We're baaaaack!

Wow, where do I begin? Well we flew back into Aus yesterday morning after what seemed like a pretty hectic trip. And let me say that if I never travel on another bus it'll be too soon. Most of our commuting was done in small buses often crammed with tourists. Our trip down to Phi Phi involved 14 hour bus rides there and back which were no fun at all, not to mention having all our gear rifled through whilst it was "safely" stored under the bus. A couple of the other tourists on our trip lost money and even a passport. Luckily we had all our valuables with us in our seats. Phi Phi itself was great tho. It's about 1 1/2 hours on the ferry from Krabi or Phuket depending which way you go and we stayed in a little beach side bungalow which was very relaxing. Our trip to the river Kwai was also fantastic. We stayed on in a floating house for a night which was kinda cool except you could hear everything going from the toilet straight into the river. We tried not to think about this too much the next morning when we were swimming downstream... with elephants! That's right, we got to bathe with the elephants which was amazing. You simply jumped on and hung on for dear life as they submerged themselves in the river. We also got to visit the bridge over the river Kwai and walk part of the death railway including Hellfire Pass which was a very sobering moment when you take into account the atrocities involved in constructing the railway and all those who died doing so. Back in Bangkok we took a stroll around the grand Palace, the National Museum and the Medical Museum which was just bizarre. All manner of preserved body parts displaying deformities and injuries were on display including complete preserved bodies of convicted murderers put to death. Not a place for those with a weak stomach. We think we may have seen the King (of Thailand, not Elvis!) driving through the city. We were at a huge intersection with Police everywhere stopping all traffic and telling us to stay where we were, when a huge motorcade passed through. There had to be at least 50 vehicles, mostly police and security forces with one or two rolls royces somewhere in the middle. It took several minutes for them to all come through and they were travelling at a pretty good pace. All in all the trip was pretty cool, great food and mostly great people. And cheap too. The heat did knock us around at times but sitting here in Ballarat in 13 degrees almost makes me want to go back! So the plan now is to regroup here in Ballarat for another night or two, get some washing done and prepare to take off again. We're thinking about heading across to Lake's Entrance but we're not entirely sure just yet. We will try to post up a couple of pictures from our Thai adventure a bit later too. Anyways, I'm well overdue for a shower so I'll sign out and we'll catch you all later! Be good!

Bronson and Ruth xx