Bangkok So Far

Photo 1 - Jamie suddenly realises Its time for a Bucket!

Photo 2 - Drunken night time Burger fest!!!!! That always brings a smile to my face!

Photo 3 - Told you I would prove it Jenny, this ones just for you xxxx

Photo 4 - ITS BEHIND YOU!!!!!!

Photo 5 - Photo shoot with the main event winner at the Thai-Boxing. In case you've forgotten what I look like I'm the one on the right.....yes I have been working out!

Photo 6 - Zinedine Zidane looking not amused due to everyone staring at him.

Sri Lanka

Walking along one pleasant day in Sigiriya and I bumped into Jenny! (love you really sis)



















Elephant Orphanage. Sleeping Baby!!!!! sooooo cute!












The Orchid House in the Botanical Gardens of Kandy. This ones for you Chelle xxx




















"Adams Peak" We woke up at 2 in the morning to climb 5000 steps to the temple at the top !!!!!












Huddled together for warmth on a cold morning 2000 metres high.












The eerie shadow of "Adams Peak" 10 mins after sunrise that looks like "The Dark Side Of The Moon"

Periyar Wildlife Sanctuary

Again some catch-up photos from India!!

Night sky in the park.












Row, row, row your boat!!!!















The hottest curry I ever had!!!!

Arambol Goa

Here are a few catch-up photos from times past. Unfortunately India didn't have good internet connections!!!!

These photos are from Arambol in Goa over the festive period!



"Nutboy" every day asking if we wanted to buy cashews from him.



















Lounging around on the beach. Photo taken by Nutboy!

In the Xmas mood!!!! Ahhhhh!














All the guys we stayed with in Goa

Bye to the Baltis Hello to the Ladyboys

Hi one and all and hope you are all doing great in whatever part of the world you are in.

So we have now left the the Arabian shores of India via a 2 and a bit week stop in Sri Lanka and we are now in Bangkok!!!

India was great and now seems ages ago!!! Sri Lanka turned out to be void of many other travellers, full of desperate Sri Lankans doing their best to con as much money out of us (especially the tuk tuk drivers) and so dissappointed since having such a great time in India. Don't get me wrong, apart from the expense and some towns being a bit uninspiring we managed, along with our long time travelling partner Neil and a new friend Dave, to rustle up many an enjoyable time.

Highlights of Sri Lanka was the food for one, in many of the places we stayed as it seemed to be more varied and less bland than some of that in India (although I for one loved my curries) and much more fiery than India. This being surprising as in India we had expected hot food, but even the vindaloos were as spicy as mashed potato. Seriously, even when asked to make hot in many places they still didn't get it. Jay have you had a hot butter chicken since getting back? Of course some of those restaurants we frequently went to got the idea in the end.

A place called Adam's Peak in Sri Lanka was also great. This adventure consisted of getting up at 2am to climb a 2000m high mountain to a temple at the top, in time to watch the sunrise. 5000 odd steps is a killer on the legs. The views were amazing, but what was eerie was the triangular shadow of the mountain that appeared over the clouds and mountains in the distance 10 mins after sunrise. Hopefully we will upload pictures to our blog soon. Here we also met Dave, great bloke who happening to be a hypnotist agreed to help me and Em stop the smoking. So far it has been 2 weeks, and still going strong. We're both very positive about it. Cheers Dave!

We spent the last few days in Sri Lanka in a small town north of Colombo (the capital not the cigar chomping detective) called Negombo. Full of package holiday makers and no other backpackers, at all, we made ourselves comfortable and used a swimming pool of an expensive resort, since ours had none and the beach was full of rubbish.

We have now been in Bangkok for 6 days, longer than we had expected and will be longer still as we will probably not leave until this weekend. When we arrived we threw ourselves into the rigours of shopping. My own big buy was a new digital camera and Em's was a new pair of glasses. The glasses being the main reason we are staying longer as we have to wait for the lenses to be made. The time to make them being longer due to Chinese New Year causing the makers to be closed for 2 extra days.

