Crossing the border into Thailand from Malaysia was absolutely fine and pretty much as soon as we arrived in Hat Yai we were able to get straight on a bus to Krabi. We arrived in Krabi to be sherparded straight off to someone's "mates" guest house which our good old bible The Lonely Planet had warned us against but it all worked out ok in the end. We spent 2 days in beautiful Krabi soaking up the sun on the pretty much deserted beaches and then got the boat to Phi Phi. We got lucky on the accomodation front, staying in some gorgeous cottages away from the main throng of people for only two pounds a night. Carrying our huge bags up the hill to said bungalows wasn't quite so fun though...

Again, Phi Phi was absolutely beautiful. We spent three days there and during our time we got to experience some of the infamous beach parties as well as going on a long boat tour of the surrounding islands including the famous Maya Bay- the setting for "The Beach". It was just as gorgeous as the film suggests but looks a little different because the Tsunami washed away all of the huge palm trees that used to surround the islands.

From Phi Phi we made our way to Phuket which unfortunately, is pretty much Magaluf. They sell t-shirts that say "No I don't want a tuk-tuk, a ladyboy or a massage so LEAVE ME ALONE!" and I think that pretty much sums the place up. We only had a day and a half there, during which it rained the entire time but luckily we had a great film channel so we spent the day cooped up indoors and watched 8 films! Yes that's correct, a tad overboard perhaps.

The following day we caught a bus up to Bangkok. The 16 hour journey was made much more bearable by having a really nice bunch of people from Jersey to travel with. However, when we got to the Kho San Road in Bangkok I realised that I'd been the victim of an attempted robbery as whilst my big backpack was in the hold under the bus someone had been all the way through it searching for valuables and even emptied my make up and toilettries out in their hunt. Lucky I had them all with me. From Bangkok we were lucky enough to be able to catch a bus to Chiang Mai almost straight away (even though it was 5 in the morning) as we're going back to Bangkok at the end of the trip. Another 10 hours later and we were FINALLY in Chiang Mai. We got a tuk tuk to a bargainous hostel "Banana Guest House" that we found in our bible and went in the search of some food. It was when we were here that we discovered that our malaria tablets that we started taking in Phuket had made our skin go weird- my hard-earned tan was peeling away so fast it looked like I had leprosy, Charl had a huge red rash covering her whole right arm and Amy had white dots all over her chest...not cool but luckily the symptoms resided after a few days and we've been fine ever since, phew!

We spent the next day exploring the hundreds of temples and markets that the city has to offer and then booked ourself onto a trek. We ended up going for a one day trek as none of us really fancied camping in the jungle surrounded by denghi infested mosquitos. The next day we got up super early to don those oh-so-attractive walking boots and begin our trek. We started off with a trip to a butterfly park and orchid farm and then went to visit the hill tribe people including people who had migrated to the area from Burma who wrap coils of gold around their necks to make them longer. We then began the trek part of the day, which thankfully wasn't too gruelling (you all know walking isn't exactly my favourite hobby unless it's around the shops) and then stopped for a traditional Thai lunch. We then went on to the elephant park where they put on a show (we didn't overly enjoy it though as it seemed a bit cruel) and then trekked on the elephants for an hour. Amy and I seemed to have a 'naughty' one that liked to stop in the middle of fast-flowing rivers and contemplate chucking us off but our guide gave us a marriage proposal in compensation- can't really say fairer than that! After the elephants we went bamboo rafting down the river and then white-water rafting down the rapid part of the river, however I hate to say it but the white-water rafting seemed like a walk in the park after doing a skydive a few months ago. Maybe I'm just getting cocky... We then made our way back to Chiang Mai and had a fantastic meal before getting a bus to Laos early the next morning.

The border crossing into Laos was very bizarre...basically you get your passport stamped on one side of a river, then hop on a rickety little longboat across to the other side, pay for your visa, get your passport stamped again by a Laos police offer who looked as though he could potentially be asleep and in you are! We spent one night in the tiny border town of Huay Xei (had an AMAZING curry whilst we were there) and then got a bus further into Laos the next day. What an experience...to start with the tuk tuk that was picking us up from our guesthouse was late and had to chase after the bus to catch up with it and we pretty much had to hop on whilst said bus was in motion. We then discovered that the only other people on the bus were Laos men who seemed to be taking part in some kind of drugs run because there were bags and bags of "secret stuff that we mustn't touch". We then embarked on our bumpy journey down the ONLY road in Laos that led us to Vang Vieng 24 hours later. On the way we picked up what I can only describe as an overgrown gerbil that the driver bought off some street kids. Unfortunately the gerbil came to an untimely end when we took a sharp corner a little too quickly and it inadvertently hung itself on the lead that it was tied up with. LOVELY. Although we couldn't get a wink of sleep the journey was really interesting but it made us realise how isolated most of Laos is with most of it being tiny villages consisting of a few shacks for miles on end.

We eventually arrived in Vang Vieng and had breakfast before we were allowed to check into a guesthouse at ten. After a well-earned sleep we went to find the boys we met on the bus to Bangkok and had a great night out, ending in a party that was pretty much in the middle of a field! The following day after a very hungover breakfast, we bought ourselves a waterproof bag and got on a tuk-tuk to take us tubing. Tubing basically consists of floating down the river in Vang Vieng on a big rubber ring and being dragged into various bars on the way. There were zip wires and mudpits to play in and it was a lot of fun. However, after an unfortunate incident involving me, Charlotte and an extremely muddy slope we thought we had a broken nose and a broken back to contend with. Luckily we were over-reacting...how unusual! Would definitely recommed tubing to anyone visiting the area (in fact it seems to be the main reason why a lot of travellers even go to Laos) as it's definitely something different and great fun.

After another night out in "the field" we caught the bus the following morning to Vientiane. It was certainly not a pleasant experience, being over-crowded with hungover tubers for three hours but at least it wasn't a mammoth trip.

In Vientiane we checked into a hostel which was possibly the worst of the trip but it was all that was available for our somewhat limited budget. We were pretty surprised we didn't encounter any rats but on the plus side we had a lovely meal in a restaurant down the road. We then stopped into a travel agent to book our bus ticket to Hue in Vietnam, however after a call to the bus companies the lady behind the desk told us that there were no buses until Sunday (this was Wednesday and there is NOTHING to do in Vientiane) because all the government buses were going to pick up some "important" students from Vietnam. Very bizarre but this news put us into a massive panick as if we had to wait until Sunday we wouldn't be able to do all the things we wanted to do in Vietnam before our flight from Ho Chi Minh City to Bangkok in a weeks time. Aaaaahhh! After enquiring about flights that were out of this world expensive and still none until Sunday (maybe the students were on them too?) we decided to change our...