Our quest to complete a diving course has meant that we have come full circle before our departure on the 8th for Delhi. Having started in Phi Phi we are ending our Thailand and Laos adventures on our favourite island.

Highlights in between included a 12 hour train journey across Thailand from Ubon Ratchatani in the North East of Thailand to Bangkok! From here we headed into the North West to Kanchanaburi. If you have seen the film Bridge Over the River Kwai you will be aware of this areas unfortunate history. We actually coincided our stay, on our river raft guesthouse, with the River Kwai festival. This included a light and lazer show at the infamous bridge itself telling the story of its construction and associated evils.

Heading a little further north we stayed in a the Erawan National Park. A little bit of walking and a fantastic multilevel water fall which cascaded gently down a 3km hill side. Easy to swim in the many pools, but keep your feet still and they got nibbled by the teaming fish.

Our time there was ended by the need to catch our flight to Phuket. To give you a flavour of a day of intense travel our day went like this:

+ 1.5 km walk uphill wearing 15kg backpacks in soaring midday heat

+ caught a bus to the bus station

+ caught a bus back to Kanchanaburi (2hrs)

+ caught a coach to Bangkok (2.5hrs)

+ caught a bus to the airport (1hr)

+ caught a shuttle bus to the correct terminal

+ jumped on the plane to Phuket (1hr)

+ climbed into a minibus from the airport to our guesthouse (1.5hrs)

+ climbed into bed... zzzzzzz

a total of 12 hours.

After another taxi and ferry the following day we were back in paradise to undertake our diving course. This was a couple of hundred squid well spent. We are now qualified to dive up to 18 metres and have already seen some fantastic sites. Leopard sharks, sea turtles, pufferfish, cuttlefish, moray eels, blue spotted stingray, water snakes and various other fish! It really is another world under the surface. Our lives will certainly be a little more aquatic from now on.

With India around the corner our dependancy for curries will soon be quenced. Having moved accomodation over 40 times since hitting the road we plan to sit still somewhere in the North of India for a while and maybe head to Goa for Christmas.

Keep it coming with the messages. We miss everybody very much and it is great to hear from you.

Big love, up the Royals, and come on England.

Sidney and Sasha

Ps. SDK