We arrived in Laos this lunchtime, after a short trip from Nong Khai in Thailand, just the other side of the Mekong river. We are in the capital, Vientiane, which seems very laid back as capital cities go (or indeed, as cities in general go). We are going to do a tour of the sights tomorrow, before heading north. Tonight we plan to take advantage of the good selection of French restaurants in town. We have added some more photos to our website. Don't be fooled ...

We are in Nong Khai, a town in the north-east of Thailand on the Mekong river. On the other side of the river is Laos, where we are heading tomorrow morning. We came up to Nong Khai on the bus from Bangkok, with a stop for one day in a town called Nakhon Ratchasima (or Khorat). We managed to arrive in town during a large festival, and so there were fireworks and lots of stalls in the streets selling everything from fake watches to grilled insects. We bought neith...

Zoe here, I didnt like Bangkok, but then I was ill. The Grand Palace was great, and the big buddha and emerald buddha were interesting but from then on I was mostly bed-bound, surrounded by loud noise as we were staying near the Khao san road which is a nightmare place. I have recovered since we left. This is Ed's bit: the Grand Palace was excellent, even though I'd seen it before. We also went to Wat Pho (with an enormous reclining Buddha) and Wat Traimit (wit...

We like it here! We have been on two trips in as many days. Yesterday we went on the "four island" trip, which included snorkelling and visiting beautiful beaches. We bought an underwater camera, and you can see the results in our photo section. While the islands and beaches were superb, the snorkelling wasn't up to the standard of our Perhentian adventure (no sharks, no turtles, very limited coral and less divesity of fish life). However, the day was excellent. ...

We have come to the end of our time in Malaysia. We have been here two weeks and have thoroughly enjoyed the places we have visited here. We have spent the last day and a half in Georgetown, Penang. The town has a few remnants of the British colonial era, as well as a vibrant Little India and a slightly quieter Chinatown. We had some pretty good Indian food last night. Today we got the funicular up Penang hill, for a view over the city (and nothing much else, as ...