Revelling in Koh Lanta's laid-back festivities...

We've been on this magical island now for a week and I think we can both safely say that we are in no rush yet to leave. By using this unique, characterful and laid back island as a base we plan to explore as much of the Southern Thailand beaches as is possible whilst all the time maintaining and in a lot of ways extending our relationship with the island.

After three months of constantly being on the move our week on this island has already come as a bit of a blessing. From talking to some of our Swedish friends it confirms that feeling that staying somewhere for a while, I.e for a few weeks, can help to build a connection rather than create a feeling of being too comfortable, of wanting to move on. it's a fascinating prospect that we will leave here with some great friends, which is something I hope will continue.

Anyway, Christmas eve. Aruna and chai, very popular figures on the island it seems, were hosting a party at the hotel, which was great given the fact that we had this huge party with amazing food and a great sound-system just outside our room. All we had to do was bring alcohol so being the good Brits we are (with a hint of homesickness) we wheeled out the gin and tonics. Added to this, and not to be outdone by any of other guys cooking dishes, I managed to cook my popular (with shell anyway) tuna fishcakes. I had a hankering to do something quintessentially British, like a big Beef Wellington but hey, this is a Thai island!

In the morning we headed for the biggest town on the island, Saladan and acquired the right ingredients from a few of the local Market stalls (potatoes, red chillies, coriander, tuna) and of course the gin, and London gin at that!

after the Market we had just enough time to fit in a spot of lunch at a wicked little place called Peak cafe run by two Thai sisters in the next bay who after chatting about their place for a while turned out they would be attending the same party later on.

Back at Baan Rao we got straight down to cooking (and drinking) before the rest of the guests turned up. It was an amazing feeling to be back in the kitchen and something (in fact the only thing) I am looking forward to doing when we get home (apart from seeing friends and family of course!). The fishcakes turned out beautifully and when presented to the first few guests were gone within minutes, I even hung around people eating them way too much to gage their reaction, like some demented weirdo.

After showering, we had our first gin and tonics and started to mix with the other guests. It was a cool mix of people with a few of them owning bars on Lanta and Phi-Phi. The others were made up of their friends (who all seemed to be connected by working in, at or for music festivals in the UK) and Baan Rso guests including Lotte and Andreas and Klara, a wicked Swedish couple. We all had a great time and the food was great. We ended the evening laid out on cushions on the terrace looking up at the stairs at 3am. Sounds like on of those cliched things to do but given Lanta's lack of light pollution, makes for great night skies.

One of the odd things we have found with spending time with all these Scandinavians is the way they seem to celebrate Christmas on Christmas eve which is odd, given the fact that it is the day before Christmas day, Hence the name! The advantage is that when it came around to the morning we had a whole other day to celebrate!

Waking then on the big day we Rose like zombied bodies out into the heat of the day to at least give a helping hand to the big clean up. After soaking a few plates we retreated back inside where Aruna had prepared a huge Christmas brunch consisting of various salads, Indian scrambled eggs and homecooked bread, all with a very Swedish twist, which was great for the Swedish family and Andreas and Karla. In all honestly it was delicious, much needed after a heavy night!

From there we headed to the beach sporting our whacky Christmas hats and tinsel, all to the amusement of the bemused locals. It was a very strange feeling, unsurprisingly it didn't feel like the big day at all. It feels almost as if summer 2011 never ended and that we have somehow found a tropical piece of say, Devon, and that it's had a record-breaking Indian summer. For Shell, it was hard, I could tell throughout the whole period. For a girl so desperately family-orientated as shell, this time was always going to be hard. But hey, we got through it and we had a great time. Christmas day was strange and ended up being pretty quiet but the whole experience just lacked family and friends, something which, as we progress into the New Year celebrations will be particularly hard.

We have been lucky enough though to make some great friends here and so the next day we hopped on the motorbike and met up with Andreas and Karla, a few miles down the coast so we could visit the national park together. On the way we all stopped at some truly breathtaking locations, places that wouldn't look out of place in a bounty advert.

After paying the entrance fee we headed into the park where we were instantly surrounded by monkeys. Added to this was the wind, which was so strong by this point, didn't make great reading for tomorrows boat trip!

We decided to take the trek around the park that would climb some very steep hills through thick, dense jungle, to some indeterminate location around the headland. At about the halfway point and literally dripping with sweat we came across a very large tree that had recently toppled over onto the path causing quite obviously, a large obstruction that would need to be scaled. Sure enough myself and Andreas climbed over because let's face it, we needed to let the girls know that we were indeed alpha males! Shell went next, she hooked her leg over so that she was straddling the very large tree and grabbed on to myself. All she needed to do next was kick her leg over, a process that seemed pretty straightforward, 'seemed', Shell then proceeded to freeze as she rolled herself over the log. I don't know if any of you have tried but if you blow into the face of a rabbit it becomes completely frozen, this would be Shell. Like a beetle on it's back shell retained the straddle position until she was on the floor facing upwards. If anything is needed to firmly cement a friendship then it is definitely mimicking a stunned beetle.

Anyway, the guidebook apparently said this 'trek' would last two hours but after about 30 mins the track suddenly came across a road, it had ended! So much for the Indiana jones expedition!

Anyway, after taking some posing photos around the lighthouse (see above) we headed back along the road to a beach we had found earlier. We holed ourselves up in a bar in the sun on cushions and mats and spoke for hours about the differences between Sweden and the UK, which coincidentally are few and far between. It's easy, I suppose, living in the UK to firmly believe that the social problems we face i.e how to control immigration, a disaffected youth, banking crises and astronomical housing prices are purely British problems. If we can take anything away from this trip it would be the realisation that the worries we face at home are felt almost everywhere else. I think it helps me anyway.

