By now most of you who read this will know that we are home. We attempted to keep it a secret and surprise our nearest and dearest and it almost worked to perfection. The reaction on people's faces was well worth keeping our mouths shut :)

As for Thailand.. Well, let's just say we weren't too gutted about leaving. After seeing the amazing countries we did, Thailand just didn't compare - and let's face it, the islands in the South would have been predictable and not worthy of hanging around for 3 weeks, as originally planned.

The 29th April, the day I turned 22, was one of these days that I was sworn to secrecy. We were actually in Singapore for it. Accommodation was pretty dire and the reputation of Singapore being expensive was very accurate, making it near impossible to upgrade to a fancy room for less than $150 a night. Even though this night was our last night travelling too, we weren't sure whether at such a late stage stumping up this kind of cash would be worthwhile.. so we stuck to our pokey hostel for the two nights. My birthday was nice - we went to the famous Raffles Hotel where the 'Singapore Sling' was invented. Although, at a price of $27 per cocktail we called it quits after just the one each :) We spent time shopping (which Singaporeans love) and in the evening went to Clarke Quay for a somewhat average River cruise, and then to dinner at a posh place followed by drinks and ice-cream.

Singapore seemed like a entertainment complex for the rich. It was amazing at first to walk around, people watch, visit some different areas but the novelty wore off quickly. It was pretty surreal knowing this was our last night before flying back to London the following morning.

Ketan and I didn't really get much sleep that night - we chatted about the highs and lows of the trip, how it exceeded our expectations and generally how it will be *impossible* to forget such an experience. The 14 hour plane journey back to London Heathrow was a sad day.

I'm normally fluid with my thoughts when it comes to writing this blog but at the moment I am actually 'speechless'. Eight months later the dream comes to an end, but what a fulfilling and satisfying end it is.

Thank you all for taking the time to read it and sharing it with me x

Argh! It's thunderstorming and raining outside, and the 5-day weather forecast predicts the same kinda thing for all the islands we planned for too. GULP. Obviously we won't be going to the islands now - it's not really about going to paradise islands in rubbish weather.

So, this essentially means we're stuck in Bangkok.

You have to seriously be off your nut to enjoy Bangkok. It's the most chaotic city we've travelled to. The people are rude, the traffic is immense and the ladyboys are just plain freaky. We've managed to find a half decent guesthouse though, but having to pay that little bit extra.

The highlights so far have been Wat Pho, where we saw the 15m high reclining golden Buddha which was really nice and also eating at an amazing Dosa house/vegetarian restaurant. So far two old Thai men, on seperate occasions, have racially abused us on the street for absolutely no reason - what the hell? Normally around SE Asia the rule is to wear your smile and then they'll come around - but not in Bangkok. I don't think they know what 'smile' means?

That Dosa house I mentioned was in an area called Silom, which also happened to be Bangkok's most liveliest Red Light district. The most surreal experience walking down the street with Thai men offering all sorts that shall not be mentioned on this blog. I guess it's something you have to experience if you're down this neck of the woods. On the same night we went to a bar in a 5* hotel which was 52 floors high, so you can imagine the views. We sipped some lovely cocktails but that didn't stop us worrying about the price of them..

For now, we wait. And hope for the best on the weather front. Sigh.

So, we've been hanging around Chiang Mai/our hotel for the past 8 hours waiting for our bus to Bangkok. Slightly curious as to what Bangkok will have to offer (asides from McDonalds/KFCs/Starbucks). We've managed to find another good hotel, again a little further from the central, but that's not necessarily a bad thing when I've heard some areas being described as a Zoo..

We've shopped more in the Night Bazaar/boutiques here, there is actually *no* space left in our bags! I'm sure we'll appreciate the buys once back in our expensive hometown..

Chiang Mai has been sweet, a nice first stop. I'm sure anything will soften the blow for what is to come in Thailand.

We've gone for the lazy-boy massage chair 1st class bus to Bangkok, it's always nice to upgrade for an extra couple of quid, right? :)

It's been a busy week in Chiang Mai so far! We found an amazing 'guesthouse' called Ban Kong Rao on Tripadvisor, about 10 minutes from the main centre - the price is reasonable but the quality is outstanding. My uncle emailed me to let me know my cousin, Mahesh, was also in Chiang Mai which was a nice surprise. We met for dinner at a vegetarian restaurant near where he is staying, and this part of Chiang Mai is a trendy area where mainly wealthly locals live.

We were recommended to do a cooking course in Chiang Mai so we chose Ban Thai, one of the most established schools. What a wicked day! We started off with a morning market tour - normally you pass food markets without a thought, but after being explained about which foods are what, it was encouraging to think we were going to cook with these fresh ingredients. The course was great - it was all so simple to prepare and cook! I cooked chicken Pad Thai, prawn Tom Yam (hot and sour soup), pork & veg spring rolls, pork Paneang curry and Mango with sweet sticky rice. I couldn't believe I cooked the food I was eating - rare. It all tasted amazing.. Definitely will keep that up at home!

