Apr 07

Hello!

We left Koala Lumpur last night at 8.45pm and have reached Thailand finally!. We got to the coastal town of Krabi (West coast) today at about 5pm. The night on the train was very long. Rich slept a bit but i couldn't sleep till about 4am (and then only for 1 hour!). The train took 14 hours and the bus from Hat Yai took 4 so as you can imagine we are pretty tired!. However, we have just tried our first Thai beer - 'Chang' which is excellent but quite strong. We decided that we deserved a beer though after the journey!. Off to bed soon.
Tomorrow we have booked to go on the boat to the island of 'Ko Lanta' for some sand, sea and sun!

Note to Jayne and James:

We sent you an e-mail as we are now in Thailand. We head to Ko Lanta tomorrow (1st May). If you are around would be fab to meet up!. We are staying at 'Lanta Garden Home' on 'Klong Dao Beach' for 2 nights initially (North West of the Island). If your phone is working give us a text. Sho: 07921003369. Rich:07709348108.

Hope all is good!
Love Sho 'n' Rich

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Today is our last day in Malaysia. We had originally planned to go to an Island off the north-west coast called Langkawi, but decided against it as it's a malaysian public holiday until thursday and so will likely be heaving. Definitely not what we want. So anyway, our plans have changed somewhat and we're now getting a train tonight for a 14 hour trip to Hat Yai in Thailand, where we will board a bus for another 5 hours travelling to the coastal town of Krabi, on the West Coast. We've booked some accommodation here for a night and hope to catch a ferry in the morning to Koh Lanta, a small island near to Phi Phi, south of Phuket. It looks really nice, and even if it turns out to be not what we're after, we can shoot to Phi Phi on another boat if needs be!
We're both looking forward to the beaches and reckon we'll find it pretty easy to slip back into our "beach bum mode" again. Jayne and James our friends we met in India are also in the area at the moment so hopefully we'll be able to catch up with them at some point.
We both intend on learning to dive at some point along the line as well, which should be excellent. Hopefully the courses wont be too expensive. (although we've been led to believe that it's one of the cheapest places in the world to do it?!)

On the down side, the bed in Kuala Lumpur (on rich's side at least) seems to have been infested with millions of invisible little flesh easting bugs, as I'm now sporting about 15-20 bites on my arms, back neck and shoulders. They're super itchy little bites and a real pain in the arse. On the plus side, Shonah, with her tough, North-Eastern blood doesnt seem to have any!!

Today we are just wandering around K.L. but we have been able to leave our bags at the backpackers. We hope to get up to the walkway that joins the 'Petronas Twin Towers' which are really spectacular! Our train leaves at 8.45 tonight.

Note from Sho - Well done on finishing ur dissertaion Ro! Am very proud! What a relief. You certainly deserve a few large cocktails me thinks!. We will have one for you as well. Love Sho Po xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Have a great holiday Mum, Dave, Andrea and Steven (and Bonnie). Will call you when you get back (I have the dates written down).
I sent a text to your old mobile mum, nothing important, just saying have a nice time. You should give me your new mob number when you get back.

Rich writing again - Last night we realised that my favourite shorts (I'm sure everyone at home knows which ones - the animal ones that Iv'e had for about 5 years now) have only been washed once since leaving England and I think i've worn them just about every day (excluding Goa where I lived in Swimshorts). Theyre starting to acquire some funny looking marks although still don't look dirty and I can't smell them yet?! They certainly have character anyway!

Love to all,
Rich and Sho
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Well, my migraine eventually passed and I reckon it was easily the worst iv'e ever experienced!!
The flight to Singapore was uneventful and passed really quickly, with both of us buried in books at the moment that are making us laugh out loud. Theyre buy a guy called Irvine Welsh who wrote trainspotting - we'd reccommend them to everyone!
Anyway, Singapore is absolutely brilliant, if a little humid. Everything is unbelievably clean and efficient and largely air conditioned.
We got an excellent hotel room in a backpackers place - it's a little small but really clean, with air conditioning, balcony and a super comfy bed - with a proper duvet!! A real luxury. The room looks like something out of an ikea brochure!
Yesterday we spent wandering around the hundreds (literally) of shopping malls - even the smallest of which is massive compared to Princes Quay!!
Today we've been to Singapore zoo which was pretty cool. The animals all seem pretty happy which was something I was worried about.
Last night we went to Raffles and had the obligatory Singapore Sling which we have to say were excellent! (If a tad over priced)
Tomorrow we head to Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia on bus which should be cool.
Sorry the entries a bit quick today - the meter on this web session is ticking down quickly.
Hope you all like the photos. If you haven't checked them yet, then what have you been playing at?!
Love to all,
Rich and Sho

Rich is alot better. The tablets seem to have worked and I went to the supermarket and prepared a feast for him.
Just thought i'd let u know. I put pics on - so have a look!
Love Sho

Hi all,

We made it to Sri Lanka after a couple of days in the hotel room in Delhi after Rich getting what I had when we got to India first time round. He had really bad diorrhea then started vomiting through the night so i called the emergency doctor out to the hotel. The doctor said he had food poisoning which had led to Gastro Enteritis and so he was prescribed strong antibiotics and we spent the day resting in hope he would feel better for the flight. Thankfully the antibiotics seemed to have worked and he felt a lot better for the flight but just weak though not being able to eat.
The flight was good but 2 hour delay (actually a schedualed time change but we diidn't ring Emirates to check). Got to Sri Lanka at 4am ish so didnt get into bed untill 6am ish and so we spent the morning asleep till lunch time when rich filled up on Pasta feeling much better. The beach is ok, but i'm sure there are much nicer ones further from Columbo. This is where our next problem startred. Rich developed a really bad headache on the beach although he sat in the shade for the whole time drinking water. We had to come back to the hotel so he could lie in the dark as it had developed into a seriously bad bad bad migrane. So yesterday afternoon he spent in the dark hotel room in agony. The 'Brufen 'didn't work so we went to the chemist and they recomended Panedine (Paracetamol and Codine). Rich has not improved throughout the night and seemed the most ill i have ever seen him. He was writhing around in agony so i decided to call doctor again only to find out they won't do home visits in Sri Lanka but managed to get some advice from the doc who recomended 'Diclofenac Sodium' as a strong pain killer. Ihave been up since half 5 and and am waiting for the chemist to open at 8.30 am (it is 8.15 now). The owner of the hotel has been exceptionally helpfull and came and gave Rich a head massage with some herbal oil which claims on the bottle to cure "all kinds of headache and Brain problems". He pummeled this into Rich's head with his hands. Rich has now fallen asleep and i'm off to the chemists and to buy some Bananas.
So that's the news for now. I hope these new tablets work. Will keep you updated.

Love Sho
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