Hi all,

Apologies that it has been a little while since I wrote last. I'm now on to the fourth country of my trip, currently writing from Sapa in the far North West of Vietnam, so there is rather a lot to catch up on since my last blog from Kathmandu. Here goes...

I spent my last day and a half in Kathmandu practising at being a proper solo traveler after Nelly's departure. Luckily, Kathmandu was now starting to feel rather familiar so I was happy to potter about the streets on my own and was safely ensconced at nightime in the guesthouse, which was a peaceful haven away from the busy streets of the centre. On Saturday morning I got up at the crack of dawn to walk the 45 minutes it would take me to reach Swayambhunath, the 'monkey temple' before the heat of the day kicked in. Walking through the back streets, once again, I found that I was the only Westerner around and it took me a while, and a few map and hand waving conversations with the locals to find my way there. I reached the gate to the temple and the steep set of stairs and headed on up to the most sepctacular stupa I have seen yet. There were queues of local people and pilgrims circling the golden centre, spinning the prayer wheels that surrounded it and leaving offerings and glowing butter lamps at the small shrines that were dotted around the site. These sights were accompanied by the strong smell of incense and the sound of singing and chanting that filled the air as what looked like a choir in a room open on one side swayed and sung. It was pretty spectactular so early in the morning, whilst the sun rose to light up the sprawling city below. Much of the rest of the day was spent relaxing and taking in some more of the city before I headed back to my favourite restaurant in the city, Or2k, an Israeli vegetarian place, with some French guys from my guesthouse, currently setting up an NGO just outside of the city, to which I promised to visit on my return. Yep, already decided - I'll definitely be coming back to Nepal!

Next day, I boarded my flight to Thailand and couldn't quite get over the shock of landing in Bangkok and CIVILISATION after coming from a country where 14 hour power cuts affecting much of the capital city are not uncommon. I sat open mouthed in the back of my (very welcome) air conditioned taxi at the size of the city and huge buildings that made up the skyline, many of which, I was surprised to see, were adorned with huge pictures of King and the Royal family - something that would become normal very quickly. To add to this strange contrast, I was booked into what was a rather fancy hotel, where I would meet my next group the following day, so I made the most of unlimited hot water and had my first taste of amazing Thai food in the restaurant. As I wasn't due to meet my group until the evening I had a whole day to kill in Bangkok. So what was the obvious answer? Well, shopping of course and there is no place in Asia like Bangkok for shopping, as I soon found out. Heading to Siam square, I came across the famous MBK centre which pretty much sells everything and lots myself there for much of the day. Two Starbucks, a haircut and a pedicure later I emerged, feeling pretty refreshed! I somehow navigated both the Sky train and the metro back through the city in time to meet my new group. Again a great bunch - another Brit, two New Zealanders, two Canadians, two Americans, a Hungarian, a Brazilian and our guide from the very exotic....Blackburn.

The next day was spent, exploring more of the cultural sites of the city starting with a boat tour around the back waters where people live in rickety houses right on the waters edge and hanging over it on stilts. We then went to Wat Po, the oldest temple in the city to the see the famous 45 metre long 'reclining Buddha'. After this we had free time so we wandered the streets watching the world go by before making our way to the train station, ready to whizz off on the long journey up North to Chiang Mai, the major city in the Northern territories of Thailand. We boarded our train and settled into our seats. Although, this didnt last long as the biggest Thai lady I've ever seen appeared, muscles bulging, to miraculously turn our seats into a surprisingly comfy bunk, complete with curtain and bedding. We settled down for the night and I slept surprisingly well, which is lucky considering the journey would take us, in total, 15 hours!

Chiang Mai turned out to be a lovely, chilled out city, particularly by comparison with the frantic Bangkok. We spent much of the afternoon wandering around the old city and then made our way to the buzzing night market in the evening. The next day was an early start for with 3 of the others in my group to head to our Thai cookery class. We were met at the market by 'Rabbit', our teacher for the day who led us round the various stalls guiding us in the ingredients we would need for the day and showing us the different kinds of Thai produce. We then headed to the cookery school and our lovely outdoor kitchen, where we were each kitted out with our own wok, knives, pestle and mortar and apron. Rabbit showed us how to prepare the ingredients we had bought at the market for the four course meal each of us would make. i had chosen coconut and chicken soup, pad thai, green thai curry and vegetable spring rolls. We chopped, mashed, crushed and marinaded away before moving over to the woks to get cooking! For someone who (admittedly) is a bit rubbish at cooking, i couldn't believe how easy it was and pretty quickly i had 4 amazing meals in front of me. Perhaps the best part of the class is we got to eat it all at the end and i was quite pleasantly surprised by my efforts. Even better is that each of us were given a recipe book at the end so hopefully i can have a go at recreating some of these dishes for you lucky people at home! The rest of the day was spent on a bus winding even further North towards the border with Laos and the Mekong river for our overnight stop at Chiang Khong.

