We took a slow boat down the Mekong today.  We had a private boat all to ourselves.  The boats are still used for moving cargo, but some fo them have been converted for taking passengers. It was the best journey we have done so far, absolutely amazing scenery.  Everyone should take a slow boat down the Mekong, its just a brilliant experience and it takes about 7 hours so you can really take everything in. Pakbeng is a really poor village,...

We crossed the border today into Laos. To get to the border we had to get the chicken bus from Chiang Mai.We had to leave our Thai guide behind and met our Laos guide Kham at the border.  We took a boat over the Mekong and passed through immigration and headed to our guest house.  We walked up to a temple to watch the sunset and hear the monks chanting which was really good, and then went to dinner.  We managed to eat even though there were ab...

We survived the overnight sleeper train last night.  We had to sleep in bunks which the guard made up for you, in a carriage with loads of other bunks.  We had some little cockroaches in our cabin but we survived.  Killed four of them... When we arrived we took a tuk tuk to the hotel and had breakfast, the rest of the group went off to do and elephant trek and we got a driver for the day and went to the Doi Suthep temple which is right on the ...

We arrived in Bangkok a couple of days ago.  Its a lot more hectic than Samui. Our hotel is rubbish, the staff are rude and we have a family of rats running around in the ceiling cavity keeping us awake at night.   The pace of life here is manic on our first night was had a walk up the main street and there are loads of street vendors everywhere, tuk tuk drivers and hoards of people. On Sunday we took the skyrail to the Chatuchak Market.&...

Still in Samui, Mainly lying around on the beach and enjoying the sunshine. We went to the Angthong National Marine Park on last Sunday which was brilliant. 42 islands off the coast of Thailand. We took a speedboat there and stopped off for some snorkelling at one of the islands. Jim cut his foot open on one of the rocks!! But he was a brave soldier and battled through the pain...no plasters...rnrnWe then went to a lagoon, and walked up millions of steps to get t...