I know I said in my last posting that I'd put some new photo's up... as you may have gathered that was a bit of an untruth! Couldn't get the USB thingy to accept my camera, but here are some pics for you, all of them are at Angkor Wat, most at sunrise but there are a couple of me. It was a long day, getting up at 4:30am to meet our 'tuk tuk' driver and then following people with torches once we arrived there (blatantly we weren't organised enough to realise it would infact be dark when we arrive and there is a massive moat all the way round it for us to fall in!). Sat wearing my man city t-shirt (coz it was cold) infront of the Royal Pond to watch the sun come up behind 'the Wat'... was pretty amazing as you can see. It turned out to be a Man City orientated day, met the little boy below who had a fake Manchester United shirt on (it actually said Manhatten United!) and we tried to explain who city were.... don't think he really got it, the pic of me and him is of Man City V's Manchester United at Angkor Wat. Wandering round after sunrise was the best time to be there, all the big tour groups left at 7 ish to go back to their hotels for breakfast so the place emptied... so tranquil. Spent about 4 hours looking round everything and going up one of those towers you can see in the photos. It had the most amazing detail carved in all the rocks, all the way around the outside walls there are 'stories' told through pictures carved in the rock, with elephants, soldiers, angels and devils. The most famous is the churning of the sea of milk, and from what i remember its a battle between heavan and hell... the picture shows devils having a tug of war with the angels over an elixer that can keep you alive forever. The angels win in the end. I'm not the most patient person when it comes to looking at ruins and carvings but this place was unbelievable, if you have the chance to go it's well worth the time.

We left at 11am absolutely shattered, went home for a sleep and then ended the day drinking beer on 'Bar street' in Siem Reap. Crazily, they brought a big screen to our bar and put it up outside infront of us, and guess who was playing..... Man City V's PNE, I hadn't taken the T-shirt off so I looked like a proper supporter sat there, it was a good job we won!! In Bangkok again at the moment, heading down to Surat Thani on the overnight bus tonight and meeting Jen on Saturday... then the islands here we come! Can't believe we've been away for 5 weeks already, time is flying by.... I'll soon be in Australia and have to start thinking about doing some work.

Anyway, as Barbara would say... Bye for now...

Back by popular request!

After many comments about the lack of activity on my website, I felt like I should probably add a few more of my photos just to keep you all happy! Sat in Siem Reap at the moment, which is in Cambodia (for all those of you geography dunces), and is the town next to Angkor Wat (which is a seriously popular tourist attraction and may even be a world heritage site. Went to look round Ankor Thom today which was pretty cool, its right next to Angkor Wat (''wat'' meaning 'temple'')but we were told that we should see it first because then you appreciate how brill Angkor Wat is.
5am tomorrow morning we will be heading to Angkor Wat in a 'Tuk Tuk' (or a motorcycle with a little tin cart attached), for the apparently awe-inspiring sunrise... better bloody had be for that time in the morning! So watch this space for pics of that amazing site.

Can't figure out where I got to when I last wrote on this thing, and I think I've been writing in a completely random order but never mind.... here's a summary of Thailand for you if I haven't bored you already!

Northern Thailand:
First night out in Bangkok was a bit of a crazy, far too much Singha beer (yes, i'm onto the hard stuff!), dragging Ellie down the streets with backpacks the next day while she threw up was pleasant.... saw the Grand Palace, reclining (massive/gold) buddha, sampled a thai massage.

Ayuthaya was full of lots of ruins, worth seeing but not my favourite place. Lopburi was next on the list, strange town/ village with a few ruins and way too many crazy monkeys wandering the streets. Sukhothai was beautiful, very peaceful in the historial park with... yes you've guessed it... more ruins! Chiang Mai was great... favourite place by far. Like Bangkok but nicer, little winding alleyways, and the trek/ ride on a suicidal elephant/ white water rafting/ bamboo raft/ night market/ learning to cook thai food were definately worth every penny and drop of sweat!

Please keep checking this site for an update of Vietnam and Cambodia, which will appear ASAP!

Note to ALL:

If you want to see a couple of Master Chefs at work, please go to

http://www.cookinthai.com/photo/browse.php?folder=20070128 and go to the bottom of the page, the last 3 rows of photos are of our group attempting to cook Thai food! You can spot me by the bright yellow T-shirt, emense concentration on many of the photo's.... the end product was actually quite tasty, spring rolls, thai green curry, thai soup, and crispy noodles.... mmmm, making me feel hungry.

These photographs are of: The first experience of using a mosquito net, me stroking a tiger, Tthe bridge over the River Kwai, the floating markets and the reclining buddha


Ok, I realise that I have been rubbish at keeping this up-to-date! Replyin to emails AND updating this blog is harder than you might think, but here's a summary of the amazing week we've had so far:

Heathrow - Bangkok (15th Jan - 16th Jan)
Thanks to Jen we had a place to sleep in London on the Sunday night before our flight (thank you so much!), so it meant we only had to get up at 6:30am, made it to Heathrow on the tube without any problems and checked in pretty quickly. The flight to Singapore was just over 11 hours and surprisingly went really fast (TV screens in the backs of the seats with a choice of over 70 films, radio shows etc, a constant stream of food and free socks, blanket and pillow definately helped!) 4 films later we made it to Singapore airport and onto the Bangkok flight. I don't really remember much about it (apart from I was sat sandwiched between 2 thai business men reading broadsheet newspapers, and looked rather out of place with my 'new!' magazine). Ended up passing out on my table for the full 2 hours.

