Back to Bangkok again - 28th January ... we check into a hotel which is cheap, but has a cold shower on the balcony - although the upside is that we are able to use free wi-fi from the hotel over the road.We spend our time doing some souvenir shopping with Keren, and finally make it to the Grand Palace.Our goodbye meal with Kez is a quiet affair, and we're both sad to see her go. Dave's picked up a lurgy in the night, so I escort Keren (with the right bag), to ...

Sunday 20th January - Kho Phan Ngan WARNING - Rant ahead! We are awakened at 6am by the brusque bus driver, and hustled unceremoniously off the coach and onto a kerb to wait for a truck to take us to the ferry port.It is at this point that things go pear shaped... we retrieve our rucksacks from the belly of the bus, and it looks like they have been tampered with - my bag has all of its clips undone, and both of our padlocks have been inspected... it feels a bit...

... after a couple of hours of jumbo jet fun, we're back in Bangkok. Our plan is to meet Keren, my sister, for a trip down south to the beaches - she arrives on 17th January and all goes smoothly. Its the first time she's flown this far and on her own, and we are excited to meet her at the airport, even if it does mean a 4am start. Keren's plane is delayed by half an hour, but she eventually arrives, looking remarkably chipper after her 11 hour flight. We get a ...

Hong Kong Thursday 10th January - Sunday 13th January Our snoring Chinese companion wakes up and heads out to the buffet car for breakfast, while we slowly rouse ourselves and prepare for our 1pm arrival in Hong Kong.When he returns, he tells us he's 70 and a semi-retired, opera singing maths lecturer at one of the many Hong Kong universities. The conversation is going quite well until he mentions Japan... we ask if he's travelled there, and he explains that h...

Beijing 2/1/08 - 9/1/08 Although we didn't arrive in Beijing until the afternoon of the 3rd of January, I have used the date of the 2nd of January because it did only take about two hours on the train until we were officially in China...it just took another 22 hours to reach Beijing and get stamped in.Both of us have travelled on sleeper trains before, but not for this length of time or in this level of comfort. Firstly, it was not an open carriage like the pre...