Sawadee (hello) from Bangkok!

It has been a while since I last wrote, and now a full month has passed and my tour has come to an end. Today everyone has left the hotel and are heading off in all different directions to continue with their travelling. I had planned to slowly work my way down to Singapore over the 3 weeks I have before my flight to Australia. However, another girl in my group is doing the same, so I am joining with her to do the journey in 12 days and am still deciding what to do with the rest of my time!

So, the first part of my journey involves a 15/16hour bus journey overnight down to Phuket. It is a good job that the hotel we stayed in last night was the nicest one yet, and I actually managed to get quite a lot of sleep because I am no doubt going to be very tired tomorrow!

My last blog entry came from Vientianne over a week ago, and quite a lot has happened since then. Last Wednesday, we left the capital of Laos and took a bus to Vang Vieng, home to tubing. I had heard a lot about tubing before I left for the trip, but i had the impression that you rented a rubber ring and floated down a river, occasionally stopping for a drink. I was very very mistaken!!!

Although our tour guide dis not advise going tubing, it was all that we really went to Vang Vieng for. The second we got there we threw our bags down and were soon on the way down to the river. After renting our 'tubes', we got a tuk tuk to the first bar, and I couldn't quite believe what I saw. The atmosphere is literally undescribable. Set infront of a beautiful mountainous landscape, the river is lined with wooden bars blaring out music and serving buckets full of drink. From these bars are swings and trapezes which people are constantly flying off off and into the river. The second you get there, the staff start to 'decorate' you with spray paint and strings declaring which bars you have been to. Once bored of one bar, you float barely 100metres downstream before the next bar throw you a rope and you are pulled in. The party in Vang Vieng was incredible, if not slightly crazy, and continues long into the night. It certainly was an unforgetable part of my trip!

After two days solid partying, we spent the next day travelling/asleep on a bus to Luang Prabang. It was a very nice change to go from a town crammed full of backpackers and drinking to somewhere that has a 11.30pm curfew on all of its residents! We arrived late and went for dinner, and had the following day to spend exploring. In the morning we went to the Kwang Sii waterfalls which were breathtaking. The water was crystal clear and the most incredible turquiose colour. After walking around the park, we went for a swim under the waterfall which was absolutly freezing but a memorable experience!

In the evening, we went to Luang Prabang's incredible market, where we spent several hours. It was very different from all of the markets we had visited in Vietnam. Rather than being crammed into a small smelly space, it was outdoors and really pleasant to walk around. The Laos people generally seemed very laid back and are not so forceful with trying to sell you things. After buying a few little things (emphasis on the little because not much more will fit in my bag) we went back to get an early night as we had to be up at 5a.m the following morning.

On Sunday we got up early because we were off to go an join in with early morning ritual of giving to the monks. It seemed very bizarre, but we were reassured that this was seen as a good thing to do in Buddism, and many of the locals do it every day. It basically consisted of us all sitting along the side of a street, with a large pot of sticky rice. The monks then walk around the streets, and when they pass you you place a ball of the rice into their baskets. It all seemed very strict, and was actually quite difficult to try and keep up with the pace the monks walk past you, and results in you sticking your hand into boiling hot rice as quickly as you can. It seemed strange that they would actually be eating their basket of rice which hundreds of peoples hands had been over, but apparently it is quite normal. Giving to the monks was interesting but it has been turned into just another tourist attraction, and it was odd to see how many people were scrambling around trying to take photos of those of us giving rice.

After leaving Luang Prabang, we spent 3 days travelling through several small towns to get us back into Thailand. The first part of this trip to Pakbeng involved us going on a slow boat for a whole day which was absoltuly freezing! Although hot outside, when going on an open-top boat it was insanely cold and resulted in my wearing 4 layers and both the jumpers I own! Pakbeng was a tiny town and just acted as a stop-over in our journey. After here, we went on a horrifc bus journey to Chiang Khong. Because it is dry season, we couldn't continue on the river and so had to drive up the dustiest mountains known to man. When we finished, we were all covered head to toe in dust (the driver had his window open) and we spent a good hour scrubbing both ourselves and our bags at the hotel! During a part of this journey, we got on a 5 minute boat journy to cross the border into Thailand, and my bag got rather wet, so now half my clothes smell damp which is just great!

After spending an evening in Chiang Khong, we moved onto Chiang Mai which was incredibe! It was a shame that we were there for only a day because there was so much to do. We crammed in the activied, and spent the morning going to ride an elephant! We were so lucky on the day we went because there was an elephant which had just been born the night before!!! We got to see and stroke this tiny elephant which they had jsut wandering around. The elephant ride itself was hilarious. We bought bananas for the elephant which was could feed it on the way around, which was a very big mistake. The elephant continually sprayed itself to cool itself down, and by the end of an hour we were covered in some slimy banana snotty pulp which was quite disgusing. It was a good job then that the next activity was rafting down the river, where we all got completly soaked but was good fun.

Chang Mai saw the last stop on our trip before getting back to Bangkok on the last sleeper train of our journey. We have spent 2 days in Bangkok now and I feel much more comfortable here than I did a month ago. I can't quite believe that a month has gone so fast, and I will try and fill everyone in on my journey as often as possible. Sorry for the rather long entry but so much has happened!!!

For now.... much love as always xx