Final Stop... Bangkok, Thailand, SE Asia

Back to Bangkok one final time to catch my flight home to London. After 9 amazing months, it was time to get back to reality, find a job and settle back down to life in the UK. Before that though I had 1 final night and day left.

Amazingly, by pure coincidence with timing, Johno, Caroline and Kelly - aka Paddy & Murphy (check out my 'Team Brasilia' photos on my blog) were also in Bangkok over this time. I was absolutely thrilled to be spending my last days with great friends that I had made nearly 9 months ago at the very start of my trip. Having met them in Brazil, I had managed to hook up with Johno in Buenos Aires, Taupo, Sydney and now Bangkok and my Irish lassies in Buenos Aires and twice in Sydney and again now in Bangkok.

Johno and I spent my last night drinking Chang beer and lots of buckets on Khao San Road, then meeting up with the girls once they had landed in Bangkok that very night. The next day was spent catching up with eachother until the moment came when I had to board the Airport Express bus.

So, 'all good things must come to an end' and I would say 'good' is a massive understatement. I had an absolutely wicked time, have seen some amazing places, experienced wonderful cultures and met brilliant people. Lots of awesome memories that will stay with me for the rest of my life plus thousands of photos should I ever need reminding of how lucky I am to have done such a thing. So, for now it's back to the grind stone in not so sunny England. Looking forward to catching up with all my family and friends.

Perhentian Islands, Malaysia, SE Asia

From one paradise island to another, this time on the East coast of Malaysia, I took the boat over to Pulau Kecil the smaller island of the two which mainly is occupied by the backpacking traveller.

Long Beach was the main stretch in Pulau Kecil with basic accommodation and a scattering of restaurants plus a grand total of 4 bars! Definitely more quiet than Thailand, with alcohol not widely available due to the strong Muslim culture. The beautiful white sandy and crystal clear waters more than made up for the small amount of facilities on the island, which for me enabled me to switch off from everything except for the week ahead which once again entailed scuba diving and chilling out in the sunshine.

Within an hour of arriving I had signed myself up with Sea Dragons and was diving a ship wrecked the very next morning. The weather on the East coast seems to have been affected with the monsoon weather from the West Coast slightly making its way over, and so with a little rainfall the visibility was affected. Unfortunately for me, the week of diving had visibility of 5-10 metres with it reaching 15 metres on my final day. It was unlucky for me as the Perhentians can boast up to 25 metres visibility with everything than anything swimming in your path.

Still, I managed to see lots of exciting marine life than I didn't spot in Koh Tao, Jenkins Whip Rays, Blue Spotted Sting Rays, an eerie ship wreck (a cargo ship which sank 6 years ago), plus lots of other things..

6 nights in the Perhentians was basically a routine of 2 dives a day, laying in the sun, eating and sleeping. As it wasn't a real party scene I took advantage of the early nights and detox from alcohol in preparation for coming home.

Kuala Lumpur was my next stop after the Perhentians, my final city of my entire travels. For me, KL lacked character and tourist attractions, however, the shopping would have made up for this if I had the money to blow. A day running around the city looking at the Petronas Twin Towns (once the highest in the world), Merdeka Square and Central Market and then it was a short flight back to Bangkok to catch my flight home.

Still in Koh Tao, Thailand, SE Asia

Doh!! It would seem the beach bum just couldn't manage to leave the island... so for me Koh Pha Ngan will just have to wait for the next time. The idea rattled around in my head for days, and finally I came to the conclusion that Koh Tao had everything I needed:

• A beach
• The sea
• Excellent diving
• I've made fun friends
• Had some crazy nights out
• Had some chilled out nights
• Yummy food

So why move? PLUS if I moved onto a new island, I would never have been persuaded to do a day trip to Sail Rock, one of the best dive sites on the Gulf of Thailand, and I would never have seen a WHALE SHARK!!!! Which in my book, will probably be listed as one of the most amazing things I have seen in my 9 months travelling.

Sadly though, it goodbye Koh Tao, and thanks to all the lovely people I've met and chilled out with, Big Blue Dive Resort (sorry for calling it 'Deep Blue' for the past 3 weeks!) and Crystal Dive Resort - I've had a wicked time. I hope Malaysia will bring on the same!

Koh Tao, Thailand, SE Asia

I was glad to get back to Thailand and that was for a couple of reasons 1) I was craving Pad Thai and 2) I couldn't wait to get to the beach and chill in the sun!

Koh Tao is the place to go for cheap diving and is famed for great visibility, so keen to get back into the water I headed straight there. I signed myself up for the Advanced Open Water course which took just 2 days and was easy peasy to pass. A deep water dive, another night dive and navigation dive under my belt and I felt myself get a lot more confident under the water. Koh Tao has some pretty dive sites and we were spoilt for the number of fish we saw, including 2 sharks at the Chumporn Pinnacles.

