So from the pristine beaches of the thai islands we made our way to Thailands capital and biggest city Bangkok. (I think those facts are correct!!) However, this wasn't as simple as it sounds. A day full of killing time and sat on Thailands public transport. We are getting pretty good at this now. A dodgy scooter ride, a three hour ferry journey, a four hour killing time session in Chumporn, the 'port', a mini bus ride to a random side alley and eventually an overnight bus was standing in the way of us and Bangkok. Surviving all of these modes of transport was an achievement in itself, and not gettig anything stolen along the way was an added bonus. This journey saw our money belts first use. One good thing that came out of this mammoth journey, however, was that we met Helge, from Norway, and Maddy from Canada who we were to spend the next couple of days with.

We arrived at about 4 in the morning, to walk down Koh san road (the main travellers road in Bangkok) amongst many homeless people, drunk tourists and annoying thai people still trying to sell you things at that hour in the morning. Our main aim was to find accomodation. Maddy had been to Bangkok before so took us to a place she knew, and we were lucky enough to get that night free, (albeit a couple of hours). The next day was welcomed with a longgggg lie in, succesfully not getting out of bed untill midday.

Our first day in Bangkok and our main aim was to get hold of a vietnam visa. After trying to be scammed by many locals we thought it was wise and best to head to the Vietnam Embassy itself. Being far out of town meant we had our first experience in a tuk tuk, and after this ride it is safe to say I will never complain about being on any other type of transport again. We applied for our visa and had to pick it up the following day. We did a bit of shopping and that evening went out for a few drinks, our first experience of Chang beer, definately not a fan, but didn't go crazy due to a certain persons birthday the following day that we had to be on top form for. So we woke up, fairly early and I gave the birthday girl her presents and she opened a couple of cards from home. Apparently in Bangkok they don't celebrate birthdays because I tried so very hard to look for balloons, birthday cards, cakes etc, but had to settle for three small cakes from a newsagent, and I got majorly scammed with the card i bought her. I was walking home, whilst Helge was distracting Faye, so I could buy her presents, and stumbled a long one stall which to my amazement sold birthday cards, I chose a birthday cake pop up card to give you detail, made by a deaf man. I was amazed at how someone deaf could create such a masterpiece so paid 100 baht for it, which is very expensive over here, to realise later that day that deaf men definately have their sight!!!! I asumed he was blind for some reason, biggest con everrrrrrrrrr.

Her birthday consisted of a day of sightseeing. We managed to get our private tuk tuk driver for the day for a ridiculously cheap price, who chauffered me, Helge and Faye around, taking us to all the hot spots and waiting for us at each one. Sightseeing spots today included, the big buddah, lucky buddah, a few local markets, an information centre to book the next leg of our journey, and the kings palace, an array of spectacular temples. Just to add to this, it was a good forty degrees, so walking around all day in the sweltering heat was far from ideal.

So with our lives at risk everytime we chose to step inside a tuk tuk a near death experience nearly happened on fayes birthday . Note to self never tell a tuk tuk driver you are in a rush, not sure my life was worth my vietnamese visa. They enjoy driving towards incoming traffic during a traffic jam, they must think it is a fun game swerving in and out of the traffic however me and faye would think otherwise. Helge was so calm about the situation, but me and faye have become very nervous passengers!! As well as tuk tuk drives, crossing roads in bangkok also proves to be very challenging, you sort of have to dive out and hope for the best.

In the evening, it was me, Faye, Helge and Maddy and our first stop of the night, ensuring we were a little intoxicated before hand, was a ping pong show. An interesting experience to say the least, I will spare you the details as I am sure you all have an imagination!! And if you asked us where we went after, I could not give you an answer, we failed to remember the club we had been to. All in all a very good day and a birthday I'm sure Faye wont forget!

The next day was welcomed with probably the most horrific hangover of our travels to date. My aim the previous evening was to ensure Faye woke up with a hangover because there have been too many occasions on this trip where Faye has woken up feeling fresh and I am struggling with life, so I was exstatic to wake up to see Faye dying beside me, good work from me. A Mcdonalds was attempted, but was met with huge disaapointment, it just does not taste the same out here.

And what more could we have wanted than to end our day with our first experience of a night train. A 18 hour night train, arriving in Chang Mai at 4.30pm the next day. We were enjoying our experience, probably a comfier bed than most hostels we have stayed at, until we woke up in the morning in a pile of our own sweat, wishing we had opted for the air conditioning option, and having too much time to kill in such a small amount of space. Alison this is when I first started reading one of the books I bought, nearly 4 months in to the trip, will i finish it this is the question?!

We had booked a tour in Bangkok for the next couple of days experiencing the Thai Jungle. We were welcomed at the train station with a man holding a sign saying Whittall Party, which obviously excited me very much, the next time I am welcomed with banners (take note family) will be when we return in a matter of weeks!

So after an english breakfast (a pretty bad one) we were ready for our jungle adventure. After experiencing the fastest driving ever our first stop was the Elephant trek. A cruel experience at that. I remember doing it in Sri Lanka in 2003, but second time round I can for sure say that I won't be doing it again. It was the longest 50 minutes of our lives, and we made sure we bought the elephants plenty of bananas to reward them. The next few days involved trekking through the Thai countryside and jungle, admiring little villages, spending too much time walking up hill and not enough time walking down hill, eating lots of rice, swimming in lots of waterfalls ignoring the colour of the water, sleeping in bamboo huts, using holes in the grounds for toilets, rafting down the river in bamboo rafts, being 'entertained' by our tour guide - my personal favourite being identifying a male and female matchstick fish!! A great few days, spent with a great bunch of people, there was fourteen of us, split in to two groups, and once we were back in to the civilisation of Chang Mai we all met up and went out, ignoring the fact that we had a long minibus journey to Chiang Khong, the border of Laos, the following morning.

So yes you know how the next day was spent, being hungover on a bus, but actually feeling safe and cool in asian transport for once. We made a few stops on the way, seeing some white temples, which wasn't exactly met with feelings of excitement!! We had planned to stay in Thailand that night but the guys we were with - Helge and his two friends from home, visas expired that day so we headed for Laos, on the two minute boat journey!! I definately wasn't expecting the two countries to be this close. Once in Laos we sorted our visas out and then the most important thing on our minds was food as we had been deprived a lunch stop on the journey, and then bed.

Our next two days were spent on the two day slow boat from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang via Pak Beng. We met seven other english travellers so with a few beers (we are now turning in to lads) we were entertained for the 9 hours travelling each day. Our overnight stop was met with an indian curry and going for a few drinks with everyone, in a very sleepy village in which the only bar in the area closed at 11pm. But with the all day drinking maybe this was a good thing!

Once we arrived in Luang Prebang the ten of us all tried to find accomodation and found a lovely little spot. Once we arrived we went for dinner and then saw what the night life of Luang Prebang had to offer. Every bar closes at midnight, except one bowling alley. A very surreal experience. A tuk tuk drive away from the main square we spent the remainder of the evening in what felt like a church hall, drinking hideous laos whisky, with ridiculously bright lights to show of how sweaty we all were, bowling the night away. I thought I was a pretty decent bowler however this was not the case after a few beverages!

The next day (today) was spent with yet another awful hangover, having a lazy morning and visiting a local waterfall, very spectacular and is definately my favourite spot of Asia so far, jumping in off rope swings and rocks and enjoying the clear waters!

Off to Vang Vieng tomorrow in a VIP bus with everyone, hangover free. Lets see what this tubing malarky everyone bangs on about is like!!

Missing you all, hope all is well xxxxx