We left hotel in our Luang Prabang early and headed for the river to get on our boat which would take us down the Mekong, to the Thai border over the next couple of days. As our group was now so small we had so much room on the boat so were able to spread out. The scenery was lovely and I ended up sitting on the boat, taking it all in and watching the world go by, including spotting both brown and pink water buffalo along the side of the Mekong and a group of monks (including some which were smoking). The rest of the day was spent eating, drinking and reading and when I was not doing any of the above I was sleeping!

At around 5.30pm on the first day along the Mekong, we arrived at Pak Beng (the half way point to the border). This town only got electricity recently and tourists only visit for one night as part of their journey along the Mekong, so there is not a lot to do (and you would not want to stay longer than 1 night). Our local guide took us to the market in town so he could show us what all the different items being sold were, which included eels and frogs, before we got dinner. At dinner a bottle of rice wine was included so Dara, the local guide and I were doing shots with our dinner (I could only handle a couple as it tasted so horrible). Back at the hotel, our room was full of bugs, including a very large spider hiding under a pillow and while I had a shower there was a power cut. So after a rubbish nights sleep I could not wait to get out of this place and get back on the boat for a 2nd day, which consisted of reading and sleeping.

We got off the boat in Laos, had a short drive to immigration to get stamped out the country and then caught a longtail boat across the Mekong to Thailand. As we were in the boat the winds picked up and the rain began and by the time we reached the Thai side it was tipping it down - welcome back to Thailand!

In the morning we had a private bus to Chaing Mai and on route we stopped at a temple in Chaing Rai. By now I was a bit templed out but our tour leader pursuaded us to go and have a look. It was the strangest temple I have ever been to. At the entrance there were statues of decapitated heads hanging from trees and random skulls and a predator in the ground. The temple was white and had paintings of skulls in the inside and the toilets were also the fanciest I had ever seen, situated in a gold building!! Our second stop on our trip was to a cashew nut factory so we were able to see how they are grown and harvested! And finally we reached Chaing Mai at lunchtime.

I had already visited Chaing Mai a few years ago so had decided to have some chill out time. I spent some time by the pool reading my book, had an oil massage (in paper knickers and a hair net), wondered round the night market and ate lots of nice food.

It was then time to say goodbye to another member of our group and for me, Amy and Dara to catch the overnight train back to Bangkok, for the last day of our tour.