Delhi, India

We arrived in Delhi a little anxious about the two weeks ahead of us. We had decided to do a tour of Rajasthan with a driver from a company we found on the internet and sure enough Maneesh was waiting for us with a sign saying Mr Sioned Betts... we were soon going to find out that India is VERY male orientated and that the thought of a woman organising a trip is absurd! Maneesh threw flowers around our necks and drove us to our hotel; he had a fat-man wheeze and I was dreading the next two weeks with him as the polite conversation ended soon after we pulled away from the airport.

Everyone we had spoken to about India had warned us about three things; the heat, the noise and the smell. Our first impressions were that it was a little chilly (it was 10pm), it was quite quiet on the roads and it didn't really smell of anything. I think having spent a month in Vietnam, India is far less shocking than it probably should be! Our first night was spent in a huge room, organised by our tour operator. We were quite excited about the two weeks to come as we fell asleep for the first time in our last country of the trip. 

The next morning we were picked up by Rabi, who we discovered was in fact our real driver, the wheezer had just been our airport pick-up, phew! Rabi was young, smart and spoke much more than Maneesh - we were instantly reassured. We were taken to 'the boss' at his home and worked out our tour over some Chai (Indian tea which we grew to adore).

After the planning we were taken by Rabi around Delhi for a sightseeing day. First stop was to take a picture of a huge temple that we could hardly see because of the smog, the pollution really was like nowhere else we'd seen. Next stop was a walk around the grounds of Humayun's Tomb. We got chatting to a very friendly old man who wanted to tell us all about the building; he said he didn't want money but wouldn't say no to a tip, we apologised as we had no change but he wanted to give us a mini history lesson anyway! We learnt that it was a fine example of Mughal architecture and that it was the ‘tester' building before the Taj Mahal was built; this is very noticeable in its design. At one of the buildings inside the grounds we were approached by a man who asked us if we wouldn't mind having our photo taken with his family. Two beautiful ladies in colourful sari's came shyly up to us and said "Namaste" (hello), we were told to smile and then thanked for our cooperation... it felt very odd, they only wanted our photo because we looked different but it was nice to feel famous for a little bit!

After an expensive lunch (something we learnt, if the room's full of westerners the food will be bland and the prices high!) we went to the Lotus Temple which is a multi-faith house of worship. It looked like a misshapen version of the Sydney Opera House. At sunset we went to India Gate to have a nose around. After that we were dropped back at our hotel by Rabi, his parting words for the evening were, "I'll pick you up at 8:30am and be careful around here tonight, it's where all the bombs have been going off"... we stayed in for dinner that night.

Singapore, Singapore

We arrived in Singapore for the second time this trip after a short but nail-biting flight from Phuket. We stayed in the same hostel as before and were greeted as old friends. We felt like pro's negotiating the MRT with ease; when we gave some fresh-faced travellers transport advice we realised just how far we had come in these past three months, not just in distance but in experience too.

Our first day in the city is spent walking around the many shopping malls, it just feels nice knowing our way around somewhere and going places we've been before. We chatted into the early hours with our South Korean roommates who were very fascinated with our hand drawn maps and plans of where we've been in Asia. Our dorm has no windows so we end up having a much needed lay-in in the morning. Day two is spent wondering around again and changing our flight to India in the very posh Singapore Airlines office. We've had to cut our trip a little short and have therefore decided to fly straight to Delhi instead of Chennai and do a tour of Rajasthan instead of India as a whole. We're both happy about this change in plan as we feel we'll get to see a smaller area of India in greater depth. To celebrate our new plans we took ourselves to the cinema and both phoned home which was lovely.

Day three is Delhi day! Before leaving Singapore we headed out towards the airport to Changi Prison where Sion's Grandad was held as a Japanese Prisoner of War for three years in the 1940's. It has been turned into a museum now and was very interesting, especially as very little is known about his time in Singapore. After the museum we made our way to the airport and prepared ourselves for the two weeks to come in our final country of the trip...

Phuket, Thailand

After some gorgeous pancakes (we're slightly addicted to them... at least they're healthy...) we said good bye to the lovely staff at Laem Thien. Without being too corny it was like we were part of the family as there were so few guests we all got on really well, despite language difficulties. We piled into the truck for the last bumpy ride on Koh Tao. It started absolutley tipping it down and we got thoroughly drenched waiting for the driver. He eventually turned up and the bloody truck wouldn't start! We ended up leaving half an hour late but thanks to him driving like a maniac we just made our ferry connection.
 
First stop was Koh Phangyan, an island famous here with backpackers as they throw "wicked" full moon parties... and half moon parties... not really us! Next stop was Koh Samui, the Daddy of the Samui archipaelago. We got off and had an hour or two waiting for our next ferry. We made it to mainland in the afternoon and after a very long day finally got to Phuket at 10pm. When we got off the minibus a motorbike taxi was waiting; after haggling the price down we both got on the back with both our rucksacks!! Good fun, well for Sion anyway, she was snug in the middle, Phil was holding on for dear life on the back!
 
Our hotel room was a bit grotty but it was only for two nights and it was cheap! Our one day in Phuket town was spent searching for a market that didn't exist, looking around malls and sorting out a few bits. We had a cheap and cheerful lunch and that was about as exciting as it got. We had been warned by a good friend, "Don't even go to Phuket, stay in Great Yarmouth"... not bad advice that!

