Day 4: Bangkok This was the first official day of our organised tour, but it was the meeting day which meant that people arrived anytime during the day to get to the hotel for 6pm for the welcome meeting. So we left the Soi 1 hostel and headed to the New World Lodge which is a nice hotel in Bangkok, so we took advantage of the decent facilities!...

Having a couple of days to occupy before my Vietnam visa is processed, the four Irish girls I'd met a couple of nights previous suggest an overnighter package tour to Kanchaniburi. This place is most famous for the Kwai River bridge, but also known for the Tiger Temple where you can cuddle up to nature's biggest cats who've been rescued from poa...

How can I even begin to explain the last few days? It starts with Mr. America, a South African couple, cranky me and the stupidest question I've asked thus far. "Are there many white people in South Africa?" Immediately I want to go back in time and swallow that question. I think the reason it came out in the first place was because, after liste...

We took an overnight train from Suratthani (the city from which the ferry comes in from Ko Phangan) to Kanchanaburi. When we got on the train, Amy's bed was already made up and empty, but mine had an old Thai women sleeping in it! I contemplated waking her up, but across the isle (on Thai trains, second class sleepers are basically just two rows...

Yesterday we spent the morning travelling to where we are now, Kanchanaburi. We were glad to be leaving Ayuthaya. The afternoon was spent being very lazy as I have not been feeling that great. John didn't know what to do with himself so he joined me for a long afternoon nap. Today we have hired a motorbike, again John driving as he won't let me ...

shane: we went to see the tigers! 2.5 hour bus ride away, we were dropped at this little place in the River Kwai. We were then told to proceed onto a square bamboo raft. I wasnt too impressed about this as we had our passports and ipods etc in the backpack, but was told I didnt really have an option as we were rafting our way to the next place o...

Tiger Temple, or Wat Pha Luang Ta Bua, is a Buddhist temple in Western Thailand which keeps numerous animals, among them several tame tigers that walk around freely once a day and can be petted by tourists. The Theravada Buddhist temple is located in the Saiyok district of Thailand's Kanchanaburi province, not far from the border with Myanmar, s...

This place only about 2 hours away northwest of Bangkok has been such a breath of fresh air! We took a local bus out of Bangkok and met this wicked British couple, Nick and Helen, who we hung out with in Kanchanaburi. We found accommodation pretty easily by taking a taxi to the bungalow hotspot. Sugar Cane bungalows is where we stayed and had on...

Roosters really need to shut the hell up. And that other bird too.

Curses, Billy won, only by about half an hour though ;) We had a manic race across Bangkok from the bus terminal to the ferry, and down the river to the train station. The ferry was a new experience, and a good way to avoid the traffic. The 3 hour train journey on wooden seats wasn't the most comfortable, but we've become quite used to sleeping ...