Well what a palava getting into Loas, after leaving Pai on Saturday, we even missed a festival for 7/7/07, we heard many stories about japenese dancing and 7 weddings happening, but nothing important enough to keep us there for another night. We waited for the noon bus but at 1pm we board a mini bus instead, buses have a reputation for being late in Thailand. Liron our Isreli friend was making a sharp exit from Pai to make a flight down to Bangkok so we had to get her there on time. After 3 hours we were dropped off at the Chiang Mai bus station. Here's me thinking that I had gotten used to the heat, no, we had just gone North and Pai was much cooler so we stepped off the mini bus into a wall of fire, oh my lord! We weren't feeling too good after the journey (yeah I was playing cards which involved thinking and trying to control my stomach from doing somersaults and as you know that involves multi- tasking and we know good I am at that). Yep I don't think there is a mountain or windier steeper road in Thailand that this minibus did not take us on going as fast as he pssibly could,Craig i could just imagine you hanging out the window and Fran rubbing your back, if you ever go to Pai, there's a plane, get that!! Yeah but even that looks a little dodgy they look like those planes that used to take off on Blackpool beach with doors missing and stuff. Anyway so we popped onto a bus which would take a furthr 3 hours to get us to Chiang Rai it was that or spend another night in Chiang Mai, however this one was the posh VIP bus with a trolly dolly giving us biscuits, water and face cooling towels oh and a film with Ewan Mcgregor that took me twenty minutes to actually figure out it was very badly dubbed in Thai but we thought we would treat ourselves for 3 pound fifty. There's nothing in Chiang Rai and we had already heard that, so we found a guest house and went for a really bad meal then turned in for the night, after 9 hours travel we were a bit cranky, yes thats jac "i need at least ten hours sleep"! for you. Sundays travel up to Chiang Khong?I know its getting confusing isn't it, try waking up in the morning and thinking, "hmm which Chiang am I in!" Not too bad really 3 and a half hours on a non air conditioned bus with a fan? that didn't work, we've had better bus rides I can tell you! Oh it wasn't that bad o.k the bus was lacking in the suspension department and the seats weren't the comfiest but open the windows on this little sweatbox and the breeze was like being back in England so we got the cards out yet again (if you haven't noticed yet these are coming a little integeral to this trip as i can go for hours not having to talk to Jac) and we where on are way. So we, as naive as ever gets off the bus in Chiang Khong and decides to head straight for the border crossing, it had said in the Lonely Bloody Planet that there were banks on the Loas side so we crossed, Aaron realizes that we don't have enough money for both Visa'a just as his is getting stamped in  which is convenient and when the Immigration man tells him he has to go back to Thailand as there are no Atms in Huay Xai... but it would cost him 500 baht to get his passport back, Now lets see, you want Aaron to cross back into a country with no passport. Yes at this point i was thinking about my luck and lack of it, that if i crossed this boredr with no passport i would probably be surrounded by a lot of men with guns speaking very quickly and before i knew it banged up in a Bangkok Hilton style hotel sharing a room with some dodgy Paul Gadd characters. I then found myself on a small boat again crossing Charlie's chocolate river alone! Oh no I lie I was with a gal from NYC, very chatty and passed the 3 minutes the boarder cross took! The ATM would not spit as much money as I wanted out at me so I went back with half the amount, granted enough to get me into the country but not enough to stop Aaron having to Illegally cross into Thailand the next morning, as Carol and Uncle Les well know, (Sorry for panicking you both, but thank you for trying to help!). When he came back it was like something I have never seen in my life he took out about 98.00 GBP and we were instantly millionaires, we had 2.3million kip?whaoo! Yes i pointed out that this would last all of four days, it was fair to say she quickly came down from thinking that we had won the lottery. So next day we catch the slow boat and the start of the 14 hours on the boat begin, the seats were well crap, bolt upright and wooden, thanks to some Oxford University attendees we bought some cushions, I owe them my life, I would not have gotten through that without them! The boat wasn't too bad, we stopped after 7 hours to a village Pak Beng, according to Aaron this is the worst digs we've ever had, (good luck to him for Oz) and the generators were run on diesel so all electricity went off at 10.30pm, so we got a room with a fan?until 10.30 then we just lay there in the dark and sweated! BUT we had a fantastic nights sleep and were gunning for the 2nd part of the journey when we woke up. By the time 7 hours rolled up we were numb from the waist down and bickering about who had sat on the floor the longest, the floor being the better seat! We'd also run out of my favorite little nut and toffee snack things and I was having a craving (anyone who knows about my cravings will sympathise), not good when you in the middle of a river. But we trekked into Luang Prabang with our heads held high, stinking and ready to find a room, we found one against all the advise in the world for a measly 50,000 kip per night, about 2.60, and they change your towels everyday and tidy up for you, saves me doing it for Aaron! May i just point out that it is pretty much roles reversed on this trip Jac being the scruffy one and me being organised and taking two minutes to pack up and move on, on the other hand however it takes Jac an hour as her crap is spread out all over the room. We've had a look around today and watched some local kids playing football, and also pigeon toss with flip flops, they make something to do out of nothing! Oh yeah and we got badly sunburnt AGAIN!

Me and Judith Chalmers will keep you updated soon on the rest of Luang Prabang and Vang Vieng

Lots of Love Miles and Jones