After a few hours in the sun drinking a few beers we headed off in pursuit of food so travelled a good 10kms up the coast to a place Andreas and Klara had stayed a week ago, right on the beach. We had a good night talking about our families and friends before being completely drowned out by a compilation tape, seemingly recorded by my dad featuring Dire Straits, Queen and Genesis. It will be the first and last time I am drowned out by Money for Nothing...

After an early night we were picked up early to be taken to the pier for our 5 island tour to the south. The day was just incredible. At three of the islands we stopped and jumped off the back of the boat to go snorkelling amidst a technicolor of tropical fish. The snorkelling was just fantastic, not quite as clear as the Gili islands but more abundant in fish. The only problem was that we felt as if we were being burned, especially on our legs. Turns out that jelly fish release tiny fragments of tentacle that still manage to sting. Which means these pathetic excuses for organisms not only have no meaning but they carry on having no meaning once they are disconnected from the stupid creatures. Jellyfish and wasps, the scourge of society, maybe ones that have been backed by David Cameron. Pathetic beasts.

The highlight of the day, despite an amazing buffet lunch of chicken curry, was the emerald cave. The boat actually moored up to an island that seemingly had no way in. We were then told to don lifejackets and swim behind the leader into a small gap in the rock. We swam for around 80 metres through a cave that seemed to be glowing from below in the most spectacular green you can imagine. The cave passage then went completely dark, save that of the leaders dim torchlight. After 15 minutes we reached daylight at the opposite end and swam out into a secluded beach and astonishing emerald waters, flanked by rock and vines on all sides. It's a place, apparently, where pirates used to hide their treasure. It was astonishing, even more astonishing that someone had found it.

It was a remarkable day and gave us a tantalising glimpse of what to expect on our two-day camping trip on a tiny island called Koh Rok, a completely uninhabited island to the west. All that to come as we progress into 2012

Anyway, we did a lot over this time so sorry for the length but whenever you see Shell turn instantaneously into a beetle and a cave you couldn't even imagine, they have to be told. Now, go grab yourself a chocolate digestive, make yourself a brew and have piece of mind that everything is going to be OK.

Hope you all had a fantastic Christmas, Tommo and shellface xxx

The promised land of Koh Lanta...

After our previous days experiences we were now itching to get to koh lanta, an island around 80kms to the south that would take around four hours to get to. Onboard we met a lovely girl called Sam who was travelling alone who we spoke to whilst we set up camp on the bow of the boat to take in the scorching sun and the ridiculously impressive views of Railay beach to our right and Ko Phi Phi to our left. The water was incredibly calm as we sailed on towards the fast approaching Koh Lanta, both looking and feeling like a mirage before us. Almost like a mythical promise land we had been told about but would never be able to reach. All of this with the absolutely perfect soundtrack of Belle and Sebastien coming through our shared earphones.

Arriving at Saladan pier we were greeted by a smiling tuk-tuk driver that held up a chalkboard with 'Tom and fiance' written on in large letters. Shell, understandably wasn't happy with this demotion to a side-note...

Arriving at Baan Rao, our home for the next nine days, we were simply astonished at the location. Although up a relatively steep hill, the views were simply breathtaking. To make things even better, our hosts Aruna and Chaii, were astonishingly friendly. Almost like visiting your favourite aunty and uncle, maybe the ones that had spent their lives doing cool things. Added to this they gave a gorgeous 1 year old boy called Shaan and a loveable rogue of a dog called Sita. From our enormous room we had both a balcony and hammock and just incredible sea views. Again, don't want to get all gushy here but on an emotional level, I could not think of anywhere as perfect. To spend Christmas here is going to be staggering, Aruna is hosting a big party on Christmas eve which I have promised to cook something more, maybe shell could now! we are also having a big brunch on Christmas day. I think we are planning on hitting the crowded Ko Phi Phi on Boxing day.

Anyway, after an incredible Thai meal the night before we headed out in the morning firstly to hire a motorbike for the next ten days. We then rode almost the entire west coast of the island before hitting Kantiang Bay, a perfect arch of beach surrounded by the islands only five star resort. We then visited a place called Drunken Sailor, a place we were recommended to visit and we would not be disappointed in any way. Hands down the best place for food, drink, price, music and feel we have found yet. Just a place where all you want to do is replicate it back home!! If you ever go to Lanta, go here!!

That night back at Baan Rao we were joined by a girl called Lotte, who I spoke to for a while swapping travel tails. After a while it turned out that this girl is quite famous, I mean neither one of us has heard of her but apparently she plays the lead part in a TV series called The Borgias, apparently it's massive in the States. Turns out she had screen sex with Jeremy Irons in most episodes, quite a claim to fame that. Even so, fame certainly hasn't turned her into a nob, she is in fact an incredibly nice girl. I just want old Jezza Irons' autograph, maybe on a photo of him from Die Hard with a Vengeance...

That night we ate at a place called country Lao, a place highly reccomended by Aruna and Chaii. As we had been talking for hours with Lotte and Aruna we had lost track of time and didn't make our way down the hill till nine and as we got there we were the last punters of the evening, this didn't make us feel any less welcomed. The place was completely family run and quite famous island-wide for their barbecued chicken. We duly ordered it, whilst shell opted for barbecued sateh. As we were the last guys in there (actually apart from the worlds most miserable man) they cooked us, I'm not exaggerating here (I never exaggerate), the rest of the meat left over from the day which meant I had to plough seemingly, through an entire chicken. On the plus side, it was absolutely phenomenal, and well worth the high regard in which it is known locally. I think it is all in the tamarind dip. Another to add to the list...

