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From Kuala Lumpur, our plan had been to catch an overnight comfortable sleeper train to Singapore, leaving at a reasonable time in the evening and arriving at a respectable time in the morning, having had a good nights sleep with little interference at the border... However, the train was fully booked and we had to explore the alternatives. Doing the journey by bus was fairly cheap, and several different buses left KL to arrive in Singapore around 6am.

Our final island hop and ferry journey took us from Langkawi to Georgetown, on Penang Island. Formerly known as Betel Nut Island, Penang was the first settlement of the East India Company on the Malay Peninsula in 1786 and it became an important port attracting settlers from all over Asia, predominantly China and India. The old town area is now protected as a UNESCO heritage site, recognised for the unique blend of cultures, religions and architectures.

From the laid back, relaxed Koh Yao Noi we picked up a ferry to Ko Phi Phi - one of the most famous Thai islands, renowned for its party atmosphere and beautiful beaches but also serving as a warning to other islands about the hazards of over-development. It is not a place that was high on our agenda to visit, but our ferry to Malaysia started here and we thought that it might be interesting to see. The approach to the island is very impressive as you sail around the towering cliffs before cruising into a wide sandy bay.

After our weekend break in Koh Phra Thom, it was a fairly relentless three weeks of work especially for Drew. We extended our visas and stayed for longer to try and make sure we tied up as many loose ends as possible. This included the launch of a new website for the Calcutta medical charity we worked for last year - work on this hadn't begun until our last few days there, and it was a relief for all concerned to get the new site up.

The week of work as normal was punctuated by a couple of leaving parties for a Burmese intern who has been here for a year and a fellow volunteer moving on. The first celebration was on Wednesday where there was much activity, cooking and excitement during the day. In the evening, we all gathered at someone's house for a feast of some favourite Burmese dishes including delicious noodles with pork, sweet egg salad and some other unidentified pink salad.

It took us over 6 weeks of living in Thailand before we made it to a beach; but now that we are finally here we are really enjoying it. We are still enjoying cycling and morning runs or swims and have found some favourite restaurants and spots to watch the sunset. We have settled in to a work routine - Drew is working on the charity's computers including helping with their website where the three working languages (English, Thai and Burmese) are providing some new and interesting challenges.

It was another very pleasant train journey back to Bangkok. We were on the train a lot earlier this time than on our way up to Chiang Mai, but this meant that we got to watch the sun set over the hills. We decided to try out the dining car for our dinner which proved to be a pleasant way to spend some of the evening. The beer was flowing, the atmosphere convivial and the food spicy - we were happy.

We're posting this from the train on the way back down South to Bangkok (via the magic of cheap internet access on the mobile phone network here in Thailand). We've really enjoyed spending some time around Chiang Mai, and are hoping that we're not going to find it unbearably hot and humid as we get back to the capital, and later onwards toward our next project further South still.

Our next project is not due to start until February and we decided to use the intervening time to visit the north of Thailand so booked a train up to Chiang Mai, one of the main cities in the northern region.

It was a much longer flight to Australia than either of us were expecting taking 9 hours - the same as our flight from London to Delhi. This made us appreciate that despite the "world getting smaller" due to cheap flights and technology, it is still a rather big place. When the map on the plane showed that we were over Darwin but still had over 4 hours of the flight remaining, we also realised quite how big Australia is. Apart from a large lightning storm, which Heather was blissfully unaware of but rather unnerved Drew, the flight was pretty uneventful.