Auckland to Bay of Islands Monday 26th -Thursday 29th We got picked up by the big green bus outside our hostel at 7.30am. On the way to bay of islands we stopped at a bakery for some breakfast ... Our hostel, the pipi patch, was just a minutes walk to the beach. There was already a girl in our dorm, Uki from Hong Kong. She seemed to have run out of money but was waiting 2weeks here before going to South Island to work. not sure why though! she pretty much just...

So, the 8 hour wait wasn't so bad after all... :-/ We had a nice chat with one of the air stewards before take off and mentioned to him that we had a long wait at Brisbane airport (12-8am) and that we'd quite like some wine to help pass the time. he was totally on board with the idea so kept us well stocked. during the flight grace made friends Kerry, an Irish man sat opposite and spent most of the flight talking to him. the lady trying to sleep behind wasn't so...

After the madness of the previous evening we arrived back in Bangkok for the third time. nice to be in a place which now seems so familiar to us. After freshening up grace made a phone to Pat who was meant to have left a refund on the desk for us from the transfer muck up in Luang Prabang. she said it would be there by the evening. We headed to Khaosan Road to get our laundry done, some breakfast and a replacement for graces camera. we then got a Tuk Tuk to MBK ...

we arrived on Friday afternoon after another bumpy bus ride but this time only 3 hours. Pat (our tour guide) was commended for her choice of hotel for us, this was a first. although when opening the curtains in our room to see out view over the river (we were at the river side hotel) we found a brick wall. Considering Vientiane is the capital of Laos, we spent the majority of our time sitting in the lobby using the free wifi or eating. Our time was sometimes mor...

We get up to leave Luang Prabang in the morning and head to Vang Vieng, and to our surprise the little witch of a guest house owner has done a 180 and is the cheeriest woman alive! She offered us water and told us to wait for a tuk tuk! The tuk tuk comes and to graces horror half way through the journey to the bus stop she gets told to move from one side to the other because it was leaning one way too much! Great! I see Laos are as bad at Thailand when it comes t...