Mahesh called the following morning to ask if we wanted to go to Doi Suthep, which is a sacred temple/area 1700m high in the clouds. It is seen as one of the most important places of worship in Thailand and people from neighbouring countries often come to visit as a kind of pilgrimage. The ride up on a red 'bus' was.. windy.. felt quite sick when we got up. The golden temple was beautiful. We were with Mahesh's Thai friend too, which was great because she showed us what to do with the candles/flowers etc. Mahesh decided to tell us in the evening that it was his 23rd birthday, so of course some birthday drinks were in order at a fancy local bar.

After a day of rest (always nice to chill in a good room), we went on a one-day trek around north of Chiang Mai. A lot of traveller's do a 3-day jungle trek but we just *couldn't* be bothered. The amount of treks we've done since leaving London is ridiculous so we were happy with just the one day. This trek entailed elephant riding, bamboo rafting and a couple of hilltribe village visits. I wasn't impressed with the village visits, as they were literally all about selling tourist tat rather than actually showing us around the village. We've done some similar treks and this one didn't really compare.. although, my first time on an elephant will of course be remembered..:

Seeing as we have so long to wait for the Full Moon party on the 9th May (it has to be done), we have a lot of time to play with. We plan to leave Chiang Mai in a couple of days for Bangkok.. A lot of you have been to Thailand I know, so if anyone can recommend cool places to visit please let me know. We're even pondering going to Malaysia to soak up one week.. so any suggestions much appreciated!

Ahh, sad times! We leave Laos for Chiang Mai in just over 2 hours. We've opted to fly, rather than taking the slow-boat which takes 2 and a half days (?!) to get there..

Laos has *definitely* come in the top 3 of countries travelled (still haven't quite figured out how high). It's a country so beautiful and cultural and I feel privileged to have seen it when it's still the 'real Laos'. We hear often that only 3 years ago it was 10 times better due to much less tourists. I know in 10 years time it won't be anything like it is now, which is a real shame.

The people are so friendly, the landscapes are unbelievable and generally the traveller's we've met here are quite different to elsewhere. It's pretty unique in many ways too, which I find quite rare in a country travelled by so many.

Of course, spending Lao new year in Luang Prabang has been the icing on the cake, and so we leave on a high with smiles on our faces - what more could you want? :)

Oh God, I just love Laos. The water fights have been insane! Everyday Ketan and I walk out of our guesthouse knowing we are going to get drenched. Joining in the fun for 5 hours a day, with our water pistols at hand, can get tiring though. There were *hundreds* of people with water, flour and what seemed to be grease, with music blaring out of huge sound systems on every corner. The Laos guys are hilarious here, there were even some drag-queens about! Here's a glimpse of the water fight..:

One of the major attractions of Luang Prabang is the Alms ceremony which happens at 5:30am every morning, where hundreds of monks circle the town to be offered food to them by the locals. Naturally, being New Year's day here, it was the biggest event of the year so both of us got up at some ungodly hour to witness this inspiring event. As soon as we got to the main road all you could see were the bright orange robes of the monks, all lined up in a row. As we got closer, the shock of how many photographers and videomen there were was crazy! Of course, Ketan and I being one of them.. but not as invasive as some, I must admit. It was great to see this and completely unique to the trip:

I've tried uploading photos but not that successful - only a few.
The 'Miss Lao 2009' competition is about to start on the streets, so I better go!

I've just got soaked by a lady chasing me with a bucket of bloody water down the road! Dripping wet in the internet cafe at the moment. It's safe to say that the Songkam (water) festival celebrations are in full swing :) Dodging the locals is hard work though!

Anyway, Luang Prabang so far is great. The night market, which we've visited twice so far, is peaceful beyond belief and there is no such thing as hard-selling there. It's clean, organised and sells some of the best handicraft work is SE Asia - needless to say I've splashed the cash a little..

A very random thing happened yesterday too. Ketan and I were walking around the town (or the one main road of it) and a girl looked at me and called me over, I was thinking 'Hang on, who is this? Have I met her on our travels..?' It turns out it was Spruha - a girl I knew from Woodhouse College. I mean, really, what are the odds?! We both didn't know about each others travels. At night we bumped into her and a friend at a cosy bar and an American guy called Ashish that we'd met in Vang Vieng joined us at the table, and so on.. Luang Prabang has a early curfew where everything closes at midnight but outside the bars tuk-tuks offer a drive to the bowling alley. Hmm, bowling.. in Laos? Why not?! Turned out to be where a lot of both locals and backpackers hang out, drink & bowl and turned out to be quite the social event. Met some very eccentric people and won one game of bowling and came 2nd in the other - Not bad for a night's work ;-)

Today we've been chilling out again. The cafes we've been to are really nice, most of which actually look as if they've been taken from the South of France and been plonked in Luang Prabang - gorgeous surroundings and even better food.

Tomorrow we go to the Tat Kuang Si waterfalls, about 35km from town. It's been recommended by most travellers we've met in Laos so far..