The next morning we rose early to be met by clear blue skies and a sparkling sea in the background so I rustled us up some omelettes and coffee and we sat taking in our surroundings whilst Shaan, Aruna and chaii's boy, did his best to shatter our ear drums!

Before we headed off Lotte asked if she could nip and fetch a bike so I gave her a ride down to the town where she duly rented one but had never driven a bike before. Already shitting myself by the prospect of a Hollywood compensation claim if she were to fall of my bike and smash her face I explained carefully what she needed to do before following her back up the steep dirt track to Baan Rao. I needn't have worried, she was a a natural. I guess, given her day job, some people just find things easy. Which wouldn't be me, I couldn't open a packet of crisps yesterday.

Anyway, sitting here on the beach, we are completely in love with this island already. It is peak season here, in fact everywhere is peak season. Not that you would notice here. What an amazing place this is going to be to spend Christmas and New Year. No presents though, boo!!!!

Much love, my pedigree chums, Tommo and shellface xxx

Island hopping, airports and visa stamps...

Our last full day in ao nang was spent island hopping around five islands to the north west of the area. We actually travelled for about 40kns on the motorbike, all behind Gerhard in his 4x4, until at last we reached the pier, a full hour later with very numb bums.

In the boat with us were only three other people, Annie from Seattle and a really friendly couple from Madrid. First up was Hong island, a beautiful island that had a secluded bay, a picture postcard Image of beauty. Although incredibly busy lending to the time of year, it was a beautiful place. Before we left that morning, Gerhard had given us a plastic bag with old chopped up banana, skin on, which we thought was slightly odd. Maybe an attempt at that whacky German 'humour'. Ironically, there is no word in German to describe sense of humour or small talk for that matter, which kind of makes sense when you meet Gerhard. Lovely but slightly robotic. Anyway bananas. We were slightly confused as to why we had been given these, maybe a snack in desperate measures if we were to be washed up on the beach? When we got to the beach, all would become clear. Hundreds of tropical fish had congregated to the right of the beach and were surrounding a group of people who were feeding them bananas, bread and beef burgers, all to the delight of the hungry and bloated fish. An awesome sight, even if they did take a good nibble out of shells legs, not that they'd get much!

From there we sailed around four more islands, all uninhabited until we reached the last one. We sailed in under a very low natural arch and into a narrow passage that had been carved through the islet. We were the only ones there and even a whisper echoed dramatically through the rocks. The scene was almost recognisable, like you'd seen it already in apocalypse now.

Back on dry land, we notched up the miles again on the return journey before riding down past the hotel and into ao nang to catch the sunset. In the end we missed it by about an hour but settled for buying yet more takeaway pizzas and beer (we aren't beasts-we promise!) and sitting on the beach. As we sat there, hundreds of lanterns were being let off around us whilst a guy at the other end of the beach played with his fire poi. To make things better, we had the iPhone speakers so spent ages passing the iPhone to each other after each song. Naturally, shell chose mostly Florence and the machine and I, The Smiths. Just so you know. Im trying to set the scene here! Pure perfection though, needed before what the next two days would bring.

The next morning we were picked up early for our three hour drive to Phuket airport for the incredibly annoying visa run, something we had been dreading for a while, more because we are stupid and passed up the opportunity to buy Thai visa outside of Thailand in any of the eight countries prior to this! We actually got to the airport at 2pm and with the flight to Kuala Lumpur not till 10pm, we had time to kill. After a brief bicker I convinced shell to follow me out of the airport (down the main concourse!) in pursuit of beach. Although we were both in foul moods given this stupid visa run, we found a killer piece of deserted beach, even here on brash Phuket, we had stumbled upon a stretch of sand, maybe 2 miles long, that had not a soul on it. We stayed there for a few hours after pleading with a woman who tried to charge us 200 baht for entering a 'national park', and succeeding. I think they saw my forehead veins.

The flight over was fine enough, we had managed to track down a small place selling brandy shots so decided to create a new mix of latte-brandy for our non sleepathon. Entering KL, we settled down in Starbucks for the night, safe in the knowledge that our next flight wasn't for another seven hours....

The flight back was fine up until we came into land, ten metres away from the runway. At that point the plane, with wheels almost touching the ground, suddenly thrust upwards as if taking off. A clearly shaken captain immediately came on the speaker to explain that air-traffic control had instructed him to abandon the landing as winds were blowing the plane viciously downwards. Now, I am a terrible flyer but to turn around to see shells panic stricken face nearly sent me over the edge, as did the deathly silence that had gripped the clearly shaken passengers. I suppose we would be very lucky to have all of our flights pass without incident this year but I hope to god that I will never feel fear in the way that I did for those brief moments again.

Anyway, the big reason for this annoying trip was yet to come, the immigration stamp for another thirty days. As the queue got shorter our anxiety stepped up a good five notches. Reaching the desk I think I may have had the appearance of an international drug smuggler. We had been frought with worry as we had only left Thailand a few hours earlier plus our original stamp didn't actually expire until the 26th. With this in mind, with the previous 24 hours firmly in mind, he couldn't have made me sweat more if he had tried. He stared at me, the clock above me, the rules and regulations behind him and then finally to the guy to his right. He knew what I wanted but he just had to make me sweat. He knew he was, in relation to our small world anyway, in complete control, and he was clearly milking his elevated position. After literally five minutes of severe procrastination he stamped the metal contraption down onto my increasingly filled passport. The sound was beautiful. Shell soon followed and we must have looked even more suspicious as we whooped and high-fived as we skipped out of the airport. Done and dusted...not exactly. After negotiating a fare to the harbour it dawned on us that another six hours awaited us for the next ferry back to Krabi. This time with no beach near us, just hoards and hoards of teenage Brits cramming themselves onto undersized boats to take them to ko phi-phi.

