We arrived in Luang Prabang finally after a marathon 9hours on a cramped boat! LP is much nicer than its predecessor Pak Bheng. It's the second biggest 'city' in Laos, it being more akin to a cosy village in England though. Still it has a nice atmosphere. We got accommodation with some of the people we had met trekking in Chiang Mai. The next day, Sam and I visited the Royal Palace. Laos was a monarchy up until the 1970s for those interested! Had the ...

Slow boat to Laos!On Tuesday we set off for Laos in what promised to be a long journey but hopefully enjoyable, boating it down the Mekong river in Laos. We stayed in Chiang Kong that night which is on the thai/Laos border before hopping aboard the boat. Talk about packing as many people onto one flaoting vessel as possible. I should learn by now but it still amazes me just how little room one is afforded when using SE Asian public transport. The Mekong river lan...

Journey to CambodiaUnfortuantely the wisdom of my years has not taught me to read things properly, so in our haste to book bus tickets to Cambodia, I neglected to read the small print and believing our journey to consist of 1 x 12hr overnight bus to Siem Reap, was irritated to learn that actually it was 2 x12 hr buses and a change in, of all places Bangkok. What was further to our woe was the the Bus journey from Bangkok to Cambodia is one of the most notorious a...

Arrived in Chiang Mai at 6am all bleury eyed as you can imagine. Fortunately we had booked ahead for accommodation so made it the hotel before collapsing into bed for a few hours. Later on in the day after suitable snooze had been had by all, we went for a look around Chiang Mai - supposedly Thailand's 'second city.' First impressions are positive and we have signed ourselves up for a cookery course, some trekking and white water rafting.The evening&#...

Back in Bangkok for a few days to meet up with Sam's 'friend' Tim and his brother Simon. Given that last time we avoided all things cultural in BKK and became solid stalwarts of the notion that we should NEVER leave the Khao San Road, we decided to be not quite so narrow minded this time! Yesterday we checked out the Royal Palace (photos to follow) which was temple galore, the highlight of which was the Emerald Buddha.....which is actually made of jad...