Saibadee! hello everyone we have made it here safe and sound, if not a tad tired! Had our first night in Bangkok and like true Hangover style we can't remember a thing. you think we would have learnt our lesson from last time but if anyone has had a sangsom whiskey bucket you will undertand! I think we totalled 4 buckets between us plus 2 changs inbetween. not good. but we did get to see a ping pong show! hahahaha! i remember that one.... anyway, we nursed outselves better with a day by the pool in D&D's hotel - still didnt manage to get ourselves o the grand palace. we did make an attempt however, and got half way there but then learned the king was having a party or something so we couldnt go in. so went to the floating markets but they had ' finisished' because of the flooding. oh well we tried! we have a day with laura when she comes over in december so we WILL do it then.

we are now in pakse, laos. had a long day travelling on night train, then over the border in non aircon-aircon minivans with far too many people than seats and been ripped off a good few times. pakse is the smallest town and all the guest houses are full so we have had to put our hands in our pockets and fork out £7.50 for a room - it may not sound much but by laos standards its expensiveo! especially when our budget for a room is £5 a night!

tomorrow we have a 3-4 hour bus ride down to the 4000 islands for a few days of hammock swinging and dolphin spotting - they have just recently got electricity down there so we are not banking on wifi. im not sure if this will load to FB so ill go now before ive realised ive written this for no reason haha!

....... a few days later........

it didnt load to facebook so i thought i would add to it. we absolutely loved don det. we stayed 3 nights, most of it was spent swinging in a hammock, but we did manage to motivate ourselves and hire bicycles and explore the neighbouring island of don khon - cyclying in 30 degree heat was quite a challenge! we went to the dolphin viewing spot to learn that they only come to 'play' at 6am, otherwise you have to charter a boat to the cambodian border and watch them at sunset. we didnt do that. but you could see cambodia from where we were. we cycled to a 'massive' waterfall to get there to realise its just big rapids - pretty inpressive and a little scary going over the wobbly suspension bridge. when we found our friends later that night we realised we went to the wrong waterfalls and there were bigger and better falls on the other side of the island! oh well - im sure will see mroe on this mammouth trip!

we spent our last night on the sunset side of the island, chilling in a bar on stilts over the water, watching the fishermen chug along the mekong with the backdrop of orange and red skies - pretty nice! I think I could live there! its been so relaxing going to sleep with the sound of crickets, and waking up to the sound of a rooster - even if its a bit before our usual waking time!

the second night we were there, a storm hit, causing a tree to fall on the power lines, resulting in the whole island being in darkness until midday the next day, but it was ok dad cos i had a torch! and it saved my life! :)

but it did mean the fridges didnt work so beer was cold :( we spent the evening in a bar called Pai In Lao by candle light, playing cards with strangers and someone playing a guitar -you can imagine the cliche hippy scene evolving here..... good fun though!

Now we are back in Paske. in Don Det we booked a ticket from don det to danang (vietnam) which left at 11am, arrived in pakse at 2:30pm - had a 4 hour wait and the bus to Danang at 6:30pm, arriving danang at 11:30am the next day. however, we arrive in Pakse to learn there is no bus to Danang at 6:30pm! so we have to spend a night in pakse, and leave for danang at 7am tomorrow. was a little stressfull as im meeting ol sammy page in danang tomo but now we wont be there so been skyping and emailing to try get in touch - hopfully she will have found us a nice dorm room we can rock up in after a 12 hour bus ride. we were hoping to do it through that nice to save on a nights accommodation but at least we get to see the countryside this way :)

well thats it for now people, will catch up soon! much love, Gem and JC :D xxx