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 silverware factory just when we thought we had been around them all we ended up at a lacquerware factory all the places were fascinating to see how things are made and we ended up buying a few things as well. Had a siesta when we returned to recharge as we had the last night of the big festival still to come.

Once refreshed it was down to Tha Pae Gate to watch the festival procession, we opted for a seat in a restaurant and while eating spicy prawn rice we watched the whole thing unfold in front of us. Some of the floats were so intricate and well designed it was really spectacular. As i am sat writing this there are fireworks and firecrackers going off all around us and the sky is lit up with balloons heading towards the heavens.

Sadly we will not be able to post a blog for at least 3 days as we are spending tomorrow on a bus to get us to the border with Laos then the day after we are on a boat all day before resting at a village then we take the boat on the 3rd day all the way to Luang Prabang. Hopefully we will be able to post from here so stay tuned.

Lots of Love

M & M