Vang Vieng is a stop in between Vientiane and Luang Prabang and for all travellers' a standard stop-off along the way. The Lonely Planet doesn't exactly rate Vang Vieng as the most cultural spots in Laos.. but it had to be visited. It was a mixture of *amazing* limestone landscapes (if not the best we've seen) surrounding the small town, together with 10's of TV bars showing re-runs of 'Friends' throughout the entire course of the day, with backpackers coming back high from tubing down the Nam Song River.

Did we like it? Yes and no. Firstly, we were like 'Hell, no! This isn't Laos!..' And the next second it was 'Hmm.. I haven't chilled watching Friends for ages.. with a nice shake and comfy sofa..' We found a great guesthouse (called 'Grand View' - and they weren't lying) and spending two days with the most awesome view from our balcony made Vang Vieng well worth the stop..:

We left Vang Vieng for an extremely scenic 7-hour drive to Luang Prabang. Although, the driver never made photo-stops on the mountains :( Luang Prabang is listed as a World Heritage site. It's got that oldy-worldy charm to it, with the best night market in SE Asia I think, most beautiful boutique shops and cafes/restaurants to die for. Although there are a lot of Westerners, the town retains it's culture which is really good to see. We spend Lao New Year here (12th-16th April) which we've been told is especially good here with there being 35 temples, countless monks and a religious attitude that not many places still have to offer. I'll hopefully be blogging about those days individually..

We've reached the capital. Ah, it feels good to relax. That's all we've been doing actually. We were very lucky to find a brand new Hotel offering promotional rates which were too good to turn down! For $25 a night, we got this:

Pretty nice, huh? We sometimes pay $25 for a standard guesthouse double.

I've been hit with some kind of stomach bug the past week or so, which is a real shame because Vientiane boasts some amazing French and Italian restaurants. Watching Ketan eat was as close as I got :( A restaurant called Le Vendome does the *best* pepper steak we've heard - I hate missing out!

So we've only done a bit of sightseeing, but this included going to the Laos' national monument called Pha That Luang. It was gorgeous..

We got the tuk-tuk driver to take us there and to Patuxai, which is like Laos' version of the Arc de Triumphe - pretty cool!

So, you can see I've gone photo-mad because I've been able to put the trekking/Vientiane photos up on Flickr. Enjoy.

Ouch - my legs hurt. And my arms. The whole body, in fact. We've just finished a two-day trek in the Khammoune jungle, which I'm pleased to say not many people in this world have experienced. It's a relatively new and untouched trek, which could explain how special it was.

The trek mainly entailed some enormous caves, quiet lakes, mountainous scenery throughout and of course, some uphill struggles. Our guide Mr Me, was a short man who trekked in flip-flops and t-shirt, along with 3 other local guides each day with us to really understand what this unique province was about. The Buddha cave was most spectacular and large, not like other boring caves we have seen in other parts of the world.

There were five of us in total - one Swiss, one French, one American and two dashing Brits ;-) The village we stayed at on the first night couldn't have been more 'Lao', even if it tried. I mean, the children ran around getting frantically excited playing with an empty 'Toshiba' cardboard-box! That's the good life. After 10km of walking, we ate Water-buffalo noodle soup for dinner (took a bit of getting used to) and watched the sun set around the mountains.. it couldn't have been more perfect. After dark, the fun began.. The locals came to our 'hut' to perform a traditional ceremony in which we were given cotton bracelets as a blessing along with a glass of Lao Lao, which is 40% unrefined alcohol. Yum(!) Lao people are big drinkers & smokers, but I stuck with my beer Lao (which is the best beer ever, may I add) to avoid an hangovers the next morning.

One lady laid out five thin mattresses on the floor and hung up mosquito nets for us - amazing! The toilet/shower left a lot to be desired for.. but we're in Lao, so we will live like they do.

The following morning we were off again, but this time it was a 13km trek with no attractions to split the journey up. We arrived at village no.2 to take a tractor ride to the Blue Lagoon (Kongleng Lake) which was really memorable. A picture of deep blue clear waters, it looked so artificial I had to ask whether they added something.. I got laughed at - take that as a 'No' then? All had a little swim around, and it was back to village no.2 for chicken soup and rice for lunch - simple, but filling.

I was relaxing, taking it easy, thinking we had finished trekking for the day. How wrong I was. I was assuming we took the tractor to our last stop, the rapids, but actually we were walking those last 4km. Ugh! The heat was too much, but it had to be done. Luckily, it was a flat, leafy walk and the last swim of the trek made up for it:

All in all, well worth the $65. The American guy, Tim, was using this trek to devise a very similar trek for the company he works for back home in Colorado, called 'Where There Be Dragons'. He was especially friendly to the locals and is currently researching areas around the Mekong to add to the company's profile of already amazing hikes in the Andes and the Alps. I'm glad I got to do this whilst the guides are still passionate and proud of where they come from, because I'm sure in time that unfortunately might not be the case..

*Managed to get the photos up!