INDIANA OLIVER AND THE TEMPLES OF DOOM!! We had been warned and had read about the chaos and scams at the Thai/Cambodian border so we felt we were on our guard and well prepared not to take any nonsense. The posh, air con and spacious leather seated minibus picked us up at our bungalow and drove about 3 miles down the road towards the port then stopped next to a rubbish dump. We were told to get out of the bus and board another one which we duly did only to...

JOLLY OLLY CHRISTMAS ON HAPPY HIPPY KOH HO HO HO CHANG!!! Christmas was looming and I was getting more and more melancholy knowing that this year I would be without my gorgeous three for the first time ever in 26 years, I would miss the snugness of Christmas at home and having my lovely family around me. It sounds really ungrateful I know, after all I was in paradise and doing something most people just dream about but I am and have always been an old emoti...

KAI BAE AND THE SUNSHINE BAND....... We arrived on the island of Koh Chang on 9th December and as soon as we got there we knew that it was the place where we would be happy to spend Christmas and New Year 2013. We dropped our backpacks at Sea Breeze bungalows in a little village called Kai Bae and immediately headed for the beach. Everything you have ever seen in any brochure or postcard about the beaches of Thailand is absolutely authentic and true; seari...

"HEY MEEESTER, YU WAN MASSAAAAAAAAGE?" As we came through arrivals at Bangkok airport every Thai official that we saw did a 'Wai', a slight bow, with the palms pressed together in a prayer-like fashion. It was a lovely welcome but when we handed in our passports to be stamped it was a different story, the Thai border control are a fierce and stern bunch and I felt like I'd done something wrong just by standing there ! We drove to our hotel through the seri...

LEG BEARD AND LAURA.......... So we hopped on another flight for our last antipodean stop...Sydney in New South Wales. I was so excited! We arrived in sweltering heat and headed for our hostel at Glebe Point on the west side of the city. The first evening we walked down to circular quay and along the domain, a beautiful park area with botanical gardens along the water's edge. The sun was setting and a band was playing across the water while the Sydney lo...