While we were in Bangkok I spent a lovely morning at May Kaidee's learning how to cook some vegetarian Thai food. May certainly is a character. First off for the day, in full traditional Thai dress, she took us for a walk round the back streets of Bangkok to visit her local shops where we gathered some ingredients for the day's class. A small street side stall provided most of the main key ingredients - galangal (Thai ginger), lemon grass, Thai basil (more aniseedy tasting than the usual Italian type flavour we tend to have at home), chili and kaffir limes leaves. The lime leaves were fresh. It's unbelievable how much of a difference it makes to use fresh leaves. I looked into the possibility of buying/growing kaffir fresh at home. To buy the fresh leaves are £5 for 10 leaves! , although possibly worth it, definitely out of my budget. Or a 18" tall plant could cost you £30 then of knowing my luck it would die as soon as the winter came. Hmmm. Ah well. Next stop was the rice paper lady where we bought some fresh rice paper to make spring rolls. As a real treat we ...

If  Hoi An with its lantern lit streets and colourful candles floating down river is the Shambala Festival of South East Asia, then Pai, in northern Thailand is what would happen if the people decided not to leave the festival, stayed put and set up shop. This is a very special place. There is very little to do other than sit in relaxed cafes and bars, read books, be inspired, have a massage, do some Tai Chi  or maybe go for a trek in the hills. It is great. We've already stayed here twice the amount of time we planned to (lets hope the guy we left our big bags with in Bangkok hasn't sold all our stuff!). We're staying over the river from the main part of town, it's very peaceful. We have only the noise of the geckos,birds and the occasional downpour of early monsoon rain on the roof of our little bamboo hut to listen to. [caption id="attachment_1390" align="aligncenter" width="449" caption="Bridge to our hut"][/caption] We've discovered a few things while we've been here, the first of these discoveries is that we both have an amazing ability to sit in a cafe for over 5 hours without really realising an hour ...

Sorry it's been a while since the last post, internet connection here is far too slow for uploading new photos. However it was my birthday last week  which also marked one year to the day since I gave up my job and we set off on our adventures.  I thought I would celebrate by writing a post summarising what we've been up to since then. Going through all these old posts has been great fun! I can't quite believe all the things we have done! Years ago with nothing to base it on I had a thought that when I was 30 I was going to have the best year of my life. I had no idea why I thought this, but somehow it turned out to be true. If anyone needs any encouragement to quit that job they hate and set off with no plans this is it. It's been an amazing year. We began the summer trundling from place to place around the UK in our little Cinquecento, enjoying sunset meals looking out over the sea in Devon, bbqs in fields of sheep at Abbey Home farm, sampled some of the best cheese boards in Cornwall and drank lots of ...

A trip in a small boat to the floating markets of Cai Rang on the Mekong Delta was to provide the setting for the next of our adventures in fruit (WOOP! Just realised what I have just written - how cool this trip is!!) . These markets are incredible. The river was buzzing with life. Hundreds of boats gather piled high with produce from pumpkins and cucumbers to star apples and jackfruit. Each boat has a pole with a sample of the boat's wares tied up high so it can be seen from afar. We spent some time drifting wide eyed through the boats. We hired a guide to come with us so we could ask any questions as we were bobbing along. He told us a lot of the people lived on the boats. As we looked we noticed some were set up barge stylee with pot plants and deck chairs. I'm sure it's not all quite the jolly boating holiday though. These people have little money and live very simple lives. To me on a visit this traditional way of life that has gone on for hundreds of years seems like a beautiful treasure to cling on to. But it is ...

After nearly a month in Hoi An sadly the amazing contract on our flat stating that we should resolve any conflicts with the "spirit of comradeship" had come to an end and it was time to move on. We packed up our bags, said our goodbyes, hopped on a train and waved farewell to this friendly place that had been our home for the last few weeks. Spending a little more time there allowed us to get to know people just that bit better. The lady down the road who did our laundry, the smiley lady and her daughter on the market who made our breakfast fruit shakes and all the other people from places we frequently cycled past who always had a smile and a wave for us, we'll miss them all. But most of all we will miss the people from Karma Waters who were so good to us while we were there. It really was a treat to meet them and to spend so much time chatting, sharing stories and ideas. [caption id="attachment_1185" align="aligncenter" width="450" caption="Karma Waters"][/caption] We did so much during our time there. Kayaking, cooking lessons, speed boat trips and an exciting, though unsuccessful trip out on ...