Eight hours later we were back in ao nang and lying on the beach, almost dead to the world through both sleep deprivation and emotional turmoil. Still...done and dusted, and despite the overall grubbiness, we were ecstatic, another uninterrupted thirty days in paradise. Bring on Christmas on Koh Lanta!!

Much love comrades, Tommo xxx

Sun, storms and scooters in Ao Nang...

The past few days have been some of the best we have had yet on our trip. Despite some mixed weather the surrounding area just offers so much. If you can get your hands on a motorbike it becomes even better....

For the past five days we have hired out one of the hotels motorbikes to really get to grips with what this stunning area has to offer. Wednesday morning we rose early enough and headed away from the hotel and towards town, stopping at a place called U&P's bakery, a place we have now eaten at for the past four mornings. Quite surprisingly we have managed to find some phenomenal places for breakfast so far in this trip but this has to be up there with the best of them. I know there are more important things going on in the world right now but this place has food to die for, freshly baked bread of about a hundred different kinds, fantastic choice and above all, the nicest croissants I have ever eaten, simple as that. I don't want to keep eulogising about food all the time but we just keep stumbling upon these places out of coincidence. It's 2 miles outside of town!

Anyway, in town we bought tickets to take the longtail boat round to West Railay beach, a journey that took about twenty minutes. Much much closer than I thought it was going to be. As we approached the beach it became increasingly apparent that this place was special. Understandably, given the time of year, we had to share the beach with a crowd of other people but in comparison to Phuket was inhabited by Tom Hanks Castaway types. We jumped off the boat, planted down our throws at the quieter end of the beach and walked towards the opposite side of the beach to watch the weathered rock-climbers dangling by their finger-tips. I did quite a lot of rock climbing before I came away and although enjoyable I just haven't got the patience to stand around waiting or the inclination to carry rope and metal around with me, which these lads obviously do. It's as if you want to shout up to them, "lads, just come down and have a Chang and chill out, this place is beautiful!". Looked as though they were happy enough though!

We wandered around the beach, mesmerised by the location and the scene before us. If you could conjure up the perfect beach scene in your head, go on have a go, maybe apart from Claire and Vit (that would be cheating). You done it yet? Well that is how I can explain it, crystal clear water, a perfect stretch of sand, surrounded by karsts that pop out of the water and boat-shops selling fruit smoothies. It's hard to compare these places but I think shell agrees that it's our favourite beach to date, cannot wait to go back...

Back in Ao Nang and off the boat we made the easy decision to go and buy beer and pizza and sit on the beach to watch the sunset. Such a good decision. I feel a bit like Michael Palin sometimes, getting all gushy, but this will stay with us forever. Another perfect sunset as the sun dips behind a tropical island, drinking a couple of beers, safe in the knowledge that it feels as if this will last forever. Ofcourse it won't, but hey, you gotta make the most of these situations whilst your here....

The next morning and with the threat of storms hanging in the air, we decided to drive the 45kms to a national park to visit To Souy waterfalls. I think if we knew how far and how long this would actually take I think we may reconsidered but I just love riding that bike. I think due to the fact I have always had this aversion to being in control of moving vehicles I have loved every minute of this new found love. Such a liberating experience. I think for shello too, being driven around is something she is definitely getting used to! Although I think Shell's obligatory passenger map reading skills may take a little while yet to come around...bless her. Still, i'm sure she'll be writing similar things as I get us lost for a week in the middle of New Zealand....

Anyway, the waterfalls themselves were fantastic, not quite as impressive or majestic as the ones we visited near Luang Prabang but the lack of anyone around definitely made up for it. Despite wearing nothing but flip-flops we made it to the top where I headed straight underneath for an invigorating splash around. Such an amazing feeling. I think Shell took some photos so you can see on there. On the way down a beautiful orange butterfly attached itself to Shell and would not let go meaning Shell had to literally pull the thing off of her. So strange.

On the way back (another 50kms), the heavens opened. It absolutely thrashed it down so we pulled in and put on two identical yellow ponchos that we found in the scooter. As we pulled off in the soaking rain and onto the highway what people must have thought as two day-glow figures came hurtling down the road dressed, seemingly, like two giant condoms.

Back at the hotel we dried off before heading back out for food, not before checking the weather report though.

The next morning we woke to grey leaden skies and drizzle. We knew it was coming so didn't plan anything the day before other than swanning around and drinking coffee so we made our way into town. I can't say we did an awful lot. We sat on the beach in the early afternoon, walking round to see the monkey island, a place that is, unsurprisingly populated by wild, aggressive monkeys. It warns you not to feed them and let's face it, you would be an absolute fool to do so. Sure enough, some people dud approach the wild beasts and sure enough, they nearly had their faces torn off. I dont want to get the animal rights bloggers on to me but if a monkey jumped on me , I would throw it in the sea.

For the next couple of hours we sat under a tree on the beach, like a couple of hobos, maybe just lacking the Special Brew. From there we went for a quick coffee that we swore had been spiked with something stronger and then stormed the roads all the way back to the hotel. On the way back we did what any true Brits would do on a rainy day and bought a lot of beer and played scrabble.....rock and roll...

So tomorrow we go island hopping around five deserted islands on s small speedboat which should be a cool day. The following day we have to drive to Phuket airport where will be flying to Kuala Lumpur late that evening, spending 5 hours skidding around the shiny airport floors, then flying back to Phuket. All to get another stamp to stay in Thailand another thirty days....

