At last, after fixating and fantasizing for twenty years, our dream has come true. Our employers have kindly granted us extended leave, so we are backpcking around Asia for more than our standard three weeks. Fantastic!

South East Asia is our favourite part of the world; the people, culture, scenery and food are amazing. We have visited extensively, but the area is huge and diverse and there is so much more to experience and to explore. Apart from Thailand, Vietnam and Laos, that are already in our diary, we hope to venture further afield to who knows where?

Deciding to try something completely different we shall be writing for an online magazine in Hoi Ann, Vietnam, as well as working on a butterfly farm in remote Northern Laos.

Four weeks are left free, who knows where we'll end up? Exciting! Watch this space...

PS, Please, please comment on our blog as we TOTALLY LOVE getting messages from home.

Party on Excellent.

02-06/12/19

The day has finally arrived; and we can't believe we're actually going!

Boarding the plane on time after an almost cancelled train from York to London, and predicted fog at Heathrow Airport that never happened and a night in The Premier Inn, we settle in to our seats with a Singha Beer (or two or three.....) with huge smiles and RELAAAAX!!!!!

David as per usual has excelled in getting us the best seats in our price range, which means we have our own little idle and a huge amount of leg room. Settling down with with our flight stockings on, (well, good to be mindful of thrombosis) we morph in to our comfy seats, and choose a film to fall asleep to.

Forty winks and a smooth landing later we arrive in Bangkok and glide through immigration. At this point our plans begin to unravel, why? The key card for our apartment is to be picked up at Belluggage, a baggage courier service sited in the airport's basement. So ...we find said Belluggage which has it's shutters down with a sign stating "opening in two hours"!! It is disconcerting to have to pick up your key from a luggage transit operation in an airport and, when it is closed you do begin to wonder if you have been done. Anyway, to kill time David changes currency and then goes searching for another Belluggage, and fifteen minutes later arrives back with a brown envelope containing our key card - hooray! We have also had some guidance about how to behave at our new home; that is that we need to operate as owners and bluff the security guard that we are staying with a friend for a "flexible" period!

A smooth, if packed, tube ride later we arrive at the apartment and make it past security to our front door. All is going even more smoothly than we could hope and I push the key card against the reader. It whirrs into action; a few blue lights indicate that something is happening and yet the door will not unlock? I try again, and again and again until the door opens and a disheveled head peers around the door and asks what we are doing?

She has been staying the night before and is quite rightly a bit cheesed off as she is not due to vacate for three hours. This means for us, having travelled for more than twenty four hours and are exhausted we now have nowhere to leave our luggage so cannot even pop for a coffee or massage. The plan is we will chill out... on a lounger... by the pool and make the most of it, but to our delight the lady, who we had awoken, pops down less than an hour later and lets us know she has vacated early so we can use the apartment. What a star! We drop off our bags and head for a much needed massage.

Getting re-aquainted with ice cold Chang, delicious Thai food and pool lounging fill the next few days. Our home is in a residential neighbourhood that is a mix of up-and-coming young Thais with tourists; the vibe is low-key with small trendy cafes and 7Elevens vying for your custom. We found a delightful cafe-cum-launderette which we enjoyed a number of times and in doing so becoming their Facebook models (until their next customer). Also, we plan how to get to a new port of call, Koh Samet.

Dear Reader, we ummed and ahhed about whether to jump in a taxi or to do the backpacker thing and take public transport from Ekkamai Bus Terminus. You'll be glad to read the adventerous gene has kicked in and we opted for the latter.

Koh Samet here we come.