So the next day we got a bus to the airport and that was that, back to Singapore where our South East Asia adventure began three months ago to the day. Thailand was a lovely country, much better than we'd expected. It was very different to Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam. We were amazed by the transport system, not one single scheduled journey left late, they either left exactly on time or a minute early! The street food was really tasty and hygenic too, and the landscape was extremely pretty on both the coast and inland. We did some of the best snorkelling we'd ever done on Koh Tao and got to see to old friends in Chiang Mai, all in all, we loved Thailand!

Koh Tao, Thailand

We took eight modes of transport to get to Koh Tao; we started at 9pm in Bangkok by walking to the sky train and cheating half way by getting in a tuk tuk as it started raining (for a change in Bangkok!). We took the sky train to the train station, and then we waited for our train for an hour. Our train journey to Chumphon wasn't as nice as the Chiang Mai to Bangkok leg as we were in a freezing air-conditioned car in a seat with broken fold-down tables! We weren't sitting together either and the ladies next to us didn't appreciate us cuddling into them. We managed to sleep for a couple of hours, shivering under our blankets; why they have the air conditioning on 'Arctic' setting is beyond me.

When we arrived in Chumphon we were at the 'unknown' part of the journey, we needed to get a ferry but we had no idea how or where from. Luckily a man with a sign was waiting for unorganized travelers just like us, so at 6am we were bundled into a mini-van. We arrived at a cafe somewhere, where a coach picked us up and transferred us to a ferry. The ferry trip was spent deciding where we were going to stay and for how long... not that we'd not planned these important details in advance. We decided to stay at a resort on the east of the island, away from all the hustle and bustle for two nights and in the town for one... this changed as soon as we saw the first place. We arrived in Koh Tao and were greeted by blue skies, clear blues seas and lots of fish. Luckily Ping Pong the owner of Leam Thien Bungalows, our chosen place, was also waiting for us.

We took an extremely bumpy 4x4 ride to the other side, on the roughest, steepest, rockiest 'road' we've ever encountered. It was great fun! We were sat on the back of the truck with Ramsey, a guest there already, and Jun, one of the guys who worked there. They were both chewing on something and spitting red stuff. We inquired as to what it was and they offered us some. It was Betel Nut, it is chewed almost religiously in Burma. It's nut that is somehow related to the cocaine plant (we found this out later), white mustard powder, lime and some other bits wrapped in a leaf of some sort. Chewing it gives you an instant but very brief high, the spitting part is disgusting though and not something either of us are used to. Phil got hic-ups instantly and had to spit it out! So our first half hour on Koh Tao was spent spitting red stuff, getting a rush to the head and hanging on to dear life on the roughest road known to man. What a great end to a fourteen hour journey!

At the other side we dumped our bags and went straight to the common area to get some food (don't worry Mum, this wasn't the famous 'munchies', it was lunchtime). The view was amazing, the resort was right on the beach and the sea was crystal clear. We were in heaven. The rest of the day was spent relaxing and getting to know the other guests... that didn't take long as there were only five of us! Ramsey, from Colorado, Melissa from California/Brisbane and Anthony, a dreadlocked free spirit from Quebec. We played cards, chatted and watched a film, and had a much needed early night.

The next day we got up reasonably early and had a filling breakfast, the morning rain puts our day of snorkeling out so we end up learning how to play Cribbage from Ramsey and get addicted to it! The afternoon was spent in town (after the bumpy ride back) checking emails, buying postcards and looking around shops. We treated ourselves to two gorgeous fruit smoothies before heading back and meeting Steve and Elaine, an Irish couple that makes our five a seven! We were exhausted by the days activities and tucked into some more gorgeous food at the resort. Jun's wife is the cook and she is amazing, which is lucky when the next nearest restaurant is a half hour bump fest away! That evening was spent in the bar area with the others whilst watching the staff play with fire! They put on a great fire show and even let us try. Having both being taught not to play with fire by our mothers we opted to try first with tennis balls on a string, which was lucky as we were both absolutely awful at it and hit ourselves around the head several times! The dreadlocked Canadian was surprisingly good as it but at one point we were worried about his hair going up in smoke.

The next day was spent snorkeling and eating! The snorkeling was right off the beach and was amazing. The fish were so colourful and plentiful and some of them were hilarious. They would follow us in their schools, curiously swimming behind us; we'd turn around and they'd stop as if to say "we're not following!", then we'd swim on and they'd continue following! Some of them were a little too curious and if we stopped for any length of time they would have a nibble to see what on earth we were! There was plenty of coral too but not very much live coral, lots of dead coral piled up which the fish had made into their homes.

The next day we took the truck into town in the morning and got a long tailed boat across to Nangyuan Island with Melissa and Ramsey. It's a private island so we had to pay to get on but once there it was worth it. It's technically three islands connected by a sand bar which forms three unique snorkeling spots. Melissa and Sion went first and then Phil and Ramsey. The fish were following us there too; one school followed us all the way to the shallows and decided to nibble our feet. We saw a huge fish at least a half metre long which was really cool. It started tipping it down so we took the opportunity of walking up the hill for a view of our island paradise whilst it was cool. The view was definitely worth the slippery climb up, it was breathtaking. The snorkeling on the other side of the island made the whole trip worth while, there was huge amounts of live coral with thousands of tropical fish buzzing around, it was better coral than the Great Barrier Reef! When we got back to the main island we'd run out of money and so left Melissa and Ramsey in town and walked back. It was very slippery and hard work in flip flops but it was a nice hour long trek back, made even nicer by the warm dip in the sea with our fishy friends when we got back. That evening we climbed to some jumping rocks and Phil and Ramsey watched Melissa and Sion plunge into the depths below - great fun!