Anyway, Christmas in a week and in a way, apart from Shell making us buy a small tree, hats and tinsel, Christmas is another year away! I know Shell loves Christmas but in a way, we are on one long summer! How can it be Christmas!! Anyway.....Merry Christmas!! Ho ho ho.

Much love...and seasons greetings, Tommo & Shell xxxx

Merry Christmas you lot!!

Phuket to Krabi...

So leaving Phuket and karon beach after four days we were bundled, at 7 in the morning, into a minibus that would take us to the harbour and onto a waiting boat that would take us over to ao nang, near Krabi.

The previous four days had been spent in a kind of twilight zone. On one hand, sitting on a beautiful beach, watching the world idle by was definitely on our to do list whilst being away, we plan to do much more, but being here amongst the hoards, I felt I had been whisked back to Mallorca for a few days. The beach was simply stunning though, you can see why Phuket retains such a draw for people but I don't think we have felt as out of place as much for a while. But hey, for a few lazy days it was beautiful and the super abundance of western food made a welcome change to 'going native' or at least helped you feel less guilty for not doing so.

Although you try to read everything about a place before you go there, nothing can prepare you for the eventual reality. Phuket is just so busy, not full of that frenetic city energy you might get in Hanoi or Saigon, but of scores of western tourists and the effective cottage industry it naturally creates. I guess in some respects it's like a synthetic Asian experience. Fantastic beaches, great weather, a smattering of local Thai business but without any of the potential obstacles like, say, local cuisine or culture.

Anyway, the boat journey itself was unlike any other we have had anywhere in Asia, on any form of transport. The whole process had more the air of german efficiency rather than Asian trial and error. As soon as we rocked up in the minivan we were rounded up, slapped with colour-coordinated stickers and hoarded on the corresponding boat. You can kind of understand some people's predilection to travelling, of it being quite a daunting challenge. Well not here, even if you only survive on scratching three and a half braincells together or if you know, you read the sun, you can pretty much travel all over this region with your eyes closed. Even if the sun did quote a recent report that said closing your eyes can cause blindness.

The boat journey promised to be gorgeous, and up until we got into deep sea, that was the reality. As soon as Phuket was in the distance the boat started to ferociously rock in the same way that our journey to the gili's did back in September. needless to say, shell's face said everything. Not quite blind panic but definitely not 'what a lovely journey this will be'. About half way in and thankfully the sea became much calmer and we were treated to the sight of ko phi-phi to the right of us, Krabi some miles in the distance and a few small deserted islands to our left. As we approached Krabi and the beaches that surrounded it, we couldn't wait to get off the boat and top up our ever-increasing tans.

Ten minutes later the minibus dropped us off pretty much in the middle of nowhere at a place which shell had found on the net. Although it was a 'resort' in name it was pretty much just several bungalows surrounded by a pretty pool and trees. It was lovely, just a strange old set up. Anyway, we pretty much just threw our bags down and hailed a tuk-tuk to take us back into ao nang, the nearest resort, where we laid down our towels on a perfect bit of beach surrounded by even more large, vegetated karsts. In fact where we were was just around the bay from Railay beach, somewhere we intend to visit at least once whilst we are here.

We spent the whole day there, basking in the scorchingly hot sun and people watching, shell does this so well. In fact let's face it, she stares at everyone. Almost like a meerkat, maybe a meerkat that gives me running beach commentary on whoever walks past, 'Tommo, look at that mans hairy back' or 'isn't that woman wearing a strange looking hairpiece' or something along those lines.

The sea here is a tad calmer than Phuket but not quite as clear, but the scenery more than makes up for it. By 5pm my forehead and shells nose had almost turned to crackling so we made our way back to the hotel where Gerhard, the owner was waiting to give us instructions for the room and our 6 days there in general. As shell had also managed to lock the bathroom door solidly shut he had to come up to our room and help us out already. In the room he gave us the usual spiel about how to work the shower and the safe before picking us up on our first flaw, we had the air conditioning too low. Normally this would be a fair request but when coming from the mouth of this man, in dead-pan German accent, devoid of any humour, we instinctively cowered onto the bed. All this before he demanded our passports...(when will this stereotype stop???)

That night we ate at the hotel which although we had read good reviews about, didn't really live up to expectations. Maybe due to the fact that it was late but the yellow curry and the massaman just did not deliver. We even had yet more hair (we counted that to be eight times-twice we had clumps!) and and a random piece of plastic (amazingly that's the second time). In fact, and we have to be honest here, we have had nothing but poor Thai food since we got here, which is a shame really as we had such high expectations before we arrived. (bring back the Vietnamese food!).

The next morning I woke feeling terrible, in fact scrap that, truly horrific. For the past six days I had been on an almost endless run of tramadol, which had made the pain post-tooth op just about bearable. After stopping the previous morning I spent the whole night in a constant phase of half-sleep, shaky legs and walking around the room. It almost looked like a scene from Trainspotting. Anyway, over another truly horrific meal for breakfast (think eggs that have been cooked in a pan full of onion flavoured lard) we decided to rent one of the hotels motorbikes so that we could explore some of the beaches and scenery. Gerhard had given us an excellent lecture full of the sights and activities we could be doing during our time here. With this in mind we winded through the countryside and visited several secluded beaches. We even waded through a piece of sea shallow enough to make it to the island across the water, it was bliss. Almost true perfection.(see video at the bottom).

We now type from the beach over looking the islands with the sun setting overhead. Another perfect day in paradise.

