Here's what we have been up to.
Once we decided our route, the next step was to choose our accomodation. You can spend an absolute age on this one. We went for a deadly combination of trip advisor, booking.com and recommendations.
We found a mixture of the exotic, the functional and the downright cheap. The result was a smorgasbord of hotels that suited our overall budget and meant that when we woke up in the morning, we knew we were in South East Asia not South East England !
The Vie in Bangkok, the Renaissance in KL, the Majestic in Melaka, the Frangipani Palace in Phnom Penn and the Hua Hin Resort and Spa. These are our City hotels. We have a lovely little place on the beach at Had Yao in Trang province. A basic hotel in Kota Bharu for £8. A family run place in Siem Reap.
We have decided to have 13 nights on three special islands and we went for Koh Lanta's Crown resort. The Anantara on Koh Phangan and finally the Koh Tao Heights.
Oh, and if you think I've got it all sorted out. The Jungle line is closed for maintenance. We have an hour to get from the Catamaran port to Chumphon railway station. Now I thought that the port of Chumphon was at Chumphon because it is advertised as in Chumphon. It is actually as close to Chumphon as London Luton airport is close to London.
Not to mention the land border in Southern Thailand at Sungai Kolok. But we don't mention that.
Still, if a journey is easy or there are elderly rich fat people doing it, it's not worth doing.
That's what my Nan used to say.
And she built a yurt in Mongolia's Gobi Desert in the 1930's.
