Thought we'd do our catch up's in little blocks as realised it has been ages since we put up anything and we have done so much!!! So...we left Nick May, not much browner but deffinately happy and relaxed with his advanced open water diving course under his belt. Had a romantic evening in Ko Samui and flew to Bangkok. Had a really nice time of 7hrs in the airport, no really we had our hair cut, lunch, free food and drinks in the lounge and chairs we could sleep on. Sweet. Then off to Chang Mai in the north of Thailand. Very nearly got ripped off by the hostel owner who had done way top much Opium! But found a great place which sorted out our visas to Vietnam and booked our tours. We spent a whole day at a cooking course making Thai food, yes you can come round for dinner, so much though it kind of put us off for a while! We met a Cornish couple, Mel and Russel, and we have been travelling since we have and had the same time left planning on going to the same places so we have been with them ever since we left Chang Mai. Poor b*****s! Our tour to the hill top tribes was wonderful...three days of full on trecking, bamboo rafting, elephant riding, singing with the locals and sweating a lot! I was pritty sick the first day but it went away thank goodness. The treck was beautiful, through paddy fields, up steep hills of Teak tree forests, tiny villages full of squealing pigs and crowing cockerals, water buffallo wondering the fields and inqusitive faces either frowning or smiling at the strange westerners. Our tour group was cool, specially Jeff and Steph from France and Josh and Katie from Auz, who we all met up with when we got back for a good old knees up! Chang Mai was a wonderful city, old town behind the walls and lovely markets of food, clothes and everything else. Next began our long trip to Laos!