The next day is another rainy day spent playing cribbage and eating yummy food. The following day we regretfully said goodbye to Ramsey and Sion went into town with Melissa whilst Phil got some beauty sleep. The rest of the day was spent swimming and, yep you guessed it, playing cribbage! That evening (our last one on the island) we ordered dinner as usual but asked to watch it being cooked, this turned into an impromptu cooking lesson and the three of us got to cook our own dinners. It was great fun, Tet, the cook, told us exactly what to do with her limited English and her and her su chef proceeded to laugh every time we did something! We learnt how to cook Pad Thai, a classic Thai meal, and coconut cream soup; it was a real highlight of the trip and was something we'd wanted to do since we began in February! What a great way to spend our last night... with cribbage as well of course. Tomorrow we leave for the mainland... gutting! 

Bangkok, Thailand

Our journey to Bangkok was a mammoth one. We didn't get off to a great start; first of all there was a power cut which stopped the water in our bungalow, then we went for a 'quick' breakfast, only to have a picture frame fall down the stairs of the cafe, which freaked out the owner and she just had to clear it up before getting our food, then when it did come Sion burnt her tongue on her porridge! The bus journey from Pai to Chiang Mai was only slightly better. We only just got a seat and ended up with no leg room as all the luggage was piled on in front of us. A little boy and his mum sat next to Sion and he proceeded to fall asleep on Sions lap for most of the journey, until of course he needed to throw up! Nice. Although, credit to the boy, as he did manage to narrowly miss both us and our backpacks.

When we arrived in Chiang Mai we grabbed some street Pad Thai and got a tuk tuk to  the train station. We had a two hour wait before our train so we had more Pad Thai and some card games. When we boarded the train we were pleasantly surprised with our last minute second class seats. As it was a sleeper train we sat facing each other on nice wide seats, that would later become one bed, and a bunk above it would appear from the ceiling. It was a 16 hour trip, which was gorgeous during the day with loads of lovely sights and a really cool breeze coming in through the open windows. We had dinner at our own table and then our beds were made for us. Sion had the stuffy smaller (and safer) top bunk and Phil got the breezy spacious bottom bunk... we're swapping next time! It went surprisingly quickly with only two annoying passengers who thought it would be nice to talk loudly about Thai women and what they felt were their favourite prostitute experiences. Not something you want to hear anytime really and especially not at 1am when you need to be awake to get off the train at half 5! They also had a big conversation about God, not really a tea and biscuits combination. Some people are weird.

We arrived in Bangkok and managed to dodge all the touts waiting to prey on us. We got a local bus to our guest house and were able to check in and have a shower at 7am. After a much needed nap we headed out to explore. We made it as far as the shopping area and spent the rest of the day in the malls in a bit of a zombie like state. One mall had a million screaming girls in it, we could just about make out a stage and so figure it was a Thai pop group or something. We left, they were VERY loud! That evening we went back to our guest house in the outskirts of the city (well away from the extremely tacky and touristy Ko San Road) and played Shit Head (our favourite travel card game) with Callum, a guy staying there too.

The next day we got a free ride to the massively popular Chatuchak weekend market and got thoroughly lost in it's maze like interior. We spent a record 7 hours there!! We didn't really buy a great deal either, there was just so much to see and taste! That evening it was tipping it down with rain so we stayed in the guest house bar and had dinner there which was very nice for hotel food. We spent the rest of the evening trying to figure out which island to hop to next, it's a hard life!

The next day was a bit of a balls up. We were trying to make it to the Grand Palace but ended up sorting things out first which took ages. We needed to book a train ticket to Chumphon, it was great fun negotiating our way around the touts in the station. They do just about everything they can to get you upstairs to the 'booking office' which is actually travel agencies with commissions! We'd been warned and headed straight to the real thing, some people must be so stupid! We then decided to go to another market but couldn't find it and were looking at a map when a friendly gentleman offered to help us. Conviently a man with him was going where we were going and another man further up the road offered us more directions. We crossed the road and briskly walked back to the skytrain station, we'd just foiled a scam! They're bastards acting all friendly, we feel sorry for people who fall for those things. The last guy wasn't happy and was unsuprisingly no longer friendly when we started walking away from him.

We ended up in the safety of another shopping mall and treated ourselves to two cinema tickets. It was so weird because before the film started we had to stand for the national anthem and watch a montage of films about the king and queen, by the end of it we were feeling very patriotic! The film wasn't bad either. We spent our last day in Bangkok doing the touritsy bit. We made it to the Grand Palace after getting lost in the, what seemed to be, engine and car repairs district, and finally finding the river for a river boat taxi! We paid the extortionate entrance fee to get inside but were pleasantly suprised by what we saw. It was grand, they weren't lying. We couldn't enter many of the buildings but were able to view the famous Emerald Buddha... which turns out to be jade! One story is, it was discovered when a monk dropped a seemingly normal Buddha statue and he caught a glimpse of a green nose, the Emerald Buddha had been hidden under a plaster casing. It's said to date back to 43BC and originated in India, it was then taken to Sri Lanka and the shipwrecked in Cambodia and then taken by the Thais when they invaded Angkor Wat in 1432. So it has quite a history. It was smaller than we expected!

