This morning bags to coach was at 8:15am. The drive to Chiang Rai this morning was only about 4 hours and it was broken up by a quick stop on the way where Nui bought some sticky rice for us to try; sticky rice is a traditional Thai dessert. We also stopped at a cafe / rest area on the way called 'Cabbages & Condoms'. I kid you not. I honestly don't know where the cabbages bit came from but the condoms bit is because any profit they make at the cafe goes towards buying communities condoms to help prevent the spread of HIV. We were here for about 15minutes, just for a quick toilet break and to get some snacks and then we were back on our way to Chiang Rai. We got to our ... read more

Today started early; awake at 6:30am to have showers and pack up our things for breakfast. This is where the stories were swapped from the night before, of how Luke got lost. Matt had gone to get himself a tatto (as you do) and told Luke to stay at the bar. Luke missed the "stay at the bar" bit and went in search of Matt. Luke was slightly intoxicated, okay, very intoxicated and while searching for Matt he got lost, and couldn't find the hotel. At some stage of the morning he'd been worken by these older ladies outside McDoanlds where he'd fallen asleep. Ahh, only Day 1 of Contiki.. gotta love it! So we left the hotel earlywith our tour guide, Ron and walked to the river where we paid 14Baht to catch the ferry ... read more

After dad not being able to find his car keys we made it to Melbourne Airport with more than enough time. The flight from Melbourne to Kuala Lumpur was about 8hrs and boy did we get some lovely turbulance along the way. But i was so tired that i managed to sleep through most of it anyway. Waited at KL airport for about 3hrs before my connecting flight to Bangkok. Spent that time with a couple from Melbourne. Emily and Matt from Port Melbourne. They are actually on the same flight home as me. Matt managed 21 scotch n cokes during the flight so was feeling very average by the time we reached KL.  So i caught my flight from KL to Bangkok where it was quite quick to get through customs etc to be met ... read more

check out was at midday, at 11am mary rang and asked if we could check out later, they said 1pm was fine. we were ready and out of the room just after midday anyway where we left all our bags with the hotel and caught the trolly, for only $5 each out to manhattan beach. here we had the best rolls for brunch that ive ever had, it was like a footlong but totally packed out, got it from a deli, makes allo the difference. we went and sat at the beach for abit before jumping back on the trolly to go to thee shops. we were here for abit, grabbing some last minute items before jumping back on the trolly to head back to the hotel. we sat in the lobby for abit, rearranged our ... read more

so the alarm went off at 3:30am to repack our bags, organise our cab and say our goodbyes. we were sorted and ready by 4am, said our goodbyes to poor mel who had to be up in a few hours for bags to coach at 7:45. we jumped in the cab and 25minutes later we were at the aiport. we checked in and waited round for our 6am flight. unfortunately it wasnt direct, we had to go via denver, colorado and get on a different plane. we arrived in las vegas, nevada by about 9am. we collected our bags and made our way out to the shuttle to go to rons hotel at the flamingo. he didnt have to check out til 11am so we got freshened up, had a quick chat then decided to make ... read more