After a smooth flight from Luang Parabang we arrived safely in Chiang Mai and taxied straight to our basic guest house.Chiang Mai was not the nicest place we had been and after Laos seemed busy (clearly this was before we reached India) but Hannah was happy as it had a huge night market and for a real treat we happened to arrive on a Sunday when the entire town turns into one big street bazar. How lucky were we. We wandered round some of the more notable templ...

The southern bus station in Bangkok early in the morning, was a sign of things to come, busy, chaotic, very hot and extremely smelly.We attempted to catch a local bus toward the Khao San Road and the famous backpacker area but we couldn't find the appropriate numbered bus so opted for a taxi.We were then suitably ripped of by an important looking gentleman with a large booth at the front of the taxi queue.It looked like you needed to see him to get a taxi organis...

The southern bus station in Bangkok early in the morning, was a sign of things to come, busy, chaotic, very hot and extremely smelly.We attempted to catch a local bus toward the Khao San Road and the famous backpacker area but we couldn't find the appropriate numbered bus so opted for a taxi.We were then suitably ripped of by an important looking gentleman with a large booth at the front of the taxi queue.It looked like you needed to see him to get a taxi organis...

The journey from Ton Sai to the town of Phang Nga involved a long tail boat ride, local bus followed by an air conditioned service bus from Krabi to Phang Nga itself.The journeys here in themselves are very entertaining.We had to wait about 40 minutes for the long boat to leave the beach as the driver would not leave without the minimum complement of 6 people (unless we paid more).From the back of the open air local bus we played the now usual game of spot the mo...

The ferry leaving Phi Phi to Krabi was packed to the gunnels but did have seats and air conditioning so thankfully no sticking to the floor this time.A smooth crossing and we were negotiating our long tail price to the near by beach resort of Rai Lei.Not knowing if we were being ripped off or not we were soon speeding towards the beach after a short taxi transfer. On arrival at the east side of Rai Lei the beach was a little dirty so we started to walk through t...