If you've ever tried to fly out of Nepal you'll understand just how confusing Kathmandu Airport is. To get in to the terminal building you have to prove you have a flight booked (or wave a passport at the guard). Then you have to get all your luggage x-rayed and get frisked - all this before you even attempt to find which desk you should check in at, which is a difficult task given that there are no signs to tell you where to go. Eventually you manage to check in and make it to another desk where a stern looking man will stamp your passport and bording pass to prove that you're definitely going to leave Nepal before making you get your bag scanned again. This is an oportune time for a coffee to perk yourself up for the final bag scan, bag search and more stamping of things before you make it to the holding pen for departing flights. A holding pen where there is no information about which flights are bording, where no-one has a clue what's going on and where every question is answered with that subcontinent head wobble.

Fortunately we're made of sturdy stuff and managed to make it to Singapore. We were impressed by Singapore before we'd even made it out of the airport. Everything was so clean and ran so smoothly that we couldn't help but walk round with massive grins on our faces. A short but perfectly air conditioned Metro ride later we made it to our hotel/hostel which was small, but perfectly formed and incredibly friendly and helpful. We only had a couple of days to explore the city so decided that despite arriving at 11 we'd head out to the 24hour shopping centre in search of food. We got a little lost on the way and whilst staring perplexed at our map, a couple came over to offer help with directions. After a few short instructions we followed what they had said and actually made it to where we wanted to be - this left us to reflect on the fact they had just helped us with no request for money or the offer of a tuc tuc to take us there. My word. We truly were in new surroundings! Once inside we got totally lost wandering the aisles of food/clothes/jewellery/gadgets etc etc etc. We could quite easily have spent our whole time in there getting lost amongst all the stuff. instead we turned infor the night and prepared ourselves for a whistle stop tour of the city.

Spending a morning on Orchard Road (Singapore's main shopping area) when you have a tight budget, a full rucksack and seven and a half months left of your trip is like a form of torture. So many things to buy so little time. We spent the rest of the day walking arond the city looking at the colonial architecture and all the new developments in the Marina before retiring to Raffles to sample a Singapore Sling. YUMMY! We spent the evening at a hawker centre eating noodles, drinking beer and watching Spurs lose, much to Alan's horror.

We both agreed that we could have spent a few more days in Singapore, but it was onwards to Thailand.

Khao San Road in Bangkok is a very strange place, reminicent of a tacky Spanish holiday resort catering to sunburnt Brits. Not at all what we had expected, but where we found ourselves on our first night. Having spied a sign offering big bottles of beer for 1.20 we thought we'd indulge a little and settled in for a bottle or 2. We got chatting to a couple of guys at the next table and our quiet first night soon turned into something a little less quiet as we chatted to them about this, that and the other over a few bottles of Chang. The next morning was a bit of a struggle but we managed to get out and explore the city on foot (bad idea, it's massive) and sort out visas for Vietnam (boring). We went temple mad in the next couple of days and saw giant buddahs, emerald buddahs, buddahs sitting down, buddahs standing up - more buddahs than you can shake a stick at; we even threw in a palace or two. Fortunately we were fueled by amazing noodle soup and Pad Thai from street stalls, which is cheaper and tastier than you would believe.

All too soon it was time to board the night train to Chiang mai, which was a little more civilised than some of the trips in India, if a little longer. Chiang Mai is a much more relaxing place than Bangkok, with far less traffic, and is small enough to get round on foot, though it seems to lack a little bit of atmosphere. The first day was spent checking out the usual sights and after this we decided that we should get out and do something a little more exciting than temple spotting, so booked ourselved on a Mountain Bike trip. What a great day. We decended from 1500m down dirt tracks trying to avoid trees, rocks and roots and now have the bruises to show that we didn't quite manage to avoid them all! The views were also great and we met some really nice people - cue another night of good food, good chat and lots more cheap beer. The next day required a bit of rest and relaxation and to help we booked in for a Thai Massage and were stretched and rubbed to within an inch of our lives. Great stuff.

Thailand is a great place to be and certainly much easier than India in terms of attitude and luxuries, although I think we both felt that it had been robbed a little of it's soul by catering to the traveller tourist brigade. Next up is the boat ride to Laos...

Until then,

K&A