Sorry its been a while again! Plentyto update you all on.

We arrived in Luang Prabang late in the afternoon after a hellish journey. The roads were windy, full of potholes, twist around the edges of huge mountains, and we had a driver that apparently was on a suicidemission. Nevertheless we got there ok. We ate dinner together at a street food market and it was lovely and dead cheap. We had a fairly ewarly night as most of us were still shattered from tubing the previous day and the horrible journey.

On the 21st we got up early and wished tom from the group a happy birthday over breakfast, then boarded a sort of glorified tuk tuk to a local waterfall. We had the opportunity to ride some elephants which we all took up on, although some of us including myself regretted it afterwards as they weren't treated very well. it was really sad to see. After riding them however we had some time to just generally hang out with them, stroke them, feed them, which was reallynice. It was a lovely experience and they were such gentle animals. While some of the group went zip lining (not me) we sat and watched the waterfall, while our tour guide went off somewhere. he later returned saying he had bought 25 beers for the elephant keepers and had a discussion with them about their treatment. he told them that as we were not happy, he was not happy, and unless they changed their techniques he would not be bringing any more groups to the attraction. This made us feel much better and only served to enhance our respect for him. We met that night for dinner and had a traditional lao barbeque which is cooked at the centre of the table. it was really smoky, a bit impractical, b ut very tasty. And then of course we had a singsong and cake for tom's birthday. Drink of choice: whisky and bailey's! Introduced to usby the two danish boys on the trip- honestly, its not as bad as it sounds. We went on in a tuk tuk to the only place open late, the local bowling alley... interesting! barefoot bowling till 2 am,polished off by an impromptu arm wrestle denmark/lao/cambodia/france competition... boys will be boys.

Up early again on the 22nd for a boat trip on a family run slow boat (mekong river). We stayed on the boat all day 9-6ish and although the scenery was franky amazing, you get a bit tired of it after a while and it was a generally boring day, although we did play a few games and have good long chats which was nice. stayed in a very sleepy town with only one (crap) bar and had an earlynight. Up to meet for 6am on the 23rd with a takeaway breakfast and straight back onto the boat. This time we stopped in the afternoon at a small riverside village just to have a look arounbd and see howe they lived. We also donated some clothes, toiletries and toothbrushes. It was a bit odd strolling into someone's village and poking about, but the locals didnt seem to mind. We arrived in Chiang Kong (thailand border) at about sunset and met for dinner and had a drink. Nothing much to do there so another earlynight.

Thursday 24th we left early (again) on a bus to Chiang Mai. We stopped midway at the white temple, a temple built by an artist. it was beautiful inside and out. Totally dazzling on the outside, with creepystatues making points about modern life, and filled with a party finished mural on the inside depicting modern life-superheroes, celebrities, capitalist icons, the twin towers, allsorts of bizzare stuff. Also a statue of a medictating monk which was so lifelike we all did a double take. Arrived in Chiang Mai about midday, bolted down a lunch and tom andrea and I went to the tiger kingdom. We were apprehansive after the elephant situation in laos but it was fantastic! they were treated gently, they didnt appear drugged, and we got to play with them right up close, got some fab pics of us spooning a bloody huge tiger and playing with a baby (4months) one. That night we met for a lovelt seafood dinner, a stroll around the huge night market, then met at 10 for a public sleeper bus to bangkok. we weredue to travel by train but the floods have ruined the track making it unsafe. the bus was ok considering, although we didnt sleep very well.

we arrived on the 25th at 6.30 and luckily were able to check into our hotel immediately. it was the nicest hotel yet, really posh (hot shower and everything!!) had a sleep, some brunch and some window shopping at a large shopping centre. Bangkok is huge, very dirty, with heavy traffic. obviously laos spoilt us! We met that night for our final dinner as a group with our guide kakada. we bought him presents and left him tips with letters of thanks. he has looked after us so well! we had a great dinner, went to a selection of brilliant bars on kohsarn road and had a general allround pissup together. fabby!

Saturday we checked out of the fancy hotel and the danes, tom, sophie, andrea and i moved to a guesthouse across town. Steven remained in the nice hotel for his final night. we shopped during the day and met for another last supper. stevenwas nowhere to be found and we were gutted-then after food we bumped into him in the street much to our delight and his. so off we went for another night of boozing and fun. This time steven took us to a little outdoor bar with a sweet local guy doing bad covers of classic singalong songs. tom asked if he could play a few songs and he let him which was brilliant. we stayed there for the rest of the night and met a selection of interesting travellers including two nice irish girls, a revolting aussie man and an essex boy (much to my delight of course). we ended the night with a teary goodbye to steve.

Sunday morning we bid farewell to andrea who is off volunteering, then went to a huge outdoor market (worlds largest i think) we had a quiet one that night in an irsih bar, and saidf goodbye to sophie. lars the dane completed the 'suicide hot wings challenge' and won himself a tshirt much to our amusement. ive never seen a man sweat so much!it was sophies last night which was another sadness for us all.

Monday there were just four of us left. tom and i explored the city with a walk about, we walked for around 3 hours and sawloads of little nooks and crannies of the city, which was cool. we encountered a bloody huge markjet in chinatown which seemed to go on and on and on! we got lost in the end and took a cab home. we met for our last last supper and did a bit of shopping. went to a reggae bar for a drink or two then i got my hair braided for a bit of fun. we lost the danish guys and tom and i went back to the outdoor bar where the sweet singer greeted him with a huge smile and invited him onto stage again. he promtply left and tom did about 5 numbers which went down well again.

tuesday we checked out, met for brunch, and said a horribly sad goodbye to the danes at the guesthouse, and another sad goodbye at the gate to tom. I have really enjoyed the copmpany of everyone and was so sad to say goodbye. On sunday i flipped acoin to decide whether to stay in thailand alone or move to oz. oz won, and i'm now in a backpackers hostel in melbourne. Its bloody raining! The journey was long and knackering so i havent seen much today, but i'm going on a nice walk tomo to see the city centre a bit better. I am sharing a room with 3 other girls so hope to make friends quickly and start afresh here.

Missing you all xxx