En route to Vang Vieng, I thought the bus was going to blow up. Each time the gears changed and the engine revved, it sounded like a large cow was being slaughtered slowly. We wound around the stupidly curly roads. A huge tanker lorry had careered off the side of the road and lay in the ditch. Oh - and the guy with an AK47 was on board, guarding our bus for us - in plain clothes. The joys of travelling in Laos! We stopped off for lunch and then had about another ...

Hi After a long, winding, bumpy ride back to Chiang Mai (from Pai) we trundled back into the same Guest House. We got the trip to Luang Prabang (Loas) booked up with the agent down the road and then had a final stroll around the market before heading back to re-pack the bags and get sorted for the two day boat journey that lay ahead of us. Yes, that's right - two days on a slow boat down the Mekong River! At about 10am we climbed on board the air-con miniva...

hi, The journey to Pai was stunning! Three hours of looking at the most awesome landscape I have probably seen since I've been away. Northern Thailand is amazing. The beautiful green mountainous terrain just rolled on and on. Just before we arrived in Pai there was all the land being farmed by the local people with there cattle and their cone rice hats on. The odd sighting of an elephant too! We shortly arrived in Pai and I took an instant liking to the pla...

Hi, Well, after a restless nights travel, we arrived in Chaing Mai very early. We were dropped off about 20 mins out side of town where we were hearded into smaller mini vans. On the way into town one of the bags that was meant to be secured on the roof came flying past the window. Someone yelled at the driver to stop so we could go and get it. It was a really busy road and how all the traffic missed the bag I will never know. I found this pretty funny until I ...

Hi, We rocked up to Khao San Road, which, as it was late was already shutting down but managed to get in the D&D Inn. I've stayed here a few time over the years and it is a bit of a 'flashpacker' rather than a 'backpacker' hotel with its ownpool on the roof and what not.... Anyway, it's cheaper than anything I stayed in during Oz! It was downstairs early for the free thai breakie before heading straight to the roof for a well missed ...