Julie: Well, we are back in Bangkok again and we are starting to feel quite at home really. Someone even stopped us today to ask for directions somewhere so we think our fantastic tans (and dirty clothes) made them think we are well travelled backpackers!. Tonight we are getting an overnight bus to the Loas border and onto Vientiene, which is the Laos capital. Apart from the fact that a nearly 12 hour journey on a bus is never fun (although Katie has kept me entertained many a long hour on the buses with her ingenious magnetic snakes and ladders game!) we aren't really looking forward to it as we actually had a bus crash on our way back from Ko Chang! It was quite scary as our bus just ploughed into the side of a lorry. A lot of people on the bus saw it coming and started screaming as the bus swerved across a couple of lanes then smacked into the side of a lorry, which we think was doing a u-turn in the road. The lights went out and because it was evening it was pretty dark which made it scarier and people were shouting "is everyone alright?". Luckily everyone was alright apart from a few bumps and we all got off the bus pretty quickly. Katie swung into action with her trusty travel torch to help us gather our stuff up (although my book and alyson's oreo cookies sadly got left behind in the rush) and hurried to unload everyones' bags. Then we had to sit at the side of the road and wait for another bus which took about an hour. So when we got back to the Khoa San Road in Bangkok we couldn't face a skanky hostel and went back to The Royal, where we stayed when we first got here. Still only works out about seven pounds each, bargain for a comfy bed and clean toilet we think. This all sounds a bit scary but we are still having a wicked time. Ko Chang was really cool, especially the Tree House bar which was very chilled. We also met quite a few other backpackers (all boys, Kirsty, all boys). Francois (not sure how to spell that), the Franch Canadian hippy guy who showed us around on our first night. Ryan, a Canadian guy, and on our last night two Aussie guys, Nathan and Kai-wing (he was australian but of asian origin and had a strong aussie accent and all the thai people though he was a thai movie star). We went out for dinner on our last night with the two aussies, they were a really good laugh. Katie managed a genius stunt at the dinner table: she leant forward to get her drink but the chair moved in the sand and she somehow threw herself backwards off the chair and landed spread out in the sand. The guys didn't quite know how to react until we all roared with laughter, including Katie. It was a great comic moment (even better than when i bent over to pick up my day pack in a hostel reception and lost my balance due to the weight of my backpack and just toppled over backwards). Anyway, we are off the Loas soon so we will update you all soon.