A big and long awaited hello from Kathmandu!

Dear All,

You'll be pleased to know that we've made it to Nepal. In fact for most of you it's old news! Our friend Nick has said that our blog is fast becoming a historical document - apologies again! The drive here was mammouth - I think we've clocked up almost 3000km between us. To try and maintain some sort of chronological order to the blog, I'll deal with the journey first and then Nepal. I hope it's  not too boring - it's better when it's fresher!

We last left you when we had departed from a very wet Goa. We visited our old camping spot in Agonda and found everything closed. The restaurant and bar owners had dismantled nearly every beach hut and in the permanent structures the hatches had well and truly been battoned down. It was wet, deserted and wild. Nothing like the winter idyll we'd grown to love.

The monsoon is all pervasive. Everything feels damp all the time and it takes 3-4 days to dry any washing! We had thought to spend 2 days relaxing before we left, but it really wasn't the weather! So we set off; gently at first, only doing 200km on our first day and setting off at 10 and finishing at 4. We had thought to drive through the centre of India but heard that the roads were bad. Time wasn't really on our side so we decided to go on the highways. The four major cities of India; Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata (Calcutta) and Chennai (Madras) are linked up with a quadrangle of pretty good highways.We decided to head for Dehli and then cut east towards Agra - where the Taj is - and then over to Varansi before heading north into Nepal. After a day's driving we had reached the highway and our lifestyle for the next two weeks was established: up at 6-7, coffee, drive for two hours, breakfast, drive until just before sunset, 6ish, stop at a motorway services, eat, wash and in bed asleep by 8!

The motorway services are not quite what you may think of at home. They are usually pretty close to the road and most nights we needed earplugs to sleep. We swap driving every two hours so that neither one of us gets too tired. We quite liked the sense of purpose that we got from being back on the road again. Sad, I know!

There are few things about the drive that are of interest here, but some are worth mentioning. We stopped at Pune on the way up as we had concerns about the tyres. The tread was wearing unevenly and after we had spotted it we decided to stop in Pune in case we needed to change them or something. Pune is just east of Mumbai and is a city of 3 million. It has a huge student population and is a really nice city. Its also famous for the Osho Ashram - Osho was deported from America after they questioned some of his methods - google it!

Anyway, we stopped on the outskirts of Pune by the race course as it seemed quiet and had space. A couple of people had told us we may have problems as there was a military base nearby and they patrolled at nighttime. After the third person stopped and spoke with us we thought we maybe we should move. Fortunately for us the third set of people to stop were Tushar and Nita who lived not far away and said we could park near them.

We followed them home and parked outside their apartment. They were on their way to the hospital where they do voluntary work with burns victims. They left us to it and invited us for breakfast the next day. Such hospitality - can you imagine meeting two foreigners on the street and taking them home and making them breakfast?!

The breakfast was lovely - Nita is a great vegetarian cook. Both her and Tushar are Jains (pronounced jay-een). Over breakfast we were educated about Jainism and learnt about the voluntary work that they do in the hospital. The government hospitals are, by all accounts, underfunded and in a poor state. The burns wards are some of the worse. Many people here cook with kerosene stoves- many of which are faulty - and are consequently burnt - badly. Tushar and Nita decided they wanted to give something back to their local community and decided that every other night they would visit the ward and help people. Great people whom we were very fortunate to meet.


Tushar showed us the way out the next day and we were on our way towards Mumbai. I couldn't possibly do that city any form of justice by describing driving through it, so we'll leave that one til after we've actually stopped there! We headed on past Mumbai and towards the next state of Gujarat. As we were heading north the temperature was starting to climb and it was becoming more humid. The night times were the worst. The days weren't so bad as we were heading north and only had the sun in the cab in the early morning. We also had a constant breeze pouring in through the windows. But, when we hit Jaipur in Rajasthan and started heading East towards Agra the temperature was very uncomfortable. We lay in bed sweating as if we'd both been out for a hard run!

It was around this time that we started to question the wisdom of visiting Varanasi. We changed plans and headed towards cooler climes. Lucknow, the capital of Uttar Pradesh was our final two day stop in India before heading for the border. Lucknow was a major centre for the British Raj, has some great architecture and is a typical busy Indian city. We picked up provisions there as we had heard that most things in Nepal were more expensive. We also needed, so we thought, American dollars for the Nepali border. This proved impossible to organise as the Indian government says that Nepal takes Indian Rupees and has forbidden the buying of dollars in India to go to Nepal.

