Kel: Hello again! Sorry we've been away from the blog for so long. Things have been busy, but we've so much to catch up on. So, although it was a sad goodbye to Thailand we were really excited about moving on to new countries and cultures. Our first stop was in Hong Kong for a couple of days where we got the chance to catch up with my friend Frith (from innocent days), her hubbie Andy and their gorgeous wee boy Fergus.... and a big modern city again. It was so ...

MATT: Back in Bangkok for the last time before we leave Thailand. It feels like the end of one part of our trip and the start of the next (which of course it is). It has been a fantastic couple of months touring around Thailand but we are ready to move on to the next adventure. We are pretty close to half way through now and I think we are both filled with equal parts sadness that so much of the trip is now over and excitement over what is still to come. However ...

MATT: Kanchanaburi is a bit like being back in Phuket Town. A really nice Thai town which, apart from a short strip of falang bars, is for Thai people to live and work in. Our accomodation is the very nice "Ploy Guesthouse" which has huge rooms with lots of nice, dark wood furniture. The people are super friendly and can't do enough to help. The only downside is the breakfast is just a couple of bits of toast and a cup of tea...but it is served on a ve...

MATT: Ao Nang/Noppharat was supposed to be a couple of days stop over so we could lay on the nice, big, empty beach for the last time while in Thailand. It didn't quite work out that way thanks to a bit of a stomach upset for me which required a day of being not too far from the toilet and then a day to recover. So we ended up 4 days there...which wasn't so bad. Ao Nang is a pretty nice place - but a world away from Ton Sai beach that we left it for. Although on...

Kel: Railay is part of the mainland but only accessibly by longtail boat. We aimed to head there for 3 days (it's an expensive place). It's absolutely stunning. We definitely took lots of mental snapshots floating in the sea and looking up at these magnificant limestone cliffs full of real monkeys and scarily good rock climbers (part monkeys). We thought about climbing there but decided to give it a miss as the easiest climbs are of a grade we never even managed ...