31st may
we had breakfast in vang vieng, i finally got to have cornflakes and milk which i was so chuffed about! :) i think the waiter thought i was a complete looney!! we then had our bus journey to luang prabang, it was a long and very windy journey and i did not manage to get any sleep on the bus so was quite grumpy. (shock) we arrived in luang prabang early evening and head straight out to book up the things we wanted to do and have some food! i tried a buffalo steak which was yummy!

1st june
today most of us headed up to Kuang Sai waterfalls. they were very beautiful, even though they werent massive. we started with a trekk which was supposed to take us over the top of the waterfalls and back down the right side, however when we finally got to the top (and i almost had an asthma attack the air was so tight).. there was no way over to the other side so we hadto come back down the way we came! what made up for it was the dip in the cool clear water pools that dissended from the waterfalls! they were like little pools of heaven! we had fun jumping in etc and chilling out, then when we dried off we went to see the bear sanctuary also in the grounds. they were black asiatic bears who had been rescued from the bile trade, they were amazing! we donated a little sum to help look after them. we went for a local lunch near the waterfall which was a funny experience! :) 3 of us ordered chicken noodles, what came was actually pork noodles... the lady tried to convince us it was chicken, then changed her mind and said that it was 'chicken beef', as if you have ever heard such sillyness lol, i ate mine anyway and the pork was actually really tasty! so after a good say we went bk to hotel and got ready for a night at the local ballet theatre. it wasnt exactly our kind of ballet, but it was pretty much what i had expected, very much like the show they put on in the king and i, it was a small theatre with no air con, and dan and anna managed to fall asleep lol but i liked it!

2nd june
day at the elephant village! best day of the trip so far! me and jackie got to do a normal elephant ride on the seats with the others, but then after the boat trip and lunch, us and jeremy spent another couple of hrs with the elephants, learning how to become a mahood ... to direct them and ride them properly! the first challenge was getting on them the proper way (from the ground) and then getting the right position on the neck! we trekked through the jungle path and then down to the river.getting in was interesting as my elephant (mae kham) decided to go the steep route the rascal! i panicked as i thought i was going to go over the head! i hadto lean right back and the mahood hadto hold onto my waist! jackie and jeremy found this very amusing! we then bathed with them and scrubbed them in the middle of the river which was ace!!! then another bit of a trekk to the elephant camp on the other side of the river where they eat and sleep! was a brill day and had such an amazing time, loved it! and know my mom is sooo jealous i got to ride with the nellies! :p

3rd june
early start to head for our slow boat on the mekong river! thankfully for us it was beautiflly sunny all day and we had the roof slid back and i tanned big style! woop! we then spent an overngiht stop at pak beng, laos. this was interesting as they dont have electricity between the hours of 1030pm and 6am! considering i am slightly scared of the dark this was petrifying, when we got in from group dinner me and jackie lay waiting for the electric to go! this also meant no fan/air con... so i sweat and scratched and tossed and turned all night! not good... coupled with the insects and gecco's that we could hear all night long very loudly! (the 2 spiders and 3 lizards that we also had in our room!) eek! anyway that ngihtmare stop off over.....

4th june
we head back to the slow boat, we had sunny morning but it rained all afternoon...me and caz amused ourselves with her mp3 and a bit of impro to backstreet boys,take that and britney spears! in the afternoon we crossed the border back into thailand and spent an overnight stay at chiang khong.

5th june
we got a bus journey to chang mai... we only had an afternoon here so we intended on renting some bicycles and touring the old town...then the rain set in and we gave it a miss! after a long sit in starbucks (where i got an english tea yay!!!) and some market shopping, and a stop off at boots for toiletries stock up... (all very exiting), it was time to go for our overnight train... train was clean and we could get food at the restaurant which was actually tasty!..

6th june
...arrived into bangkok at 8am and transferred straight to out hotel. we dropped our bags and head out for our last group breakfast. dan and anna have been poorly so me caz and jackie got a taxi to the marlet 9biggest one in thailand), it was absolutley massive, the few hrs we were there we only covered half of it (if that)! we all got a few bargains, i managed to get myself some embroidered shorts for 3quid, ive been after some for ages, they are very cool! tonight was the last night with the group, we went out for a nice dinner and a cuple of drinks, though i was sooo tired after lack of sleep lately that i was on pop! shock horror! had an early night after my first phone call home since i left! it was great to speak to mom and dad, typically one of the first things mom asked was how my burnt leg was, and dad mentioned money!!! lol.

7th june
tiger temple day!!! :) the day arrived at last and it topped the elephant day by a mile even! only me and jackie went, got picked up at 715am so was a long day!
the trip aslo included some historical sites on the way re: 2nd world war... we went to the cemetery in kanchanaburi(which is biggest of 3) where there are 6000 bodies buried of the POW's that died making the death railway for the japs in the war! over 3000 of the graves were british soldiers! we walked around and reading the stones with words from family etc actually made me really upset. it was such a beautiful cemetery, so well kept and it makes me wonder why we dont look after them like that in england to be fair... anyway after that we went to the war museum which had artefacts such as the tools used to make the railway,bombs and guns and helmets etc, plus newspaper clippings and photos..it was really educational for me as i didnt really know about the death railway before. then we went to see the bridge over the river kwai and got some good pics!
so after lunch...the best bit of the day...tigers!! we werent sure what to expect as people had been saying they were drugged etc, but man they were not! when we got up to where they all were with the handlers the nerves kicked in big style! some were not very big, but others were like the biggest tigers i have ever seen!!! the first photo op was a big one and i had to sit behind it, it was facing back licking and nibbling itself and on that pic i looked petrified, i couldnt concentrate on the camera as i had one eye watching what it was doing with that big jaw! lol. we had a couple more photos, one time i made the mistake of leaving my bag too near (and even though they were on leads/chains) and when i head round behind the tiger it pounced on my bag! the handler managed to swiftly get it off him though lol! we thn got to have our pics taken walking with the big male tigers down to the canyon where they sleep in the afternoon! that was scary, they told us to put our hand 'firmly' on the back, as if it was too light they would think it was a fly and try to get that fly off! i looked nervous on that pic too lol.
me and jackie paid an extra 20quid so that we could spend 45 mins with the four new 10 wk old cubs!!!! and it was amazing!... we got to play with them and feed them their milk bottles!! we had such a good time, though jackie got a few scratches and a bite on the ass haha that was funny! (for me) i never thought i would get so close to tiger cubs, they were gorgeous!!! and so full of personality, though even cuter when sleeping and we got to get pics kissing them lol.
def the best day of the trip so far!!! id quite like to get up close to monkeys too, there is a gibbon rehab centre in phuket so who knows....

8th june
today is my first lie in for over a week! i missed breakfast and stayed in bed, even when jackie left to sight see... got to go meet the girls ina bit for lunch and then we are going to see some of the sights eg grand palace and temples! then a bit of shopping on the khaosan rd.... tonight is jackies last night, so its going to be sad to see her leave! :( though she is looking forward to getting home as she has missed it! tomorrow morning the other 4 of us fly to phuket where we have a week between there and phi phi! bring on the beaches and partying.... im ready for some more sunning now! :)