India and beyond!

We've now sussed how to put pic's on, so heres the ones we have on this site, some Indian some Thai.

Us Gateway to India, the royal Taj hotel and another building.

Goa-Anjuna-Sunset.

Our waterproof camera's now coming into it's own, thanks Jane and Martin for that, the pictures which will hopefully be on the blog (by blind luck if nothing else) are really clear, we've got over 1500 pictures so far, so all of you lucky people schedule a week or so off so we can bore you ridged with them, and with our stories of the seven sea's (well 4 oceans, 3 sea's and a few rivers).

We've spent the last 3 weeks being extremley lazy, we can now understand why so many travellers spend so long in Thailand, you take things slowly but time seems to speed up!? After the full moon we spent a week recovering (with a bit more partying mixed in) on Ko Phangan, the island was great, we met a lot of really cool people to but the beach for a few days after the party was a bit messy, they do a lot more than the Indians about rubbish (to be fair thats not hard)but with that many people dropping litter its inevitable that things will be a little dirty straight after, it's amazing that the water has stayed so clear, although maybe that wont always be the case.

We then went to Ko Samui, a larger more deleveloped island with its own airport. It was nice as we had a room with satalite t.v (we watched the F.A cup semi's, only because Tan kept on and on about them) ate a few burger kings, shopped at tesco's so it was kind of like being at home which isn't really what we're after although after roughing it for the most part so far it was nice to have some home comforts. There were also lots of old fat white men with their newly found Ting-tong (Thai bride) which was pretty horrible. We did take out a scooter to see the island and i'm pleased to report my driving has improved since I last owned a chicken-chaser no bumps or crashes, not even that many near-misses, although we're not going to tempt fate, we'll keep the scooter riding to a bare minimum.

From Samui we went to the smallest island we've visited so far, Koh Tao. It was beatifull, unspoilt, quiet beaches, great beach bars and huts to stay in and the clearest water either of us have seen so far, its where the pic above was taken. We wished we had longer there but our visa's we're about to run out so we had to head back to Bangkok then onto Cambodia (Angkor Wat) to get a renewal. More updates then. We'll leave another pic at the bottom of a sunset on the last night on Koh Toa, its me (Ant) on the rock.

The full moon was 2 days ago now but the memories (sort of) and battle scars will be around for a while. What a wild night! we did the sensible thing and didnt start drinking or even go out untill about 10pm, even by 3 in the afternoon there were signs that some people on Ko Phang nang wern't going to make it to sunrise, 2 Canadian lads in particualar spring to mind, wandering around covered in chalk and UV paint necking 'mushroom' shakes and generally looking lost, passed by the way side soon after that from all accounts. Our sensible attitude (yeah thats right, sensible!) made it possible for us to last the distance, we kept going until about 8:30am before crawling home and passing out untill 6:30pm!

The night itself was top drawer, 6/7 stages playing an assortment of music, mostly psy-trance/techno, but some R&B, drum and bass and even some decent house, so plenty to amuse everyone, we've got some good pic's and video clips to show everyone. Also lots of fire dancers, juggling types etc... and in general much fun was had by all. The only dissapointing thing is that we wont be here for the next one! the half moon party in a week (near a waterfall and slightly smaller) should soften the blow somewhat.

The party also coincided with the Thai New Year (Songkran) which from what we can understand is just a 4 day water fight! we've been thourougly soaked through since the start (1am wednesday) when we cheered in the year 2549 with the locals. The festival also meant that there were more people than usual at the party (around 15,000 apparantely)

Not much else to add as these past 4/5 days have just been consumed with the full moon but cheers for everyones comments. Others= (non-comment-makers) pull your fingers out!

Cheerybye Ant and Tan xx

It's been a week or so since our last blog and after spending 4 days in a crazy Bangkok getting tucked up by Tuk-tuk drivers, insect salesman and hoteliers we left on the overnight train to Chaing Mai in the North. The train journey was good, less privicy but nicer toilets than the Indian trains plus you can booze on them which gives them an obvious advantage in our eyes!

We spent a couple of days looking around the town and relaxing before our three day trek. We weren't sure what it would exatly entail, we probably should have guessed by it's name that a fair amount of walking was involved but we didn't. It got pretty hot too (about 40c and not a lot of shelter) we were in a group of 9, a New Zelander 2 Israel's and the rest we're Brits. The whole group got on really well......except one, a girl from Morriston would you believe, she went to school with Steve P, Cooper and Mctaggart Rachael Johns?! ring any bells, bit of a pain in the arse typical Morristonite (other than the people we know from there of course!) the rest were a great bunch and we've already made plans to meet up with some of them in Oz. We were treated to a local homemade liquor called moonshine on the trip, bonkers stuff we have the recipie so when we get home we'll give it a go although it's illegal the buzz you get off it is worth the risk! We also got to do a bit of elephant riding (again not that great they didnt seem to like it one bit) and bamboo rafting which was brilliant, we're both covered in cuts and bruses from ambushing any dry people passing at the end, those poor families!

After 5/6 days in Chaing Mai we got another overnight train to Bangkok, after one night there we got the overnight bus to Ko Phang nang with the help of a ferry. The journey from start to finish took 18 long hours, and it didnt help that we were sat behind a snooring middle aged man (with his Thai bride) who took snoring to a whole new level which he started about 5 minutes out of Bangkok. It's the longest and most uncomfortable journey we've had since we've been away and wont rush to book another bus thats for sure.

Ko Phang nang is beautiful, the place we are staying at has a great bar/pool/beach front location and its great to see a beach again after about 4 weeks of travelling about (its a hard life we know) we havent seen a lot of the island yet but are planning to do that once it cools down later (Ant)as i've sunburnt myself, you'd think we'd be used to it by now but it must be in the British genes that sunburn (under any circumstances) is a given.

We have the full moon party tommorrow night, 5000 people raving on a beach I bet it will have nothing on the 'Swansea bay' parties of 2 summers ago eh?!

Will post again after that......probably a few days after, once fully recovered.

Photos seem to be a no-go but we're still trying, we dont look very different, still as beautiful as you remember us!

Toodledo, Anthony and Tania.

We've now arrived in Bangkok after spending 3 days in expensive Singapore.

We left Bangalore without too many problems...........except Tania's card being swallowed by a starving Indian ATM, is all o.k now.

It was a bit sad leaving India but the excitment of going to a whole new country was enough to soften the blow.

Singapore was nice, very clean, quite expensive (about 2/3quid for a beer, a scandal!) so with our budget in mind 3 days was more than enough there. It also rained everyday (I know that will please some of you) but was about 30c so we muddled through. We spent most of our time there in Chinatown which was very nice, lovley buildings and even better food.

We left for Thailand (2.5 hour flight) on 30th and arrived at our hotel just off Koh Sarn Road about 4pm. Went straight out to the Ko Sarn to take in and become part of the 'madness' it's a fantastic street, anything and everything under the sun being sold and a mad mixture of sights sounds and smells (the smells a mix of street food and crusty hippy types) we've spent 4 days now sussing out the city and doing the usual sight seeing bit. We head tonight on an overnight train to Chang Mai for some treking, rafting and other good stuff like that will keep you all posted.

We did upload some pic's from Singapore but somethings gone wrong...............we're still on the case.