Lots of the Grand Palace was off limits as the Kings sister was laying in rest. We then started to walk to Wat Pho but got caught in a huge rain storm and so only made it as far as a cafe, where we had very small expensive sandwiches for lunch! When the rain had died down we eventually made it to Wat Pho; this one houses a massive reclining Buddha statue which was much bigger than we'd expected! It was a HUGE 46m long and 15m tall!! The building around the wat were very grand too, we're glad we saw the reclining Buddha as it was pretty impressive! After that we got the river taxi back to the skytrain and went back to the guest house to dry off, have dinner and plan for Koh Tao... we left the guest house at 9pm and made our way to the train station for another night train. Next stop island paradise...

Pai, Thailand

We left Ben's Guesthouse and stumbled upon a tuk tuk driver by the side of the main road, "Hello where you go?", "The bus station... is your tuk tuk working?", "Yes yes, we go now", the driver replied whilst getting up from his knees, closing the engine cover and discarding the wires he had in his hand...

We arrived at the bus stop safely and got a local bus to Pai, taking in some very windy roads for 4 hours. We had two police searches on the way, looking for drugs, each time they only looked in one bag belonging to the guy in front of us, poor sod must have a complex, we didn't think he looked like a smuggler, but what do we know!

We treated ourselves to a beautiful bungalow with solid wood furniture and probably the nicest bathroom we've seen in a long while. We instantly fell in love with Pai (pronounced Bye), it's a really quirky town with funky little art shops and vegetarian cafes. They were selling souvenirs but they weren't tacky in the slightest... very odd.

We had lunch and cuddled a gorgeous cat, which was clean and well fed, very unusual after being in Laos/Cambodia/Vietnam. We did a spot of shopping before sundown and took in the colourful sights of the night market after dinner. There was an awesome coffee shop that we stopped at before strolling home. It was a pink VW campervan that had been converted into a portable coffee shop. The hatch was our table and there were stools placed out on the street. The owners had had the van for a while but had only recently started their new venture. We thought it'd make a killing in Cornwall/Devon around the surf beaches!

On the walk home we came across a family lighting huge lanterns and letting them float up into the sky, when we looked up there were already quite a lot floating in the distance, it was the end of some kind of festival in Thailand and this is how they mark it. Fun!

The next morning we got up early decided to hire bicycles for the day. After a yummy and filling breakfast we started our ride. It was hard work, very steep uphill and downhill, the latter being much more fun! We biked 8km to a hot pool resort which we had entirely to ourselves! It was trying to look fancy but wasn't, but it was very nice and semi-refreshing after sweating rivers on the bikes! There were three pools to choose from, varying in heat, the first was lovely, the second a bit too hot and the third unbearable! After getting dried off we biked back getting lovely and sweating again! At one point we had to overtake an elephant! He was being taken for a walk by his mahout and was just strolling along, he got a little scared by the bikes but we treated his as you would a horse in England. They didn't teach us what to do with elephants in the road on our cycling proficiency tests!

That evening we walked rather sorely into town and had a lovely dinner and bought some non-tacky bits! And of course, we stopped by at our favourite little coffee shop for a night-cap.

We loved Pai and although it was a big detour, it was worth every mile! Next stop Bangkok, via Chiang Mai... It's going to be a long trip.

Chiang Mai, Thailand

We headed to the bus station early on Friday morning to find that our bus was full, it meant a three hour wait in Chiang Rai for the next one with seats to spare. This was very odd after being in Laos, where there is no such thing as full. Over there once the seats were taken people were given plastic stools to sit on in the isles, once they were full people stood between the stools, once the isle was full people got on the roof. Full indeed.

Once in Chiang Mai we were greeted by the familiar sound of "Tuk Tuk, where you go?", Sion had terrible New Zealand flashbacks when her bag wasn't unloaded; it was the last bag off the bus and was sat snuggly next to the engine at the back, despite it now being warm and a little greasy we were very happy to see it! After a short ride into town we checked in to our guest house. We had decided to stay at the same place as two of our friends from Fiji, only they were arriving the next day. That evening we walked into town and had a gorgeous Thai meal at Antique House. Phil almost had us thrown out after commenting rather loudly about our waitress, to her face. Luckily she didn't understand his blaspheming. She was a rather tall ‘lady' in a very tight (and far to short for my liking) Tiger Beer dress. She soon gave up on our table and went to refresh the glasses of a group of middle aged white men. Still the food was nice! After dinner we got thoroughly lost in the night market. It was HUGE and unlike the one in Luang Prabang, it had loads of people in it.  

The next morning we had a much deserved lay-in and headed out for lunch! We found a gorgeous little vegetarian place that did massive scrummy sandwiches and tasty smoothies. After the shock of standing up and realising how full we were we found an internet café and collapsed for an hour. When we got back to the guest house it was time to meet Melissa and Drew for the first time in 7 months, we were more than excited. For those with bad memories or those who are new to the blog, we met Melissa and Drew in Qaqalai in Fiji and travelled on to Ovalau with them to stay at the ghostly bed-bug ridden Royal Hotel. That evening we headed out to dinner and must have been walking for nearly an hour before deciding on a place to eat. We were all too talkative to think about food (odd for us I know). We stumbled on a place called Thai Thai, which surprisingly served Thai food. The meal was very nice and it was so good catching up on everything that had happened since we were last together.

