Since our last blog we have arrived in South East Asia for the last 7 weeks of our trip.

Our first stop was Singapore where we spent a couple of days sightseeing. We went to the famous Raffles hotel which unfortunatly was a bit out of our budget to stop here so we made do with a Singapore Sling in the bar. (one to share as they were $25 each!!)

From here we flew to Phuket in Thailand, where we had a couple of days on Patong Beach, before getting the ferry to Koh Phi Phi. We stayed on a secluded beach on the East Coast of the island which was beautiful. It could only be reached by a boat and felt like our own private beach. We did a day trip round the surrounding islands where we visted Mae Beach where they filmed 'The Beach' unfortunatly Leonardo was long gone so I had to make do with Rob!!!! We spent about 4 days here then headed to Ko Samui.

Theres not a lot to say about Ko Samui we were looking forward to sun filled lazy days on the beach but instead we got torrential rain!! We moved to Koh Tao to get away from the rain but unfortunatly it followed us and rained for 5 days solid. The only time it stopped was when we went to Koh Phangan for the Full Moon party which was a right laugh. 10,000 people partying on the beach to the early hours!! The only downside to this island hopping was the ferry rides in between which were horrendous. Catching the boat back to Koh Tao at 8am after the party was even harder then jumpimg out of a plane!!! There was sick everywhere including mine and Robs.

Anyway after we had recovered from the Full Moon party we travelled up to Bangkok by boat and bus which took 10 hours. Bangkok is crazy, too many people and too many tuk tuks. Although we did have a few rides in the tuks tuks which was good fun. We wanted to visit a few of the temples while we were here but the Kings sister had died and it was her funeral and they were all impossible to get to, trust us to visit that weekend. We still had a good time and managed to see much of the city.

From here we travelled up to Chiang Mai in the north this time on an overnight bus which took 12 hours, I thought the travelling in Oz was long!! Chiang Mai is a really nice city much slower and quieter then Bangkok. We booked on a 3 day trek to go into the Doi Impathon National Park which is 200km west of Chaing Mai to visit the hill tribes we also treked through the jungle over the 3 days. The trek was an amazing experience there was only us and another couple on the trek plus our guide and we didn't see any other tourists. We stayed with familys of the hill tribes over the 2 nights. We felt really privilaged to stay with these people and have a glimpse into their lives which are so basic, they really have nothing but are very happy and full of smiles. The children are beautiful we passed a nursery in one of the villages and all the kids came running over to us wanting to play. It is a great memory to take home with us.

We left Thailand and arrived in Laos yesterday. It's lovely here very chilled out we have about a week here before we leave for Cambodia then Vietnam. From here we have a couple of days in Hong Kong then back home. Can't believe where the time has gone!!

Sorry there are no pictures this time but the computers are really slow and we don't trust them to download our pics. We will try and upload a few before we get back but you might have to wait for when we get home.

Hope you are all well, were looking forward to seeing you all.

Gem and Rob xxxxxxxxx