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Having spent our initial days in the more scenic and educational part of Laos we headed to the party town of Vang V ieng. The journey from Phonsovan however was to be yet another challenge. It was meant to be a 5-6 hour mini bus ride through the mountains and the first 3 hours went by smoothly and fairly quickly. We stopped for lunch in a small village situated above the clouds with some inspiring views and so we were blissfully unaware as to what awaited us. Thirty minutes later we joined an epic queue of cars, vans, buses and trucks all blocked off by a huge landslide. The digger which had commenced the clearing the day before had been buried by another landslide (the driver was dug out safely) further delaying the clearing process. Three ... read more

After having spent the last few days touring around the historical and archaeological parts of Thailand we ventured to the North where we had heard Chang Mai had many thrills and adventures on offer. We spent our first night drinking Sangsom (Thai Rum) and dancing to some great ska and reggae cover bands but paid the price the next day when we were all feeling rather special. However, we needed a day of rest to plan our days ahead which were to include ziplining through jungles, helping care for elephants and sight-seeing through the old Northern Kingdom. Our first day of adventure began by travelling deep into the mountainous northern jungle. On arrival we were greeted by our guides and then prepared for our forthcoming flight over the trees, villages and waterfalls. We flew across ziplines ... read more

We arrived in Bangkok in the early hours of the morning after our first ‘night bus’ experience. Unfortunately it wasn’t one of the best experiences – no one got enough sleep. So walking around trying to find somewhere to stay proved difficult but when we did we all got a few hours sleep before hitting the streets of Bangkok. I should say now that we came armed with the knowledge that we shouldn’t believe anyone on the streets of Bangkok and that if anyone tries telling us that something is closed, they are definitely lying. This is why it comes as a great surprise that the first thing that happened to us was a nice friendly Thai guy asked us where we were going. To which we replied “The tourist information centre” of course. It came ... read more

1237 steps of hell, to find a sanctuary - The Tiger Cave Tempell With Lewis sidelined, not wanting to stray too far away from a lavatory we left him at the Blue Juice basecamp and decided to climb the fabled Tiger Cave Temple (Once upon a time a Tiger lived in a cave and it used to roar. This attracted some buddhist monks. They ended up building a temple 1237 steps in the sky and the Tiger ended up running away. ie. Religion destroys wildlife.) Anyway, after we shed half our bodyweight in sweat we arrived at the summit and marvelled at the views. Then we went back down and got a lift back from a Thai boxer with over 150 fights under his belt. Good experience. Lolz. For Louise's 24th birthday we decided to go ... read more

Hat Yai left us feeling like we should have stayed another day, but we packed our bags and headed to Ko Lipe. To get to Ko Lipe we had to take a speed boat, which under normal circumstances would have been an exciting adventure. But it wasn't exciting it was treacherous. Because it is rainy season the weather was stormy and restless. The journey took 2 and a half hours and the sea was so rough and the waves so huge and the swells so violent! that it was more like being on a 2 and half hour rollercoaster ride on which 50% of the passengers were vomitting - everywhere - a long vomitty rollercoaster ride.... But we survived! With only one us being ill (louise) who can no longer eat bananas, and after a good ... read more