The next day we walked to lunch and back. That took up four and a half hours!! It was miles out of town in a funky little area to the West. The food was totally worth it but in hindsight we should have gotten a tuk tuk! We walked through the entire old town, over both moats, through eerily quiet backstreets and past the women's prison that had a handicraft stall and were offering massages from inmates.  That evening we met up with Melissa and Drew and two of their friends who were honeymooning in Thailand. Melissa's godmother's friend, Ronny, who retired to Chiang Mai from the States, was also there and she was a right character. She was a mix of Elizabeth Taylor and Liza Manelli but much more interesting. She's 77 and has been married three times, of no longer than three years each (we hoped her stories didn't scare the newlyweds!), she had a tattoo done for her 75^th birthday and she is so glad she left the US. After a drink we headed to the Sunday Walking Street, an even bigger version of the night market that's held every other day of the week. It seemed like there were more people in that market than there were in Laos, it was very busy! We had our first Thai street food and were delighted when we saw they were using plastic gloves, not an item to be found anywhere else in SE Asia we've been. The food was yummy but it left us wanting more, we then tried coconut sticky rice with mango. YUM!! We were then taken to try some ice cream and were amazed when we saw the waffle cone being cooked and rolled into shape in front of us. After a loooong and slow walk around the stalls we all met up again at a jazz bar for some more drinks. On the walk back we stopped for Roti with banana and chocolate, again - YUM!! I think we're going to like Thailand for its food alone!!

After a sad farewell to our Fiji friends we went to bed and hoped we'd see them again soon. The next day was spent doing admin and figuring out where we wanted to go in Thailand. We bought train tickets three days in advance for a Bangkok bound sleeper train and all seats were full apart from the one that will arrive at 5:30am... oh well, at least we'll see Bangkok in a new light. Next stop is Pai, it is north of Chiang Mai but we've heard very good things about it so we're adding it to the list...

Chiang Rai, Thailand

Our last morning in Laos was spent eating a pancake and getting stamped out of the country (legitimately this time, with no "One Dollar" demand). We then scraped all of our last Laos Kip together to get the boat across to Thailand, we were left with the equivalent of 9p which was lucky as Kip are not exchanged anywhere other than Laos it seems. The boat across the Mekong took about 3 minutes, the last part being the shortest of this mammoth border crossing. We arrived with no Thai Baht, so once we had had our passports stamped in we walked the 2km into town.

The difference between Laos and Thailand was instantly apparent. Thailand seems to have much more money, shown by the rows of shops with brand names and cars everywhere, not just scooters. We stumbled into a much needed air conditioned bank where Phil caused chaos, mucking up the system! A friendly desk clerk took pity on him and guided him through the whole process of getting change. We continued our walk to the bus station and got a local bus to Chiang Rai with a bus load of friendly locals, somethings don't change!

After checking in to a guest house/bakery we headed out for lunch and to explore this new country. Chiang Rai had a Clock Tower, lots of shops and not much else. The night bazaar was good fun though with loads of stalls sprawling over the streets near the bus station. After dinner we collapsed into bed, tired after our 2 big days of travel, but we'd made it, country number eleven.

Huay Xai, Laos

Well what a trip that was. We got up in the 6's on Tuesday and headed to the pier for our boat to Pak Beng. We walked the 2km out of protest as the tuk tuks were charging far too much! We got to what we thought was the boat landing and we kept getting ushered to the right, in the end we were nowhere near where we'd started! Anyway, we got on our steed at half 8 and we were on our way shortly after.

The boat was basic but it had character. There were a selection of grand looking carved chairs and comfy looking car seats, all were taken so we sat the next 9 hours on a wooden bench with a equally hard cushion! The scenery was amazing and it didn't actually feel like a 9 hour journey as we were able to get up and walk around, far better than a bus!

We arrived in Pak Beng about 6pm and managed to get a guest house just as it turned dark. We went straight out for an Indian meal as we had only eaten one and a half baguettes each all day (Sion reminded Phil of this minutely throughout the journey). The only problem with the meal was that we had to sit on wooden chairs, normally not a problem but after 9 hours of it already it bloody hurt! We got a very early night, partly due to being shattered from doing nothing all day and partly because electricity was on a generator and we were left in darkness after 10pm.

Day two of our boat journey started at the same time as the previous day. We ordered big fat pancakes to try an fill us up for breakfast but they took ages to appear and so we were left running down the hill at half 8 to catch the boat we hadn't yet booked. All was fine and we managed to get our trusty wooden bench once more. Again it passed quite quickly and again the scenery was absolutely stunning. It's not something either of us would particularly like to do again but we're glad we did it.

We had an absolutely gorgeous meal tonight in Huay Xai, the Laos part of the Thai/Laos border. It was whole Mekong fish done beautifully in chillies and lemon, mmm mmmm! We also had our last Beer Laos in Laos!

