5 weeks in thailand

Having a Paddy
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Back in Bangkok again -

survived trip to chaing mai.

great action packed trip - very bumpy train ride, not much sleep as felt like we

were coming off the rails on a run-away train.

Buffy
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3 days trekking to hill tribes almost killed us.  Bamboo rafting was great fun,

just ended up as a big water fight with our guides.  Walked through paddy fields

and got to swim by waterfalls to cool off.  stayed in rural villages amongst farm animals, sleeping on wooden bench and ate well.

needed to have a days recovery after all the walking, and went for steak and

Homeshed
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chips in the red lion inn.  Had to get away from rice for a bit...

next day was a fun day cooking course..brilliant...Jessica naturally in heaven eating and cooking continuously all day!  Yummy!  You are all invited for a Thai feast when we get back!  Even had a go at 'adventure style' where we got to make a huge flame over our wok!  I don't think we can try this in our little kitchen at home!

When Matt suggested going mountain biking I imagined a gentle ride with the my hair blowing in the breeze...was slightly alarmed when we arrived and were kitted out with full on pads ...arms, legs, elbows, knees helmet, wrist guard the works.  We did some hard core mountain bikin' dude and even managed to get down without hurting ourselves!  Which is more than can be said for the other 3 guys who all came off 3-4 times (although they were doing the 'EXTREME course!)

Crash Dummy
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Anyway after all that excitement we decided to head back to Bangkok to unload some more 'stuff' on Briony and Tim before picking up our bikinis and snorkels and heading off the islands in the south.  First stop Koh Tao which is renowned for diving... the scenery here is absolutely stunning.  Most for the roads to resorts are just dirt tracks adn really rough ones at that.. impassible without a four wheel drive.  Matt and I hired a quad bike to do a bit of exploring and got to visit a lot of the bays which are beautifully unspoilt as they are so inaccessible.  Lovely!  Stayed in 2 different places...each little beach huts perched on the mountainside with stunning views over the beaches/ coast!  We were super lucky with the weather...had a few rain showers ( well, it is the wet season), snorkelling was quite good ..an ace place to veg out after all this hard work of travelling!

wok a pair
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Then headed off to Koh samui for a week which was brilliant for swimming but not much snorkelling!  Took a day trip over to the Marine National Park which was beautiful and then did a bit more eating, drinking and sleeping!  Lovely!  We took our 14 hour journey ( bus, boat, bus, taxi) back to Bangkok yesterday.  Having a last day of shopping tomorrow then fly back just after midnight Thursday (Friday morning).  So will be back home later on Friday.  Can't believe how quickly time flies!  Looking forward to cathing up with everyone!