It's getting really hard to remember what we've done. We've both had to look through our photographs to figure it out - thankfully they have dates on them!

Last time I wrote was on the 14th in Kanchanaburi - on the 15th (Tuesday) we didn't do much but nurse our mosquito wounds. Ryan's ankle was swollen but is back to normal now - turns out I'm allergic to them so still have red swollen patches on my legs. I look diseased and feel itchy all the time. I hate mosquitos.

We spent most of Wednesday relaxing - booked our next bus journey, had a few more photos of the River Kwae with Ryan in his snazzy wolf tshirt (pictures will be up...), chilled on a raft on the river and had a few last 10 Baht whiskeys in a roadside bar.

Our plan was to get the sleeper train to Chaing Mai and didn't want to backtrack to Bangkok so on Thursday 16th we got an early minibus to Ayutthaya as the train passes through here. We were the only two on the bus and we should have realised then that it was a sign... Ayutthaya sounds lovely when you read about it. All the guidebooks and websites speak about the tons of crumbling ancient wats dotted around the city, but unfortunately it's nicer to read about than to visit. We were dropped off at the main backpacker road in the city, got a nice room in the first guesthouse we passed and went straight to the train station to book our train to Chiang Mai. There is really nothing to do in Ayutthaya at night, so sat at the Micheal Buble table in a 'Jazz' bar for something to eat and that was about it. They seem to mean Jazz in the loosest sense of the word. All they play in any bar on any main street is dull inoffensive western music. Phil Collins, Creedence, Maria Carey, Micheal Buble of course - it's horrible! Oddly enough in Ayutthaya they had an interlude of Smashing Pumpkins, Deftones, Tenacious D... but then back to Micheal Buble...

The next day we had planned to visit some Wats but it rained all day. We did wander about town to take in the sights, but the heat and rain made the sewers smell worse than Bangkok. There were stray dogs everywhere, meaning dog poo everywhere which ran into puddles in the rain and after a few hours in Ayutthaya I felt dirtier then I ever have in my entire life. Our feet were literally black and as we were getting the train later that night we couldn't shower - wet wipes were the best we could do and they don't do much.

We were glad to see the back of the place at 9.30 that night and hopped on the sleeper train = a 12 hour journey straight to Chiang Mai. For just under 800 Baht or 16 Pounds we had better beds than any guesthouse we stayed in with a 400 mile journey included. We arrived on Friday morning, rushed to a guesthouse and a shower and went to explore. Chaing Mai is lovely - the old part of the city is enclosed by a the meeting of 3 rivers, and the ruins of the city wall can still be seen dotted around the river. That night we decided to treat ourselves for dinner and went for some huge burritos, yum! They cost about 3 times as much as a Thai meal but was well worth it. We explored the night marked a little that night, but we got there a bit late and it was all shutting. Apparently they mean evening market, not night.

The next night there were some Muay Thai Boxing matches on which Ryan wanted to see, so we made a deal that I'd go with him if I could have falafel for dinner. There was a nice Israeli restaurant just down the road from our guesthouse so we ate and made our way to the stadium. When we got there I think there were 2 other people although the doors had been open about an hour and we were shown to ringside seats! We decided to sit back one in case of blood and sweat... Turns out it's not as violent as Ryan made it out to be, there wasn't a drop of red. I must admit I was bored though. The boxers seemed to spend the majority of the match hugging (grabbing really...) while kicking eachother. The highlight of my night was seeing a fat man who looked like Comic Book Guy trying to woo the waitresses. I took a photograph of him.

I honestly can't remember what we did on Sunday, but that night we had Pad Thai at a food stall on the side of the road. 30 Baht - bargain. We heard there was a bigger market on Sundays than other nights so went to check it out and it was HUGE! We must have walked through miles of stalls before they started packing up. I really wish that we had sherpahs to carry our baggage so we could buy everything we wanted to buy! Between us we came away with one sticker...

