Phew...Nick and Natty get pulled back into a consumer society and hence fail to blog or do anything else for about a week...

So, Bangkok was AMAZING!!! We have obviously both been before, and I recall the first time I arrived there I was overwhelmed by the chaos and couldn't wait to get out. BUT thanks to our sojourn in the manic land that is India, there was relief and calm rather than shock and we both felt rather at home in Bangkok. Siam Square is dominated by malls aplenty and HOORAY they love Boots in Thailand (must have happened since I was last here 5 years ago) so I went body butter, eye liner and general toiletries crazy! There are some crazy posh malls with posh car show rooms up on the top floors (how did they get them there?). Nick also got his tattoo in Bangkok, I will post a video on here (when time allows), so yes, it was an expensive BUT highly enjoyable week.

nick's a badass now...

Oh yeah, and we saw 3 movies here, which was such a pleasure! It's between 1 and 5 pounds to watch a movie, and for 5 you get really mega posh sofa sort of seats and I got a nice latte and it's just super cool! But the 1 pound tickets were good too, much better than home! We also ate Korea BBQ three times, our friends Mel and Josh told us we'd love it once we got to Korea, and we do love it and can't wait to eat more! They bring you all this meat and veg and you steam the veg in a moat thing around the heated grill and you cook your meat on it! Nick had a little system that developed over the 3 visits, which consisted of a marinading bowl that he had all his garlic and sauce and chillis in and then it became 2 bowls (one for fish and one for meat) and then he began hording his food in there so even when it was all gone from the plate he still had two courses to get through. He's special isn't he?

I could happily live in Bangkok, it's great. The guesthouse we stayed in was recommended to us by Mr Joseph Weeks of Bristol and we are truly grateful as it was a pleasure staying there for the week. There was free internet, free washing machines and a swimming pool and some great and affordable food. There was also a lot of chatting and meeting of many nice people and we will be going back there when we return to bangkok in early december.

So , we left BKK a couple days ago, getting the (awesome) VIP night bus up to a place called Chiang Rai. The bus was unbelievable and I will get a video on to illustrate this, and even this will not do it justice. I think we both actually slept, so apart from the random 2am wake up with music and tea (not complaining on the tea front) it was pretty special, as night bus and sleep does not go hand in hand.

2am tea...awesome

We arrived at 7 in the morning and our room was not available yet so we decided to rent a moped and go and see some sights while we waited, as we were only staying 1 night. Yes, we were tired, but there is no kind of wake up like a fast ride al fresco styley! We drove about 15k to What Rung Khun otherwise known as the White Temple. It is this crazy modern temple (1997?) and is still being painted now. It is almost entirely white with mirrors too that make it glitter and some really modern sculpture. It also has some crazy murals such as the twin towers being crashed into and some star wars stuff and various other trippy things.


We also visited a lovely waterfall in the hope of getting a swim...no such luck after monsoon, it was bursting with water, so we stood as far away as possible and got pretty wet, which was refreshing for all of 10 minutes!


We were pretty tired after our nightbus so we had an early night, but unfortunately my alarm was set for 4.45am so we could catch the bus to the border, and catch it we did! A river crossing and a few buses later and here we are in Laos a place called Luang Nam Tha about 3 hours north east of the border of Laos and Thailand. We did plan to take a boat for two days down the Mekong but after we started to talk about it and heard that they pack people on tight (ie max copacity 80, minimum passengers in high season tending to be 100) we decided to do things differently and we've come here to do some cycling and trekking. We are in a Unesco protected area and there are lots of larger mammals to been seen if we go trekking (maybe even a tiger...?) so we shall see. After that we'll head down to Luang Prabang to immerse ourselves in all the ex-french colonialism, maybe sample a few couissons here and there, and see sone lovely temples. Then down to the capital at Vientienne and after that we shall see. We plan to reach Cambodia around the 16th of November to have a bit of time to see the place before we head to the beach with Graeme and Rachel from Abu Dhabi and Inge and Bart from the Netherlands for a week of fun (with mine and Cina's birthday in the middle!). Then it's back to Thailand and up to Chaing Mai to see the McGuire's and have a generally nice time before we fly out to Ausland! hoorah!

Our wholesome lunch

We've just had a lovely lunch, some huge bowls of soup with sticky rice for a very reasonable price and I feel sleepy now. So I'm off to see Nicholas in our air conditioned room to watch bbc news on our satellite tv and relax after excessive bus journeys before doing all our biking/trekking for the next few days! Not bad for 4 pounds! I think I'm going to like Laos!

Much love and hugs to everyone, can't wait to see you Houghs for Christmas and hopefully you Wades in the new year!xxx