So our first blog entry...I can't believe we have only been away for 11d days! We have been so busy (today I'm taking a well deserved day off)! Max has gone off on a boat trip/booze cruise and I have the whole day to myself just chilling by the pool and going for lunch and a massage soon (lady of leisure now)!

Here it goes... Our first stop was Dubai which was incredible! We were only there for about 40 hours but we squeezed lots in! Unfortunately it was Ramadan whilst we were there which meant we couldn't eat or drink in public between sunrise and sunset - just our luck! It didn't help that it was 47 degrees and we were so thirsty all the time! Had to make a few pit stops in the toilets to drink some water!! With only one full day we headed to the palm and spent most of the day at the Atlantis! We had so much fun in the water park! Max went on one ride where you stand in a cage and they count down from three and the floor below drops sending him plummeting down into the water.. Safe to say he was doing that alone! Then we went to the lost chambers aquarium in the hotel where we were mesmerized by the beautiful fish and sharks! We spend ages watching people diving with the sharks and are hoping we can do this in Singapore! After this we decided to head back and check out the mall of emirates... The place is so big even I got bored of the shops (this could be due to Max not letting me spend any money)! We stayed in the city till late then headed to the airport ready to catch our flight to Hong Kong!!

So Hong Kong is the craziest place I've ever been! Chinese people are mental and we were staying in the ghetto of a Mongkok (which max found totally hilarious)! The hotel wAs gorgeous though and they really went that extra mile to make our stay incredible. Hong Kong is so humid if took us a while to adjust and our first day was Max's birthday! As a present from my mum and dad we headed to Disneyland for the day which was so cool.. We were literally the only western people in the whole park and we were like celebrities with people staring and taking pictures! That night I took Max to the Ritz for cocktails and we were planning to go for a nice dinner but after a few cocktails we decided McDonald's in bed was a better idea! Thursday we woke up to a massive thunder storm which gave us an extra hour in bed before we went to the gorgeous Victoria peak! Anyone who goes to HK we would definitely recommend this!! The views of the city are breathtaking and you get an audio guide which told us all about the history of the country which was so interesting! We took some stunning pictures of the harbor before heading back to get ready for dinner.. Tonight we met up with a friend of Max's mum and he took us for the most incredible meal I've ever had.. We still haven't stopped talking about it before taking us out and showing us a real HK night out.. Which resulted in us not making it back to our hotel till 1pm the following day and missing our 12pm check out - oops! But we had a good night sp the dreadful hangover was totally worth it! I wasn't saying this though when we were going to the see big Buddha and I had to keep running to the toilet to be sick (very classy)!! But all in all we adored Hong Kong and were sad to leave after only 3 days! That night we flew 2 hours over to Bangkok ready to start our TruTravels tour for 8 days!!

Bangkok... The place I am finally reunited with the beautiful Rachel after 5 months!! It was a very exciting reunion and we has the best weekend! We caught up over lunch and then headed to a rooftop pool to meet our tour group for the next 8 days! Everyone's really nice and with 5 crazy Irish people there's never a dull moment! The first night we went for a curry and then onto Koh San Road- which is basically no different to being in Ayia Napa for Zante but still we had a good night and I went for a massage at 4am before bed which was fabulous!! Our second day there was more cultural and we went to a few temples and. Rover cruise before heading back and having a girlie afternoon lunch and massage (I'm taking fully advantage of the cheap massages)! Then back to koh San road for the World Cup final... Unfortunately it didn't start till 2am Thai time which was a pain but we got a good spot in a bar which a massive screen so max was happy! Rach and I got a bit excited and brought Argentina tops and joined in the excitement of the crazy Argintinians! I fell sleep towards the end though zzzzz!!! Monday was a sad day having to say goodbye to Rachel but with lanky a few tears we parted and headed to the train station to catch an overnight train down to Koh Sok! After a sleepless night we got off the train and was greeted with a tropical storm! It was then we were told we had a 40 min boat journey to our floating bungalows!! We were absolutely drenched and so cold.. And we didn't even have electricity or a shower when we arrived!!! But the amazing views made it all okay! I was rocked to sleep by the lake and woke up just in time to be fed!!! The next day we left the bungalows and traveled to bottled beach where we stayed in huts on the beach (again no electricity) but you could roll out of bed and you were on the beach... I had a few too many cocktails that night so thankfully just crashed and didn't worry about the bugs I'm sure we slept with!

The next day we woke up at 7 and rolled out of bed and into the beach! No one else was up till about 10 so we had the beach to ourselves and it was paradise!! We grabbed so e breakfast and max even got me in the sea! I had a little nap before we left bottle beach and set off to play with the elephants!! I wasn't a huge fan as the place we went to didn't seem to ethical and I didn't really feel safe but we went for a little ride and then came back and played with our elephant YooLoo instead whilst everyone else went for their rides! We got to feed him and play then he wrapped his trunk around max and lifted him up before drinking some water and spraying it all over us... So we went back smelling of elephant snot!! The highlight for me had to be the monkey they had who was just adorable I had lots of cuddles with her and gave her a little massage! After that we checked Into a hotel and we were sp excited to have electricity, a shower, air con and wifi!! It's luxury!!! We took full advantage of this as did everyone else and had dinner and went to bed!! A much needed early night!!

So that's it for now... We finish our tour tomorrow so got to make the most of tonight with the lovely people we've met! Tomorrow we are going to Koh Samui for a few days where we will start planning the rest of our trip and chill for a few days, have some more massages and catch up on sleep! We'll update you all again soon...

Lots of love

Katie (and max of course)

Xxxxxxx