So what did we think of Laos? Well, what a lovely place to be for two and half weeks. The people are so so friendly and the kids are heart melting; they stare at you like you a new species they've never seen before and as soon as you smile and say ‘Sabaydee' (hello) they burst into a fit of giggles and can't stop waving! We've been following the Mekong since Vietnam now and it's been very similar with subtle differences. Today on the boat trip it was awesome watching people throwing bamboo and net contraptions into the water to catch fish. The people aren't the only beautiful aspect, the landscape's amazing too. Laos is a little bigger than Great Britain and is 70% mountains and plateaus.  Laos has been such a peaceful place to be (even in the markets!) and it's been so easy to travel around, although vomit inducing in places! Unfortunately it's time to leave, so tomorrow it's off to Thailand for us. Country number eleven, here we come!

Luang Prabang, Laos

We left the surreal Vang Vieng behind us after spending the previous evening watching Family Guy and eating gross food as a consequence! We got a minibus to Luang Prabang, the roads were worse than ever and Sion had to stop the vehicle so she could be sick. It was a false alarm, 2 minutes down the road, it wasn't! The funny thing was she'd taken a travel sickness pill as we'd heard the roads were going to be bad, she hadn't taken one on any other road and she'd been fine... we think it may have been the pill that did it!

Once we arrived we were met by lots of touts promoting their guest houses, something we hadn't experienced in Laos before. We got on a jumbo with lots of other Westerners and as a consequence were charged way more than we should have been, but everyone else started paying and were fine with it - don't these people know how to haggle!?! We arrived at a lovely new guest house with an ensuite, AC and our very own balcony, we decided to take it until we found out that somehow on the ride over the price had doubled. We walked out and the owner came after us agreeing to let us have it at the original price. We accepted. Normally we wouldn't stay somewhere corrupt but it's really nice! That evening we strolled about town and felt relaxed knowing we were going to be staying put here for a few days.

That evening we went for a Laos meal on the main street which at night also doubled as a pedestrianised night market. Phil tried a local specialty of water buffalo sausage and Sion burnt her mouth trying his ‘dip' for him. It turned out to be dried water buffalo skin in crushed chilies! HOT!! After dinner we had great fun looking around the night market; the stalls were so colourful and the stall holders were all so friendly and not hassling us to "Lady, buy something"! The next day, after a much deserved lay in we headed out to explore. After a scrummy lunch we headed to the Royal Palace Museum which was quite pricey but worth a look. It was home to the royal family until they went into exile in 1975. The palace had been kept much the same as when they were residents. Some of the rooms were extremely grand and others quite plain, we can't imagine Queen Liz having any ‘plain' rooms! It's a shame really that we weren't allowed to take photos because some of the murals on the walls were beautiful. After the museum we went for a coffee and strolled around some more. The whole of Luang Prabang seems to be in unity with all of the shop fronts having the same style wooden and gold signs. The town itself is a UNESCO world heritage site and so we imagine they have to keep up appearances. It worked really well though and it's an incredibly easy, friendly and vibrant place to be.

That evening we had another lovely meal and another look around the night market, this time buying a paper umbrella, as you do! The next morning we woke up to the sound of rain, it didn't stop until way after lunch. Luckily we found a great little coffee shop where we had lunch and bottomless coffees until it stopped. Using the cool weather to our advantage we decided to climb the big hill in the middle of the town, Phu Si. It was 100m high and a lot of steps, but we made it! On the way up we found a crumbling old temple with some amazing murals on the walls, it was sad to see that it had become obsolete. Once at the top we had tremendous views over the whole town and were even able to see a plane coming into land, its flight path being right over our guest house, which explains why it had sounded like it was going to crash into it a few times! On the way down there were more temples, one of them inside a cave. It was nice enough but then the lights went out and we were left in darkness, luckily we had our trusty little torches and were able to negotiate the low ceilings to safety! There was even another one of Buddha's footprints, this time much more human shaped and smaller than the previous one.

That evening we went for an Indian meal which was yumm-meee! We're really looking forward to trying the foods when we get there for real! Today we've not really done much, just walked around, browsed the beautiful shops, chatted with Bay our waiter at lunchtime and booked a ferry for tomorrow. The trip to Thailand is going to be an epic one; we're leaving tomorrow morning on a boat and arriving somewhere nearer the border tomorrow evening, we then get another boat the next morning and do the same again to the border. It's going to be a two day boat trip on a wooden seat... the things we do to make this blog sound interesting!

Vang Vieng, Laos

We left Vientiane, not because we wanted to but because time is ticking and we had to! We decided to get a VIP bus as it would have been the same price as a local bus and a tuk tuk to the station. It's so annoying travelling with other Westerners en mass; all they do is complain! The roads were a bit bumpy but nothing like what we've already experienced and one guy was saying "how can they call this a tourist destination if the roads are shit?"... We couldn't believe our ears! Then he decided to sum up Laos for all within earshot, "Laos. It's just bedbugs, shit roads and shit food."... People like that don't deserve to be travelling in the first place. Laos is fast becoming our favourite country so far, it has such friendly, laid back people and such a rich culture, the food is amazing and the beer's cheap, yes the roads are a little bumpy but that just adds to the character! Anyway, rant over.

We arrived in Vang Vieng that afternoon and checked into a guest house. Vang Vieng, we'd been warned, was a bit of a 'traveler's haven' but for the wrong reasons. It used to be a place where weed was readily available and added to smoothies and pizzas for a little extra charge. This however has changed as the law has clamped down on it. We were there for the limestone caves and the legendary tubing. We went for a lovely lunch at the Organic Mulberry Farm Cafe, we both had a smoothie (minus the added extra) and a chunky soup each. Yum.

