9,000 Miles in 4 days

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9000 miles in 5 days

I had to abandon Rob in north Thailand and let him venture on into Laos on his own. I had other fish to fry. As some of you may know, I have just graduated from university and it was time to cap it all off with one great big champagne fest (aka graduation ceremony).

This may seem a little extravagant - heading back to the UK from Thailand just to graduate, but I felt it would be a nice way to round off 21 years in education as well as get some lovely pics of me in a robe and seeing the family.

Essentially this little expedition involved a flight from Chiang Rai to Bangkok, waiting a few hours, then to Abu Dhabi for another 5 hour wait, then to Heathrow. From there its only an hour or so on the tube into central London where I spent the night in a hotel. EASY.

Next day was graduation, several cups of coffee in a vain jet-lag fight, lots of pictures, smiling faces, long speeches, big lunch, robe wearing and senseless banter. I think I may have also broken the world record for repeated conversations:

"How are you...?"
"What are you up to...?"
"I'm Travelling..."
"Do you have a job..."

etc.

Clinging on to the last hours of student-hood there was obviously a large post graduation bash to attend requiring one more night / morning in a hotel.

From there is was just a simple exercise in getting the tube back to Heathrow, flying to Abu Dhabi, Singapore, Bangkok and finally to Vientianne in southern Laos.

Easy peasy... I did get to watch about 79 films though, so that was good I guess.

I probably need to plant some trees now. All in all I'm now on to circa 30,000 miles for this little trip. Insert guilty conscience here!

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See y'all next time

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Photos

English Family Robinson
That old gang of hoodlums

Everybody loves a party
Either that or they all heard I was coming...

Fellow Graduands
Probably not the finest examples

He never thought he would make it
To be honest, none of us did