Rupees in hand we headed north. After 14 days of solid driving we crossed the border into Nepal at Nepalganj. We had no real problems getting our visa once the guy realised it was Rupees or nothing! We slept that night just across the border and it was definitely cooler. We were so looking forward to a good night's sleep but a young Nepali guy had other ideas. He was a very well educated and clever young man who was desperate to practice his English. He knocked on our van door every hour from 6 to chat with us!

Driving in Nepal felt like a walk in the park in comparison to India. We hardly saw any trucks on the road, in fact hardly any traffic at all. We actually said it was like driving through Longleat safari park - without the Lions! We were following the base of a set of hills below the Himalaya that run from west to east. Pokhara was our destination as our friends Amelie and Til whom we met in Goa were there. After a few days driving we had only seen low lying hills, but as we started to head north towards Tansen we started climbing. The scenery was beautiful and we hadn't even seen any big mountains yet!

Pokhara is the second largest town in Nepal and boasts a stunning backdrop; the Annapurna himalayan range. We, however have seen these mountains once in 6 weeks! The monsoon clouds are keeping an almost permanent curtain infront of the mountains and we eagerly await the opening night - or day, as it were! Pokhara's mountain backdrop and its huge lake make it a really popular toursit destination, but again the monsoon has kept most toursists away. So, what can you do during the monsoon? Walking and cycling have been the two things keeping us most busy, as well as using inner tubes to float on the lake.

We spent the first week camped in the town next to the lake and got some little jobs done on the van and met some of the few travellers and tourists left in the Sun Welcome restaurant. You couldn't cook for as little as the price! We also met some paragliders here. Pokhara is one of the capitals for paragliding -you can imagine the views. Mark had his first flight, which he may come on here and explain - brilliant! I'm waiting til October when everything is just a little clearer.

After a week our friends Amelie and Til arrived from Kathmandu and we drove 10km around the lake to a small village called Pame where, based at the end of the valley is an overlanders campsite. However to reach it we had to do our first river crossing - again we'll put the photos up later, but suffice to say we made it. Although we did wonder whether camping in between two rivers at the base of the valley was the wisest thing to do in the middle of the monsoon!

We spent 4 weeks camped here in our very own private bog! The ground was so wet and muddy from the perpetual rain. But, we had many days where it was sunshine - in fact most time the rains came it was in the night. So, we took inner tubes and floated down the rivers nex to us and walked back (thanks Rob and Sagar), cycled in and out of Pokhara, washed in the stream running next to the campsite (Mark said he felt as if he were in an advert for hair products  - leave you feeling fresh as a mountain stream!!), walked up the closest mountain - Sarangkot with our bikes and then rode down the other side, walked to the world peace stupa and got the boat back accross the lake, and shared great food and lots of fun with Amelie, Til, Ole and Ford (two dogs!).

After 4 weeks Kathmandu was calling, but that can wait for the next instalment.

Back sooner rather than later - promise!

Jo and Mark xx

India - the homecoming!

Dear All,

Coming back to India really felt like coming home. It is without doubt our favourite country of our whole trip. I can't go into here why it is, I'd have to try and explain so many things; the atmosphere, the people, the chaos that somwhow works, the food, the cows, the roads etc etc! Anyway, we're back! Four months have passed since we had to temporarily surrender our truck to the Indian government and my goodness we were glad to get it back. We had to go and deal with the bureaucracy that is Indian customs in Goa and formally request that they release our vehicle. Our keys were in a wax sealed envelope, which we've kept as a souvenir. After a few hours we had our keys and headed to the warehouse where the truck was stored.

We hired out a little moped to get around and our first task was to find a place where we could work on our vehicle. We really didn't want to move it as it costs a good ammount to get it towed. It's pretty heavy so requires a crane to tow it! The man at the warehouse said 'yes', so Mark set off to pick up the parts in Margao and we took the engine apart that afternoon. I have to say here that Mark's Mum and Dad have been brilliant in ordering the parts for us and sending them through.

