Ok, so that was the DMZ in Vietnam but Robin Williams never made a movie about the Korean War...

Our trip to the DMZ was quite interestng from a historical point of view and it's odd to think that technically North and South Korea are technically still at war with each other because they only ever signed a ceasfire agreement and not a peace treaty. We went down into the "Third Tunnel" (the third one of four which they've discovered the North Koreans building to sneak into their territory) and the observatory where you can look over the wall into North Korea (no photos allowed: one of the girls was caught surreptitiously using her camera and had it confiscated and the photos deleted by a soldier - all very politely though). We also visited the train station which is the last stop before the border and which the South Koreans are hoping to extend into North Korea and then across Europe but the North Koreans won't let them. It was all fairly interesting and we're glad that we went, but it seemed that every other thing we looked at was another souvenir shop and it wasn't really worth the money we paid for the privilige.

We left Seoul on Thursday morning at six in the morning, freezing cold, dark and snowy, for our flight to Beijing and then onto Bangkok - thirteen hours of travelling; tiring but fairly uneventful. It was lovely to be back in the warmer climes again and on familiar territory (we visited Bangkok airport twice last time we were in Thailand). Our hostel was more like a boutique hotel; really good value for twelve pounds a night with a very laid back atmosphere. We spent our one day in Bangkok visiting the Vietnamese Embassy to make sure that our visas were all good, walking around a beautiful park where we stumbled across some really cool lizards, and taking a trip on the river bus which was great fun.

We hooked up with a Swedish and French couple, Malin and Damien, back at the hostel who were going on the same overnight bus/boat to Ko Tao and shared a cab to the travel office (the cab driver just dumped us in the city and pointed, unhelpfully, in the wrong direction so we went into a pub to get directions. Once we'd found the travel agent's office and checked in, we had a couple of hours to kill and went back to the pub for dinner - very pleasant. An eight hour coach ride later and we were at the pier by five am to watch the sunrise and catch the boat to Ko Tao. It's a beautiful island, and our resort is right on the beach. We're staying at a Dive Resort and so we're hoping to get some diving in while we're here before we head off to our 22-day trip around Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. The weather is ridiculously hot - averaging about 35 degrees - so it's a bit of a change from the freezing temperatures and snow in Korea! The only downside is the mosquitos :( And the lack of kittens - Ko Tao has lots of dogs but no kittens!