First leg on our journey via the snowy Peninnes and Manchester. Our flight is delayed but not too bad and as long as we get our connecting flight it's going to be fine. After the de-icing of the plane we take the long hop to Dubai and have a good chat with Hamed who is an A&E doctor in Dubai.

He told us that he loved York and had been to Betty's Tea Rooms earlier in December (it's a small world). Make our connecting flight on time and another long hop to Bangkok where we decide to go straight to Khao San Rd for a plate and a glass of Bangkok's finest (Phad Thai and large Chang) the one thing that never changes in Bangkok.

Decided to have a quick massage to relieve our backs and feet after the flight then grabbed a tuk tuk (yes its a cliche but it's still fun) to the station for our train to Laos.

We decided to flash pack it and had already arranged a sleeper carriage and we settled in for the journey. The train had a cook called Li who got us some standard Thai food, a few beers and bid us night night.

The track must have a joint every few feet as we seemed to spend more time clickety clicking than anything else, but in a haze of Chang beer and gentler track we got a few hours sleep and were woken up about an hour from the boarder town of Nong Khai.