Hi world, hope all is well with you.

We are now in Phi Phi Don island, still in the South and the monsoon seems firmly behind this, in reality this means the refreshing showers in the afternoon are no more and the temperature is going off the scale.

We arrived in Phi Phi last Wednesday and it took us less than four hours from arriving to booking Virginie onto her first scuba diving course. She is now a fully qualified (open water course) diver and had four dives in her book. While we were at it I did a refresher course as I hadn't dived in four years, much to my surprise I could still do most of the things I needed to and even remembered eventually how to use a dive table.

So far between us we have seen Black tip sharks (don't worry they're not man eaters) spotted sting ray, barracuda, great turtles, octopus and of course nemo! (yes countless other incredible fish too and a blue and black sea snake - not my favorite) The snorkelling is incredible and the beaches wonderful white sand.

We are both in good health and I still desperately love my bride. Our honeymoon is going swimmingly and she seems even keener than me to make our next dive.

We plan to meet Simon B-L in Bankok this weekend and hope that I can offload my main backpack on him along with sleeping bag and tent that we want for New Zealand.

Sorry no pictures of us, but we aren't carrying around a digital camera, this seems to be wise judging by the number that have broken all around us since we arrived. So no, I'm afraid the cute one on the beach, although a bit like us are stand-ins.

Love to all and keep the comments coming they are fun to read and remind us there is a world back home that cares.

Rob & Virginie

Bonjour tout le monde , nous voila a l'est de la ou nous etions sur une plage superbe avec une vue a damner les saints, Railay beach.
Le logement est basique mais suffisant des petits bungalows avec salle de bains, le tout a ciel 'ouvert'.
On a meme droit a une visite nocturne de Gekho , singe et ...rat mais bon.

Nos bungalows se trouventsur une charmante plage adjacente de railay ,Ton Say Beach.Et pour se rendre sur la plage de railay on traverse au dessus des rochers ou dans l'eau de preference a maree basse.
Le premier jour nous avons rencontre un couple Israelien avec qui nous avons fait de l'escalade, jusqu a ce qu une terrible tempete eclate.Tentes dans un premier temps d 'attendre a l abris le passage de l'orage, nous decidames d affronter les elements car la maree commencait a monter.

Quand nous sommes arrives aux rochers la nuit commencait a tomber et on ne voyait pas plus loin que le bout de notre nez...ce fut dans l'eau jusqu au coup dans le noir au milieu de la foudre et des eclairs que nous trouvames le chemin du retour.Apres avoir il me semble evite meduses serpents et autres.Un peu effrayes sur le moment et on en rit deja...

Aujourd hui ce fut du kayack pendant 3 heures pour se rendre a une ile en face de nous mais pas si pres que ca, le detour valait le coup sable blanc tout au long de la cote et mer emeraude...


Tout va bien meme si un peu creves.
Bisous R & V

So life is tough, after an 18 hours bus journey we finally reached Krabi Town .We then took a 'taxi' of sort to get to our beach..
We have been staying for the last few days next to Nopparat Beach, a lovely bay sprinkled with little islands.

On the far right you can see James Bond's island, where' l homme au pistolet d or ' was filmed.Yesteray we rented a bike and had a good look at our surroundings;The gastropode beach also called shell beach because the water bed is made of fossilised shells, Phang Na bay absolutely gorgeous where we intend to go kayaking, and a spot further north where we visited a small but cute park with cristal clear water and a bunch of kids happily bathing.

A few days longer around here and we will head for the Phi Phi islands for maybe a bit of diving...In a few words everything is fine and we are happy bunnies.

Kisses
R&V
PS;alors l'anglais des francais s'ameliore..si vous avez des questions ...

Bonjour a tous et a toutes,

Un petit coucou avant de quitter Bangkok en pleine mousson, on s entend a peine penser avec la pluie qui tambourine sur la tolle des toits.
Apres avoir change nos billets d avion et regle nos visas pour le vietnam nous voila en route pour Krabi dans le sud pour soleil et plongee sous marine...

On a reserve notre place dans un bus 4 etoiles....avec toilettes

Jusqu ici tout va bien et nos estomacs semblent avoir resistes ...pour le ptit dej j ai eu droit a une crepe a la banane avec un the et du LAIT.
J ai maintenant les cheveux courts et blond platine , il ne me reste plus qu a convaincre Rob de faire de meme.....
De gros bisous a tous

We made it! A few interesting bits on the way including a stressed but controlled air crew dealing with wild babies and collapsing adults, one of whom ended up stretched out and on oxygen. We however were in the lap of luxury with emergency exit seats and acres of leg room, no bad thing!

After exiting through customs without so much as a sideways glance I am kicking myself for listening to the travel company that insisted we have our tickets showing our departure from Thailand on the 6th or so of November, so we now have to go and get it changed. Ah well, not the end of the world, we have at least located the Quantas shop so we are off there later today.

We decided to take the easy option from the airport and jumped into a taxi, not as extravagent as it sounds as the taxis here are the standard method of transport as they are very cheap and airconditioned. It was however for a different reason that we grabbed this option with both hands, it is in the middle of the monsoon! To avoid being washed away we thought it easier to aim straight for a hostel and the food before some well earned rest. We found a bargain hostel with airconditioning and ensuite bathroom (if you can call a hosepipe in the wall and a cracked seat en-suite) for 300 bht so around 4 pounds or 6 euros. The reason for the great price became apparent at about 1am with pumping music with could even be heard above the rain and thunder, and that's saying something.

All for know, we'll let you know how we get on, we hope to find the Cambodian and Vietnamese embassies for visa requests and the quantas shop to switch our dates, and of course fit in a few meals here and there.

Love, R & V

Well I think we are all prepared - or at least as prepared as we are likely to get. We have had a few last minute jabs - well I did, Virginie was all up to date on that front. We have got our malaria pills and have even got ourselves a mosquito net, all I have to do now is make sure we are sober enough to hang the thing...

We are due in Bangkok on Monday and arrive in the new airport that opened last month, lets just hope it is as easy to navigate as the last one. Since we are doing this trip on a budget we are headed of to the Khao San Road, probably one of the largest traveller hang outs in the whole of south east asia. We intend to base ourselves there for a couple of days to give us a chance to see Simon, (my oldest friend, the gemologist who lives down in Chantaburi towards the Cambodian border) suss out a plan with when we can meet up, see what the weather has in store and where we think we want to go.

Notre itineraire

avec Quantas 6 stops, 29,000 miles
our mileage 28,029

London- Bangkok Monday 6 Oct

Cambodia-Vietnam-Laos

Bangkok-Singapore Friday 26 Jan

Singapore-Bali Saturday 27 Jan

Bali-Auckland Sunday 25 Feb

Christchurch-Sydney Thursday 19 April

Cairns-Perth Sunday 20 May

Perth-Johannesburg Tuesday 19 June

Johannesburg-London Friday 10 Aug

Le grand depart

Nous voila fin prets, le grand depart sera dimanche 8 octobre.

Au programme ,premier stop, la Thailande ou nous commencerons par regler les divers visas a Bangkok avant de se diriger vers les plages de sable fin.