The rest of my time in Koh Tao has been chilling on the beach, thinking about how to spend my last month travelling, reading, chatting, and basically not doing very much at all - pure bliss! A couple of extra dives and a snorkelling trip (saw lots more sharks!) to break up the days of lazing around, but basically this is me for the time being.

I am hoping to move onto Koh Pha Ngan in the next couple of days, but Koh Tao has it all, diving, nice beaches, sunshine, nightlife and so I may well get stuck here until it's time to move on to the Perenthian Islands, Malaysia for 5 days of full on diving. I will keep you posted!

Zhongdian & Dali, China, Asia

The closest place to Tibet without actually going there, this Tibetan Town is the place where we rested after trekking the gorge. An Old Town with many little shops selling Tibetan knick knacks, cafes, bars & restaurants. We spent most of our time here looking around the shops, and watching traditional Tibetan dancing in the main square in the evenings.

The next day a few of us hired bikes and went and explored an local monastry. Quite an easy ride, however, still at altitude the slightest incline but us feel completely unfit and very tired by the end of it. With not much to do in this town, it was a good opportunity for some down time, drinking coffee and playing cards.

Our last stop on tour was the pretty town of Dali. It's main feature being the large lake (200km) and its Old Town. Again, some of hired bicycles and was keen to see the real rural China - armed with lots of water we meandered through the many rice paddies and farms, watching the local farmers tend to their crops. Small little paths led us through little villages and many fields.

With only a day here, we then explored the Old Town with more cobbled streets, cafes and bars. Dali noted the end to my time in China, such a large country with an intense history however, I am pleased with the ground I covered. With the Olympics being held in Beijing in 2008, who knows what the country will be like in the next 5 years, will it become a New World country? A lot of change is taken place already with construction work everywhere, a good thing in the Chinese peoples eyes. Definitely a country I am keen to learn more about, and pleased that I have seen it now before more dramatic changes happen.

Lijiang & the Tiger Leaping Gorge, China, Asia

9 hours from Kunming is the beautiful quaint town of Lijiang. Unfortunately our time here was purely a whistle stop before heading onto the Tiger Leaping Gorge, and so as soon as we got of the bus it was straight into the endless cobbled streets within the Old Town.

Having structurely survived an earthquake in 1996, (hitting the richter scale of 7 and kiiling 300 people, injuring 16,000), the UN made Lijiang a World Heritage site in 1999, which has meant that today the town is flooded with Chinese tourists and no longer a haunt for backpackers as it once was.

We had 1 evening to stroll around the maze of streets buying any souveniers that took our fancy before heading to the gorge the next day,

The Tiger Leaping Gorge - where the Yangzi River flows between the Haba Mountain and Yulong Xueshan, and through one of the deepest gorges in the world. The length of the gorge reaches 16km whilst the highest peak hits 3,000 metres. We begun our trek up the gorge a little late in the day after the unfortunate event of our bus breaking down which meant that we were climbing during the hottest part of the day. With no shade, this was quite tough but the majority of us were determined to reach the peak as planned by sunset.

We reached our 1st halfway mark at 4pm, and still had another 3 hours to go. The next 3 hours were going to be the toughest has it took in 28 bends which were steep and winding. With the time constraint and wanting to make it to the peak and then down to our guesthouse before nightfall, I made friend with 'Mavis' - my trusted mule who helped me reach the peak in good time.

All throughout the trek the scenery was spectacular! The Yangzi River wound itself through the rugged gorge with snowcapped mountains surrounding the place - simply beautiful! Once we reached the peak of the trail, we descending for one hour before reaching our guesthouse where we sat and watched the mountains change colour as the sun went down and the moon came up.

The 2nd day of the trek was mainly flat which some steep descending, however, the scenery on the this day was ever changing with each twist and turn of the gorge. Stunning, stunning, stunning, and definitely rates as best scenery in the whole of my Asian jaunt. With the trekking being relativelty easy on this day we were able to take our time and just marvel at the sight before us.

We had heard throughout the 2 days that there had been 3 landslides at the bottom of the gorge blocking the road out, and so there was always the possibility that we would have to do the trek again to get back to where we started to catch a bus out. However, we were all keen to assessed the seriousness of the landslides rather than taking the back tracking option. On the 3rd day we took a bus to the 1st landslide, and we were all taken a back by how big the landslide was. Still keen to keep moving forward and not head up the gorge again, we held our bottle, remembered to move quickly to avoid the falling rumble and never looked down!! For on our left hand side was just a sheer drop into the Yangzi River. 1st landslide over, and all over the other side successfully, we then had to clamber over the 2nd one which for me was the most scary - still we all survived but agreed that we wouldn't like to have to do that again!