We strolled around town that evening which didn't take long as it's quite a small place. We'd decided to book onto a caving and tubing trip the next day so we got that sorted. After that we strolled a little way out of town where people suddenly seemed much friendlier, we came across a bamboo bridge which led to an island but all we found were guest houses and bars, so we strolled back. We had dinner at a spot full of locals, the owners and cooks were sitting with a table of locals and we felt guilty wanting to order food! It was good grub though so I'm glad we did!

At 9am the next morning we were ready to go and waiting for the rest of our group. We got chatting to a French-Canadian couple, Michelle and Pierre, who we got on really well with for the duration of the trip. We were all piled into a jumbo and given dry-bags to put our stuff in. Half an hour and one very bumpy road ("Laos' shit!") later, we arrived at a river crossing which we got across in a small boat. On the other side we walked through rice fields and couldn't believe our eyes, the limestone cliffs were absolutely gorgeous, quite reminiscent of the ones in Halong Bay at the beginning of Vietnam. We arrived at a small cave opening, Tham Nam Cave (or Water Cave), that had a tributary of the Nam Song River flowing out of it. We were each given headlamps and a tube and had to pull ourselves inside the small entrance on a rope. Once inside it was amazing, the curving, water eroded cave lead us deeper and deeper into its belly. The whole cave system was about 500m long and gave our arms a good work out, especially at the end where the rope ran out and we had to paddle our way to a mini-beach of rocks, against the fast flowing current. We had to crawl through a tiny tunnel for about 15m and were greeted by a big cavern with beautiful stalactites. We crawled back to our tubes and let the current take us back the way we had came. It was an awesome experience that you can't help but feel would be spoilt with health and safety in England!

After the walk back through the rice paddies we were shown around Tham Sang Cave or Elephant Cave as it is known, rather cleverly because there is a big rock inside that looks like an elephant. We couldn't help but think that it had been carved into the cave because it was uncanny, but we didn't want to spoil their fun and went along with it. The same cave also had a Buddhist shrine and Buddha's footprint!! Wow, we've seen the actual footprint of Buddha... how he managed to step into a ready made rectangle of drying cement is beyond us.

Lunch was next and it was really good. BBQ kebabs with loads of vegetables and chicken for Phil. We had huge portions of rice and a baguette each, our kind of sized lunch!  Up next was crossing the river again in the boats and getting back into the jumbo... only this time there was only one so the guides said, "who wants to sit on the roof?", "I do, I do" Sion shouted whilst trying to tone down her excitement! So we climbed onto the roof with the guides and Michelle and Pierre and off we went on the bumpy road from whence we came. We were able to use life jackets as cushions on the hot metal that we were sitting on which actually made the journey quite comfy, well, almost comfy.

We arrived at the Organic Mulberry Farm which is where the tubing began. Whilst we were getting kitted up we saw a HUGE spider, bigger than the one Phil had seen in Singapore, it was massive, easily bigger than a hand. Sion kept her distance (especially when the guide tried to catch it on his ore!) whilst Phil went for a closer look. Euw!! It was time to get away; it's a 4km trip down river back to town, armed with a life jacket and a tube each off we went with our group and our guides kayaking alongside.

It was so much fun, like nothing we'd done before, being taken down river by the current and splashing about like kids. That's when the surreal part of this tubing started to become apparent. In Vang Viengs quest to appeal to the stereotypical backpacker the locals, who probably used to live peacefully along the river, built bars to entice the tubers. They throw ropes to passing tubers and pull them in to enjoy a beer or cocktail! It was very odd, a few minutes upriver we had complete quiet and now we were in a music war from the bars! Our group headed into a busy bar that had a dance floor, volleyball court, table tennis table and a huge rope swing into the river! We just stood there in our lifejackets not really believing our eyes. After watching these already quite drunk people dancing in the middle of the day (odd people) we decided to watch the swing and have a beer. Pierre had a couple of goes and Sion had just built up the courage when the queue got big and our group was moving on. Off we went along the river, Sion made friends with a little Belgian girl called Emma and kept her company every time she drifted away from her Mum. The next bar we stopped at pulled us in again on ropes and we went to the bar to buy a beer. This bar had a swing too so Sion and Michelle climbed up the bamboo ladder to the platform above. It was high and quite scary waiting in line. Sions turn came, she grabbed the padded handle of the swing and took a leap of faith off the platform; "WEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE", she swung back and forth a few times before letting go at the height of the swing, SPLASH!! Great fun!! We then sat by the fire as the combination of the shade from the limestone cliff this bar was built around and the dampness of our clothes had made us a little chilly.

After that bar we took about half an hour to float the rest of the way back to Vang Vieng town whilst watching the sunset behind the cliffs. It was such an awesome day, there was only one way to finish the trip off- with a pancake from a conveniently placed stall by the tube return station! The caving was great fun and the tubing was surreal. It strikes us as the most dangerous bar crawl in the world but having only been to two of the bars we were fine, we couldn't help but wonder how some of the cliental were going to make it back in one piece before nightfall.

That evening we went to dinner in one of the tacky bars in town, it was hard to believe our eyes but loads of the bars had Friends playing on the TV's and had huge lounging areas for tired tubers. Next stop is Luang Prabang, we're so glad we stopped in Vang Vieng, but a day and a half was long enough for us...

