So, our last journey out of Laos and into Thailand has been a two day cruise down the river. We set off early after seeing the monks on Tuesday morning aboard our private slow boat. It could easily have sat 40 people but it would have been very uncomfortable. We were only 10 so had plenty of room to spread out and each tried to catch up on some sleep.

We did have an early stop off though at a local whisky village where we saw how the drink moonshine or Lao Lao was made from rice. I am not sure sampling whisky at 9 in the morning is something I want to get used to but I wasn't equally going to say no!

By about 11 or 12 o'clock people had generally finished their dozing so we moved onto some games to entertain us. My iPad sourced a game of trivial pursuit and then the card games started. We did wait until about 2pm before getting the drinking games started but that did help the hours pass.

We eventually docked at about 5.30pm after a hefty 10 hours cruising. We stopped in a tiny port village called Pak Beng which basically exists for people to stop over like we were. We had some dinner and then went to the only bar in the whole village. I guess it does mean you can pick your music when you are the only ones in the bar but given we had another early start a couple of drinks were enough.

6.15 Wednesday morning we were heading back to the pier and our slow boat. Another long day ahead of us and this time with a time pressure of reaching the border before it shut. The day followed a similar pattern; sleeping and a bit of sun bathing, start of the games, lunch, more games and then a few drinks. I think I have said already but the scenery in Laos is breathtaking and the views from the boat were no less spectacular along the way.

We arrived at the border at about 4pm and began the crossing process. The stamp out of Laos, then travel to the Thai border, this time via a boat across the river, then a stamp into Thailand. A short tuk tuk on the other side and we arrived at our next hotel in Chiang Khong. Another small town and again with the main purpose of being close to the border.

We had a bit of time to sort ourselves and then met up for the last supper as a full group as some people were leaving the tour the following day. We had a great meal, reminiscing about stories, highs and lows of the month and the disbelief that it was all over so quickly. We then headed back to the hotel for some final drinks and eventually, bed.

Feeling somewhat tender, an early start of 6am and we headed to the minibuses that would take us to Chiang Mai. We only had a half day there so we wanted to get there as early as possible. I basically (and thankfully) slept virtually the whole journey so when we arrived at 11am we left our stuff in storage and headed straight out for activities.

First stop lunch, actually at the tiger kingdom but I will come back to that, then onto the elephant park. We arrived in time for the elephant show which started with them 'posing' for tourists to have their photos with them. I don't know what an unhappy elephant looks like but these guys looked pretty happy and certainly healthy and oh my god the baby one was so cute!!

After a few photos they then went into the river for a bath and/or shower plus a poo which a few lucky ladies had the job of catching as it floated down the river. Bizarre. After this we all headed up to the 'grandstand' for the show. They played football, basketball, did paintings and also showed how they were used to work by building a fence. All good fun. Then we had our elephant ride around the park. Was a great experience.

We then travelled back to the tiger kingdom for our photos. There are perhaps 100 tigers at this place, from different ages and I think, mostly all hand reared. Since they are fed regularly and are nocturnal animals they spend most of the day sleeping and have been trained to let humans pose with them during the day. We had paid to have a picture with a big and smallest tiger. Amazing.

As you can see from the cover shot you can get very close to these tigers. This one was about 170kg and will grow to be 250kg, he was only 22 months old. Beautiful. I also got to cuddle a 'smallest' one (as aposed to small) which was a four month old cub. THE cutest thing in the world!!! I really wanted to take him home. What an experience but especially with the big one I had to not think too much about what I was doing!

After a busy afternoon we headed back to the hotel where our bags were. Unfortunately we couldn't really freshen up so we headed out for dinner and the night Market. Due to the flooding in Thailand at the moment we weren't able to get the train to Bangkok but instead an overnight bus but this meant we were leaving a bit later which was good. We did some shopping but eventually congregated together, delaying the inevitable goodbyes. Having spent the month together we had become a kind of family so it was pretty hard to say goodbye. The remaining group headed to the bus station to catch the coach and off to sleep as best we could.

At about 8am yesterday we arrived into Bangkok and got taxis to our hotel. We headed out for some breakfast and then headed back to bed! I hadn't slept well and was also suffering from a bit of a stomach bug that had been going around the group. Jade and I spent the afternoon in the room, sorting stuff out for packing etc, laundry and generally enjoying relaxing after so many consecutive long travelling days. It is amazing how tiring just travelling can be.

We met up last night for our proper last supper and headed to the good old Khao San road. I had pad Thai as I felt like I should and then we had a couple of drinks. I really wasn't feeling myself as not even a G&T was going down very well!! We had decided since none of us had seen one before that we would go and see a ping pong show, so we did. Interesting. Won't say any more than that but if you want to ask me over a drink I will tell you. Given none of us were feeling quite right we called it a night and headed to bed.

Today has been strange, sort of waiting for something to happen as I knew I was leaving tonight. We had a lazy morning and then headed to the Khao San road again for some last minute souvenirs and shopping. I made the most of the known internet access and skyped/called a few people and then got some food and I said goodbye to the rest of the group. I am now sat at Bangkok airport waiting to board my flight to Beijing, via Seoul. It all feels very surreal.

It has been another amazing month and who knows what is in store for me next!! I am pretty sure the trek will be painful but is for a worthy cause and if I meet a few more friends along the way then I am a very lucky girl. Goodbye Thailand, hello China.

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