Houay Xai & The Gibbon Experience Houay Xai is the Laos border town to Thailand, and we found it preferable to the Thai option. More laid back, it recieves all the late evening sun. We stayed at a good guestouse here called BAP guesthouse, run by an amazing Lao lady. She seemed to speak all European languages. I have no idea how old she was, but i dare say she had lived through a number of the different regimes Laos has suffered with in the last century....

Pai to the border So, quite a bit of backtracking to do in this blog as not written for a couple of weeks. I'll break up Thailand and Laos. Last time I wrote we were in Chaing Mai. From there we took a very long and windy road in a cramped mini bus to Pai, a small riverside town up in the mountains. In Pai we stayed in a little bamboo hut by the river. We also hired a scooter here (sorry mum!) and took a drive around to see the countryside. We appreciate...