"All good things . . . "

God! This really is a cheap place! After the Cavs left we went back to one of the few "proper" restaurants we came came across during the previous night's exploration, the Aroy (which I understand to mean "delicious" -- certainly was!). A large beer and G&T for £2.50 and the food prices to match. Yesterday, we said farewell to a largely empty Cha Am; the Thai weekenders having poured into their family four wheeled pick ups or brightly painted Happy Coaches and gone home and the festival dismantled, emptied and hosed down. We found a minibus service halfway up Narathip Road that provided a cramped shuttle the 100 or so miles to Bangkok's Victory Monument for £3.50 each, as opposed to the £50 the local taxis were asking. After that it was a quick BTS Skytrain back to Chez Cavs and a much needed shower and change.

Our last proper night with Mike and Carolyn was a low key, cheap-but-alcoholic affair. Mike met me after work for happy hour at Durty Nellies (a sort of Robin Hood-ish bar on Ekkamai) while the girls demolished a couple of bottles of wine at home. Through the miracles of our alien overlords we met up at the end of Soi 59 and mooched off to a tiny street restaurant run by some pretty miserable Burmese immigrants. The food however, was excellent (even if I do have some difficulty remembering what the dishes were as we also demolished a bottle of what was probably pure methyl alcohol). This morning, as I write this with the nearest thing I've had to a hangover in the last seven weeks while Linda performs the arduous chore of packing the suitcases, I contemplate the end of the adventure. Tomorrow, we get up at dawn and fly home to exciting downtown Totton.

And that, as they say, was that! After seven weeks of running around Vietnam and Thailand we face the depressing prospect of it all ending. Thanks for all the banter guys and for joining in (c'mon: who WAS the Doctor and the Iceman?). And thanks to Carolyn and Mike for putting us up (and putting up with us!). After spending the entire calendar year of 2012 doing nothing and going nowhere to fund this trip, I've decided life's too short to do that again. So, in six month's time, stay tuned for Texas and Hawaii!! That adventure promises to be a whole different kettle of elephants.