So what are the main differences between vegetarian and vegan?

The Vegan Society defines. Veganism as a way of living which seeks to exclude, as far as possible and practicable, all forms of exploitation of, and cruelty to, animals for food, clothing or any other purpose.

The Vegetarian Society defines a Vegetarian as someone who lives on a diet of grains, pulses, legumes, nuts, seeds, vegetables, fruits, fungi, algae, yeast and/or some other non-animal based foods (e.g. salt) with, or without, dairy products, honey and/or eggs.

I remember my initial frustration of constantly being asked, so what do vegetarians eat? My standard response was Italian, Indian, Chinese, Thai and any other cuisine that you can think of, which works pretty well.

I am only on my second post and have learnt a bit from the Vegan Society about honey production and why vegans do not eat honey and also that vegans choose not to visit zoos and aquariums. 

The honey bee, the genus of bee used in commercial honey production, will visit up to 1500 flowers in order to collect enough nectar to fill its 'honey stomach ' a second separate stomach in which enzymes begin to break down the nectar into honey. After returning to the hive, this is regurgitated and chewed by 'house bees' to complete the honey making process.  Sounds pretty gross, but I guess that it is the fact that honey is being produced for the bees and not for humans that drives the decision  by vegans to avoid honey.  Some may argue that bees make more than enough honey for their own needs. However one must take into account that there will  be periods of time when the bees honey production reduces for example when the weather is bad, and they must then turn to their stores built up when conditions were better.

What would seem to be a significant difference between vegans and vegetarians, is that veganism is far more a lifestyle choice than being based primarily on diet.  I sense at this early stage of my investigations, that vegans perception on a lot of aspects of vegetarianism, such as egg and dairy consumption, is as abhorrent to vegans as meat consumption by omnivores is to most vegetarians. Whilst there will be some vegetarians who will not use leather products for example I am sure a lot do, and most are still pretty relaxed about dairy and egg consumption.

I am not belittling vegetarians, after all I classify myself as one, but veganism is a whole different ball game, and pushes ethics to the limit.