So what's good about not being in Nepal? Wel apart from the obvious ( 24 houe electricity, plenty of water, peace and quiet.....):

Chilled white wine and brie cheese; Air-conditioned shopping malls with clothes that I can fit into; no traffic jams and cabs with suspension and A/C; Pavements;

And whats not so good? The prices! still showering in cold water though at 35C its more tolerable; sunburned buttocks from overdoing the snorkelling;

Anyway, our first week or so has al been about revisiting the places we came to last year and nothing has been a disappointment. Bangkok was great with shopping, cinema and the zoo though learning pint is not to walk somewhere at 35C and then expect to enjoy walking round it when you get there! The hotel - Orla's recommendation was great and I even enjoyed the gym though all the expectation that living for 2 years at 1500m would make running at ground level easy was a bit off the mark. My lung capacity might have been a bit better but my legs still felt like lead!

Then back to Ko Pha Ngan and coconut Beach which was just as lovely as last time. And several other people were there from last year as well so clearly a place people like to go back to. Snorkeling was great again though not quite as good as last year as the tides were much further out so it was much shallower ,aking me worry about getting stranded on the wrong side of the reef - and maybe thats why more of me was exposed to get sunburnt? Mre sysmptoms of global warming perhaps?

Then to Ko Samui and Zazen where we'd been for lunch last year and so liked we wanted to stay. Unfortunately there was a c*** up of Nepali proposrions in that they had managed to double book us on the first night but at least they realised in advance and arranged for us to stay in another very nice resort close by. So we had our night out and steak in Bo Phut and then our fab evening at Zazen. Our room was probably the nicest we've ever stayed in with huge widescreen TV, Ipod station, DVD player and free DVDs to borrow and the bed was so comfortable, it felt like being on a big white cloud! The only thing I didn't like were the two decorative Siames fighting fish in the bathroom who looked beautiful but were in such small pots I just felt really sorry for them and guilty that they were stuck there for my entertainment with the only thing to look at being me of Gordon coming in to the loo - miserable!

We've managed to have a couple of Nepali type experiences whie we've been here: The Tuk Tuk driver who gave us the spontaneous tour of all the sites f Bangkok at midnight but then had to borrow money off us to buy petrol; The manageress of Coconut beach telling us not to worry as she's book everything for us to get from Ko Pha Ngan to Ko Samui and then when we asked about it the next morning seemed to have no ecollection of what we'd asked her to do; and lying by the pool at Zazen with ur Mojito cocktails looking at the mot fabulous view and then hammering and drilling start up next door!

We are getting Nepal out of our system a bit e.g. becoming a bit more girly, wearing frocks and makeup again (just me, not G!) - though of course G is complaining as now I take longer than him to get ready, but you can't have everything!

And we are still thinking of those left in Nepal - though as there's a cicada who sounds just like Wendy winding her torch we certainly can't forget them! And Nick and Anne will be coming to these parts soon anyway so we hope they enjoy as much as we are.

Writing this at Ko Samui airport about to fly to Krabi so next week its all new...........