Bangkok, Chiang Mai, Chiang Kong and into Loas

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Its been a super busy week since I started the tour! We don't seem to ever stop, so I'm writing this as I've finally found a spare moment. On Monday I went out and explored Bangkok some more and in the evening I met up with the rest of the tour group. We are a group of 9 people from Canada, Germany, Australia and the UK and everyone is really nice.

On Tuesday we got up early and went on a boat tour of the canals in Bangkok. We got good views of the grand palace from the river and then we went down some of the smaller canals and saw houses that are built on/next to the river and we fed bread to loads of cat fish. After this we visited the Buddhist temple Wat Pro which has the second largest gold reclining Buddha (46 meters long.) I feel like I have seen a lot of Buddhas on my trip so far but this one was very impressive as it was so huge! The temples here are very ornate and much more decorative than in Sri Lanka. In the afternoon we visited the grand palace which was built for the king. It was really beautiful. All of the buildings are covered in these colourful shiney tiles and we saw the kings throne and a famous emerald Buddha.

In the evening we boarded the night train to Chiang Mai (in north Thailand.) I was a bit apprehensive about this but it was actually quite fun. The chairs on the train folded into beds that ran all the way down each side of the carridge. It was reasonably comfortable but quite hard to sleep because they didn't turn the lights off on the train. The next morning I wasn't feeling too fresh but it was straight into exploring Chiang Mai and seeing the temples, parks, markets etc. In the evening we went to visit the biggest temple in Chiang Mai- Wat Prathat Doi Suthep which is on top of a hill. It was really nice to see it at night time when it was all lit up and the view over Chiang Mai from the top of the hill was amazing. We also got to watch some monks doing their daily chanting and pour oil into a pot that represents the day of the week you're born on. After this we visited a big night bazar where we had dinner.

The next day we took a cooking class and I managed to make penaeng curry, phad thai, tom yam soup and sticky rice with mango. It all tasted amazing. After this we went for a thai massage given by women who have recently come out of prison. It was a lot less painful than the last one and it only cost £3.50 for an hour! We then had a five hour bus journey to Chiang Khong. When we arrived we wondered down to the Mekong river where we let off lanterns and watched them flaot up into the night. We then had our final thai meal.

This morning we got up very early to cross the border from Thailand into Loas. We then boarded a boat and we have been floating down the Mekong river for the last 5 hours. We just stopped off at a little village in the hills where we could see the houses made out of bamboo, women grinding rice and lots of children running around. It was so interesting. Later today we will arrive at Pakbeng where we will spend the night before continuing our journey down the Mekong tomorrow.

I can't believe its only 12 days till Christmas, it doesn't feel like it. Looking forward to seeing you all soon!

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