Chengdu & Kunming, China, Asia

5.30am and we arrived in Chengdu on an overnight train, an early arrival but it meant that we were able to get to the Chengdu Panda Reserve straight after breakfast when the pandas are at their most active. An ecological conservation base dedicated to saving the Chinese endangered species - Giant Pandas and the Red Panda.

We spent a few hours in the reserve, watching pandas ranging from 6 months to 7 years old, eating away on copious amounts of bamboo, and then fooling around in their enclosures, swinging from trees and playing with eachother. 44 pandas are well looked after in the reserve with just another 1000 living in the wild - a tough job to keep their breeding program going and saving the pandas from extintion.

Aside from the panda reserve, Chengdu has a lot of space to relax. A beautiful monastry , Remnin Park (People's Park) where a few of spent hours in a typical Chinese tea house, drinking tea and playing cards whilst sitting next to a pretty lake. Surrounded by locals doing exactly the same thing, it was an excellent way to take time out from a hectic tour.

In Chengdu we also had the opportunity to to partake in a cookery class, having already took a lesson in Thai Cookery earlier on in my trip I was eager to pick up some tips on Chinese cooking. 5 dishes later and I learnt that the basics to Chinese cooking is oil, salt, sugar, soy sauce, vinegar and corn flour. Much of the cooking is fried and so after the course I realised that it's not particularly that healthy - I have no idea how Chinese people stay so slim!

With the end to the 1st part of our trip, our next train was to Kunming where 5 people would leave the tour and another 5 people would join. Kunming itself is not that interesting but is a gateway in and out of China, luckily for us we were celebrating a 30th birthday which meant we spent the afternoon in a bar, followed by dinner, followed by more drinks and games and finally moving on to kareoake!!! A social event that is taken very seriously in China, so we thought it best to hire our own room and sing at the top of our voices without offending the local people.

Xian, China, Asia

The old Chinese capital city where for 2 million years many Chinese dynasties came and went. A large city with a heavy mix of old and new, big brand new shops including Prada, Gucci etc... set amongst traditional Chinese monuments such as the Bell and Drum Towers.

The citys' biggest attraction for tourists is of course the Terracotta Warriors which were only discovered in the 1970's. We took the day to visit the Banpo Neolithic Village which dates back to 4500 BC, an example of Yangshao culture from which only 1/4 of the village has so far been discovered. This village gave us an insight into a long and complicated Chinese history before heading on to the Terracotta Warriors.

The Warriors date back to 2000 years but were only founded by 3 farmers who were digging a well jus 30 years ago. It is said that only 1% of the warriors have so far been excavated, and to find them all will take decades.

As well as the Terracotta Warriors, Xian has many other sights including being the only city in China to have its old city walls. A good way to explore them is by bicycle, and so a few of us took of and rode around the 14km of wall. Lots of fun and a great way to work off all the yummy dumplings we had been eating.

An interesting city with lots to keep us occupied, however, after 2 days it was time to move onto Chengdu, home to many Chinese giant pandas.

Zhongwei, China, Asia

A 21 hour afternoon and overnight train, took us out of the capital city and into the Tengger Desert, Inner Mongolia. Sitting between large sand dunes and the Yellow River, this was a completely different world to Beijing.

We sampled the sights of the Yellow River by casually floating downstrean on sheep skin rafts, quite literally bamboo sticks attached to inflated sheep skins. Miraculously we managed to float the whole 2.5 hours without tipping the raft or sinking. The Yellow River is surrounded in sandstone mountains, giving the river its name - the water is supposed to look yellow, although I would say it just looks muddy!.

The next day we headed out into the desert, where we each got to know our individual camels very well, after they led us into the desert up and over numerous sand dunes. Some camels managed to throw their passengers off, mid climbing onto their backs, other camels managed to lose their footing equally resulting into a person landing on the sand. Luckily, Cam the Camel (Cam, this is purely a name thing, as Cam goes with Camel rather than suggesting that you look like a camel...) was as good as gold and survived the desert trek without injury.

We spent the night camping in the desert, watched the sunset over the dunes, toasted marshmellows on the fire and drank warm beer (not a highlight). The next morning we found a newly formed friends (the camels) and made our way back to civilisation to catch another overnight train to Xian.

Beijing, China, Asia

Roughly the size of Belgium, Beijing is an enormous city (16,800km), and so the natural chaos that can be found in most Asian cities can also be found here.