Vientiane, Laos

 We got to Vientiane after a 6 hour bus journey on the 'King of Bus' with loads of locals. It was such a bumpy trip, it was hilarious, and not a moment went by when we weren't getting shoved side-to-side or up and down. Phil found the trip particularly boring and made Sion aware of that fact almost minutely! When we arrived in Vientiane we had to haggle for a jumbo with lots of locals, they were all paying about 5,000kip and we were offered the same trip for 20,000kip, we walked away and did lots of haggling, eventually getting taken to our destination for half the original price. Not bad considering Falang (tourists) are often charged way more.

We arrived at our chosen guest house to find only one room available and it was a stuffy twin with a small fan. We decided to decline and have a look around. What struck us most about the capital city, apart from the fact there were no beds available anywhere (!!), was how quiet it was (which was very odd as all the guest houses were full!). The streets seemed deserted, a very strange feeling in a capital city, it was comparable to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands! When we finally found a guest house with a double we took it, Joe's Guest House turned out to be a very nice little place, even though we had to share a bathroom with other guests.

That evening we strolled along the river and found a rooftop bar to have a beer in. There were great views over the river and the surrounding area, we instantly liked Vientiane. Dinner was had at a lovely modern Laos place where we both tried the traditional Laos dish of Laap, minced meat/fish with loads of herbs and spring onions. Gorgeous. The next day after a much needed early night we headed out to breakfast/lunch at a Scandinavian bakery. It was a baking hot day and we took our time getting to know the streets. We came across the huge market which took up a whole block and decided to venture in; three hours later we ventured out, thoroughly happy and exhausted! It was great fun looking at all the beautiful silk scarves and trying to haggle down prices. We managed to get Phil a t-shirt for a quid, what a bargain!

We next walked to Vientiane's own Arc de Triomphe, the Patuxai. It was built in the 1960's with concrete that the US had donated for a new airport; hence it's nickname 'the vertical runway'! It was quite an ugly building with four arches and seven floors. It was impressive from far away, but up close it looked like a big pile of concrete, the Laos tourist board themselves described it as "from a closer distance, it appears even less impressive, like a monster of concrete"... not exactly selling themselves! Great views from the top though, even though Vientiane from above looks quite flat.  

That evening we went to a Laos/French restaurant where the French host played us classical piano whilst we were eating! He only stopped very briefly when another diner came up to him in a panic after her face had swollen to twice it's normal size, asking if there was "definitely no fish in the food"... he assured her that there wasn't and carried on playing... perhaps directing her to a doctor would have been better, but that would have spoilt our ambience! The food (with fish) was gorgeous and Phil had a Vientiane beef special, which was basically thinly sliced and fried to death; it was just like eating beef crisps, odd but not gross!

The next day was a bit of an eye opener for Sion; whilst having breakfast we were handed a leaflet for the COPE Visitor Centre. It's a charity that has been set up to provide free prosthetic limbs to those people who have been injured by cluster bombs and other accidents or diseases. During the Vietnam war Laos was subjected to the secret war by the US and was heavily bombed, leaving it the most bombed nation in the world by capita, even to this day. The cluster bombs that were dropped didn't all explode on contact and are still littered around the country today. As Laos is such a poor country and with the increase in value for scrap metal, many of the poorest people are resorting to collecting bombs and trying to disarm them themselves, for the scrap value. That's such a horrible thought that these people are risking their lives for 2,000kip per kg (about 13p). So as a result of visiting the centre (which was a long rainy walk out of town), Sion decided that she's now very interested in becoming a Prosthetist as it ties in her biomechanics/physiology/material science from her previous degree and she'll get to have a hands on and very rewarding job... only problem is, it means four more years at uni! Still, something to think about.

Also that day we had a scrummy lunch at a place run by street children and visited the oldest Wat in Vientiane. Wat Si Saket was very impressive and had over 7,000 Buddha's statues; we took their word for it, we didn't fancy counting them. After spending hours at COPE chatting to the staff we walked back to the guest house for a rest before dinner. Next stop, Vang Vieng, 5 hours north of the capital. Vientiane was such a nice place with a strange feeling of quiet in what should be a very busy city. Bliss.

Tha Khek, Laos

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Don Det, Laos

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Siem Reap, Cambodia

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Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Vinh Long, Vietnam

Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Dalat, Vietnam

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Nha Trang, Vietnam

Hoi An, Vietnam

Hue, Vietnam

Ninh Binh, Vietnam

Halong Bay, Vietnam

Hanoi, Vietnam

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Cameron Highlands, Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia

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Franz Josef, New Zealand

Fox Glacier, New Zealand

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Wellington, New Zealand

Napier, New Zealand

Taupo, New Zealand

Taupo, New Zealand

Taupo, New Zealand

Te Aroha, New Zealand

Paihai, New Zealand

Warkworth, New Zealand

Auckland, New Zealand

Nadi, Fiji

Nadi, Fiji

Korolevu, Fiji

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Caqalai, Fiji

Korolevu, Fiji

Nadi, Fiji

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Rarotonga, Cook Islands

Los Angeles, USA

Santa Cruz, USA

Santa Cruz, USA

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San Francisco, USA

Gorleston, United Kingdom

Gorleston, United Kingdom