It was also much easier to do the work this time as Mark and Steffen had taken the engine apart four months ago and so every bolt, nut and screw came away much easier than before. The only thing that made it more challenging this time was the rain. It is well and truly monsoon season here so Mark found himself quite often soaked and laying in an inch of water whilst working on the engine. He was brilliant. Most of you have realised by now that I'm also more than just a pretty face! Between us we managed to have the engine up and running in two days. But then disaster struck! Well, that's an exageration, but the engine stopped working again and this time we knew it wasn't the timing chain and the tensioner. Somehow, somewhere air was getting into our system. We ended up taking out the fuel lines, both of which had perished dreadfully meaning we had to replace them. Off we went in search of decent fuel line and another day later we were up and running.

The next task was to get the new clutch fitted. I don't know if you remember or not, but our lovely cousin Jane had acted as our mule in February and brought us out our new clutch. What would we do without our families?! We wanted a decent garage to fit it, as we've found some mechanics here to be a bit hammer-heavy! We went first of all to Eicher and pleaded with them to do it. They said yes and after three days with much maneouvering we had a new clutch. We have two gear boxes on the truck as its a four wheel drive and we'd had real problems changing the oil in the rear gear box as we couldn't release the nut to empty it, but they managed that too and we changed oil in both gear boxes and in the engine too. Can you believe that all that work cost us the grand total of fifty pounds? We needed to do a good bit of maintenance as we're about to drive to and around the Himalayas. They're not the sort of roads you want to have mechanical failure on, trust me!

Whilst all of this has been going on we've also had to flush out our water system with chlorinated water as its been standing for 4 months, and many other interior jobs. The inside was actually filthy! It's now been washed and scrubbed and we've replenished all stocks and replaced and repacked many things. The roof has also been re-sealed to deal with the rains. We've now slept in it for two nights and it's lovely to be back in it.

Vasco de Gama, which is the home of Goa's airport and sea port has been a great place to do all of this as they have every shop you need. We're off this afternoon to Margao to pick up our new Carnet de Passage and International driving permits from the RAC and then we'll have a couple of days on the beach in Agonda to rest up before we drive the 2500 kilometers to the Himalayas. Our current Carnet runs out on the 19 July and that's the date when need to enter Nepal. We're taking the route No.7 up the centre of India to Varanasi and then its Kathmandu. How exciting! Our friends Amelie and Til are already in Pokhara, Nepal where there's an overlanders' campsite with hot showers! Woohoo!

Until the next time,

Love Jo and Mark xx

Cambodia to India

Dear All,

Much time has passed again and we are now in India, but before I update you on the situation with our broken truck, let's talk Cambodia! We arrived into Phnom Penh (PP) after a 24 hour bus journey from Vientiane, capital of Laos. The night bus was a sleeper - literally. It had no seats, only beds. We were given a double, but as you can imagine most SE Asians are not as tall as Mark so we struggled with the space. We arrived into Pakse in Southern Laos the next morning where we picked up the day bus, which had great armchairs, and proceeded onto the border.

Once we were a good few dollars lighter we had had our health checks (a scan with some wierd electronic implement) and obtained a month visa for Camodia. On the way to PP we met a guy called Macca from Coventry and as we were the only ones left on the bus and he knew some people in PP we followed him to the Walkabout bar and stayed there the night.You may now be picturing some Australian themed pub; not so. The Walkabout is basically a bar where alot of ex-pats go to drink and pick up prostitutes! We left the next day, not due to the prostitutes more to the old men!

We met Kevin, a really nice ex-pat who was a friend of Macca's and who teaches English in PP. He helps out a charity run by ex-pats called CHOICE. They were due to go on one of their bi-weekly visits to some local villages. CHOICE works with some local people as well and between them they visit 4 villages once a  month with a medic, food, clothes for the kids and adults and some entertainment for the local kids. On the day that we went a clown came and entertained the kids with balloon making whilst the medic and the nurse saw the villagers and we handed out the food and clothes. The charity has provided water filters for every villager and they are trying to see if they can get a school built.