All that's missing now are two beers. I guess driving whilst drunk and recovering from cold turkey would probably be a bridge too far to explain if we were to be pulled over....

Love to all, Tommo and shellby xxx

You know what, just Phuket...

So after nine mixed days of relaxing in the bohemian surroundings of chiang mai, we hopped on a plane (our first taste of air Asia!), and headed to the land of the package holiday, Phuket.

Having already blogged twice about Ching mai, I will just tell you about our third cooking course in as many countries.

From Claire and vito's advice, the cooking classes in chiang mai were very much on our list of things to do after glowing reports from them. Plus after completing cooking classes in both Bali and Cambodia we were interested to see the variations in technique, plus you always get a load to eat so it makes for quite a cheap day! The course set-up itself was fantastic, you chose six dishes from six different categories. Shell opted for green curry paste, green chicken curry, papaya salad, hot and sour prawn soup, pad Thai and deep fried bananas. To mix things up (and keep us apart) I went for penang paste, red Penang pork curry, fish cakes, chicken in coconut soup, stir fried prawns in curry powder and mango and sticky rice. We had a really good day, our group was really nice (me and seven English girls!) and the cooking school was big enough to incorporate all students with a cooking station each. The cooking techniques were pretty self-explanatory to the point where our shell has promised an exact replica of her Pad Thai, once we are back home. The anticipation will kill, not least to see shell in the kitchen!

So for all of you who read this and have had the pleasure of being cooked for by us, we now have the experience of three different national cuisines behind us to practice on you once we are yet again, back home. Which in itself seems like some mysterious place we used to live, although its only been three months.

The day of the cooking course was actually our last day in chiang mai and thankfully was the first day that I seemed to have conquered some of the pain, albeit with help from mr tramadol. Lovely man.

So saying farewell to the guys at the guesthouse the next day we caught a tuk-tuk to the airport to catch our midday flight down to Phuket. The flight, although agonising again for me, was another smooth one. The time seemed to fly by, literally, until we landed, fifteen minutes early, in a hot and humid Phuket. Seemingly, with the rest of Thailand, and Europe, and Russia. And maybe Australia. In fact, let's face it, it felt as though the world had descended on Phuket for their Christmas package jaunts, just as we made our way down from tranquil chiang mai, backpacks in hand.

Outside the airport we hopped onto a minibus as the taxi's were criminally expensive, apparently because they belong to the well-known Phuket taxi mafia. The guide books and internet warn you, we were even warned by a hotel owner of a place we booked for Christmas on ko lanta that these guys, especially in peak season which we are now in, are allowed to charge extortionate prices which people, if they need to hire a taxi, have no choice but to accept. Not that the mini bus faired any better. Again, crammed about as full as is humanly possible, we swung down the west coast of Phuket island, dropping people intermittently, most in the truly horrific patong. Thing is, these drivers were so thick that they just looked at my address and nodded, in one of those 'I know this place better than a monopoly board, stop bothering me with your silly piece of printed paper'. Naturally, when we got to Karon beach, then proceeded to pass through it, I had to remonstrate yet again to get the bloke to stop and turn around, he was lost. Winding up back in Karon, he proceeded to wind down his window and ask, no lies here, probably ten people for directions. Until amazingly we crawled past our guesthouse where we shouted at him to get us off the damn bus. A journey that should have taken 45 mins took two and a half hours.

The guesthouse itself was ok but the most expensive place we have had so far. Depressingly, this is pretty much the lowest you should expect to pay at this time of year, all this for a room full of mosquitoes!

On the plus side we have sorted our place for Christmas, a place called baan rao on an island called koh lanta. We managed, amazingly, to get the last place in this b&b for £20 a night. It's at the top of our budget but it's Christmas, so you have to expect to pay prices such as this I suppose. The place is at the top of a hill but it's just up from the beach, with views over the sea and our own balcony with hammock! I can't think of a better way to spend Christmas away from home. From the emails that we have received from the owners, it seems we could well have landed on our feet in a place that actually wants to get to know us, rather than just being another guest.

Anyway back to karon beach. The reason we chose this place was that it wasn't Patong, a place we passed through that confirmed all of our predispositions about it. Truly awful. Instead, we chose karon beach, a little further around the coast and a place we thought, foolishly, that might have more of a cool backpacker vibe, nothing rowdy that you might get on nearby phi phi but a scene nonetheless. Instead what you are faced with is Blackpool. I've got nothing against Blackpool but it doesn't exactly fade into the background. I'm not moaning because the beach is beautiful, but that is obviously only one part of the town and well, their are other people on the beach. I don't quite know how we keep managing to do this but it is full of Russians, I mean absolutely packed. So much so that menus are written in Russian and much like Benidorm, or Blackpool on a warm day (thinking about it-or cold), bald fat blokes walk around in football shirts, but unlike Benidorm these are Spartak Moscow and not Leeds United.

The place is also packed to the rafters with restaurants selling crap food for expensive prices where poor quality, tacky western imitations outnumber traditional Thai twenty to one. In fact we struggled to find anything resembling good thai food at all.

Anyway, this is our second full day on the beach here today and we have no real complaints. How can we! It would be a travesty if we did! The beach is beautiful, pure White sand and crystal blue waters, we've spent the days eating fruit from the local stall, bloody amazing pineapple! We've also got to grips with our foot badminton! Something we bought in vietnam after witnessing the local population playing it everywhere!

We will have another day here tomorrow amongst the Cossacks then make our way over to Krabi on Monday where we have booked ourselves into a wicked place that is inland a little bit but that is central to Railay beach, Ao nang and Krabi town. It's even got a pool!

