After a 5 hour coach trip from Bangkok we arrived at Chiang Khong on the Laos border. On the way we had stopped at a temple which was white and covered with a mirrored mosaic. At the entrance to the temple there were hands in the form of humans and also beasts reaching out of a pit. This was most unusual! After a good nights sleep we headed down to the Mekong river to catch a boat which was to take us to Luang Prabang in Laos.

After another comfortable overnight train we arrived in Chiang Mai where we planned to spend just 3 - 4 nights; 1 of which was in a hill tribe village. We arrived at our remote hotel in Chiang Mai and spent two nights there whilst we planned our trek. The trek itself was extremely tough but well worth it. After an elephant ride we walked for 4 hours to the top of a mountain where a Burmese tribe lived. The village had no electricity or hot water but some villager...

The flights were quite expensive so for our journey to Chiang Mai we had decided to take a boat, minivan and 2 overnight trains with a night stop in bangkok. Our overnight train to bangkok was a pleasant experience with comfortable and clean bedding. We had booked ourselves into the Naria hotel which was in the financial district of bangkok. The hotel was modern, clean and of a high standard considering the small amount we had paid. After a spot of lunch we hop...

From Phuket we took a boat to the beautiful island of phi phi which is a small island with no cars.The town itself is a maze of streets filled with little shops restaurants and bars. The inhabitants and tourists are predominately backpackers and hippy travellers which give the island a relaxed but not authentically Thai fee. It reminded a little of the lanes in Brighton. Our accommodation was awful, so before even putting our bags down we went to a bar to use the...

We had planned to take a short boat ride to the island of Phuket. However, had we done our homework we wouldv'e discovered that Monday is their day of rest and boats were not operating! So, instead we had to take a minivan which was due to take about 3 hours. 30 minutes into our journey the van started misfiring and we broke down. Almost 3 long hours later a replacement minivan arrived. The 3 hours would've felt even longer had we not had a travel version of conn...