Vang Vieng Reluctantly we packed our bags in Luang Prabang and took a bus to Vang Vieng, only a 5 hr trip away. We had booked a 'VIP' bus, which essentially means you get some water, A/C and the chairs are a bit more comfortable. Within a few minutes of taking this trip the usual cheesy light rock comes on ie. Lional Richie - its not just lightly playing in the back ground but blaring - Ed quickly took action and asked the driver to turn it down much to the dismay of some of the local passengers...it is amazing what [View Full Entry]

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We ended our tour of the Golden Triangle in Chiang Kong, the main border crossing into Laos, across the Mekong River from Thailand. We spent one night there in a lovely little teak villa that was situated on the banks of the Mekong. The villa owner was very sweet, if not a bit crazy, as soon as we checked in Kat went with her to look at the room while Ed guarded the bags. She was soon being felt up by the woman over her shoulders, arms, hips before being turned around for a booty feel saying oh aren't you pretty [View Full Entry]

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Lampang Having recharged the batteries in Chiang Mai, we headed for the city of Lampang a few hours south of Chiang Mai. As usual, the bus station was complete chaos, little english is spoken, and notice boards and both (un)helpful passers-by are full of contradictory information! We eventually got tickets and arrived a few hours later in this small, quaint town. Both our reconnaisance and information in the Lonely Planet was poor and in this instance we were booked in at a hotel called the Top Hotel which they equated to a smaller Hyatt. Needless to say, it wasn´t, but we [View Full Entry]

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The website had a technical error and deleted everyone's photos but now they have apparently been restored.... [View Full Entry]

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A few hours north of Chiang Mai near Chiang Dao is a huge national preservation area, home to a handful of hill tribes and a hell of a lot of trees. Our tour group picked us up at 7am at our guest house in the back of a local bus converted into the trek’s personal transportation vehicle. We were met by 4 other girls in their late 20’s from London who would be joining us for the next 3-days. Loaded up we headed a few hours into the country side all pretty upbeat and looking very much like city people going [View Full Entry]

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Chang Mai is Thailand's second largest city and lies to the north of the country, not too far south of the borders with Myanmar and Laos. We decided to fly there and happily the airport was quick and efficient (our bags appeared on the conveyor belt within about 20 mins of touching down- why can't UK airports do this!?), although there seems to be one person there who puts up advertising signs who can't read english very well (See photo of mastercard banner). Arriving in Chiang Mai was again another breathe of fresh air - the city was small and we [View Full Entry]

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Heading to Bangkok We arrived at Chennai airport without incident and boarded our 3 hour 11pm flight to Bangkok. It seemed to be the equivalent of one of those Easyjet flights (Canadians- like Westjet!) to a package holiday destination- other than Kat was the only female on board- the flight was full of rowdy young men obviously off to Bangkok for the weekend. They were constantly walking around, swapping seats and shouting at each other- even through the safety demonstration!- until two of the hostesses took them to task. We touched down at 4 am local time and arrived at our [View Full Entry]

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Goa to Hospet We left Goa and headed further down the south coast to the state of Karnataka. Our first stop was Hampi, a lovely ruined city in the desert, with what seemed like hundreds of ancient temples to see. The town that we arrived in Hospet was not so lovely - filled with rudish people and a lot of cramped hustle and bustle. It was a big change from the tourist friendly locals of Goa to the more closed conservatives of Hospet - Katherine quickly learned that her dress code had to once again change from the leering men and [View Full Entry]

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EDIT- Katherine thinks this is boring but Ed wants to mention that in Hampi (previous entry) he bought afried chilli from an impoverished looking street vendor one night, which he spotted was wrapped in an page from Cosmopolitan magazine, specifically an articel about what form of contraception women preferred. Contrasts everywhere.... The journey to Kochi: From Banagalore, we took the train south to Kochi. As normal, we turned up roughly an hour in advance and sat on the platform for a further hour in the evening heat as the small flies drifted around us, periodically going in for a n [View Full Entry]

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We have finally left Northern India and headed South to the idyllic beaches of Goa. On the recommendation of fellow travelers we met is Jodpur we decided to head to Northern Goa to the beaches of Arambol - this required us to land in Goa's capital Panjim before heading up North. Panjim was an ok city - we stayed in the older part of the city with old portugese colonial styled buildings. We were so happy to finally get closer to the ocean where we could get some fresh fish as after almost a month we are very curried out! So [View Full Entry]

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