We flew from Chiang Mai to Bangkok. It was so nice having a 1 hour journey rather than 14 hours on a bus! We booked into an airport hotel with a pool, so we would be ready for our flight to Sydney the next day. So, it is with great sadness that we leave South East Asia, wishing that we could have more time here. We are looking forward to Australia, but our budget is really going to suffer! Although southern Thailand and Laos were expensive at times, it was n...

Our border crossing into Tailand was the most painless yet. We simply went to the office on the riverside in Laos to be stamped out, and for the first time we did not have to pay a fee/tip. We then took a very small, thin boat for about 5 minutes across the Mekong River over to Thailand, where we went to another little office to be stamped into Thailand, which again cost us nothing. We then had a very comfortable 5 hour mini bus ride to Chiang Mai. We decided...

We stayed one night in Huay Xai (seems to be spelt differently in various places!) so we were there ready to start the Gibbon Experience early the next morning.  The town is on the Mekong, and you can see Thailand the other side of the river.  It therefore is mostly a border town, with a few hotels and restaurants, and in recent years has become the starting point for the Gibbon Experience. We had a truck ride for about 80k to take us to the outskirts of the j...

The journey to Luang Prabang was one of the worst we have had.We decided to take the mini bus, as it was quicker, but the mini bus was tiny and they crammed it full.They then kept switching off the AC and opening the front windows, which was fine for the driver and co driver in front, but not good for us on the back seat, so we had to keep complaining.We also had a family in front of us, with a 2 and 4 year old who kept being sick, so we had to keep stopping! ...

Vang Vieng is a town with a split personality. The bus ride there was great, as the scenery was so dramatic: lush trees and huge towering mountains. As we arrived at the edge of town, there was a dusty road with a few hotels and restaurants leading to town. The bus stopped at a resort we had been recommended to stay at, so we checked in. Unfortunately all of their bungalows were full, so we took a huge room in the hotel for one night and then would move to a bun...