Dear All,

Well its been a while since our last blog entry and we've done quite abit since then.

We left Luang Prabang at the end of September and headed south to a place called Si Phan Don ( four thousand Islands). We did this on many high recommendations that the place was well worth the visit and that we would not be disappointed.....we were very disappointed. Its crap and the place is not worth it. Our first regret of the trip ensued and we wish we had headed north instead and then gone to north thailand. As a result of this error we missed north Thailand and so headed straight to Bangkok the day after arriving at Si Phan Don ( i think we stayed there a total of 12 hours!)

From Bangkok we got an over night bus down to Koh Tao, an island off the east coast of Thailand. Its a great island with some great diving to be had. Steph did her Advanced open water course and Rob headed off in search of whale sharks...only one of us was successful in their endeavours and it wasn't Rob.

The diving out here is amazing and definately some of the best we have ever done. The island is great as well. Just the right mix of chilled out beach activities and full on party nightlife. There are some good restaurants and bars, although Rob does not recommend drinking a "bucket" of Sangsom (whiskey) redbull and coke after drinking Chang beer.....this is not the right mix!

Rob also tried some of the local thai boxing gym...wasn't really impressed as the instructor weren't really instructing rather than going through the motions,so he only did 4 afternoon sessions....one has to find space to put the beer.

We hung around the island for 9 days and this gave us time to go to the Full moon party on Koh Phangan. We couldn't find accommodation on the island over this time so we took the party boat from Koh Tao on the night to Haad Rin beach. It was ....interesting...lots of bad house music and drunk people...people who really should know better. However, we had a great time since we manged to meet up with some friends we had met Laos. The boat didn't take us back to Koh Tao until 8 am the following morning so we spent 2 hours asleep on the concrete dock waiting for the boat. Steph had a sense of humour failure at this point...Rob just slept and tried to ignore her whilst trying to get passed the banging headache that was creeping up on therm. A good night had by all.

After Koh Tao we got a night ferry to Koh Lanta on the west coast of Thailand. The ferry was more of a dorm room than individual cabins and everyone and thing was, er, "cosy" for 8 hours.

We decided that since it was our "honeymoon" that we would get some luxury hotel for 4 days in Koh lanta. We found a great hotel called Langham Place. It was 5 star and was only 35 quid per night including breakfast (i don't think you could get a travel lodge in the UK for that) so we were very happy with our find.

Our next resort was a bit of a come down from this place but still very good. However the weather was not and it rained for 3 days striaght.....once again i hear your cries of sympathy. Koh Lanta is a very quiet island and it was made worse by us being there in Low season, but we still managed to find a few nice bars and meet some nice people. We also manged to go to some local islands and caves just off the coast of Koh Lanta, which were pretty idylic (koh Ha, Ag Ngai amongst many others that we had never heard of before) and only had a few resorts on them. These are clearly going to be the next big places to go to, so before the lager louts get there i would seek them out

Rob went off and did some Thai boxing training at the local gym, which was excellent. 2 Sessions aday with one on one training each time. He did manage to get some sparring with some of the locals, but became abit discouraged when he was lying face up on the canvass and they lent over him saying "who's the daddy now!" or "what's my name @#$!%"...the 8 year olds were a friendlier bunch and Rob managed to get away with only severe bruising to the shins,arms, and face.

We arrived in Koh Phi Phi after Rob got out of Hospital from a severe and crushing defeat from the local bully ( she was 9). I woudlike toThanks Gemma and Andy for this "present"....i shall be very glad to return the favour at some point in the future!

Phi Phi is a lovely island and defiantely the most beautiful we have seen so far on our trip. It is still recovering from the Tsunami that devasted it a few years back with many areas still being rebuilt. It is also very commercialised and Steph says that when she was here 9 years ago it was just a few bungalows on the beach and a few bars, which is how we wish we had found it. We are still managing to have a great time though and our tans have been topped up successfuly. We have also been diving, which is good but not as good as Koh Tao. We are also going on a tour of the local beaches and islands in the next day or two before we head back to Bangkok and then to Australia.

We have had a great great time in SE Asia and would recommend it to anyone, particularly Thailand's islands.

We hope everyone is well and sorry for the lateness of this blog