Getting back into Thailand I wanted to take the spectacular boat trip up the Mekong river. Two days to Huay Xai with a stopover in Pak Beng for the night. After buying my ticket from the boat ticket desk (all of the tour operators were charging commission) I quickly stopped by the morning market to buy some snacks for the journey. The boat is literally someones house boat, but it is very long with wooden benches and tables in the middle of the boat with open side's so you can take in the amazing view and at the front of the boat there are some, more comfortable chairs. They give you cushions to sit on but your bum definitely goes numb sitting on a wooden bench for two long days straight. We left Luang Prabang at ... read more

I took a minibus from Vang Viang to Luang Prabang 6hrs through the mountains and valleys, the scenery absolutely stunning. We stopped at the top of the mountains for lunch. Getting out of the minibus everyone was saying toilet, toilet and showing you where. Then you go and they all say 2000, 2000! Have to laugh. When we arrived in Luang Prabang the driver then said more money, more money because he dropped us off in the town and 'saved' us money on the trip from the bus station! Luang Prabang is known as one of the most picturesque towns in South East Asia and it really is, i love this town its so French, the buildings are beautiful and the streets look old, with big French style guesthouses everywhere. Most of the guesthouses seemed to ... read more

After getting over the border four of us managed to find a tuktuk type bus that would take us to the city for 30b which seemed reasonable until they dropped us off on the highway by the market. We later realised this was because of all the one way roads. From here we walked about 15 mins to the street with lots of guesthouses on it. Easy. After taking a much needed shower and getting lunch, Hester and myself went for a look around. There are loads of cute little hand craft shops, the city is very French, bakeries, French baguettes everywhere, little streets with French style houses. We walked down by the river to watch sunset over Thailand which was beautiful. There were lots of locals doing there exercise's there as its been made ... read more

Monday was the first day of my massage course, it started at nine but I had to check into the accommodation they provided at eight. I took a red taxi but the driver wasn't sure where it was and wouldn't give me a price. It was five minutes away and he tried to charge me 80b! I said no 20 he said ok not even an argument. The Thai massage course was for two weeks, monday to friday, 9 till 4. Monday to wednesday we studied the techniques and practised, thursday we had a whole day of practise and then an exam friday. There are only eleven people in our group, a real mixture with everyone doing it for different reasons. After a day at school a few of us started going to a yoga ... read more

Norma and myself caught the bus from Ayutthaya to Chaing Mai during the day eventually and after the tuk-tuk driver took us to the train station instead of the bus station another 7km away, even that wasnt simple. On the 10hr drive north (with an amazing amount of leg room) you could see where the floods had hit and there was some houses nearly completely submerged. But on arriving in Chaing Mai things didn't seem too bad at all. Speaking with the locals they had managed to get the water levels down amazingly in two days, so all good. We were easily able to take a red taxi to the guesthouse that we had booked. Busy! The guesthouse had a cool lounge area at the entrance, an it showed how popular this place was. We headed ... read more