Sabadee Well here we are in Laos People Democratic Republic (Lao PDR.) The last few days have been long as we spent most of the time on a boat. DAY 1- Chiang Khong (Thailand) to Pak Beng (Laos) 27th November It was an early start and a short ride to the river where we officially left Thailand for the 30 second boat ride across to Laos which was in our sights. It did not take long to clear immigration and after 7 stamps in the passport and $70US were handed o...

Sawadee I know that I said there would be no blog today but it seems that you can get an internet connection anywhere these days and the Thai people don't miss a trick. Today has been the first day that both of us felt like coming home, we have just had an horrendous journey up to Chiang Khong (the border town where will enter Laos tomorrow) There were 10 of us crammed into a minivan and the air con didn't work, our luggage was chucked on the roof and we didn'...

Sawadee And welcome to our last blog from Thailand.Today our hotel manager Sunny treated us to a ride around several shopping emporiums with our own private driver to boot. He whisked us off at 10am and we visited where they make paper umbrellas, like big versions of what you would put in your cocktails!!! We also squeezed in a visit to a silk factory and learnt again how they kill the silk worm to make silk plus we visited a woodcarving factory and a silverwar...

Sawadee And happy Loi Krathong festival to everybody.Today in Chiang Mai has been a major festival but things didn't really get started till dusk so we spent a few hours on the Ping River.This river goes all the way South to Bangkok and over a few hours we visited a farmers house and looked at all the things he grew and also got to sample ginger and Longan juice which was tasty. As we moved up the river there were plenty of people in the water, including 6 guys...

Sawadee Well what a day we have had today it has been a real adventure and full of action. We had the day mapped out and first was our elephant trek, this was so much fun.The elephants used to be used for logging but are now part of a conservation project where they still work as it is what they know. Our elephant was a lady and as soon as we were on board she sprayed Mel with what can only be described as muddy snot, she was covered from head to toe. As we went...