So, now were off to find Christmas hats, we may even steal some tinsel to put on our rucksacks!

Mui amore, Tommo xxx

More dentists and more night markets in Chiang Mai....

We've now been in chiang Mai for 8 days, the longest we have been anywhere since the start of the trip. We obviously would have moved sooner if it wasn't for the massive inconvenience of having my wisdom tooth removed.

The past few days, since my operation on Friday really, have been incredibly quiet. The pain at times, has been excruciating, far worse than I was expecting! Shell, bless her, has tried hard not to become disillusioned with our time here through four days of me not wanting to do anything but curl up into a little ball. We have managed to go out, walk around the now very familiar streets and try to keep ourselves occupied as much as possible. It's just quite hard when at least one of us is just bloody fed up.

The op itself was ok, apart from the bit when he told me he would have to chisel the tooth into four pieces to get it out as it had partly grown into the adjacent tooth. Apart from the noises and a horrible feeling in my lower jaw as he yanked it out, all was ok, done in 45 minutes. The problem began as soon as I left the building. Pain so bad I wanted to cry, and shell could see this, so we both rushed back to the room.

For the past few days I've eaten nothing but soup, porridge and the occasional Thai curry. To be fair to chiang Mai, those three items are sold everywhere as it surely has to lay claim to be being the vegetarian and health food capital of the world. We've obviously visited a lot of places by now but here, amongst the kinds of people that frequent and own the establishment's here, it's the nearest we have got to being back home in sunny Southsea.

It's something we have managed to do in abundance, to glide effortlessly from restaurant to coffee shop, bar to street cafe, making the most of the free wifi to plan our next few months. This is fine, but usually this kind of thing is interspersed with activities, sightseeing and things do to, stories to accumulate to tell you on here! Unfortunately we have none of that today...

Saturday, to add to the heady mix of painkilling medication and alcohol, was the anniversary of Ady's death, five years to be precise. It's my mum and dad I feel most for during this time, as I have never really had the chance to spend this time with them since his death. So being in Asia, on a hotel roof, drinking beer looking at the mountains, a certain amount of melancholy started to grip me. Of wishing he was back home, insanely jealous of his little brothers whereabouts or actively planning to come and join us. Either way, I just hope he was with us in sprit. If not, then I demand to know where else he would have been!

One of the cool things about staying a little longer here is that it is the King's birthday here on Monday. Normally, as in the UK, this would mean a celebratory coin or box of shortbreads, as an extravagance they might even fly the flag at half mast. Here, the admiration for their Monarch reaches infatuated levels. The entire population have images of the king adorning their walls at home and in the case of this weekend, have images so big of their beloved leader that they make Stalin look like a car salesman. See photo above...

The celebrations for the Kings birthday started some days before with crackles of fireworks heard right across the city, much like chavvies setting off rockets at the end of October back home. On Sunday, the night before the big day, the Sunday walking street returned so we walked the streets for a while, bought another couple of items then once again, headed back home in pain.

Although today went in much the same fashion as the previous days, we did have our first massages of the trip. Shell opted for the back, shoulder, neck and head massage and I went in for the traditional Thai. Although the room and the setting were unbelievably relaxing, my Thai massage was, minus the small polite thai masseuse, what I would expect to happen in say..Guantanamo Bay, or maybe medieval London. She stretched, pummelled and smacked me around for an hour while shell, looking like a scene from a spa brochure, looked a picture of serenity. I have to be honest and say I can't feel a great deal different other than the fact I now know about twelve more areas around my body that will hurt if you press it really hard...

So, stitches out tomorrow! Then we finally get to do our Thai cooking class on Wednesday then fly south to Phuket and the Thai islands on Thursday.

We are both really looking forward to some sun, sand and sea after a few weeks inland but it's December! Where are the grey, frosty mornings and annoying supermarket Christmas carols??

Much love, Tommo xx

Night markets and dentists in Chiang Mai...

Flights scare me, especially ones that are powered by propeller and which are too short to pop Valium. Fortunately for us the flight to Chiang Mai passed as quick as a breeze, despite a fair amount of wobbliness as we came into land. Amazingly, as we passed through immigration, the owner of our new guesthouse was waiting with a big sign that read 'mr tom' in massive letters. The guy was a legend and drove us to the guesthouse, all for free, where we were welcomed like family and shown to our room, a really big and spotless space, all for £6 per night. Back downstairs we were told we could stay as long as we wanted and that we would just have to tell them the day before we wanted to move on. At this point I think we made the fundamental decision that after around 3-4 weeks of constant travelling, pretty much every day, we would like to stay put in one area for a while. From speaking to our hosts we have a lot to see and do here so I think we could easily spend a couple of weeks here and in the surrounding countryside.

That night, as lucky as it may seem, was Chiang Mai's most famous event, the Sunday walking Market. Apparently, people come from all over Thailand to stroll around the markets and as such, were told by our hosts that we were lucky to have this as our introduction to Thailand. I don't believe in luck but I'm glad we came today! The markets were phenomenal, we bought a few little bits (to add to the hoard we need to ship home) and stopped every now and again to feast on red pork curry, Chiang Mai sausage, spring rolls and tiny Japanese pancakes filled with blueberry filling. Needless to say, we were in our element. It's funny that out of the people we have met travelling so far, no one seems to have food right at the pinnacle of importance as much as us. Food has been and will continue to be the best thing about our trip and up to yet, Asia has done nothing but astound us with it's variety and quality.

Anyway, we spent hours walking through the markets, occasionally getting stuck in the maelstrom of people until we got back to the hotel, shattered, at 11pm.

