We entered Thailand mid January and travelled to almost the four corners and the leg of this entrancing country…..making lots of friends and having amazing experiences along the way.

Had Yai is a city like any city here in SE Asia, lots of traffic, a bit disorganised but it’s a popular one for tourists who like to travel here from Malaysia only 2 hours away. The mix of cultures already becoming obvious with Southern Thai cuisine, Indian restaurants and Chinese vendors all plying for the tourists money, each vying hard to attract you in.

Well our last night for the four of us together before the girls headed homewards and we continued south, Ploysia found probably the best place to eat in Thailand, well possibly. As much as you can eat and free beer for 2 hours at a very reasonable 400 baht (about $10), the best bit is its seafood galore. Not being greedy but definitely wanting to try out as many different types of shellfish, sea urchins, crayfish etc all cooked on our on table bbq. The tastes were supreme, the crazy looking lobster creatures cooking away on the bbq was simply to die for, it just took strong arms and a pair of scissors to break open its shell and yank out the good stuff. I don’t think words can express how I felt trying out and tasting all this magnificent food, just a shame I don’t get my moneysworth with free beer nowadays, I am a lightweight.

So bidding farewell to the girls in the early hours as the headed home back to Chiang Khong I came to realize we had made some life long friends who, even though their English is still not fluent nor our Thai but a few words, how it is possible to form strong bonds with people of vastly different cultures who barely speak our language…how lucky we are to have these experiences and to take some risks in life. Next stop Malaysia!