Michelle's not doing well

---

The bus took around three hours we hadn't booked a place to stay so casually stalked a couple and ended up at the nicest hostel we think we will ever see on this trip! Only a few months old everything was brand new it even had a swimming pool! Another JABM success. The town is well know for its white temple which has been built by a billionaire who spent more than 4 billion dollars of his own money on the project as he feels it will give him eternal life under their religion Buddhism. You are met with a pit of out reached hands and a bridge through the middle this symbolises over coming greed. The rest of it is pretty spectacular covered in millions of tiny perfectly cut pieces of glass a mosaics dream! Both Chiang Mai and Chiang rai are towns full off monks the best is when you see them riding scooters with brand new sunnies on and a casual side bag. They are peaceful people with a religion based on purity and humbleness, I quite like it. We spent three nights in Chiang rai. The first day we biked out to the "beach" it's actually more of a river with bamboo huts on the side, the attraction is the giant statue of Buddha and the caves were people go to prey, to get there you need to cross the relatively fast flowing river. Brit with a mangled leg wrapped her gash up in a water proof bandage and we wadded in, we followed a local and got to the other side fine. We had a minor heart attack when we saw an extremely life like statue of an old lady under an umbrella in one of the caves thought she had died sitting up.... ? but nope just a statue. Our river crossing on the way back wasn't so casual as the first, Michelle with her bag above her head slipped into a hole and the water ended up around her neck she had to throw her bag to Brit just in the nick of time! When we made it to solid ground we looked up to see a line of locals ready to run and help us, they smiled and went back to what they were doing before they felt like we might drown. We found a small cafe called destinys a group of Australians opened it up and all proceeds go to helping stop child prostitution odd thing to find but for a good cause. On our last day we visited the white temple and a waterfall about a 2k Walk into the bush. We hired a mini van ute and a lovely driver who took us around and waited while we looked around, we stopped off for lunch at Singah park where they are constructing a wild life park with giraffes and zebras. We brought our driver some ice cream and headed home. The hostel we were staying in had an organised bus to the border and then a minivan waiting on the other side to take us to the slow boats. We booked it and went and had a beer beside the pool ready for our 6.00am start the next day. We woke up along with a few others at our hostel to travel to the Thailand and Laos border, Michelle woke in a terrible state with in her words oily bum wees and a sore stomach, she was in for a treat as for the next three hours we had windey roads and brake happy driver. We set off and the colour from her face drained Anna! Tell him to pull over! Racing inside and returning later advising us it was both ends. We continued but not for long next toilet stop was 20k away so hold on, barely making it she was greated on her return with the driver telling her that for the next 70k there was no toilet stop, but he gave her some tablets from his bag, Her face pretty worried now she announced that she wasn't sure if she could do it so to drive fast. Pretty close to the border our driver pulled in at a coffee shop grabbed Michelle's hand and ran her to the toilet. We crossed the border no issues and have a shiney new visa in our passports. We have had a taste of Europe as laos drive on the right hand side of the road a ten minute trip and we arrived on the banks of the Mekong river... The slow boats are our next adventure two part trip with a one night stop at a small jungle town.

---