starting with South America, as soon as we have cleared our colossal debts and find some time.

Now we are recovering back in the mighty UK in preparation for out much anticipated reurn to Newcastle in September.

We hope you have enjoyed our blog.... we have!