Hello again everyone,

Thank you for all of your lovely emails. How is everyone? My pledge to blog more regularly has obviously didn't last but I've finally found some time to write one now. Again we have been very busy so excuse the list of events! Am also feeling rather ill so excuse me if everything is just simply nice or good.

Since the last email we have made our way to Laos but have visited some great places along the way and met some amazing people. We went to Hong Kong which was the last stop of our tour. I really liked it there even though it was very Westernised. The skyline seemed to stretch on for miles and we were able to take some good pictures from above the buildings by taking a tram up Victoria Peak. We had a busy and very expensive few days there taking a ferry to Hong Kong Island to explore various markets, temples, a zoo and botanical gardens. We also went on the worlds biggest escalator and tasted crab. On our last day there we went on a cable car to Ngong Ping village where there was an enormous golden buddha then came back to say goodbye to everyone from our tour.

We flew to Bangkok and went out for drinks. Met some random people and ended up in a little club somwhere along Koh San Road. Took a bus to Chang Mai which was quite uneventful until they put the TV on and Twilight came on. I don't think I have ever seen Sam look so happy! We met Tom and Neil on the bus who we ended up with in the same hostel and are still with them now. Explored the town and went on a two day trek which was brilliant.

We started by riding on elephants and ended up walking though the jungle. It began spitting a bit and then for the next 3 hours it just chucked it down! We were all soaked through but found it funny. One guy, Udhi, had stupidly worn flip flops and was miserable as a result. He had been powering ahead and then as we were walking up the middle of a road he just stopped, pulled his shorts down and had a poo in full view of everyone. That's just not right! He was a very strange man. We got to our hut where we were staying and admired the views before drinking and playing games with the others on the trek. The next day we trekked for a very slippery 4 hours downhill. I think everyone fell over at least once and we were all very muddy. We did some white water and bamboo rafting the went back to our hostel. Went out for drinks and dancing that night and did a cookery course then next day. We made spring rolls, pad thai, green curry and these amazing banana things. I am considering becoming a chef now but maybe I need a little more practise first.

We took a night bus to the Laos border and stayed in a hostel for the night ready to get the slow boat the following day. The slow boat was so much fun. We ended up in a group of 11 really fun people playing games and drinking for 2 days. We got to Luang Prabang and stayed the night with the people we had met. Stupidly went on a 37km bike ride in the midday heat to a waterfall. Amazingly, we made it but I now have holiday flu and think that's probably because I pushed it a bit too much and got too dehydrated. It as worth it though because the waterfall was so pretty and we got to jump off of the top. We were sensible enough to take a tuk tuk back! Took a night bus to Vian vieng which is where we are now.

Have had two days of tubing so far and will be going again tomorrow but then we are moving on again. Tubing is such a laugh. Free shots at each bar, buckets, beer and platforms and rope swings to jump from. One guy has been doing it or 310 days, extreme!

Our money seems to be going quickly but then I think we almost expected that. I may well be home by March although there do seem to belots of jobs around if we stay in one place for longer than a few days.

Will try to blog again soon and upload more pictures to facebook.

Love Jen xxx