It was a really good day and we saw a side of Cambodia that I'm not sure we have seen without them. It's a poor country. There are, I think, more non-governmental organisations (NGOs) in Cambodia than any other country. There's even a section of PP that everyone knows as the NGO quarter. Not surprisingly, when you see the cars they drive and how the NGO workers live, there is a lot of cynicism about the NGOs. There are definitely things they do that are very worthwhile, however one wonders if they are not destined to become ineffectual and victims of their own success.

When we talked to the people from CHOICE and they talked about building a school you can see the problem start to arise; you can't just build a school. You have to have land and permission which means lawyers and bankers being involved - this is on a small scale, but imagine if you were UNICEF or OXFAM, you would have huge legal departments and so on. We can't go into all the issues here, suffice to say that the question of aid is full of contradictions and problems.

The most prominent issue of Cambodian history is, of course, the Khmer Rouge and Pol Pot, or Brother No.1 as he was also known. The Killing Fields that have been documented in the film and books came after the Khmer Rouge came to power in 1978. The backdrop was the American war in Vitenam. A war it should be said that didn't just affect Vietnam. Laos is the most heavily bombed country in the whole world for its size and forty-plus per cent of bombs didn't explode. Cambodia was also bombed heavily and in both countries we saw the victims of unexploded land mines, cluster bombs and other ordinance.

The rise of the Khmer Rouge was devastating for Cambodia who lost 23 per cent of its population. The idea, in short, was based on Chairman Mao's 'cultural revolution' in China, where a heavy emphasis was placed on agriculture and those seen as intellectuals or as city workers were seen as part if the capitalist problem. The Khmer Rouge's first victims were those who lived in the cities and those who were intellectual - or educated. They were moved into the surrounding countryside and subsequently many of them were killed.  We visited the notorious S21 which was a high school in PP that was turned into a torture center and prison and the loal killing fields where many were buried. It was nothing but grim and the impact on the population is still apparent today. We met people who were our age who had lost both parents during the regime.

Today though, PP is a vibrant city. We really enjoyed ourselves there. It has great bars and restaurants and its possible to meet some really cool people. It could really do with a women's movement and some serious development. The sex industry is rife.

The other famous part of Cambodian history is Angkor Wat. If you've seen them film Tomb Raider you'll have seen some parts of this incredible complex. It covers 30,000 square kilometers and includes some of the most incredible buildings you've ever seen. Building began in 802 AD and the temples were origianlly Hindu, although later were developed as Bhuddist as well. The actual temples of Angkor Wat are amazing and are being steadily overhauled and preserved. Then we went to Angkor Thom which was once a city one million strong. Most of the houses were wood so they are long gone but the temples and walls remain and are vast. We finished day one with Phnom Bakeng, the highest point of the whole complex which people urge you to vist at sunset.

The next day we saw the temples where nature has taken its course more so than elsewhere. The temples of Ta Phrom and Preah Khan (the tomb raider set) feel magical. Trees that are five hundred-plus years old have grown up and around the temples and are almost as majestic as the buildings themselves. This combined with piles of stones and pillars strewn accross the ground and around the still-standing temples make you feel like you've just discovered it. Indian Jones eat your heart out. The thing that was great about it was that even on the second day you weren't tired of looking around.

From Siem Reap, the home of Angkor, we headed South to the beach. Sihanoukville is Cambodia's beach resort and the gateway to its islands. We went there mainly to see our friend Quest and help him celebrate his 24th birthday, but we met up with some other friends Jen and Stef who we also met in Chiang Mai. There was as it turned out a proper little group of us, Dan, Ruth, Dice and Miles being some of them. We mainly hung out at a bar called Leopold's which was showing all the world cup games and gave out free shots everytime a goal was scored! With such an international group we had someone to support in most games!

We left Sihanoukville to come back to PP and 2 days later to fly to Kuala Lumpar and then Goa. We shopped, ate and drunk and met up with people we'd met at the beginning of our Cambodian experience. Finally it was time to leave SE Asia. We'll come back to do Vietnam on motorbike another time. We really enjoyed oursleves there but we were looking forward to coming back to India, the truck and a more independent way of travelling.