The following day we made our way out of the hotel to find breakfast before the daily onslaught of wats and temples. Chiang mai's old city, where we were based, has numerous temples, almost one on every corner. We spent the entire afternoon visiting some beautifully ornate buildings that if were at the start of your trip, would be staggeringly beautiful. This being the third month now of visiting Buddhist monasteries, you'd be forgiven for feeling the opening pangs of temple fatigue. Unfortunately my day would be completely and momentously overawed by pain. Having got yet more antibiotics and painkillers to try out from the chemist, we were hoping for an end to the pain. It would get worse.

The next morning we found an extraordinary place to eat breakfast that made their own brown bread rolls. To say they were good is as big an understatement as you are likely come across. The rest of the breakfast, big fluffy omelettes, were also exceptional, as was the several coffees. We stayed for hours in this place, writing, making lists and making good use of the wifi to plan our next movements. As time progressed through the day the pain in my mouth was making me dizzy so we decided to see out a dentist, at long last. The dentist was ultra clean, with the best facilities imaginable so put my mind to ease for a little while. Basically the dentist told me, after x-ray, that I have no infection but that my wisdom tooth is growing diagonally against my back tooth. He told me that it needed to come out. So there you go, I will bite the bullet and pay around fifty pounds for the operation but I hope at the end of it I will be pain free once and for all.

From there we took a red-taxi-pick up truck over to central plaza, the big city mall, to try and find some relatively cheap running shoes so that I can hit the streets. We couldn't find any trainers but what we did come away with was two awesome haircuts!! We were both amazingly pleased after getting two haircuts for a tenner that were better than anything that we would have got back home, we should have never have been worried!!

Back in town we had another hankering for Italian so found an amazing little eatery that we had read about and shared the veggie and beef lasagne's, again, absolutely fantastic food and completely homemade. I will never get bored of describing food so If it all sounds a tad repetitive then I apologise!

The next morning, after visiting our favourite place for breakfast, we caught a tuk-tuk to Chiang Mai zoo, a zoo so large that it actually let cars in, so people could effectively drive from the Otter enclosure to say, the lesser spotted Peruvian Tapier...or something like that. The zoo, although a bit rough round the edges, was pretty amazing. Amongst all the usuals we saw a White lion, 2 agile lemurs that looked like a couple of mischievous brummies. We were also lucky enough to see three giant pandas who were brilliant. They were just totally content with stripping pieces of wood and eating a tonne of bamboo. They looked like the happiest creatures we have ever seen. I think shell may have fallen in love with them. I have competition. Anyway, we spent most of the day in this place, mesmerised by the sheer quantity of animals and the impressive view of the city below us as we were now relatively high up the surrounding mountains.

Heading back into town we decided to walk to the night bazaar, a nightly extravaganza of Market stalls, all with the western wallet firmly in mind. Although out of the old city, which is a blessing in itself, the night Market area is the type of south east Asia you hate seeing; mcdonalds, Starbucks, subways all were in place but search a little further and you can find these little nuts and crannies of authenticity, such as the food courts. For three pounds we ate four dishes of fresh northern Thai food before heading off back towards our hotel. On the way back we managed to stumble upon a place doing margarita's for 55 baht so decided to take advantage of that for a while too, one constant holiday...

The next morning and knowing that the following day would be taken up by dentistry we decided hire a scooter. After some initial wobbles and horrified looks from the hotel owner, we were on our way. Chiang Mai is surrounded by mountains to the north of which one of them, Dui suthep, has a temple sat at the top. It also has two minority villages that you can visit.

The roads are fantastic leading up the mountain. We had an absolute blast as we rode up, overtaking all the struggling cars until we reached the temple at the top. It was an incredible ride which took about 2 hours. The temple itself was astonishing, it was encrusted with thick gold and had practising monks in every corner, all with the heavy aroma of incense that burned from the altars. The views from the top were out of this world, almost as if you had been placed on a cloud above the city. From there we headed further into the mountains to check out a minority village. The village itself was pretty dissapointing as the inhabitants had firmly taken consumerism to heart. Almost every inch of an otherwise peaceful and remote village had been taken up with the selling of items. The big selling point though, in fact scrap that, the vastly underused reason for people visiting the village was the huge winter garden that lit up the surrounding landscape with a hundred different types of flower, dad you would love it!

From there we jumped back on the motorbike and swerved our way through through the 6kms of hairpin bends and dirt tracks to another tribal village. This time, in a very secluded spot, the village seemed much more insular than the last. As we drove around, a chap in full traditional gear shouted at us as we rode past so we quickly made our way out of the village and back on to the mountain track to take us the 30kms back to chiang Mai. About 5kms in we pulled up to small coffee shop, sat astride an adjoining coffee plantation, and had two unbelievable cups of the freshest coffee you can imagine, all while looking down on a great view of coffee plants, banana trees and green fields. If the ride to the top was fun enough then the rude back was out of this world. I cannot wait to do it again.

As we got back into town the traffic was atrocious, thousands of cars and bikes all stood in a huge, choking jam. We did as the Thai do and wriggled our way through the traffic until we finally made it back to the guesthouse just before dark. An amazing day and one we will not forget in a while!

Due to tomorrows operation to chop out my wisdom tooth it looks as though we will be here for a while longer yet, not least since I have to go back to have the stitches out next week. You what though, I think were both secretly happy. We both felt like we needed a pit stop of sorts and we have it here. Chiang Mai is phenomenal, the people are great, the bars and restaurants of mindblowing quality and the surrounding countryside mesmerising. A week has nearly gone by here and we haven't a clue where it has gone!!

Much love, as always, Tommo xx