And then we are in Laos, this is my soon to be home soon as I sort out visa's. Beautiful just doesn't seems to do it justice. We arrived in Vientiane and the group got our hands on some motorbikes and in true budget angel style, cruised around like locals.. much too the fear and suspense of the locals, which was a nice change .. really this was a much safer idea in idyllic Laos over attempting it in say Vietnam, although still a bit crazy! We headed to the Buddha Park with the biggest statue of a reclining Buddha that I have ever seen and some of the craziest too! From here we headed up to Vang Vieng, a village set in a valley with the Mekong river flowing through it, time to get one with nature. Now Tubing on the Mekong river is always worth a mention .. In fact I bring it up in almost all conversation I have at the moment ... 'yes it is a lovely day' ... 'yes but have you been tubing'. (Have even bought the T-Shirt) It was an incredible experience. Imagine floating serenely down a river on a truck tyre tube for about 3kms or so and then hearing a low bass beat's in the distance, as you come round the corner all you can see is bars lined up down the side of the river for the last K or so. Then some Laos man throws a rope out to you, reels you in, you sit and drink some beers in the sunshine, then jump back on your tube (beer in hand) float down the river again until the next Laos man throws you a rope, reels you in and you do it all over again! Brilliant! Needless to say getting one with nature included a lot of local watering as well.
We finished off our trip around Laos in Luang Prabang, were I finally got myself a very awkwardly posed photo with a local Ox (tick off the to-do life list). Me and a few guys from the tour took a gentle boat ride out to the Kuang Si Falls that although I wasn't prepared to go swimming, the Waterfall was so pretty and the water so blue I strip'd down before I even knew what I was doing! Funny the things you do as a traveller eh?
Heading back down south again we stop over in Chang Mai. Rode an elephant as of course we are in Thailand (and the Lonely Planet said this was the place to do it) and at some point we thought it would be a great idea to go River Rafting with a local guide who didn't speak English and could not have been older than about 14yrs.. But yah sure we trusted him with our lives and why not this is Thailand after all!
I technically finished up my tour back in Bangkok where I did say goodbye to the group .. For a whole 2 days, as I decided that I couldn't finish up my trip in Thailand without visiting an island. So I flew down south and headed over to Kho Phi Phi island… yes the island where the movie the 'Beach' was filmed. I have never ever seen anything like it in my life, people have described tropical island's to me before and I now honestly don't think you can truly grasp the concept until you have seen it for yourself! In fact I am not even going to try and put it in words how wonderful the place was. I spent my last 2 nights in Thailand lying on white sandy beaches and dancing around bonfire's (back with the tour again - they arrived a couple of days after me) and what a perfect way to finish a perfect holiday. It has been incredible and now it is onto the UK. Wish me luck !
xxx