For those of you that have been here you may wonder on earth we are getting up to as most travellers stay for 3 - 4 days then leave!! We've done the sites, more temples!!! We've done loads of shopping, clothes, required electricals and the like. We've eaten so much Sushi that I think we're growing scales, loving the raw fish and it is really cheap out here!! We went bowling last night in a great alley, really well funkily designed and only a quid a game. And of course we have been living it up drinking stylee!!! We have seen 2 famous stars whilst out here. Firstly, and maybe more exciting to GB, was the drunk blond identical twin out of Hollyoaks!!! Secondly was Zinedine Zidane (Ex French and Real Madrid footballer for those who don't know) sitting in cheaper seats literally just behind us. His name was called out on the tanoy which then caused everyone to look at him, the Asians in the house fascinated that he was there. Apparently started to refuse autographs.

We are heading of up to Chang Mai to do some trekking and stay with some hill tribes. Then we are not quite sure what we are going to do. We never planned where we were going to go in SE Asia!!! Maybe some of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam, or perhaps head south via the party islands and check out Indonesia!

sri lanka

hello everyone just a quikie. we are both sitting in an internet cafe at the moment in bangkok, doing major catch up work with the old emails and blogs. HOORAH!!! we have fast computers at last.
I have been really enjoying our time here so far, but that story is for jamie to tell, in the next installment.
I am here to tell you a story, so sit down and make yourselves comfortable children, for this is a story of the mystical magical world of Sri Lanka, where the shadows fall on the clouds and the lesser spotted package tourist is rife in the trees.
We started our Sri Lankan experience in a place called Negumbo, and our friend the wonderfull Neil was still with us.
As we had only two weeks we wanted to make the most of our time there, so we started off moving the day after we arrived, and we all agreed that we where gonna have to bomb it to get around to most places.
Firstly we decided to move up to Anuradhapura, as we where told there where some of the worlds largest stupers there plus the famous sacred bhodi tree. Having been bowled away by how neat and unlittered negumbo was we where even more bowled away by how nice the first coach we got on for this journey was. Air con as standard!!! ...............But then it all went down hill from there!
The second coach we got on was basically like we where back in India! Oh what happy memories! We arrived at our destination with a 4 year old lonley planet guide, which we soon found out the prices where maybe 3x more than what this guide had said. Plus the place was like a Ghost town! I have to admit this place is proberly the furthest North I would personally go in Sri Lanka, which is proberly why there was no fellow travellers or even package peeps and why all the locals seemed to be trying to rip us over!!!!
The sites where of a disapointing standard, and we even got a tour guide around a mueseum that said she spoke English..........God help me I did not understand a word..........but of course she made sure we could understand that she had children and a husband that needed tips!
As you can imagine, we did not stay long.
We then did a climb up a large jutting volcanic rock called Sigiriya, that is famous for having a ruined castle on the top. It was built thousands of years ago by a Agraphobic king who was permanatly paranoid he was going to be invaded. He built this to live in, only to one day come down with a large army on elephant back to finally face his demons, and be deserted by his people and left to die in a swamp that he stupidly led them all in to. He killed himself due to severe embarrasment. Maybe a little bit of a sandwhich short of a picnic!

On to the next place..... Kandy, where I must say we kicked back a few days in a really nice hotel with a TV!!!! This is where we learnt of poor old Bernard Matthews and all those surprise letters to the dvla!. We did use it as a base though to see a few sites, the Botanical Gardens we went to where brilliant, there was a beautifull Orchid House there.... Chelle you would of loved it!........and also an Elephant Orphanage. I got to stroke an Elephant which was lovely, but even though they where obviously trying to do something good, by starting this place, there was still something there that made it feel uncomfatable. Though English standards are not Sri Lankan standards, and you have to keep on telling yourself that when your there.

After Kandy we all went straight onto a place called Dalhousie where we all went up a Mountain called Adams Peak at 2.30 in the morning to make it to the top for sunrise. This is a pilgrims route and there where lots of people doing it at the same time. Its lit up all the way, with 5000 steps to climb. Its famous for the shadow that falls on the coulds. My God my legs ached for days after, but I felt so good for doing it! It was proberly the most mentally and physically challenenging thing I have ever done. What a moment it was to watch the sunrise from the top, with all these pilgrims around you and drumming in the background.
Any way I will leave you now to pass on to Jamie. I hope you have enjoyed this story of mine, and here are some photos of our time along the way in India and Sri Lanka
em xxx