After officially crossing the border we jumped aboard our private long boat and set out downstream on the Mekong with two very quiet, but ridiculously picturesque, days cruising ahead of us. We meandered past lush forests, water buffalo, crashing rapids, quiet lagoons and grand limestone karsts which jutted up against the leafy horizon. Our local guide, Louis, an ex monk who had given up temple life after 6 years in a monastery, was fantastic at filling us in on the local history - Laos being the most bombed country in history (a greater tonnage of bombs having been dropped there during the Vietnam conflict than on the whole of Europe during WWII, and telling us about the local H'mong people (who had originally been sponsored by the CIA) continuing the fight against the Communist forces up until just five years ago and who remain marginalised by the rest of scoiety because of it. We would visit a H'mong village on our journey and it was incredible to see the straw hut villages in which they lived, running water and electricity having been installed only recently. It was a lovely, peaceful introduction to Laos which is a very slow moving, relaxed country with the friendliest people i have met on my whole trip, despite their bitter history and very simple lifestyles.

Our boat ride ended at Luang Prabang, which would become perhaps my favourite place on the trip so far. A gorgeous sleepy town, this was our chance to spend a few days somewhere and really get to know the place. Every night a market would spring up along the whole stretch of the main street and the road would fill with a hubbub of people. One alley, filled with stalls selling street food was the cheapest place to get dinner and this could be washed down with delicious fruit shakes, which worked out cheaper than water, to be followed by a delicious crepe or roti filled with chocolate and banana. YUM. The market was filled with all kinds of beautiful things and it was easy to lose an evening here, browsing the silks, jewellery, paintings and clothing. We would regularly finish our evenings at Utopia, a gorgeous riverside bar, sitting beneath a canopy sipping cocktails. Another attraction of the town is the chance to visit an elephant village where it is possible to feed, ride and bathe the elephants. We chose an elephant rescue centre and headed out through the jungle on a very bumpy bus ride. It was amazing to swing in through the gate and see 12 huge elephants lined up, happily swinging their trunks and munching bananas. In pairs we were then matched up with an elephant and her handler, a mahout, and helped aboard the seat on her back. Our elephant, Mae San, was the biggest, most headstrong of the group (not sure why they matched us...) and she was soon barrelling down the steep path to the river, our mahout jiggling his legs against her ears to guide her, as she was blind in one eye after an accident in her previous logging job in the jungle. Once in the river, as we jiggled along, feeling a little unsteady not far from the water rushing past our elephants legs the mahout gave us the chance to swap places with him. It is safe to say that a lanky Westerner like me is not a graceful as a Lao mahout and by the time I was eventually settled on Mae San's neck he was giggling away at me and my slightly novel way of getting there. After an amazing ride we made it back to camp and were able to reward our elephants with bananas which they gladly grabbed from us.

Another amazing trip we made from Luang Prabang was an excursion about 45 minutes out of town to Kuang Xi waterfall, a spectacular waterfall which crashed down from the hillside. The limestone had formed stunning natural swimming pools and the surrounding jungle and overhanging trees made for the most amazing setting. We swum in the cold water and jumped from the waterfall and tree swings for hours in the hot sunshine before collapsing with a beer and an icecream in between the locals picnicing around the turquoise lagoons. we finished our stay in the town with a meal at a locals house, where we were invited to sit on the floor around low tables, filled with food and were welcomed by every member of the family and her neighbours with a blessed string bracelet.

Next day we moved on to Viang Vieng, the party capital of Laos. A weird little place, the main attraction being tubing - a chance to grab a rubber ring and float down river, stopping at bars on the way. An amazing way to spend the afternoon in the sunshine, we arrived back at our hotel rather too many whisky's down, covered in paint, slightly disorientated, bruised and battered from clambering up to bars then jumping back in and ultimately relieved that there were local kids to help pull us from the water at the end. So.much.fun. That night we continued the partying just to make sure the headache the next morning, with a long bus ride to the capital Vientiane, would be worth it.

