Well Koh Chang has been fantastic too.. we haven't done much except laze around on the beach and ride our motorbikes up and down the island in search of different beaches! lol
Its been a good place to relax before we step over into Cambodia tomorrow..

The beaches are lovely here, beautiful clear water. We made some little Thai friends as u can see in the pic. Three 9 yr old boys kept bringing me shells while i was lazing around on my lilo.. we ended up having so much fun with them! Just like when you were on holiday as a kid.. didnt matter that we didnt speak the same language.. just messed about in the sea. Ali was chuckin these kids around in the sea, and i was miserably losing the 'who can stand on the lilo the longest' game! It was a real shame when it got to be time to leave... thai kids are amazing. Not at all like screaming, whiny, needy, spoilt western kids. I'm so glad i never was one ;)

Our last day in Koh Chang has been our busiest, we went swimming with dolphins in Chanthaburi, which is close to but not actually on the island. It was really cool getting pulled along by dolphins, and the first ones we swam with were pink! On the way back we met alovely American couple, Jack and Christel (originally german) and were off for dinner with them this evening. They are really lovely and have already given us their contact details and offered us a place to stay in Chicago when we get there. They seem pretty well travelled and there son studied law in england for a bit, really interesting people and Christel gave us some safety advice about Cambodia.

Both of us are a bit nervous about getting to Cambodia.. we may have been robbed in our sleep in thailand but generally we are pretty chilled when it comes to leaving our stuff in hostels etc.. and we dont carry a lot of money on us so no need for moneybelts.
Cambodia is different... first we have to get in, past the crooked officials who try and make u pay extra when getting your visa, and there are no atms.. so u have to carry a lot of money around.. so we need the money belt. Plus we cant leave things in hostels there like we have here.. it's all gonna be a lot more hassle.
Having said that, not sure about Ali, but this part of the trip is the bit im most excited about.. mostly because it will be harder and less westernised. Thailand is a different culture from what we're used to but its so built around tourists nowadays (which is great mostly!) that the experience is kind of diluted.
Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos.. they should be much more of a culture shock.

So wish us luck, and dont stress if you dont hear from us for the next few weeks. We have no idea what internet access there'll be. Of course, by now.. theres probably a starbucks on every corner, 2 Mcdonalds per person, and an internet cafe every 2 metres!

Oh wow we're gettin behind with the blog! SO much going on all the time!
So.. we took the sleeper train up to Chang Mai.. it was 16 hrs about.. and we honestly thought we would fall out our beds and die (see how worried i look in the photo -actually I have NO idea what that face was about!) but we didn't. Instead we got a bit drunk, and Ali swung around the bunks like a monkey!

My friend Richard was with us, he met us in Bangkok.. and took the lower, safer bunk option. Damn him.
Chiang Mai was fantastic.. so much to do.

Went to a snake farm, Ali wouldn't hold the snake! Another monkey farm.. just can't get enough of those little cuties! One kept sitting holding my hand :)
A shooting range.. Ali did a bunjee jump! (we have a video but no photos) Went to a zoo called Koala zoo.. it had NO koalas! Plenty of crocodiles tho :) and saw lots of buddhist temples.. I chatted to a monk for a bit which was interesting.
To get around we rented a jeep again.. it was much scarier driving in Chiang Mai as the roads were busy, and we had to drive on some motorways! Mental.

The night bizarres were fantastic. First place we actually did some real shopping cuz things were so cheap. Of course it's hard to buy anything because we can't carry much.. Richard took some things back for us.. including my new blue (obviously) electric guitar - I just couldn't resist! And some lovely artwork.

We went bamboo rafting, and elephant riding (I wanted to buy a picture painted by an elephant on paper made from elephant dung! But it was too expensive for paint on poo), rode an ox and cart, and we also took a cooking course. That was fantastic. Really enjoyed learning to cook Thai food, and we all ate far too much! There's a pic of what we made.. I think you'll agree we're pretty amazing... and they taste even better than they look!

Our favourite activity HAD to be whitewater rafting tho. It was bloody scary, especially since on the last rapid our raft capsized and all of us had to float down the rapid just praying we didn't hit any rocks! We actually stayed an extra day just to do the rafting but we got a cheap deal and it was WELL worth it!

The only negative thing at all about Chiang Mai was the fact that the bars surrounding us wre filled with thai whores. Ali avoided them (he tells them he's gay!) but Richard LOVED it... he even 'made friends' with one called Tig. Nevermind...

