well I realise this is the first in a while so I'll keep it simple.......after the trek I decided to use deejai hostel in chiang mai as a base and ended up doing so for 3 weeks,thanks to rob and adam for putting up with me hanging around for so long.....so here goes,the last 6 weeks of my travels broken down!
-after the trek I met a Dutch girl iris and decided to hire a scooter and go off exploring,after getting lost in the city a few times I got my bearings,we went to a place called tiger kingdom where you get in the cages and stroke the tigers,insane,in the uk would never be allowed!went to a crappy snake farm after but they did a snake charming show which was hilarious cos of the Thai guys narration to it
-from chiang mai me iris and Christian went to pai,an amazing little town in the north of Thailand,had a very good time there and 3 became 4 when we met an American girl,went to an amazing cave on scooters,huge open ended water filled cave full of bats
-went back to deejai for 1 night
-me and Christian decided in pai to do the Mae Hong Son loop,4 days,4 towns and 650km!!hired a couple of 125cc scooters and set off (without a map obviously) just aimed for the towns we knew we were stopping at!amazing trip,scenery and the roads were amazing
-went back to deejai after and decided to chill there for the 5 days till I had to cross the border into Laos,again met some really nice,cool people and had some good fun nights out and very lazy days

Lao
-decided to take the longer trip of the slow boat from Thailand to luang prabang,day 1 was a trip crossing the Mekong river from Thailand to Lao and then 6 hours down river to a small town called pakbeng,had the most amazing water buffalo curry there,day 2 was even longer,9 hours on the boat,the scenery was amazing but after a while just wasn't cutting it,luckily by this point there was a group of 7 of us and we managed to keep ourselves fairly entertained!
-luang prabang we all stuck together,weird place cos they have an 11pm curfew and the only places to go after that is bed or a mafia run bowling alley where the booze is cheap so we ended up there,18 people in a tuk tuk,that right there is impressive but it kept breaking down so we had to do a few push offs on the way!also went to an amazing blue lagoon there,was an amazing place for a swim and the rope swing off a tree was pretty fun!
-from luang prabang went to vangvieng,simply the most stunning place in the world I will ever spend all day and night drinking mostly free drinks,that place ruined me if I'm honest and the least said the better!?
-next was Vientiane,did a kayak trip to get there,was the coolest way to travel between 2 towns yet!
-1st day in vientiane went to a monks 97th birthday party and got some free food and drinks while hanging out with 2/3 thousand monks from all over the world,also later that day found the Lao equivalent of custard creams and had dinner bought by a Dutch girl who lived there who I met in vangvieng,that was a good day!
-the next day bumped into a guy of the slow boat,was the first day of pi mai Lao,the new year water festival,walked for miles to a few temples and after the tuk tuk back got invited to party(read as soak people walking by) by a Lao family who owned a business next to the hostel,within 20 seconds it looked like I had been swimming,within a minute a glass of beer was put in my hand,was attempting a week detox but it's rude to refuse right,after 10 glasses later the detox idea was defo out the window,they made us the most amazing noodle soup!that night I had a 16 hour bus to the 4000 islands in the very south of Lao!by the time the bus came to pick me up I was full,well on my way to drunk and soaked,all for free thanks to the Lao hospitality!
-next was don det in the 4000 islands and my first travelling error,thought I was on don det island but I was still on the mainland,realised 20 minutes after checking into a hostel in a small village!anyway the damage was done so had a good chillout day,some nice cheap street food and a good sleep!next morning I made it to don det,beautifull place,small island in middle of the Mekong,more wandering around,barefoot obviously,im in full traveller mode by now!next day got a cycle and went over to a bigger island and to the biggest waterfalls in Asia,by volume not height!met some other people while cycling round and we ended up at another pi mai Lao party,the lao guys were drunk when we get there and by the time we left passed out!went for a swim in the river and we all got accosted by 10 or so Lao children who found it very funny to use our shoulders as diving boards,ended up as a local attraction with people lining the riverbank watching 6 backpackers being used as a human water park!

Cambodia
that night the 6 of us met for an amazing Indian meal and a nice relaxed evening,the next morning I had a boat-bus-another bus-another bus-and a mini bus journey to Siem Reap,arriving at 1am,18 hours after leaving don det,jumped in a tuk tuk to a hostel that had been recommended to find it was full I ended up in a hotel for the night!
-the next 2 days were spent at Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples,bayon up there as the most impressive for me!all templed out after that,be happy not to see another temple in some time!
-3rd day was spent chilling in a hotel pool and met a really nice couple in there 40's in a bar later that afternoon and we all ate a BBQ'd frog purely out of curiosity,have to say it was awesome and I now bizarrely have a taste for eating frogs!
-day 4 I decided to get up early,4am and hire a cycle to go see the sunrise at Angkor Wat,10km-ish ride at 4am was fresher than I thought with only a pair of boardies and a vest!the sunrise was awesome and glad I did it,cycled further along to bayon and chilled there for a while before cycling back in the midday sun,back to the hotel pool and a bus ticket in hand to sihanoukville for that night!
-after a s***ty night bus that I couldn't sleep on arrived in phnom phen at 6am,changed buses and got to my first beach in my trip!checked into a $1 hostel and found some friends I met in Thailand and Lao and hit the beach,was amazing to see the sea!had a pretty crazy night that night,English and Scottish shouldn't be mixed!
-a few days later when the guys had left I met up with a few other people and we had a bright idea to buy a boat and sail to the islands,after releasing that was a bit daft the idea to rent a boat with a skipper to do the hard work for us became a much better prospect!after some asking about we had a boat for 3 nights and 4 days for $180,we started at 3 and by the end of the afternoon was 6,we figured 6 more we had enough and only $15,the 5 questions started getting asked 1.do you like the sun?2.do you like beaches?3.do you like the sea?4.do you like boats?5.do you want to do all those things on our boat?by the following morning we were 12 and the deal was done,next day we set off!a trip to the supermarket for booze and food,more booze than food obviously!so 3 nights with good people sleeping rough on the beaches,closest I got to a bed was sleeping outside 2 of the girls bungalow on the floor!was a really cool trip of beaches,fishing,diving off the boat at random intervals,drinking round bonfires,volleyball,heads and volleys and various other ridiculous games!
-after getting back we found we was all still hanging around together and people started to leave 1 by 1 and the "I'm on a boat" crew became 2,me and hans,a dutch fella who have now been on various buses for 13 hours to get to Ho Chi Min city were we intend on buying motorcycles and riding upto Hanoi!Vietnam is where I'll be spending the next month and will attempt to do my blog more often and got all my pictures uploaded to a Flickr account.........goodbye for now from 'Nam