Welcome back! Thought wed update this for the first time since we got to Asia as we are waiting to catch a night bus from Saigon to Nah Trang in a couple of hours.

We arrived in Singapore after the biggest rain storm either of us had ever seen at Darwin airport, to some very welcome hot weather. SIngapore is a fantastic place, giving a taste of south east asia mixed into a very modern and western city. The people were incredibly friendly and helpful and even though people had told us how clean it is you are still suprised that such a busy city could be completely litter free and you are able to walk round in flip flops all day and not have black feet!!

We stayed here for a few days, visiting Changi prison and Changi beach boardwalk, trying to locate the house where my mum grew up in the 50's. We sampled all kinds of food and loved all of it, but a few days is all you need for singapore, unless you have loads of money and an appetite for shopping.

We caught a VIP bus (first class plane seats on a bus) over the border to Kuala Lumpur next, where we again sampled a quite different asian city. Indian pancakes for breakfast were a highlight, filled with curry!! Amazing. We also fell in love with the petronas towers at night, an incredible sight, which inspired us to get up and que from 7am to walk the bridge the following morning.

Next stop was Pennang. Not the prettiest place in the world but getting closer to the asia you expect to see. Perhaps some of the best food we have had was here, mainly indian street food, just couldnt get enough of it. Crazily cheap too. We could afford to indulge ourselves with food for the first time in months and remembered what it feels like to be full up!!

After a couple of days here we decided it was time to hit Thailand, so again caught the bus up to Hat Yai. Absolutely no reason to go back to HatYai ever again, shocking place. Unfortunately it is the hub from where everyone traveling north in to thailand has to stop and pick a direction. Accomodation here was the bottom end of basic and to be quite honest, disgusting. Hat yai did give us the opportunity to get used to rats scurrying around everywhere though and i guess, dumped us in at the deep end. Decided to get ourselves completely drunk and that helped guide us through!!

Next morning hit the road to Koh Samui for some much needed beach time. We stayed here for 3 days and enjoyed doing nothing for a while, some fantastic southern thai food, tropical fruits and a sunset beer with a corn on the cob, sitting on the beach!!

Next stop Hua Hin. We wanted to come here to see the place Lauras grandad had spent some time during the war and to try and find the hedge which he recalled was carved into an elephant!! No success on that score and unfortunately the place has changed quite a lot we would imagine from what he would remember. None of it for the better either. The place was full of seady looking western tourists (sadly Thailand seems to be riddled with them, many english too) and the kings palace was closed so we didnt even get to look at that!! The best thing about Hua Hin was the Quadrouple Big Mac I couldnt resist trying, although a shower is needed after consumption!

Next stop was Bangkok. This place i think you either love or hate generally. For us, despite some amazing buildings and temples and some good food, its a filthy, sleazy place where everyone wants to rip you off. We did the hop on hop off river trip to see the main sites and the temples are fantastic.

Next stop was Chiang Mai. We took a night train from Bangkok and loved it! Both managed to sleep and met a nice German guy who was on his way to spend a week meditating with some monks north of Chaing Mai!! He was having a few beers on the train beforehand in preparation!

Chiang Mai was a relief after Bangkok as it is incredibly laid back without the hassle. The weekend night market was the best we had seen and we had some great food again!! The highlight was the one day trip we did where we got to meet and ride an elephant, white water rafting, bamboo rafting as well as visit what we are lead to believe is a genuine hill tribe village!!

Our 15 day visa was running out after so our next destinatrion had to be chiang Rai further north to do a one day visa run to the border with Myanmar (Burma). Chiang Rai is not really great, market food is good but other than that no reason to go other than the visa. Myanmar didnt appeal after the border experiance either.

We then had to make our way back down to the south of Thailand in order to meet Lauras mum and Dad in Phuket for a proper holiday. We spent a few days on the beach in Karon which we enjoyed a lot. Of the 3 main beaches we think Karon is the best by far, but Phulet is really touristy. German and English restaurants everywhere and all the huge hotels. Holiday Inn luxury was more than welcome though. The day we checked in at the Patong Holiday Inn we spent the entire day by the pool soaking up the luxury!!

To be continued.................need some food before the night bus or else we wont get to eat until they wake us up at midnight for dinner!! Love asia!!!