Bangkok (16th Jan - 18th Jan)
The taxi took us to Khao San Road (the backpacker ghetto) and we booked into the D & D Inn (for an outrageous price of ten pounds a night!) but the place had a swimming pool on the roof, a beauty salon and massage palour so we couldn't really complain as we sat watching the sun set over Bangkok.

Found James (a cousin of a friend of Mary's!) and went out in search of some quality Thai food, which we found quite easily for 1 pound a main course. A few Singhs later and we were merrily chatting to a group of Ozzie's and a guy from our flight, a few more beers later, whiskey at an out of hours place (which I did not partake in) and I was sympathetically looking after Ellie in the bathroom of our hotel (sympathetically from a distance!). Moved onto a cheaper, livelier hotel off Khao San road which was constantly full of people to chat to. Whilst Ellie spent the day recovering, I set out with the King of Hagglers (James) in search of some bargins. Haggling is surprisingly fun, even if you don't really want the thing you're bargining for.... A skill which I would love to practice further in England, but I doubt it will go down very well. Had a walk around the river, a meal and chilled out for the rest of the day before heading for Phat Pong night markets in a tuk tuk (which is kind of a taxi, but has a motorbike engine and overtakes anything in its path!), we scoured the markets for a while and braved a ping pong show (sex show) but only lasted 5 mins before leaving completely disgusted.

The next day we decided that it was about time we saw some of the famous sights in Bangkok and headed for the Grand Palace (completely inappropriately dressed), borrowed a very sexy smelly grey shirt and explored the entire place for 2 hours whilst listening to the chanting buddhists. Unfortunately, Ellie felt ill again and had to return to the hotel (on a very scary tuk tuk!) and so I went to see the reclining buddha (which is HUGE and gold and a little freaky). This is definately a sight worth seeing if anyone ever visits Bangkok, you couldn't possibly imagine the size of this thing, and then went on a boat trip back down the river to check on Ellie. With Ellie fully recovered, we went for an hour long thai massage which was amazing, and then went for a meal/ drinks in the evening.

Kanchanaburi (18th Jan)
We booked on a day trip to see the River Kwai Bridge, which had a bunch of extras included. Setting off at 7am, we stopped at a sugar making place where they used coconut juice to make the sugar, had a quick taste before heading to a floating market. Lots of sellers are in boats sailing down these canals and you get in a boat and they try and sell you stuff.... its better than it sounds! Like Bangkok, the smell is pretty unique to say the least, it does take a while to get used to the mixture of sizzling food (mostly hot from the sun), sewers and car fumes and it is definately a stomach turner the day after a big night out! Anyway, we then had lunch and moved onto the River Kwai museum and bridgem which was great (apart from the fact that the bridge has massive gaps in and is really scary to walk on with people shoving past you). Finally, we went to a Tiger Temple, which consisted of a quarry and some tigers chained up, they took your camera and dragged you round each tiger to take a picture. We made it back to Bangkok about 7.30pm and after a bit of food ended up sitting on Khao san road on a stool next to a row of bottles of spirit (which aparently in Thailand consists of a bar!), met a bunch of travellers and hung out with them until the early hours. Bangkok done!

Well, I've finally taken that leap off my swiverly chair in the THOR office and booked my 'round the world' plane tickets. Experiencing new cultures and seeing sights you've only read about definately has a more of a fairytale ring to it (and sounds a lot simpler) before the huge amount of money leaves your bank account!

The already extensive list of things to buy, apply for or get ready, seems to go on for pages and pages (visas, new passport, routes and the one thing i'm very excited about... a mosquito net!). Finding the time and having the organisational and motivational skills to deal with all the extras that come with planning such a massive adventure is extremely hard work, but I definately recommend it to anyone who fancies getting out there and pushing yourself out of that comfort zone.

I have to say I'm very lucky to have Ellie to go on this trip with. I'm not sure I would have been so calm about travelling so far away and for so long without someone so chilled sat with me reading all those travel guides (and watching Neighbours discussing how great it'll be to visit the set!). She's been a great support in those 'down' moments when you wonder what you've got yourself into, reminding me of all the amazing things we'll see so enthusiastically that you can't help but smile!

Ok, so here's what you've been waiting for:

Ruth & Ellie's Itinerary

15th January 2007: Fly to Bangkok (we're gonna have 2 weeks travelling the North of Thailand, then cross through Laos to Vietnam for 2 weeks, then back to Thailand through Cambodia for another 2 weeks around the Thai islands)

1st March 2007: Fly from Phuket to Adelaide (we're gonna head up to East coast of Oz together until we hit Sydney, at which point I'm staying to work (hopefully with Sarah!) and Ellie's travelling on to work in New Zealand)

1st June 2007: Fly from Cairns to Christchurch (NZ) ( I'm going to have a couple of weeks here, visit Liz (hopefully) and Ellie)

15th June 2007: Fly from Christchurch to Fiji (Going to go island hopping for a week or so)

25th June 2007: Fly from Fiji to LA (the plan is to head up to San Fransisco, along to Las Vegas though Yosemite National Park, then back to LA)

20th July 2007: Fly from LA to New York (spending the last 2 weeks here, hopefully with mum)

5th August 2007: Fly from New York to London


NB: you may notice that the dates are a slightly guest-imated, this is to give us a bit of flexibility (and you couldn't book seats on planes that far in advance!)


Oh and to anyone I've not told... If you look at this lovely list of exciting places and fancy jumping on a plane at some point next year and coming to visit me, just let me know and i'm sure we can sort something out!

I didn't want Liz to feel left out....

Here's another funny photo for all to laugh at!

This is the very first entry in my BLOG... how exciting! My dad emailed me this photo at the weekend, so thought I should put it on... just to show everyone how I started out. Not too sure Anna's gonna appreciate it though!

P.s. I'm the one on the left.