Sawadeeka,

Hey all, hope you are all well and looking after yourselves. First things first i would like to congratulate my Jijaji who successfully completed his very own mountain trek to the very top of Mount Kilamanjaro..WOOHOO!!! Well Done (",)

Last blog added was from Queenstown in New Zealand, since then we have vissited old haunts in Christchurch - NZ, spent numerous hours on a plane (Once Again), had a horrendous half hour walk in Bangkok airport, seen twwo become three with Rick's long awaited arrival, and spent 12 hous ona VIP Coach which was a good as the 18 bus back home. oh but i have got a new camera :)

We landed in Bangkok on the 23rd Nov at 11.45pm, horrendous flight and didn't get out of airport til about 1/1.30am. Finally found a legit taxi (I have never been harrased so much for someone to give me a lift). finally got to our hotel/hostel at 2.15am and opened the door to see Rick and two fresh liquor bottles..Let the trouble begin HAHA

Pretty much spent the next three nights in Bangkok chilling out n shopping, i still am struggling to believe how cheap everything is (even if it is all fake). Spent our eveninigs getting drunk and topping it up further at the hotel to ensure a good nights rest. We didn't do any tourist things as we realise we will do them once Monkey, Minky n Beans arrive in 2+ weeks. My first impression of Bangkok was it is so similar to India, that wa suntil we walked the 90 seconds from our hotel to the lively Khao San Road (this place is unbelieveable). It has a mixture of absolutely everything. Between the hours of 10am - 11pm you can find yourself eating pretty much fresh food from a stall, being approached by what many call Ladyboys, be approached by an Indian/Asian Tailor who will offer youa nice cheap tailor made suit, geta drink from either a Offie or one of the many bars, get your hair braided, update your ipod, buy pretty much any garment you can think of, and all this is just on the many stalls littered down either side of the street, behind all this madness are many bars and clubs who all offer the best and cheapest beer/drinks.

However, after 3 nighst of this and the knowledge of knwoing we are to be back we set off ona 12 hour overnight coach journey to Chiang Mai which was a nghtmare as we were joined on the coach by a load of Isreal Soldiers who had finised their cumpolsary national service and were looking to make the most of the trip to Thailand (i know, even on a 12 hour coach with no beer)..got absolutely no sleep so arrived at the wonderful Panda Hostel where our wonderful Hostess Kao has made the stay eventful!! She is crazy but lovely and i will be sure to get a pic before i leave...Spent the first night at the night Bazaar which is a night market and pretty much like Khao San Road you can get anything you want. We managed to convince some lady stall owner who was selling a T Shirt for 200 bhat that 110 bhat would be good business. Lucky Hims got a nice t shirt for just over a quid.

Yesterday which was the 28th we decided to book some excursions and managed to arrange our visas for laos as well as the slow boat trip which will take us there (3 Days on a coach and boat - GREAT!! NOT) we also booked a one day tour which we did today.

We started with an elephant show which m,erely expolited these giant animals but the football show was quite a spectacle and then went for a trek with these beasts! i have completed a bungy jump, a bungy swing and many other dangerous things in my life but this was scary, especially when looking down the side of a steep slope by an elephant who was looking very tired indeed after a hard mornings work carrying hundreds of people down the same trek path. We did eventually arrive at base where we were to begina 10km mountain bike ride to the starting point of our white water rafting - AWESOME. the 10km was taking it out of me, and i asked so many times to quit which the guides thought i was joking about so was stuck on this bike until a few dropped out, when i eventually was asked if i would like to quit to which the reply was there is only 2 km left, with the smell of success within close range i soldiered on and felt quite good t have completed this daunting task up rocky hillsides and even more dangerously down the same hill sides with rocks everywhere as well as some dodgy brakes!

Eventually the last and probably the most scary task today, 3 hours of white water rafting with guides who spoke minimal english - haha, in all honesty they were great fun and ensured everyone both crapped themselves as well as finish with a smile on there faces. At one point we were chilling as one of the other boats had flipped over, and my own tour guide jumped out the boat, ran behind me and pulled me backwards making me do a backward somasault into the dang river!! Anyhow, after all it was meant to be an adventure and i would strongly recommend anyone visting Chiang Mai to stay at the Panda House and Most definately do the one day trek which involves all of the above.

Next stop is Laos and unfortunately we will be spending 3 days travelling and our first stop for four nights is meant to be a few decades behind the western world so it will probably be 2 weeks before i do al;though i will try soner, so until then goodbye and as Himesh keeps saying - GODSPEED!!

Mum, Dad, Nick, Sej, Azi, Saiya - I Love you.X

&..Monkey, Minky n Beanz..Hurry Up!!