This morning we woke up refreshed by the nights sleep on the sleeper train from Bangkok (at least I was - Shaun didn't find the rocking of the train as soothing). In Chiangmai it was drizzling and we were met at the train station by our guide from The Elephant Nature Park - Mee (that is her name). We were taken to our hotel to check in. After the glamorous hotel back in Bangkok we were brought back to earth by the simple 'bare bones' of The Star Hotel. After fre...

Today we left Phuket and took a flight to Bangkok. After waiting some time for the bags to come from the carousel we took the airport express train to the city centre and then connected to a different train to get to our hotel. For some reason all the tourist maps had every other hotel on them except ours. We were lucky however that I spotted the hotel just as we pulled into the train station. We arrived at the Renaissance Hotel Bangkok. We checked in and went up...

This morning we woke up bright and early to head out on a tour of Phi Phi Islands. The tour picked us up from the hotel and drove us to the port were we were greeted by our guid Bob. Our group had a large Indian family, a small Russian family and Melbournian couple. We were surprised that the Indian family spoke mainly English to eachother. So we got on the speed boat and were informed that because of the rainy season it was going to be a long bumpy ride. I thou...

Today we woke up at 5:30am to catch our flight to Phuket. As we arrived in Phuket we were swamped by peoples asking if we wanted a taxi. We eventually found a taxi and headed for the Courtyard by Marriott. It was boiling hot in Phuket and upon our arrival at the hotel they gave us a nice cold drink (lemon ice tea) and we checked into out room. After going for a swim we had some lunch at the hotel then headed for Patong Beach (a busy shopping/ eating entertainm...

Lucky to get out of the country before flights were cancelled because of the ruddy ash cloud. Shaun and I are on our way. The flight from Sydney to Singapore was going onto Frankfurt next so we heard alot of German yabbering. The guy sitting next to me (who was actually perfectly harmless) was a nutty professor. What distinguished his nutty professorness to me? Well: 1) he spoke with a German accent. 2) he kept staring at me (and the German girl on his other ...