Clare writes: Bliss! Back in Thailand after a couple of weeks in the internet black holes of Cambodia and Laos so can finally update the blog - will try and do some backdated ones... but if not, here's a summary...

We spent an enjoyable week in Siem Reap, base for the temples of Angkor Wat - don't know if our lengthy blog made it onto these pages before we lost connection but will cut and past them back in when we're back on our own machine. Then because it's a bit of a trial going overland to Northern Laos, we cheated and flew to Luang Prabang via Pakse on Laos airlines - which has a bad reputation but was fine. Luang Prabang, former French colonnial centre was lovely - really laid back - and we spent a lot of time wandering about and recharging batteries.

Then for the last few days we've be on the road... for 'road', read 'river'. We took the infamous Mekong slow boat to Huay Xai - two days, 9 hours a day with an overnight stop in grubby Pak Beng where all the lights go out at 10pm and you just lie under your mosquito net listening to scrabblings in the dark.... Most people do the opposite route so we saw boats crammed to the gunnels going down river but we had room to move around with just 40 people on board - a mix of locals and 'farangs' (ie white tourists). Really enjoyed the trip although we'd felt some trepidation embarking on it. Imagine hour after hour of great scenery, no roads, no electricity wires, no cars, very little river traffic, just the odd tiny village clinging to the banks.

There was a hectic scramble to the border when we landed - tuk tuk drivers threw us onto their vehicles and flew to the other jetty where we took longtail boats across the Mekong to the Thai side and just made the border in the nick of time! Stayed the night there in the rather pleasant town of Chiang Keung.

We met some nice people on the boat - Jeap, a Thai girl, and Richard from New Zealand - so we shared transport to the temple-filled city of Chiang Mai in Nortehrn Thailand... and that's where we are now!