We spent our first days in Thailand on the beautifull island of Koh Chang. A small island off the coast close to the Cambodian border. The sea was crystal clear and the beach was lovely and clean. We spent four nights there-during which the King of Thailand held a funeral for his sister which meant a national alcohol ban for 3 days.

After Koh Chang we visited Pattaya-it was a convenient stop off point before we went to Bangkok. Pattaya is a place you have to see to truly believe- it has a street called 'walking street' which is lined with prostitutes, strippers and transexuals. Most of the 'lady boys' are difficult to spot but there are the odd ones with obvious 5 o'clock shadows!! Its definatly not somewhere I will rush back to! We left Pattaya for Bangkok after 3 nights and checked in to a cheap but very basic guesthouse. We found Bangkok a really fun city. The Khoa San Road is the main backpacker area so we spent our first day shopping in the markets and stuffing ourselves with Mcdonalds for the first time in 2 MONTHS!! We were sat in a bar half way down the Khoa San when we saw a lad we had met two months earlier in Hong Kong- what a small world! We spent the rest of the evenning drinking heavily and swapping stories.

The next day, nursing sore heads Steven and I went exploring the city- we walked to the Kings palace (but they wouldn't let us in because we had our shoulders showing). We also went to see the reclining buddha and took a ferry down the river which cost 6p each!

The following day we went to a floating market about two hours away from Bangkok-where we randomly bumped into the actor who plays Lou Carpenter in Neighbours.He was with his new Thai wife and gave us some good advice about where to visit in Laos. After the market we visited the bridge over the river Kwai. I got concerened when I read a sign that said 'move onto the safety platform when a train is approaching'. We nervously walked along the tracks but realised how safe we were when we saw that the train was travelling about 2 miles an hour!

Later that afternoon we went to the 'tiger temple', a monastry that took in a baby tiger cub orphaned by hunters and realised it responded well to human care.They were then given other cubs in the same situation and began to breed them when they reached adulthood. There are now 10 adult tigers and 6 cubs living at the monastry. We were allowed to walk freely amongst them and play with the cubs.I was concerned that they might be drugged or mistreated but they were lucid and looked very happy and healthy. The temple is now a recognised organisation responsible for nurturing tigers orphaned by hunting. There were loads of other animals living in the monastry and we were there for feeding time when the grounds keeper emptied tons and tons of vegetables into the paths and the animals came running from miles and miles. they were totally wild and it was interesting to see them interacting with each other.

Thta evening we took an overnight bus from Bangkok to Chiang Mai- a mountainous region in the north of Thailand. Chiang Mai is well known for its jungle trekking excursions and we fancied doing something a bit different. We decided to book a 3 day 2 night trek which included visiting 3 different jungle tribes. We woke up early on the first day and had breakfast at the hotel before setting off on a two hour drive to Pai- where we had lunch in a tribal village called Lahu where the villagers are of chinese descent. The village has a population of 300 people and they speak their own language. Our guide taught us how to say hello, thankyou and goodbye so we could communicate even if only on a very basic level.

We were in a group of 12 people, the four of us, four argentinian men, 2 men from Chile, a spanish man and a middle aged lady from South Africa. I was nervous about the language barrier and how we would all get on for 3 days but by the third day we knew we met had met some friends for life who made the experience what it was!

After we had eaten lunch we were allowed to explore the Lahu village and see how they lived and farmed. I went to the school and met the children, they were in the middle of an English class and the teacher asked me if I would teach them easy words for different fruits and animals. I held up a big picture with the objects on, said the words and they repeated them back to me in perfect English (with a slight northern acent!). It was brilliant.

After exploring the village we set off on the first leg of the trek -it was the easiest day in terms of walking and only trekked for about two hours before we arrived at camp. The camp was in the village of Lisu where the villagers were of Burmese descent. The village only has 30 people living in it and when we arrived they showed us to our camp for the night. It was vey basic as you can see from the photos but it was really nice to have no electricity and hot water. We built a camp fire at night and sat around drinking Thai whisky.

Later that night all the children from the village put on their traditional clothing and sang and danced for us to give us the opportunity to experience some native traditions. It was fantastic. After they finished we were asked to sing and dance for them too so they could experience something new. Unofortunatly because we spoke in 5 different languages we could only agree on happy birthday and made the dance up as we went along. The children seemed to enjoy it all the same (and we secretly did too!). The villagers are provided with provisions form the city as a thankyou for their hospitality and the treks are only allowed through the villages every 2 weeks to decrease destructive influences from the modern world.We spent the rest of the evening swapping stories with our new friends and arranging to meet when we arrive in South America next year.

We were all fascinated by the stars which were unaffected by light pollution. They looked amazing and there seemed to be thousands of them....

The next day we ate breakfast and set off through the jungle.After 2 hours of pretty heavy trekking we arrived at another smaller Lahu village where we had lunch and cooled down in the freezing cold waterfall. We set off again and trekked to the elephant camp where we were allowed to ride the elphants through the jungle for half an hour. There was a mischevious baby elephant that kept sitting in our way or making us walk through the river! I was promised the elephants were well looked after and our guide said they only saw the groups he took through the jungle every two weeks.

That night was spent in a Karen village very high up in the mountains. It was freezing at night and I had every available layer on (including Stevens jeans). We HAD to drink a lot of beer so we could get to sleep properly.

The last day of trekking was a bit easier on the legs... it was mostly downhill. We stopped off at the river, split into teams and raced downstream on bamboo rafts. The bags were on the truck waiting for us at the other end... it was a good job too because I fell in twice and was thrown in once!!! Not surprisingly Stevens team won.

When we returned to Chiang Mai and civilisation we went out with the trekking team to a local club to celebrate Diegos birthday.However we had to leave early the next morning to take a slow boat up the Mekong River to Pak Beng village in Loas. The boat trip was amazing-the scenery is breathtaking although our bums were slightly numb after 6 and a half hours. The next day we took another slow boat to Luang Prabang we we are now. It is a national heritage city because of its architecture-it has golden temples and an amazing view of the river. We are leaving soon to go to Vang Vieng in southern Loas I hope it is as beautiful as the Loas I have seen already...