Hello people! Its been a while since our last update or indeed since we have managed to email anyone – but we have an excuse!! In the last month we have plowed through 4 counties, not stopping for a second to rest or waste our precious time here (expect that day in Vientienne when we were so hung over we could only make it out of our hotel room for dinner). After Borneo we went to Philippines with plans to dive in one of the many amazing dive spots around the islands. As luck would have it, or not, I got so ill as soon as we arrived that I was practically bed-bound the entire week we were there. Stayed on a beautiful island with plenty of bars, sun and sand but couldn’t do much more than shuffle from our hotel to the beach. Poor Dave took great care of me but we were never able to dive. Some snorkeling was pretty cool on our last day though…

Next up we went to Cambodia – country of the Happy Smiley People! Started off at the famous Angkor Wot sites and the surrounding ruins. These are pretty spectacular and we took so many photos trying to make up for our lost Taj Mahal pics. The sunsets were something else and we were lucky to see 2 brilliant ones from different sites across the area. Travelled up on shockingly bad roads, along with our Traveller Friend of the Week – Tino, to see some beautiful scenery and adorable villages. A true highlight was a very simple one – hiring push bikes in Kratie and riding out into the surrounding villages/ farms. Children ran out to scream hello!!! excitedly and waving frantically at us at every house we went past, the houses were nothing more than bamboo and wooden huts on stilts with farm animals sheltering beneath them. People were just so happy and smiley, and oh so chilled, it was such a refreshing experience. We saw some of the wild but extremely rare Irrawaddy dolphins swimming in the Mekong River which was beautiful. There were no tricks, dancing on tails or flying through hoops to be seen anywhere but they are lovely creatures to watch in their natural habitat. Saw plenty on monks and their Wats, swan in a lake inside a volcano, saw loads of waterfalls and then carried on overland into Laos. We were expecting Laos to less developed than Cambodia, and perhaps more rugged. But we were surprised. Roads became actual drivable roads once we crossed the border, there were more tourists (annoyingly!) but it was just as beautiful. Although we spent a week there our total highlight was visiting the backpackers favourite village of Vang Viang, which is set in the valley of a beautiful mountain range, with a river flowing through, plenty of caves to explore and plenty of bars to keep the nightlife going. The main attraction there is tubing – riding down the river in tractor inner tubes, there are a few rapids to keep it interesting and loads of riverside bars along the way which pull you in via long bamboo poles and you sit drinking beer or rice whisky with other tubers. Some of the bars have flying foxes which are hysterical. I wouldn’t go on it as I haven’t tried to hang using arm strength alone and wasn’t about to try it 10m high off the river with 50 odd people watching me. Hung out on the bar deck drinking and watching everyone else and then continued on to other bars. It was so much fun and we totally recommend it. Laughed our heads off.

We also went tubing through some caves, which were very low and dark over the water with a rope strung through so you can pull yourself along. That too was great.

Our last stop in Laos before crossing the Thai border was a town called Lang Propang (or something like that) where we went to the most beautiful waterfall we have ever seen. Ok sure we have some countless lovely ones since we’ve been away, but this one took us by complete surprise. And since it was an ordeal to actually get transport there we were expecting it to be rubbish. But behold! The main waterfall was not so high, but it overflowed into about 6 pools through the jungle and the water was a very whitish bright aqua. It was stunning. And you could easily swim in every pool, each one looking like an expensively landscaped swimming pool complete with overhanging ferns, rocks and mini waterfalls. The water was pretty icey though, but worth braving into the depths for a swim around or splash under the falls.

So now we are in Thailand for our final 2-3 weeks. Can you believe we’ve been gone so long already. Its almost over! Boo hoo. But Thailand is a great place to be, without us having to tell you that. We headed straight to Chang Mai in the north for a 2 days trekking adventure. We had our first go at Elephant Riding, and actually sleeping and eating with local minority tribes in the mountains. We went with a tour group, and luckily were landed with the best group of people we’ve met so far. What a giggle. We all had to sleep in the same large room in the main tribal hut. The views out over the mountains were incredible, especially when it’s the first thing you see when you wake up in the morning. The amenities were pretty damn basic and uncomfortable, but we all made the most of the local beer and company so it was totally unnoticed that there were massive spiders in both the shower/ toilet huts and our sleeping quarters. Our last day we also went white water rafting again which Dave and I are pretty hooked on, and also did a lot of down hill hiking, which surprisingly has hurt us far more than the uphill struggle on the first day. I can barely walk – but tonight is the night of the Full Moon Party on Ko Pha Ngan and we have no accommodation booked yet so there is no time for sitting around nursing sore muscles!! We have a flight in a few hours to Ko Samui where we hope desperately to find accommodation. The December party is meant to be the biggest of the year with 12,000 people partying on the beach at once. We haven’t slept properly yet as we have an overnight bus from Chang Mai down here to Bangkok last night and it dumped us out into the street at 5am this morning. Nice. So we hung around half asleep in a café for a while, came here to this internet café a bit after, tripping over transvestite hookers along the way, and will be heading out to the airport in 5 minutes. Wish us luck!

Lots of love

Dave and Dani

xxx