Next update coming very soon, love from us both xx

Sabaidee from the Lao PDR

http://picasaweb.google.com/105271013135735703027/SouthEastAsia#

Dear Blog followers,

Another month has passed without contact from yours truly, and we can only apologise. The Laos PDR doesn't have the fastest and cheapest of internet services, hence our lack of contact. The rainy season has well and truly started here now and the storms are fantastic. The limestone mountains covered with lush green vegetation, synonymous with brochure scenes of South East Asia are the perfect back drop for fast moving dramatic electrical storms.  The rain, I have to say is a welcome reprieve. It has been very hot here and continues to be, but the rain brings coolness and breeze.

When we last wrote we were still in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand. We hot-footed out of Thailand on overnight bus to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. There isn't much to be said for Vientiane, apart from that it has an Indian Embassy where we applied for our visa. We wanted 12 months, rather than the usual 6, and therefore had to wait for 2 weeks at least for it to come through. This was our cue to leave! We headed north on the local bus to Vang Vieng - the headonist capital of Laos!  Needless to say we fitted in well! After a few weeks of the massage course and visa applications in Vientiane we were ready to party and relax!

Vang Vieng is situated on the meeting of two rivers and is famous for 'tubing'. You rent a huge inner tube, get dropped off by a tuk tuk 4 km up river and make your way, via lots of bars with huge swings and water slides, down the river. It is a real laugh. Once we had got over our substantial age difference from the majority of people here and met a couple, Pete and Born who were around our age we went tubing but without the tubes! We decided to do the bars and swim between each one - we only made it around half a kilometer down the river, by which time it was dark and we got a tuk tuk home. Our friend Quest whom we met in Chiang Mai came with us and being young and fit managed to do acrobatics on the swings into the water.

We stayed in a guest house right opposite all the action. We didn't actually realise until later that night that we were opposite bars that stay open until 5am! Still, if you can't beat 'em, join 'em!! On a more serious and cultured note, the scenery is stunning and we had a river view.

From Vang Vieng we headed north to Louang Prabang, a town that has been preserved as a world heritage sight. It is a rather lovely place, popular with normal tourists as well as travellers. A hangover from French colonialism, the town is situated on a peninsular between the Mekong and Ou rivers. You could spend days there just wandering around looking at the buildings and shops. It also has many French restaurants and wine bars. I had my first glass of white wine for 10 months!!

We tried to get a boat from Louang Prabang to Nong Kiew which takes around 6 hours up the Nam Ou, but being low season there weren't enough of us. We met another couple from London, Paul and Nadia who were going the same way as us and trekked off together in search of a bus. Nong Kiew and this area of Northern Laos has stunning scenery; sheer limestone cliffs and green, green vegetation. We stopped there for two days before heading to Muang Noi. We got our boat journey as it can only be accessed by river. Another two days there admiring the scenery and we were ready to head south. We'd heard from the Indian Embassy that our visa application had been accepted (yipee) and we needed to pick up our passports.

To break up the journey we stopped again in Vang Vieng and will head to Vientiane tomorrow. After that it's Cambodia where we'll have two weeks until we fly to India on 21 June. We'll update on you that on our next blog entry, but for now, that's all folks!!

Lots of love, Jo and Mark x

Sawasdee!

Sawasdee or hello from Chiang Mai!

We can't believe how long we've been in Chiang Mai - it's almost 6 weeks, give or take a week in Pai! It's not that we love the place, it's just that we decided to do a Thai massage course. There are two styles to Thai massage, Southern, which is harder and Northern, which is softer. Both styles originate from the same teachings of Dr Shivaga, not to be confused with Dr Zhivago, who was said to be the physician to Bhudda. In Wat Po in Bangkok are some of the original sandstone carvings that show the first anatomical drawings and explanations of the massage.

In Chiang Mai a teacher at the Old Medicine Hospital was responsible for breaking the massage down into steps that could be taught. He now runs the International Training and Massage School, which is where we are learning. We've completed level 1 and 2, which are the foundations of Thai massage and this week we are doing level 4, which is the therapeutic application of Thai massage for the treatment of headaches, backaches and so on.

Thai massage is done clothed and doesn't use oils; it's based on a series of stretches and pressure points. If it's done well it leaves the receiver feeling relaxed and energised. It has been dubbed 'yoga for lazy people' as  you are effectively taken through a yoga work-out. This means the giver of the massage has to be relatively fit. Here we had our first stumbling block! Not only are we unfit, we have done nothing much for the last 9 months. We had to get up at 7am and cycle 15 minutes to the massage school where we started every day with 30 minutes exercise - yoga and Tai Chi. Can you imagine how tired we were to begin with?!

