Homeward bound

We’ve had such an amazing six months; met some fantastic people, stayed with some great friends and seen so many things. We’ve experienced around 12 different modes of transport (I think the elephant still has to be our favourite), seen two of the world’s seven natural wonders, got through six pairs of flip flops, four pairs of sunglasses and countless mozzie bites and beers...time really flies when you’re jet setting around the globe.

 
It’s difficult to think of our main highlights at the moment, as it all seems like only yesterday and too soon to reminisce, but off the top of our heads, our best bits from the last 187 days would have to include:
• Watching the Foo Fighters in Madison Square Gardens.
• Camping in the Grand Canyon in the height of winter!
• Driving and camping along the Pacific Highway.
• Watching the penguins make their way home for the evening, on Philip Island, Australia.
• Watching the sunrise over Black Beach in Mackay.
• Snorkelling on the Great Barrier Reef.

• Driving around Phuket on our scooter.
• A jungle trek with Vern the elephant.
 

Now it’s back to the grindstone and saving for our next big adventure, hopefully in the not too distant future.

 
Although it’s been an absolute blast and a whirlwind of fun and new experiences, there are a lot of things about Scotland we miss and we seriously can’t wait to get home to see family and friends again.

 
As we write in this, in the Bangkok airport, we can think of a number of home comforts we’re looking forward to...
•  Home cooked food – Emily's craving mac n' cheese in particular.
•  Having a nice, normal cup of tea.
•  A full Scottish breakfast.
•  Enjoying the benefits of a shower for more than one hour.
•  Pavements and crossings.
•  Not having to douse ourselves in bug spray before heading out for the evening.
•  Clean, safe tap water (and that reminds me, coming off the malaria tablets).
•  Surprisingly, we are kind of looking forward to the temperate climate.
•  Rediscovering the joy of wearing socks.
•  And finally...meeting Emily’s new niece, who was born just after we left – We can’t wait to meet you Libby!

 Our  next and final stop (for a little while at least) – Edinburgh on Friday morning. 
 

Back to Bangkok

We arrived in a muggy Bangkok around 10am (this train was only running 3 hours late!). The journey from Chang Mai was great. The train was a little different to the overnight trains we’d experienced in Vietnam – this time we didn’t have individual cabins – the whole carriage was open and the seats at your station made up into bunk beds. The train crew come by throughout the evening to make up your beds for you. Despite not having our own, little cabin, we slept really well (we were a little worried when we spotted a little girl getting on the train with a massive Casio keyboard, but she saved her practising for breakfast time). The bunks were so comfortable and apart from the occasional chronic snorer, it was great (pretty much everyone went to bed around 10pm!)

The staff on the train were also noticeably happier and more friendly (they actually took drink orders from your seats, so you didn’t need to walk to the catering car, which was an absolute bonus). We ordered dinner on the train and got an absolute feast for the price of £4 - bargain!

After arriving back at the Bangkok Centre Hotel (where we started our trip), we chilled out for a bit before heading out for shoe shopping (Arran chose to sit this activity out). We had plans to go to the luxurious Sky Bar and catch a show later on, so we desperately needed to buy some "going out" shoes (we didn’t think our flip flops would get us past the front door of the Sky Bar!). Fon took us to the most amazing shopping mall. It’s the largest mall in Thailand and is also a wholesale mall, so the clothes and shoes are already pretty cheap, but if you by multiple items you can negotiate a further discount. Each floor was dedicated to a different item – bags, shoes, clothes etc, so we made our way up to the shoes. It took so long to look round all the shops (easily 2 hours), but in the end we got an absolute bargain - £6 a pair.

After an early dinner we headed out for the Lady Boy Cabaret show. It was great fun, although we were sitting quite close to the front so we did find some of the lady boys more convincing than others – the strong jaw and hands are a big giveaway.

We then headed over to the Sky Bar, the bar used in the Hangover Part 2 movie. It was so busy, obviously the movie has had a big impact on this place. 

Amazing views from the top of the Sky Bar and a really funky jazz band, but at £10-20 for a drink we only stayed to soak up the views and atmosphere, so we headed over to another bar in town for some farewell drinks to Vicki and our tour leader Fon! (Thanks for everything guys, it’s been great).

We’ve now checked into our last hotel, the aptly named Hip Boutique Hotel in the centre of the CBD. We’ll be staying here for the next two nights and we’re planning on just chilling  out at the pool and relaxing in the roof top bar, before we embark on our long haul flight home on Friday morning!

Two nights in Chang Mai

We had a really comfortable drive to Chang Mai in our own, very posh, minibus complete with DVD player and movies (thanks Fon!). It was only a four hour drive from Chiang Khong, but we stopped off at two major attractions en route - Wat Rong Khun and a cashew nut factory!

The Wat Rong Khun temple was spectacular. It was designed by a Thai artist called Chalermchai Kositpipat. It’s a rather unconventional Buddhist and Hindu temple as it’s completely white and constructed mostly from glass (which made it very sparkly in the sunshine).

Even the public toilets, next to the temple were amazing (and probably the nicest toilets we’ve been to in Asia).

The cashew nut factory was pretty interesting too (who knew that cashew nuts came from fruits on trees!) but the shop was even better – so many different flavours of cashew nuts we spent a lot of time tasting before buying.

Chang Mai was a great place. Very much like Bangkok, but not quite as manic. Our best bits would have to be:

• Chilling out by the hotel pool.
• Visiting the old city (surrounded by a huge red brick wall).
• Shopping in the amazing night market on Walking Street.
• Drinking lovely cocktails in the River Bar while listening to a Beatles cover band.
 

We left Chang Mai around in the early evening and boarded our overnight train to our final stop – Bangkok.