Okay guys........can you belive it's been a month again.. doesn't time fly!

Okay so I'm going to shorten the last month ...... promise.

So we left you in Hanoi going on our overnight train.. which was very exciting! We were extremely lucky and ended up having a 4 bed cabin to ourselves so had a much better nights sleep than on those stupid sleeper buses!! Arriving at 5am wasn't so great but the ride to Sapa from the train station soon woke us up as the scenery was amazing!!

We organised our trek for the following day opting for a slightly easier option than n.zealand of 13k walk through rice fields and bamboo forest with a little stop at a waterfall. I think the best part about the day for me had to be the funny little women that attach themselves to you and walk alongside you chatting away for about 6k in the hope that you will buy one of their bags!! My lady was sooo cute though I just had to buy it as it wasn't an easy walk and it was hot I'm not quite sure how she made it!!!

So the next morning we were heading to Dien Bien which is the border town for the crossing into Laos....however in the morning I woke up slightly concerned as it was chucking it down and we had opted for the cheaper ....public bus to get us across this huge mountain range where the roads were still being laid!! After the inital shock though this had to be some of ..if not the best scenery we ahd seen since leaving n.zealand!! Because it was raining so hard there were loads of waterfalls scattered across the mountians it was quite unbelievable!! Some of them were even falling right next to ..or sometimes onto.. our raod!!

The next day the secenery just kept getting better as we headed into Loas through the mountains! This time the sun was out but was just as spectacular! Another however slight concern was the fact that on the Laos side of the border the roads hadn't even been laid..!! It was seriously just a dirt track through the mountains where the width of the road was barley enough for one bus let alone two way traffic!!! Around the corners the bus was sooooo close to the edges .. baring in mind kids they don't have any barriers!!

Arrived however safely at muang kua where we got a boat down the nam ou river to our eveing stopover!! The boat ride was more like a bigish canoe but was the best journey I have done in Asia! Scenery was sooo pretty hopefully the pics will show..:) Staying ata small village kinda being updated for tourists was interesting ... no hot water and only recently have they got power generators that are turned on from 6pm-10pm only!! You have a cnadle in your room for after 10pm!!

One of my worst experiences however was to follow when we did a nice relaxing walk to a waterfall!! The walk started off lovely, through some villages and farms, rice paddies and forest.... and you thought it would get even better as we approached the streams and the waterfall but ohhh noooooo!! Strams and water in the forest = LEECHES! I didn't know what they were at first galnce they just looked like little worms until you try and flick it off nad they are stuck to you sucking on your blood... then when you stop to try and get them off 3,4,5 more come on your feet........eeeeeeeewwwwwwww it was soooooooo gross we were all screaming and frezking out!! Even funnier however was when we got to the waterfall and the heavens opened... this would have been fine apart from the fact that it brought more leeches out and all the small streams we had come through were now full on rivers!! Everyone fell over at least once on the walk back and I don't think many of us were smiling when we remebered only cold showers!!

Next day we spent at an even smaller village called Bana just relaxing and enjoying the scenery and local village life! Was really nice day!

Arrived following day in Luang Prabang which is a really pretty city (more like a bigish town) lots of old french style buildings! We went to an amzing waterfall (without leeches) but unfortunatley it rained again. This waterfall had seven different sectiosn with pools for swimming etc and the water was blue.. pretty cool!!

Had a wicked coupleof days at an elephant village. We decided to do a two day elephant retreat where we got to ride our elephant on the seat to begin with then on the neck through the river and into the forest..... it was pretty magaical and I know I say this alot but a little scary when I discovered my elephant was blind and we did have to go down soem very small but v steep treks!! We had a very relaxing afternoon/evening by the river.. free massage .. free food.. what more could you want!

Next morning we went to collect our elephants from the forest as they get to have free time in the afternoon/eveing. We rode them to the river where we gave them their morning bath!! One of the best things I've done on our trip...definitley! They were sooo cute they absolutley loved it in the water and were ducking and diving all over the place :) I think Jay really liked it to as you'' see from the pics ;) SOOO COOL!!

