What do you get when you mix heat with dirt and a variety of weird and wonderful smells...BANGKOK (plus one hell of a culture shock)!! Nothing prepared me for this one!

We arrived in Bangkok at 2am and had a fairly smooth (for thai standards) connection to out hotel. Not a problem.

The shock set in the next day when the sun came up, we saw Bangkok in all its glory and we checked in to our second hotel. What did we expect for eight pound per night...you can use your imagination on that one!!

After spending a day absolutely terrified by tuk tuk drivers, taxi men, dodgy looking street food and basically everyone and everything else, we caught a night train down south to Koh Lanta (one of the islands).

The journey was as much of an experience as the island itself. It took 20 hours, 1 train, 2 coaches, 1 minivan and a ferry to get there! Throughout which you have no idea whether they are taking you where you want to go or indeed in the complete opposite direction.

On safe arrival, the island was only little and fairly quiet, so we decided to hire a moped for a few days to explore. We spent most of of time hopping on and off at different beaches, stopping for plenty of drink and ice cream, dipping in the sea, lounging near the pool and relaxing! (I had a pedicure on the beach...bliss!)

Whats more, Jez spent his time charming the little thai ladies with the thai he had been learning, They loved it! The ladies at the hotel worked very hard everyday to make sure that we were well fed and happy so we were very sad to leave them when the 4 days we up.

Back to Bangkok we went for one day which we spent wandering round markets (eating burger king rather than noodles) and visiting the golden budda. Pretty impressive when you realise that it is solid gold and that the temple walls are hand painted!

That evening, we travelled on another overnight train to Chiang Mai, in the north. We were very lucky to meet some lovely people on the train...a few americans, a german guy, a french girl and an english lady. We have spent a lot of our time with them in Chiang Mai...its been nice to have some company!

Chiang Mai is really lovely. Clean. Amazing street and sea food and brilliant markets...we have done a little christmas shopping already!

Besides this, we spent our first afternoon at the tiger temple. Unreal! Such an experience to get so close to the big (and baby) cats.

The following day we spent on scooters again visting a temple in the hills, with an amazing view over Chiang Mai. We were blessed by a monk too!

Today, we have been on an elephant trek!! We got to feed them breakfast, take a ride and then give them a bath. Again, amazing! We were just on our way back to the guest house saying that sometimes you have to pinch yourself and tell yourself it was real..that we did cuddle an tiger and sit on an elephant and scrub its back while it was soaking in the bath. Incredible!

Jez's job is to update the photo albums now...so keep an eye out!

All in all, in took a bit of getting used to, but we are really enjoying our time in Thailand. It's very different, but I think its done us good.

Next journey, bangkok to Hanoi (Vietnam)!! We'll let you know how that goes. It'll be interesting I'm sure.

We hope that everyone is good at home. We are really looking forward to seeing you all on the 17th or around christmas!

Love you all

xxx