All good things come 2 an end!

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Hi everyone,

This is the final blog...... we can't believe it is here! It feels like we've been away for 6 months rather than 3. We are gutted it is all over and would love to stay on and continue travelling but it's not to be. We feel grateful and privileged that we have been able to do this amazing journey and wouldn't change a thing, even all the hard times! If anything we would savour the chance to sit on another 22 hour bus journey to some far away place.
The last leg of our trip was another early morning which started at 7.45am, we grabbed something to eat and headed to the ferry at the Laos - Thai border to take us 500m across the mekong to the Thai side at Chiang Hong. We went through immigration and then jumped in a cab to take us to the bus. There was Jez, Amanda, Darcy, Emily, and ourselves all heading to Chiang Mai which takes 6 hours. We arrived in Chiang Mai around 4pm and found V.I.P Guesthouse next to Thae Pae gate in the centre. Jez and Amanda were staying out of town in a pre booked place so we said goodbye and arranged to meet at a later date. That night we went an italian restaurant but Mitch's stomach started playing up again so we had a look around market and then headed in. In Chiang Mai there wasn't that much for us to do as we have seen so many pagodas and we are all trekked out. We just spent our time chilling out. We did go to a Thai boxing match which was good fun and met up with Gary who is one of the Irish lads we had been hanging out with and got pretty pissed. We were hungover the next day, and of course we were getting a bus at 10am to take us to a little place 3 hours away called Pai. On the way you get to a certain point on the road and it becomes very windy for about 1 1/2 hours. Gill decided she couldn't take anymore and proceeded to barf into a paper bag which held the barf for around 3 seconds and then seeped through the bottom. We frantically looked for another bag and Gill found one in her day sack......a sandwich bag! We dumped the paper bag inside the sandwich bag.......then Gill started to barf again. The driver eventually noticed and stopped the bus, Gill dumped her barf sack at the side of the road and we continued on. We arrived in Pai at around 1.45pm the scenery was just lovely. We were given a free moto for an hour to go find accommodation, we found a nice wee bungalow for 400 baht a night.....back to bugs and cold showers though.
The second day we headed out on an elephant trek at around 10am for 2 hours, it was quality but sore on the ass. At the end of the trek the elephant headed to the river and Mitch went swimming with it, he would sit on the neck and the elephant would shake it's head and throw Mitch into the river.....good fun! Mitch had been suffering from a sore tail bone for a few days and found it uncomfortable to sit down and really sore to stand up. We couldn't work out what had happened and then Mitch parted his cheeks to Gill and discovered a small spot that was seeping blood and pus.....nice! On the second day after the agonising trek we headed to Pai hospital, the doctor did not have a clue what he was talking about and prescibed a bunch of drugs which Mitch didn't take. Our minds were still not at rest. We headed back to Chiang Mai, back to the same guesthouse, got changed and headed to Ram hospital. This was like the Hilton compared to Pai hospital and puts the NHS to shame. Mitch got taken into a room by a young nurse and asked "what the problem was?" He did another parting of the cheeks and then taken to a doctors room and another nurse. This time he had to jump onto a bed with no shorts and whip down the boxers and part the cheeks again, she took a look at his pusy matted hairy arse prob with a look of a little disgust i'm sure. Let's face it a hairy arse is not a pretty site. Mitch was lying there for a few minutes after the nurse had a look and then she said "close please." It was all very embarrassing and turns out to be a abscess. He was given antibiotics and painkillers and we were sent on our way.
Next day we got a flight to Bangkok. We could not handle another 13 hour overnight bus journey so for 30 quid each we thought the flight was worth every penny. We arrived in Bangkok early afternoon and checked into Star Dome Inn. We decided after lunch to go for a walk down Kho San Road and ended up bumping into Sanne who we sat and had a drink with. While we were sitting there Mitch noticed Jack Osbourne strolling down the street with his bodyguard. Nobody seemed to notice him apart from us. A lot of people we have met on our travels happened to be in Bangkok at the same time so we all met up and had our last bucket night. BOO HOO!!!! We have been here since Sunday just chilling out before we catch our flight home tonight. Today we did our last trip. A boat ride through Bangkok.
Thank you so much for all your comments over the past 3 months. When you are as far away from home it means so much to get a message from friends and family. See you all soon. xxxxxxxxx

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Comments

[Karen McG]

Glad you did it!
You may be sad, but you'll have your memories and photos forever! Can't wait to have a good old catch up with you about your travels! It's great when someone has been to the same places as you....better make our next appointment a couple of hours!! Kx