On the third week we stopped using the bikes and walked/ran into school. Actually, this wasn't planned, I found out that the bike man had been overcharging for the bikes, had a barney with him and wasn't prepared to give him anymore money!! Mark arrived home on Sunday evening and found out we had no bikes for the week. But every cloud has a silver lining!!

This could be the beginning of a new fit us!! I loved being a beach bum last year, but now I'm thinking morning exercise of run and yoga and then beach bum in the afternoon! OK, there, I've said it, now you can hold me to it!!

Apart from learning massage, we've met some really cool people on the course and the wierd thing is we now enjoy a weekend! All the days blended into one, but now Friday night is a big deal again! There are a collection of bars here, they ran a festival at the beginning of April called Smile. They are all set in one big courtyard where you can choose from live ska bands, live Indie, house, techno, grime etc. A lot of students from the massage school go down and it's been really cool just wandering from bar to bar seeing people you know in most of them and having a dance and a laugh before moving onto the next bar!

There's not much else to report at the moment apart from our future plans. We need to sort out our Indian visa and a new Carnet de Passage for the vehicle, which we'll probably do whilst in Chiang Mai. This will require a visa-run on Sunday as we should be out of Thailand by then. After the paperwork is sorted we're off to Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia.

Sawasdee or goodbye, for now!

Love Jo and Mark xx

Thailand - some photos - at last!

We've arrived!

On the train to Bangkok

Mark scissor hands! This is actually meant to show the precarious nature of electric wiring in Bangkok!

Some of the delicacies on offer on the Khao San Road - will he eat it?

Oh yes! In goes the grass hopper! At least he didn't eat a deep fried cockroach!

Some of the other delicacies the Khao San Rd has to offer - buckets of Mojitos!

Waiting for a noodle soup at one of thousands of roadside stalls.

Some of the passenger boats on the river in Bangkok

The end of one of the huge barges.

More river scenes.

Bangkok to Kanchanaburi

Freshly BBQ'd chicken 

Health and safety, anyone?

Some of our fellow passengers.

The bridge over the river Kwai

Sunset over the river Kwai

The evening cabaret at Kanchanaburi!

Back in Bangkok - in the Japanese bar

Just finished our cooking course in Chiang Mai.

One of the beautiful temples in Chiang Mai

Mark being horizontal in Pai - pretty much the only way you can be in Pai!

Mark and Adam enjoying the swings on the riverside at Pai.

Adam and Vicky on the rickety bamboo bridge to our accommodation on the riverside at Pai.

Thailand - the real story

Most people on entering the South of Thailand head straight for the islands and the infamous party scene. Not us. We are officially past it! Well maybe not, but after spending approximately three months on beaches and really not liking the whole 'herding' feeling of the backpacker trail, we wanted the big lights of the city - not the red lights - although they're hard to get away from - you know the ones; " Hey mister you want ping pong show? See pretty Thai girls?" Jo comes up behind me holds my hand and it suddenly changes to "Sawatdee Kaa" hello in Thai? Any way we digress!!

We boarded a sleeper train just past the Southern-most border of Thailand and embarked on a 22 hour journey to Bangkok. It went well; the seats were comfy and the scenery pleasant to look at. A couple of good books and the Ipod helped us on our way.

It was coming towards dinner time and we had our first Thai meal - green curry, spicy seafood soup and other little delights. It was yummy and all for three quid- Virgin and Great Western take note! After dinner the train guard for our carriage offered to make our beds for us! The top bunk was pulled down, the two seats on the bottom pulled out and joined together and new bed sheets were tucked in. I was on the top bunk and Mark on the bottom. I was so excited - I didn't think I would sleep!

We woke the next morning, me with a few bed bug bites to show for it, and we sat together for a while on Mark's bunk watching the sun rise over the paddy fields. At Ratchaburi, one of the first stations we stopped at in the morning, loads of hawkers with hot food boarded to sell us breakfast. They only just manage to jump off the train as it speeds up out of the platform.