10.00 on Monday morning we got a minibus to Pai. We were originally going to head straight to Mai Hong Son to visit the long neck tribes but on Darraghs suggestion stopped off in Pai (thanks Darragh!!). I love Pai. It's a small town brim full of hippies, cheap food and drink and gorgeous scenery. Two Irish backpackers pointed us towards a guesthouse where we managed to get a nice ensuite room with a fan and hot shower for 1 pound each a night - the only problem was the bed was really sticky. I tried not to think too much about why it would be like this... After our first nights sleep there we realised we had sleeping bag liners with us and made good use of them. It was actually really comfortable when we weren't touching the bed anymore! On Tuesday we rented a little scooter (100 Baht or about 2 pounds for 26 hours hire) as the maps showed waterfalls and hot springs outside the town. We only managed to make it to one! We headed for the biggest waterfall but after a short drive the dirt track stopped at the river. Some half naked Israeli guys standing in the river told us it's a 3 hour trek to the waterfall and 3 hours back, so we gave it a miss. We only had about 2 hours of daylight left by then. We finally made it to a little waterfall after getting lost twice but it got too dark to climb to the top! It was still a nice ride out there. On the way back some people asked us the way to Pai Canyon so we decided on a visit there the next morning. It's not very big but it's lovely there. It's weird that there's loads of lush trees and plants everywhere around Pai and when you get to the top of the canyon the soil is red and everything looks so dry. It looks like it never rains there. We didn't spend too long there because it was the hottest part of the day so we rode back to the guesthouse to cool down. I didn't fancy any more bike trips so Ryan went out to the WWII Bridge past the canyon and I went for a walk up to the Ancient Town. It didn't look very ancient, or any different from the other parts of town, but it was a nice, relaxing and very hot walk.

We looked in to costs to get to Mae Hong Son but decided it took too long and cost too much to go to see some women with extraordinarily long necks for an hour or two and just stayed in Pai for longer! We spent most drinking time in a nice little bar with free pool, nice people and two resident dogs until we had to get some sleep before our journey back to Chiang Mai on Friday.

Route 1095 to Pai is famous for being possible the bendiest road in existence - apparently it's about 80miles and 762 bends. Although I felt ok and even managed to nap a little while being thrown about in the bus I don't think Ryan enjoyed it! 640ml bottles of beer are not your friend when you need to make the journey down from Pai the next morning. The driver was a bit over enthusiastic too, you could hear the tyres screeching as he whipped the bus around the hairpin turns!

We got back to Chiang Mai on Thursday at about 1pm so we collected our passports with our new Laos visas in them, booked our slow boat trip to Laos, left our bags with the travel company and just killed time until our leaving time at 8.30pm. Ryan left a pair of shorts at the hot spring near Kanchanaburi and I'm in need of some longer trousers so we spent a few hours in the biggest shopping centre in Chiang Mai. They seem to have a really odd dress sense in Thailand. There was a huge department store in there called Central which stocked some western brands, but they all seemed to be Lacoste and other poncy clothes which would make you look like your constantly on your way to play a round of golf or jeans which are just too heavy in this heat. They do have Billabong but our budgets don't stretch that far. Ryan found some really nice shorts, but everything for women are a bit hippie looking or barely cover bum cheek. I think I'll stick with what I have until Oz.

At half 8 we were picked up by a taxi at the travel agency and had about an hours ride to a petrol station with 3 other people where we were picked up by our minibus and 2 more travellers who were coming from Pai. The ride up to Chiang Khong near the Laos border took until 2am and the roads were so bumpy it was impossible to sleep.

In Chiang Khong we had a free nights sleep in Boom Guesthouse. It was dusty and cobwebby with a nutty cockerel that crowed all night even though it was dark but we were so exhausted we just passed out. We hjad to be up again at 7am for a shower and breakfast and left for the ferry to Huay Xai in Laos at 8am. We had to go through immigration before getting on the ferry and though we had our visas already we had the most hassle getting through. We ended up having to pay another 100 Baht before they'd stamp our passport.

It was a short ferry across the Mekong to Huay Xai where our passports were checked again by the Laos police and we changed our Baht to Kip. The money here is really confusing! It's 13,000 Kip to the pound and we're still getting used to the fact it sounds like a lot of money when there's the word 'thousand' after it! In Huay Xai our little group was combined with some more groups of backpackers and we all stocked up on food and drink and made our way to the slow boat towards Luang Prabang. The boat left at 12.30 and we arrived at our stopover at about 6pm. The boat was really cramped with wooden benches as seats but it was a fun journey. We'd picked up a bottle of whiskey and some coke, others had whiskey or beer, so our travel group made the most of the trip! Turns out that a lot of us have pretty much the same plans through Laos and it's nice being with a group. Our stopover was in Pakbeng, a really small town a bit under half way from Huay Xai to Luang Prabang. A big group booked in to the same hostel or the one next door, had showers, dinner and crashed out for the night. We had to be on the boat again by 9am on Saturday and after the afternoon drinks we were worn out!

Saturday was a much more comfortable boat. The front was taken up with reclining armchairs but we got there too late and ended up with plastic garden chairs at the back near the very very loud engine. It was good to have leg room unlike the day before though.

We got to Luang Prabang about 5.30pm yesterday but I'll save the details until we've had a chance to explore!