Vientiane, was essentially just a stopping off point for us along the way as it was here we would board our flight to Hanoi and country number four, Vietnam. Leaving sleepy Laos behind us, Hanoi was a shock to the system. The heat, horns blaring, mopeds barrelling towards you from every direction and huge numbers of people swarming everywhere was a barrage to the senses. This was the last stop with my group so we had a whistlestop tour of the city, taking in the slightly ghostly Ho Chi Minh's Mausoleum through which we were marched at quite a pace, pursued by guards who would shout at you for putting your hands in your pockets let alone whispering, the ancient Temple of Literature and Ho Lua prison (better known at the 'Hanoi Hilton', home to US POW's during the Vietnam war - interestingly depicted as a summer camp in the modern museum). That night was my last with the group so after a final dinner and beer at 'Bia Hoi' junction, the place to get the cheapest beer in the world at 15p a glass, whilst seated on a tiny plastic stall at the side of the road, it was time to wave goodbye.

The next morning, Ben, also from my tour, and I set off to the Hanoi Backpacker's hostel through which we had booked a 3 day, 2 night tour to Halong Bay. Arriving at the hostel we met the other 45 people who would be joining us and immediately bumped into friends we had met back in Viang Vieng. We knew we were in for a crazy time when the first piece of information we were told was that drinking (any beverage) was only allowed with your left hand, the penalty being, if you were caught, that you finish the rest of your drink in one...uhoh. And yes, this certainly set the tone for the rest of the trip. We headed out to Halong city on the bus then met our boat, which would be home for the first evening and settled in. The boat was huge, with its own bar, dining area and incredible sun deck. After heading out into the bay, the water getter clearer and bluer the further we went we were able to go swimming, surrounded by huge limestone cliffs from the hundreds of islands in the bay. Then we piled into kayaks and went exploring in the nearby caves, our leaders eventually showing us the way to a private lagoon found only through a dark cave and tiny tunnel. Back on the boat, it was dinner and them an amazing party which went on well into the early hours. Feeling just a tad sorry for ourselves the next morning we jumped aboard a smaller boat and made our way to Castaway Island, the private beach that would play host to the second night of our trip. Spending much of the day lying in the sunshine on the white sand, the only interruption was a chance to go tubing, being dragged behind a speedboat on a giant inflatable. That followed by a bbq and beers on the beach with a beach bungalow open to the beach for a bed made for the perfect day.

The trip had also been a great opportunity to meet more travelers and I had soon met a number of others who were keen to head up to Sapa, a place in the mountains up in the Northwest of Vietnam, an overnight bus ride from Hanoi. Despite a long journey back to Hanoi that day, Laura, a Candian girl from the trip, and I jumped aboard a bus just an hour later and settled in for the long 12 hour trip up North. It was such a welcome relief when arriving in the quiet former French hill station, with very few other tourists and green, rolling hills all around us. We devoted our day to relaxing and making the most of the stunning views by having an all important pedicure, sampling the delights of the street food and generally watching the world go by. A key attraction of the area is the chance to meet local people who belong to the ethnic minorities that exist in the mountains. It is not unusual to be met from the bus by a lady from the Black H'mong tribe who, in perfect English, will ask you everything about yourself, then precede to follow you for the rest of your trip. By our final day we had become firm friends with a young girl called Jan, who made me pinky promise that she would be the only person from whom I would buy anything and insisted that I took her number so that I could send any friends headed to Sapa her way. In a country where I have found English speakers few and far between, if just simply unwilling, it was pretty hilarious to become such great friends with someone who had never been further than just a few miles from her village.We also filled our time with an amazing trek through the local countryside, heading out away from Sapa and winding through the lush green paddy fields and towards a distant waterfall. After 5 hours trekking, having been invited into the homes of local people along the way, we finally gave up on actually getting to the waterfall but clambered our way back to the road to jump up and down at every passing vehicle before a bus took pity on us and took us back to Sapa, muddy, exhausted but feeling rather pleased with ourselves.

We absolutely loved Sapa, it was such a small place that the same people at the market would recognise us and each day and over the few days we were there would give us extra things to try or slip a few extra plums in our bag when we were buying fruit in the mornings. It was really nice to feel like I was actually getting to know a place. Reluctantly after three days Laura and I boarded the bus back to Hanoi where we would meet our next night bus down the coast to Hue on the next stage of our journey. And that, is where I currently write from. It looks the monsoon season has caught up with us as its been tipping it down all day but I have my fingers crossed for good weather as our next stop will include some beaching and a motorbike trip down the coast (the Top Gear experience Clarkson fans!)

That's all from me for now, apologies for the long blog - I won't leave it three weeks again. Would love to hear from you all!

S. x