Stayed a couple fo extra days in Luang prabang for some chill out time and finally made a mammonth 14hr bus journey to the border of Loas to cross into Thailand!

Border crossing was quite cool as 'no mans land' was actually the mekong river... one side was Laos and the other Thailand! Got a bus on te otehr side no problem.. here we go again another 7hrs to Chiang Mai!! My word at the end of those 2 days I was whacked!! Chiang Mia from first impressions looked really nice though. The area we were stayng in was surrounded by a moat and was really pretty at night!

Had another realxing day by the river and 'getting oursleves sorted' a little bit and then the following day we hired a mophead to explore the city! We saw a coupel of temples (out of the 60 or so in the close proximity to our guesthouse we didn't think this was a bad amount ;)) And then whizzed around the city a little more and did a litle bit of window shooping :)

Next day we wanted real chill out so we headed to this pool / gardens.. It ended up being sooo cool as it was a hotel resort but you could use their facilities!! After 5 months in hostels this looked like a palace to us! We only ahd to pay 2poud and we could laze by their pool...walk around their gardens it was liek heaven! Even better was the fact that nobody else was by the pool so we had it all to oursleves... guys please ask me about the video of Jay diving. You all have tro see it!!! DON'T FORGET! We also hired a paddle boat for an hour which took us through their zoo...! Was a shame to say the least to go back to ou bed and 4 walls!!

The night bazaar at Chiang Mai was also really cool where we piocked up a couple of really nice souvenirs! We also treated ourselves to a night river cruise (when I say treat ourselves it was 2pound each) which was really nice and romantic and felt again like we were on holiday rather than slumming it as backpackers!

Headed after Chiang Mia to Sukothi which is an ancient city in Thailand! Had our first case of bed bugs which were luckily spotted early enough for us to move rooms although this didn't fill me with confidence that their wasn't any there so we had next tio no sleep for next 3 nights! (btw.. bed bugs hide away in teh day and come out at night tiem in the dark mainly when you are sleeping and bit you all over...gross).

We hired bikes for the day to explore the ancient ruins which was really cool and so much better maintained than in cambodia/vietnam! Next day we chilled by the pool as we awaited the BIG MATCH (FA cup final)!! Won't say too much on that front;) Unfortunately picked up a bit of food poisoning so we were both laid up for the next day.. I didn't even leave the room :( really wanted to be in my own bed :( wherever that is :).

Okay so after here we headed for Bangkok...... which is our current location... not much to say on this front as I have pretty much worn Jay out shopping for the last 3 days straight!! It is absolutley crazy here!!! You have shopping centres with 5 floors near enough dedicated to dresses, bags, shoes and jewellery.. the one we were in today had 1500 shops!! CAN YOU BELEIVE IT!! It gets even better the average price of the shoes I have bought is 2pound, necklace 1.20, bag 3pound, dresses 4pound!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought I had died and gone to heaven when we found the shopping mall!!! Needless to say I have bought a fair amount of things :)))) Jay can't believe how much stamina I have to be able to shope like that for 3 days solid I'm meaning getting there at 12pm and leaving at around 8pm!!!! He has been absolutley dead every evening!he he he ... he obvioulsy doesn't know what girlies are capable of! Can I just say in my defense though that in the last 3 days of shopping I have spent less than Jay did in vietnam so that makes it all okay!!

Okay so we leave here on Sunday morning to head down to Phuket. We are goinng to do a couple of weeks on Ko phi phi and Ko Lanta and Krabi and then head over to Ko Samui and Ko Tao for a few days before heading down to Singapore for a few days before our FLIGHT HOME!!!!!!!!!

Okay guys so my intention was to put some pics on here but off exploring is doing maintenance so won't allow it.......... :( hopefully it will be rectified soon and I can show you all what we have been upto

Okay guys love you and leave you and we'll be seeing you soon.. the final month begins!!!!!!1

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