finally got my photos uploaded after many hours over numerous days so please check them out and dont let my effort have been in vain. hope everyone is well and il let irish face describe the last few days events:

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Hi there again!!! So we're no longer in Thailand! We left Chiang Mai for the northern town of Pai, which turned out to be a hippy haven! Much calmer and quieter than the cities, without the sellers and pushers trying to get you to buy their random trinkets and touist rubbish. Brian developed really bad stomach cramps and had a fever, and to honest we were worried he had Malaria or some other tropical disease. So me and Conor set off to explore what Pai had to offer, rented a couple of mopeds and headed for teh hills. We found loads of waterfalls, to our delight, and little country roads where the locals were trying to sell us drugs as we sped by, making gestures as if they were smoking a cigarette, very weird seeing as drugs are highly illegal here and can get you a stay in the Bangkok Hilton, which isn't in any hotel recommendation guides!! Nights were spent drinking at the Pai Whiskystaion, a tiny yellow pick-up with a makeshift bar on the flatbed! We went to see a local band who were amazing, played loads of covers of 90's dance songs, and we bounced and danced around in the main street in front of the stage they errected for some festival. Really good fun every night we went out, the Thai rum Sang Som is extremely drinkable and fueled our exploits early into the morning. We decided to get a slowboat down the Mekong River to Luang Prabang in Laos, a journey that took 2 days. A slow boat is basically a river barge that they retro fit with wooden benches so they can take passengers - I take back everything I've ever said about Iarnrod Eireann, this wasn't comfy travelling! The benches are made for tiny Thai's and Laosians, not us westerners with our long legs and big arses! In saying that, though, it was a really good way to get here, the scenery was so spectacular; big green river banks that rose up steeply into the hills, little fishermen laying pots for crabs, hillside shacks surrounded by banana plants, really something. Myself and Conor just sat out on the edge of the boat sunning ourselves and reading books, poor Brian was still a bit ill so he just tried to sleep. We stopped off for the night in a small village for some sleep. The guesthouse reps nearly pushed us back onto the boat to get our business! We found a nice little place, coaxed by offers of free Whisky Loa and a triple room. When we were out for dinner, we discovered that they shut the power generator for the whole village at 10 in the evening, so we bedded early in anticipation of the second days journey. Little did we know what was in store... We got to the pier at what we figured as an hour in advance. Problem was everyone else had the same idea. To make matters worse, they changed boat on us and now tried to cram 100 people into a 50 seater vessel. After attempt to fit passengers in the hold and the engine room, one French passenger (you know how much they like a rebellion) had enough and said that if everyone agreed to revolt we could force the captain to get us a bigger boat - in effect, as Conor put it, Mutiney on the Mekong! The captain said he could get us a new boat, but we had to pay an extra $3, his arguement being that the Laoisians had no probelm with staying on the cramped boat. It was agreed and the bags were quickly moved to the new boat, which, by the way, was much bigger! After cheers and claps for our French leader, we set off once more down the big, brown, Mekong. Of course, all that mutineering was thirsty work and, like the pirates we were, cracked the beers and got chatting! All the extra room made everyone very happy and we were almost sad for our journey to end as we approached the lights of Luang Prabang, the last light of the sun slipping behind the green hills as we berthed. The camaradery developed on the boat seemed to hold through and most of the younger passengers met up last night and we oddly enough went bowling. Our excuse? It's the only place in town that stays open past the 11 O'Clock curfew!!! I'll keep you updated when I can, our plans for the next few weeks could lead us into communication black spots."