Lang Prabang

In Lang Prabang in Laos after a buttock hurting 2 days on the Mekong...even with extra cushions it still is painful to sit down for any length of time...but Laos is definitely all its cracked up to be...most of the land is hills which makes for amazing scenery the people are wonderfully friendly and beer laos is increadible; so good I even bought the T-shirt (oh and one for you Dad to blend in at your poetry gigs!) so far we've seen the royal palace - opulence Laos style is this wonderful understated style...and of course weve already seen a ton of Wats the most spectacular on a hill overlooking the town. Today we have just returned from some caves with heaps of buddah images in them, delivered there by our own private chartered boat - lurrvely. All very nice - just sitting down smiling seems to be pastime enough, that anything you do on top is an added bonus...but we are off cycling around town before we head off soon from this wonderful city (the woman who runs the internet shop singing a lilting tune even as we speak ahhhh.) So basically its great, and if you have a chance get here now before tons of us tourist types muck it up for good.

Hi ho Hi ho its off to Laos we go

Obviously not with a bucket and spade or any hand grenades as they've suffered far too many of them, but we are taking some cusions for the slow boat (to prevent sore bottoms on the plank benches) and half a ton of malaria pills to see us through the next 6 weeks...can you belive they have Boots in Thailand...very odd seeing that...anyway looking forward too the onward adventures! Since I last spoke we havent done allot (apart from copious amounts of drinking with Lyndon and Anne) except for Mountain biking (me not mel obviously) down Doi Suthep. Hmm not really ready for the onslaught it was and on a bike that i'm sure wasnt up to the same standard as the other lads (although I think the rider was more substandard than the bike) I managed to make it to the bottom with only 6-18 falls. I lost count after about 4 oops there i go over the handlebars again...managed to take half the skin off my right arm, and bruise my lower half quite amazingly but i did survive to tell the tale! After suffering from more Thai belly of the excruciatingly bad kind (after eating chang mai sausages doh!) we recovered just in time for our cooking course which was so much fun! Man its so easy I'm never eating western food again - sod stirring and roasting - stir fries all the way...we learned spring rolls too which was a great laugh all that tucking and pasting - very healthy too - the winners will be you lot when I find some holy basil (actually holy to hindu's) in brighton and can make you all our fave chicken with chilli and basil mnnmnnmn my mouths watering just thinking about it! Well that was the first time we've cooked for ourselves for about a month and its gonna be about another 10 weeks before we have to do so again...but hold on 10 weeks arrrgh thats all the time we've got left! Right best get off and utilise it - adios for now speak again maybe inVietnam maybe in Laos (but i doubt it somehow not gonna be able to handle modems!)

So in Chang Mai

In an internet cafe alongside a crippled melly - poor things seriously hurt her foot and is hobbling around on crutches :( so we are staying close to the hostel and doing jobs like blogging - and finally uploading all those photos - I went out to the sunday market yesterday which was awesome - a shoppers paradise but also a great cultural treat with stages fireworks and all sorts...great fun - and damn fine chicken kebabs. more chilli chicken on sticks but inmy eyes anything on a stick is a kebab.

anyway at least the view from the hostel isnt so bad...

Stuck in bangkok

not as bad as I thought this bangkok malarky but it does seem that they make it terribly hard to leave what with fully booked trains and buses....never mind off tommorow to Chang Mai 13 hours on a friggin bus boo hoo never mind hopefully get to hear all the tortoise albums on the way - the saviour of train journeys.

Ps the rest of Kanchanaburi was reasonably well spent what with us going up to an amazing 7 tiered waterfall in erthan national park...


Then we went to a place called hellfire pass where POW's were forced to excavate a path in the rock using mostly hand tools. Pretty haunting images of the amount of POW's that died in its construction, especially meaningful when you walk around it yourself in that heat its shocking to think of. We then surreally rode the 'death' railway back into town. Very informative but deeply moving place.

Bridge over the river Kwai and Tigers

Well we are in Kanchanaburi sleeping in a hostel on (yes actually "on" its floating) the river kwai...we've met up with some lovely folk from the mother country who transported me yesterday on the back of a moped up to the tiger temple and right good fun it was indeed - somehow the monks have given the tigers some kind of enlightenment (could be drug induced you just dont know) and they sit around in a big cavern chilling out and trying not to growl- you could even call it meditating. Then you invite groups of tourists to go and stroke them...yup again when I manage to get photos on CD I will display you with some photos of me being a complete fool again (remember swimming with sharks) and stroking a tiger....sounds even dafter when you say it out loud "I'm stroking a tiger" all very odd but super cute and I can now confirm that like their little cousins I am allergic to tigers...holding off a sneeze when your inches away so you dont scare the little fellas is a pretty mean feat I can tell you.

Here they are:



One got a little annoyed by my stroking advances and decided to kick me...well at least he didn't eat me eh...I missed the procession due to an extreme case of thai belly and not being let back in - monks food I feel should be left to the monks themselves and not eaten by over zealous englishmen...I think its because I've got more hair than a monestry full of monks that beard envy struck and they devided to poison me. Anyway as the sun was setting we buzzed back at 120kmph (on the back of a 100 cc moped is no mean feat and involves precarious balancing and a deathwish) but Steve pulled it off and I lived to see the bridge over the river Kwai...yes that bridge - now if the POW's knew the death railway would be enjoyed so much by hoardes of tourists screaming with delight I dont think it would have lightened their mood....It certainly is a strange world we live in - I never quite can get my head around so many people having such a great time at the sites of great tragedy - but I suppose we did join in getting chased by the train off the bridge (all still wearing our crash helmets - we were quite a sight and became a spectacle itself especially as the train was only going about 1kmph) Anyway off to try and do some exploring today but I fear life on the river has induced both lethargy and illness (belly hurtie) so I must leave you now and dash to the loo byeee