After a few days chilling in our basic and a little out of the way hostel on the outskirts of Chiang Mai (it was pretty good within a group but alone you'd probably get a bit bored and fed up!) we packed up and decided to head for the Thai islands in search of a bit more sunshine!! We had pre-booked 2 flights the first was to Bangkok and the second to Phuket with about a 3 hour gap in between to wait around the airport. So we piled into a taxi with Jen and Rich in plenty of time... to [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our morning was punctuated by proper goodbyes as people left for their next destinations in other countries, or just other hotels. We whizzed off for the highlight of our Thai experience so far, riding elephants! The elephant place is home to retired elephants that were used for logging etc until it was stopped for various reasons, so it enables the people to pay for their food and upkeep, though at times it seemed a bit cruel seeing them chained up and tapped with sticks. Nok said that it doesn't hurt them though because their skin is so thick.. but we gave [View Full Entry]

---

---

Another day in Luang Prabang gave us the chance to relax and eat nice food.. a spot more shopping and a climb up three hundred and twenty something steps up Mount Phousi to watch the sunset.. the clouds had other ideas and blocked the sun from view until it reached the hills..so we never really saw the sun although the views of the city were nice enough and the heat was definately enough! Our final supper in luang Prabang and into bed for an early rise! We attempted the 5am rise to go and give the monks their alms but were [View Full Entry]

---

---

A recovery day and some relaxing of the aching muscles and bones was much needed follwoing the tubing excitement, and a meander down to chill at a bucket bar in a hammock was just what the doctor ordered. The following day we deprated on our last long bus journey to Luang Prabang, another relatively long journey but also equally un-eventful-roads are much quieter here so less funny sights to spot! Luang Prabang is much busier than Vang vieng but still nothing too overwhelming. The night market is a really lovely market all set on the floor on one long line, its [View Full Entry]

---

---

After what seemed like forever on a public bus with another group and a very arrogant what we think was a German guy... a spot of travel sickness and a lot of reading on Matt's part we reached the somewhat sleepy town of Vang Vieng. We checked in and were assigned a room in what looked like little holiday chalets opposite the main reception.. perhaps to stifle the disturbance after the late nights in what we soon discovered wasn't such a sleepy town!! My favourite discovery here happened to be chocolate and banana pancakes cooked at the little street vendors around [View Full Entry]

---

---

A mostly free morning to explore the town and one of the few really famous and highly recommended bakeries around.. a savoury croissant and a chocolate muffin sorted us out for the day as we went about our business! We had a little walking tour first with a Lao guide who took us to the parliament houses, a really pretty temple and the big monument in Laos where i sent Matt to the top to take photos!! We met around 5 to walk and see the sunset over the river but our spectacular views were some-what tarnished by the fine sheet [View Full Entry]

---

---

Early start to our day, began pretty disasterously when the alarm didn't go off.. a bit of a rush in which a few item got left behind but we made it in the nick of time. And so began a long windey journey through the mountains-a couple of hours to get to the border and about half an hour to get through the border but with newly aquired visas in hand we continued on with the bulk of our journey to our first Laos destination! A definite change in scenery...simply green and mountainous!! thousands of different trees and bushes everywhere we [View Full Entry]

---

---

Unfortunately we had to leave the nice hotel we'd been staying in and travel on to pastures new, we hopped onto yet another little bus and headed to Vinh for our final look at Vietnam, the journey was pretty standard-nothing too long or bumpy. The usual sight of many people and many bags and boxes on the back of motorbikes, but a definate lull in the constant beeping horns and manic traffic systems. My most random sight was definately a man on a bicycle with a cow on a rope in front of him-talk about taking the dog for a walk!! [View Full Entry]

---

---

A little day of rest for us, a late wake up and a stroll around the big lake.. saw a really tiny turtle swimming in the shallows which was pretty cool! After a packing extravaganza and some film watching we headed down to meet our new leader for the Laos section of the trip. Nok is a Thai woman and is very fun, she likes to joke a lot which is good for all the sarcastic English people in the group. 2 couples joined us a German couple and another Oz couple who all seem really nice. The German couple think [View Full Entry]

---

---

Our morning on Cat Ba was a busy one, we headed to the harbor again for a little boat trip out to a kayak station around some of the islands. On the way we saw several huge white jellyfish-which we were told are quite nasty ones- something the captain of our boat the previous day neglected to tell us as we hurled ourselves off the boat.. lucky escape me thinks!! We hopped in the double kayaks and headed off-once we had mastered our stroke we were ok although we tended not to be able to do much in a straight line..i [View Full Entry]

---

---