So we had a nice painless border crossing into Thailand and headed to Chiang Mai. We didn't do a whole lot while we were here, just visited the night markets and hired a motorbike to drive up to some waterfalls, the big lake and a temple at the top of a hill, which offers great views over the town. We then booked our overnight train down to Bangkok that would get us into the city at 8.30am….this should have been a fairly simple journey, but as our last long ove...

Next up was our week holiday in Ko Samui. We were meant to be meeting Phil's mum and dad here, but unfortunately Tim could not make it as he was starting his new job in Manila on the first day. So it was up to Denise to keep us company for the week! We had a great week together; we had hired a jeep so were able to travel around the island whenever we felt like it! We were based in some lovely bungalows in Chaweng, right on the beach, making breakfast by the sea ...

So we caught the bus up to Khao Sok NP...not as simple as we thought it would be...A mini bus picked us up for the hotel, on time so all was good...we knew we were being transferred to a big bus so weren't too concerned....until we got dropped off at the side of the road just as a tropical downpour began!!! Seemed like the minibus driver was trying to get rid of us to someone else, but didn't really tell us what was going on!! Eventually we got told that we were ...

From here we headed up the coast to the infamous Phuket. We avoided the dive that is Patong and headed instead to Kata beach. A nice spot that's not too crazy, even though it's clearly just a tourist place with only hotels, restaurants and massage places on our street. It's here that Shane got his first regular sightings of the lady boys...have to say most of them aren't too convincing so we are expecting better as we head further north!!! We hired a scooter dur...

We landed into Hat Yai, as we hadn't been sure where we wanted to go when we booked the flights so again we did this a little sideways!!! Once we got there and got our minibus transfer booked we had a bit of time to kill so we headed to a lovely little place...where Shane got his first taste of Thai Spicy!!! The dish had a little pork, and at least 5 chillies of different size, shape and heat, much to his delight!!!The sweat was pouring off him like never before!...