So Sue and Brian arrived and we welcomed them with a couple of Changs! Followingf morning we headed straight to Phi Phi island. We were staying at the holiday Inn resort on the north of the main island and it was absolutely stunning. After a couple of days getting used to the heat we took a private long tail boat down to Phi Phi Lay where first stop to avoid the crowds was Maya bay. This is where the film 'the beach' was made and is part of a Thai national park. We got there ealry to find it virtually empty, and were all overcome by how beautiful the place is. The movie didnt need any enhancement as it truely is paradise. I then picked my moment to surprise Laura and ask her to marry me! Fortunately she said Yes and the rest of the day is kind of a blurr! We visited many other bays around the two phiphi islands and snorkled but mainly started planning!! Monkey bay is well worth a stop off though, the sand is like nothing we'd seen aywhere else in the world. Only way to describe it was like the texture of ice cream that you just sink into. By the time we got here though we had missed the monkeys and the beach was full of tourists.

Saying goodbye to phi phi we headed up to Bangkok, laura and i by overnight bus and sue and brian by plane. We spent a couple of days touring round Bangkok and visiting all the temples, then headed to Kanchanaburi, about two hours outside of Bangkok to see the bridge on the river kwai and visit the tiger temple. This was most definitely a highlight of the entire trip, visiting such an important war site and memorial, and then getting the chance to stroke tigers. Its quite a feeling to be so close to an animal that could end you on a whim!!

Sadly the week flew by too quickly and after a farewell meal at Hard Rock Bangkok and a few more Changs, Lauras mum and dad headed home and we made a dash to the boarder to cross into Cambodia on the limit of our visa. This was quite an experiance, but to cut a long story short we had to go into a bank in order to get directions to the legitimate boarder crossing!!

First stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, nearest town to Angkor Wat. Really enjoyed this town but there is a huge difference between Thailand and Cambodia. It must be 50 years behind in terms of development but it really is beautiful. Cambodian food is great but lacks the spice of thai food.

We hired a tuk tuk for the day and got a one day pass for Angkor, visiting most of the major spots. The photos speak for themselves, this place is stunning. All temples we had seen before are incomparable to this. The scale of all the sites is breathtaking. We loved it and will hopefully get to go back someday.

Next stop was the capital, Phenom Pehn. As a city........not great! The main market though is well worth a visit. We decided to head to Vietnam.

First impressions of Saigon, were good. We stayed in the backpacker area, full of street cafe's bars and restaurants. We booked onto a full day cruise of the Mekong delta, visiting a floating market. This really is a special place and somewhere with more time and money we would love to further explore.

I was desperate to visit the War remnants museum in Saigon and although Laura wasnt as keen obviously, we both found it really interesting. She actually surprised herself i think! The way it is set out makes the whole museum really interesting and certainly hard hitting. To get more of an insight to the Vietnam war we headed to the CuChi tunnels.

These tunnels are incredible. So small you wonder how anyone could get in them. The area is now a museum exhibiting all the ways the local VC tried combat the suffisticated US weaponry, with crude but deadly traps. They lived under ground and built a system of bunkers and tunnels. They even used chillis in termite mounds to through US dogs of the scent of there bunker air holes! Crawling through the tunnels is quite an experiance.

NExt we decided to head up to Nah Trang to sample vietnamese beach life! Unfortunately this didnt live up to expectation and after a couple of days we decided to head back through Cambodia, pick up some cheap silk for Lauras wedding dress and over to Thailand for some proper beaches. Oh, one tip in vietnam, avoid the so called sleeping buses, especially if you are over 4ft 6!!!

The bus ride from phenom pehn to the southern thai boarder was spectacular. Anyone who tells you Cambodia is flat and boring hasnt done this route, its stunning. The boarder is the most relaxed weve seen too.

The last couple of weeks of our great adventure we spent, due to lack of finances at this point in a cheap beach bungalow on lonely beach, Koh Chang. Here we made some great friends and enjoyed, just about every night, the best bar in the world 'STONE FREE'. This hippy town is magic and we just hope they dont ruin it by building the usual big hotels and putting a 7/11 on every corner. The best Spring rolls in Thailand for us are served here and we would like to thank everyone at STone Free for making the last days of the trip some of the best we had.

We are actually back in the grey uk now and looking forward to seeing everybody soon.

Lots of love, Andy and Laura.