So having had an awesome time up north, we headed south to Koh Chang to hit the beaches before travelling to Cambodia, Vietnam and Laos. It's an odd way round to do it but Nick (a mate of mine from uni 4 those who dont know him) arrived in Thailand a week ago, so we planned to meet him. The journey down took 25 hrs on buses and boats. We got robbed while we slept on the bus from Chiang Mai to Bangkok, and when we finally arrived exhausted and peeved, the hut we booked was a cockroach filled hole. Oh joy of joys! I got chased around my hut by a cockroach, much to Ali's amusement, and finally got chased right out of it and had to crash in Ali's hut! Much to his annoyance! lol

Nevermind, we stayed there one night and the next day found a much better place to stay for not much more, and we found Nick. Spent the day on the beach today and so far.. not too many whores about the place. (Although apparantly Nick & Charlie have found some.. if u know Nick.. do ask him about his thai women experiences - hehe.. Olwyn.. he's DIRT! Magaluf wave baby)

Really loving Thailand, looking forward to the rest of south east asia though, miss everyone loads. Wish u could be here! (well some of you) :)

Well guys,

finally a real update hey! it's been a fantastic 2 weeks. After kanchanaburi, we headed down south to Kao Tao, a little island down in the south of thailand. beautiful.
long journey there - 10 hours on a coach, lot of waitinf around wondering if we'd ever get picked up! then a 2 hour boat journey that made everyone feel like breakfast was a bad idea!
Worth every second tho. The beaches were beautiful, and the island so small that nearly everything was walking distance.
both of us tried diving for a day but on different days and different courses as Ali already has his padi qualification. really good fun but expensive so we spent much of our week in Koh tao just lazing around on the beach, and snorkelling. We did fit in a round of mini golf on our last night.. obviously i won :)

From koh tao we took a boat to koh pha-ngan. Much more to do there as the island is double the size. We stayed in the north which was quite quiet but we met shane and lauren, a couple from England 9although lauren is south african) and we hung out with them for quite a bit, including at the full moon party on the south of the island - Haad Rin beach. That was amazing, you can see from the photos we had an awesome time. Drinks were served in bucket form.. literally a bucket of ice, a can of coke, a red bull and a 35 cl bottle of rum/whisky/vodka! They whack it all in and unsurprisingly, everyone gets wrecked. ali was skipping about like a schollgirl! people ere passed out all over the beach! There was even a designated sleeping area! but most people just passed out randomly, I think one girl may actually have been dead, but we weren't too concerned cuz we were busy! lol (i'm sure she was fine).

The beach we stayed on was fantastic, our hut literally looked out onto the beach. we tried a bit of kayaking and snorkelling but Ali was afraid of sharks, and I was afraid of crabs and slugs so it was more of an adventure than it sounds! seaslugs... ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

PARENTS - LOOK AWAY NOW (if you didn't it's your own fault and u can't get mad..)

The second day we wanted to do things around the island, so we rented a jeep! Yep that's right.. we drove ourselves around ina jeep with a broken speedometer and handbrake! and yep, neither of us have a license! but they didn't ask.. and we weren't going to tell them! the roads are bad in koh pha-ngan but not busy at least. sorry parents, we're being safe.. honest.. we wore seatbelts :) andit's better than falling of a motorbike.. not that i did that! Ali has a tattoo anyway. (phew, that took the heat off me for a sec)

having the jeep saved us loads of time and money, we saw a chinese temple, fed some elephants, got our legs waxed by crazy thais (err ok that was just me) and had some lunch in the main town. it was the best way to see the whole of the island.

so.. south was amazing and we're nice and brown. now we're in bangkok waiting for the sleeper train to take us north to chang mai. my friend richard joined us yesterday and is with us for 2 weeks. so we'll update you soon.

missing you all, let us know how u all are and what u think of our pics. it's only a shame we cant put more on - it was hard to choose which few to post!

love to you all
Tara and Ali (who is actually here this time)

hey guys,
have loads to tell u but the having problems with the photos at the moment so will update in the next few days!
Sorry guys - we've had an awesome couple of weeks and will tell u ALL about it when i can get these damn photos to work.
Gotta sleep now.. long journey just completed and nother one tomorrow to Chang mia, miss u all loads!
Tara (and Ali who is currently playing poker) xxx