Helllooooooooo from Laos. It'sevening here and I'm stuffed from eating bamboo noodles and coconut milkshake. Me and Maya are with a tour group of 7 - all of which are Australians. It's noce cos they're quite laid back and the tour guides change from country to country to teach us about the country and take us around. We started off in Bangkok and as soon as I had arrived from India, I became mega sick. It was all my fault as I had a squashed sandwich at the bottom of my bag which I stupidly ate and I got a stomach bug that was just as bad as the last one. I was so feverish that I couldn't even sit upright without my vision flashing and all my senses were shook up cos I was dehydrated. Anyway I got my hair cut in the hotel and I felt a lot better mentally, if not physically. My hair's shoulder length now so don't get shocked when u see the pics- u have been warned! Anyway, from the very start, we've been put up in amazing upmarket hotels by the tour guide, which is a real treat for us after scrounging around bed bug ridden hostels in India, so Maya's loving every minute of hot water and, crisp sheets and clean bathroom! Sometimes she'd rather stay in these nice hotels then go out and do what we have planned by the guide! The first day, we went into the suburbs of Thailand and went on an elephant ride (which was suprisingly smooth). The trunks were quite scary when they were trying to grab the bananas we were TRYING to feed them. They use their trunks in such amazing ways to eat, like when they were eating sugar cand and they wrapped the long canes with leaves around their trunks in the same way we'd use a fork to twist spaghetti. I just had a really calm feeling being around them. After that, we went on a stunning bamboo raft ride which drifted down a serene river, surrounded by forest and creaking bamboo- letting the sun through the leaves every now and again. That was a great day. It was the kings birthday that day so everyone was walking around in yellow t-shirts which was really surreal cos everyone's so dedicated to their king that they all make such a big effort to wear the kings colours. In the evening, before dinner the group lit a paper lanter which fills up with hot air and floats into the sky - it was beautiful as the sky was lit up with floating lights. I had authentic Pad Thai noodles (my fav Thai dish) at the restaurant, which was designed like a treehouse by the main river which topped off a great day. The next day we had a long journey to the Mekong River where the Thai/Laos border was crossed. We met out Laos our guide and the day after we took a slow boat trip up the Mekong river for 7 hours. It is such a beautiful journey and I couldn't help but look in awe at the craggy rocks, fine sand beach areas and the high green jungle surrounding us all the way. In the distance were jungle hills (this area of Laos is very hilly with jungle and reminds me of all those beautiful pics you see in travel mags). Today in the morning, the green jungle hills looked even more stunning as the morning mist was settled around them and it was just picture perfect. We continued down the Mekong on a fast boat, in which your legs are straight in front and you sit upright with earplugs (cos of the engine noise) and a helmet for the wind and sun. It only seats four people as it's quite a dinky thing and you're sitting quite close to the water. Then it was off - 2 hours of rollercoaster - like speed over generally quite calm waters. We spotted an iguana which bobbed it's head up and stopped at the Buddha Caves which is in the cliff face of a mountain and only accessible by boat. It's chocablock full of thousands of small and large Buddha statues of all different metals/stones. Their were previously more Gold and Silver ones but they were looted a while back. Monks pray there but I didn't see any at the time. The climb up to the cave was exhausting and I'm feeling the effects now so I'm going to shoot off. Tomorrow we're going to see a waterfall and swim in it if it's not too cold then we've got another massive climb up to a sunset point (325 steps or something). If you don't hear from me after then you'll know I had a heart attack on the way up. 8 more days in Laos then we'll reach Vietnam! Love Rish xxxx