The most obvious attraction to anyone visiting Beijing is of course the Great Wall of China, stretching from the Liaoning Province to Jiayuguan in the Gobi Desert, this wall is extremely long! After day 2 in Beijing, I was able to say that "I climbed the Great Wall of China!". 3 hours out of Beijing city starting from Jin Shan Ling and through Simatai, we completed a 10-15km trek along the wall, that took in some breath taking through up and down the mountainous terrain. Some parts of the wall were in good tact, whereas other parts of the wall were crumbling away, showing the true age of the wall (over 2000 years old).

As the capital of China is on such a large scale, the main sights had to be prioritised. Having ticked off the Great Wall of China, the Forbidden City and Tianamen Square were must sees. Tianamen Square stands as the worlds largest public square, and is quite honestly a huge space of paving stones. The square itself does not have much character, however, if you imagine it at full capacity (it holds 1 million people), you can imagine it to be quite an amazing place. The centre piece (geographically), the square is a place where the old Chinese generation come to pay their respect to Chairman Mao, as it also holds his Mausoleum.

The Forbidden City got it name from being off limits for over 500 years, the ancient buildings were used during to emperor dynasties (Ming and Qing). The area is so large that you would need a few days to explore all of the individual buildings, however, a 1/2 day tour explained some of China's complex history and its highlights.

The night market is not to be missed, with scorpians, coakroaches, sea horses and all sorts on sale for dinner. Those daring amongst us gave the crunchy creepy crawlies ago, however, i just settled for chewing on a bit of snake!

Siem Reap, Cambodia, SE Asia

2nd and final stop in Cambodia, which unfortunately means that my time here was very short, however, it ended with me seeing one the wonders of the world - the world's biggest religious building; Angkor Wat (plus the MANY temples that surround the area).

The entire Cambodian nation is proud that they hold this title that it is even the main symbol on their national flag, and to explore this temple plus all of the other temples within the vicinity could take days or even weeks. Therefore, in such a short space of time we were only able to see the highlights.

Starting the day at 6.30am meant that it was full on, first stop being the big one itself. Having arrived so early meant that we could wander and absorb the enormity of Angkor Wat (its tallest point stands at 55 metres high) without bumping into hordes of tourists along the way. As we walked around and listened to our guide, we were able to understand the stories behind many of the carvings on the walls and the intricate details that makes the temple so special. A UNESCO heritage site, which meant that the building is very well preserved, so much so that it was easy to see the original reddish colour.

Around Angkor Wat sits many, many other temples, including Angkor Thom which made it onto our short list of ones to see. Bayon sits within the Angkor Thom complex and makes an interesting stop with its 216 enormous faces peering at you as if they are watching you every move. Bayon was followed by a couple of smaller temple and then to finish the day we visited Ta Phrom, or the Jungle Temple as it is fondly know as.

Ta Phrom has been overtook with nature, roots of trees a hundred years old or more have managed to work their way into crumbling bricks, climbing through, up and around its many nooks and crannies. It was amazing to see how drastic nature has took its course, causing many areas to become danger zones where the trees have caused the walls to collapse.

Siem Reap is under a mass development project, having been discovered in the last 10 years and placed on the tourist trail. More and more people are visiting the city and Cambodia itself each year and I would imagine that it will be a completely different place in as little as 5 years time.

A pity that time was so limited here, but it's back to Bangkok to catch a flight to Beijing, for a month of travelling China!

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, SE Asia

A short bus ride (well, 8 hours) took us across the border to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. Before leaving the UK I didn't know too much about the history of Cambodia but knew it was one I wanted to learn about. Immediately entering Cambodia from the border town you could see the poverty surrounding the country, children and adults begging for money, rubbish everywhere and poor roads.

We arrived in Phnom Penh and could feel that this city was in the middle of a transformation, still there were poor people on the streets but there was also some wealth around and new modern buildings already up and some more being built. I read a lot of information about the recent war where the Cambodian people suffered at the hands of the Kymer Rouge regime, but didn't fully understand the extent of the brutallity until I visited Phnom Penh.

The Tuol Sleng Museum and the Killing Fields are the main sights to visit if you want to learn about Cambodia's history, both are harrowing and quite honestly disturbing. Without going into too much detail (I'll leave that up to you) it is difficult to understand how this inhumane government managed to come to power as recent as 30 years ago. I left Phnom Penh with a greater understanding of what even todays people are still trying to battle through, and yet I was humble to see these people still smiling and keen to engage in conversation to learn English even if you did not buy from them. The smile of their faces from just handing over 100 riel (2 pence) was indescribable.

After leaving Phnom Penh, we arrived in Siem Reap, a dusty old town with little charm but home to one of the great wonders of the world - Angkor Wat.