We arrived in Bangkok and headed straight for the Bamboo guest house. Mandy and Steffen had recommended it. It was a massive old style house near the river and at 5 pounds a night was to be our home for the next 13 days. It was in a network of roads off the Samsen Rd in the Hualampong district of Bangkok.

The river in Bangkok is wider than the Thames and is still a working river. Huge barges towed by small tugs are a regular feature. We caught the express boats along the river which are used by Bangkokers to get to and from work and in and out of town; they're really cheap at 23pence a journey.

The boat journey, just like a journey on the Thames shows a varied history to the city. There are huge skyscrapers, traditional palaces, ancient temples and shacks! We boarded the sky train and saw a really different wealthy side to Bangkok. Aside from the metro and buses, the other form of transport which is really fun to take is a tuk-tuk, especially if you get a driver who likes to rev the hell out of it and try and pull wheelies! ( Mark- should of handed it over to me, I'm sure I could have done better!)

The red-shirts protest started on our first weekend there, which meant a few of the sights were shut, but we managed to see a lot of Bangkok, eat a lot of Thai food, enjoy the markets and shops and the nightlife. Our friend Andy was just coming towards the end of his holiday in SE Asia and met us in Bangkok. Andy had wanted to see the bridge over the river Kwai and so had we, so we all embarked on a trip to Kanchanaburi.

I imagine most of you have seen the classic film with Alec Guiness, which tells the story of the POW camp based there to build the bridge over the river. We crossed the bridge and were on it when a train came past too, which was pretty cool. Having hired scooters for the day, we drove off out into the local countryside and saw some Wats (temples) and more of the river.

We returned to Bangkok and stayed long enough to see our friend Matt - another surprise as he was coming out for a friends wedding. A 24 hour whistle-stop-tour-of-the-city later and we were ready to go. Our train to Chaing Mai left at 7 that morning and we pulled into Chiang Mai at 9 that evening.

Chiang Mai is in the North of Thailand and is its second largest city. The old town is all enclosed within a moat and is a favourite with travellers because its a manageable city with lots of bars and live music and abundant activities. Both of us wanted to do a Thai cookery course and rather ambitiously booked ourselves into a five day course.

You can tell we haven't worked in ages, because we had to sleep for a few hours in the afternoon after each day's lesson! The course was very good, although after the third day the same jokes were starting to wear a little thin! Still, we can cook you a decent curry - green, red or peneang, stir-fries galore and many more dishes.

We celebrated the end of the course at the Smile festival - a really good music festival around the lake - where we heard a DJ play some really good house music. My god, it had been a long time! We danced our arses off with Vicky and Adam - a couple from London we met at the cookery course. The next day was a recovery day and then we were off to Pai.

Pai is sort of hippy enclave 160km north-east of Chiang Mai and is a big favourite on the backpackers trail. The bus journey there is infamous for having 762 curves and being sick-inducing. We were fore warned by Andy and had bought our travel sickness pills. We stayed in a little hut by the river in a really tranquil setting. It was a lovely little place. All you can do there is relax and eat and relax and eat and swim and relax and...you get the picture!

Six days later and we were back to Chiang Mai. Songkran, the Thai new year drew us back. It is a huge water-fight that lasts 4 days and Chiang Mai is supposed to be the best place to see it and be a part of it. The water fights originate from the idea of cleansing - I can promise you that after being soaked with water from the moat, I didn't feel too clean! The festivities were great - you can buy huge water pistols with 10 litre backpacks, buckets, squirters and water proof wallets and camera bags - they've thought of everything!

Everyone is out on the streets - families bring out their pick-up trucks, have huge vats of water in the back and everyone piles on to shower everyone else. People are on motorbikes, tuk-tuks, scooters and bicycles, all trying to soak people on the side of the street. All the bars and restaurants are involved and have huge bins full of water outside which you refill from. The city council puts out water taps for you to refill!! The only thing that would have made it better was if we'd had our niece and nephew with us to share in the fun! Of course, the temperature being 40 degrees and some, helps a lot!

So, that sort of concludes this part of the blog. Our next few weeks could be taken up with a Thai massage course, we'll see how we do on week one and let you know.

Love, Jo and Mark