We arrived in Phonsavan in the afternoon and looked around a few guesthouses before settling on somewhere. Some of our minibus group also stayed there while a couple of the others stayed at a place round the corner. Another Brit couple were already staying there and we all decided as a group to book a jars tour for the following morning. We headed out for some food and had drinks with the group at a bar called ‘craters’ which is surrounded by huge bomb shells. Next morning we left around 8.30am to visit jar site number 3, an old Russian tank and then jar site number 2. After a lunch of noodle soup we went on to site number 1 before visiting the ‘bomb village’ where the locals have used bomb shells as fences, BBQs and ... read more

We had read about Vang Vieng before we left for travelling, known for its main attraction, tubing. The area is actually quite beautiful but we arrived in a street looking like something out of Magaluf. Full of bars and shops selling the same crap, so touristy and gimmicky it makes you despise the place immediately. The bars and restaurants play seasons of family guy and friends for the “falang” and you will see more tourists than locals. Debbie summarised this area in one sentence “ two bob skeggy market”. After strolling around we found a guesthouse which was perhaps a little too close to the main street - the lady who owned it asked us if we wanted a balcony overlooking the street. We laughed and paid an extra 10,000 kip to have a room with ... read more

We didn’t get much sleep on the overnight VIP bus, but were happy to reach Udon Thani around 9am and find a seat on the hour long local bus to Nong Khai. The journey was pretty uneventful, and on arrival we found a tuk-tuk to drop us in town and checked in to a nice little guesthouse near the river. We spent the afternoon walking around the market before having dinner at a rooftop restaurant overlooking the Mekong river. There were not many tourists in Nong Khai, and the only others we saw tended to be older European men – some with their young Thai girlfriends – who had come to renew their visa by hopping across the river to Laos and back again. Next morning we hired out a scooter – with Debbie’s lack of ... read more

The centre of Ayutthaya is surrounded by a river so we took a little ferry across and were immediately faced with a lady handing out flyers for a guesthouse. We hadn’t really got anywhere in mind and the place looked pretty good and reasonably priced so we said we’d have a look. The room was by far the best we had stayed in so far, decorated with floral wallpaper and nice furniture. The bathroom was small and the shower awkwardly placed but overall we were impressed and took a room for £7. After checking in we took a walk around and found a shopping mall. We were after a Thai sim card so went in and found a phone shop. Angelo explained that he wanted a sim that would work with his blackberry and the shop ... read more

We arrived in Kolkata on time. We jumped off the train and after haggling with a taxi driver we got him to take us to a hotel in our guide book. It was ridiculously overpriced and we walked straight back out where and old man attached himself to us, despite us asking him to leave several times he proceeded to show us a range of hotels which were generally pretty grim. Eventually we came across Hotel Aafreen which was recommended by Lonely Planet where we got a room for Rs 800. After freshening up we headed out for some food – we decided to give in to our cravings for the colonel , Indian KFC is not as nice as KFC back home at least we won’t be tempted again! After we visited Victoria Memorial and ... read more