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!

Oh wow. Si Phan Don (meaning '4000 islands'), at the southern most tip of Laos, was the *nicest* place to chill out. After only spending two days there we fell in love with the island of Don Khone. We only had a vague idea of what it was going to be like but what we experienced was tranquility, beautiful river surroundings, friendly locals, good friends, topped off by a lot of hammock-sleeping and drinking.

The Mekong river flows through the province and is just above the Cambodian border. In fact, at one islet you can see Cambodia across the river. During the French colonial times a narrow railway bridge was built for transportation across the waters, and we were lucky enough to have prime location with the bridge in view from our balcony.

The reason I like this area is because there were no beaches - it was just river life to the max. There were a few accommodation options and restaurants and most noticeably no electricity. A generator just about gave light from 6pm - 11pm each night and of course always cold showers :) We stayed at a place called Seng Alhoune, which for $6 each a night, got us a cute riverside view bungalow with balcony. We chatted to our Swiss neighbours for a lengthy period at times exchanging travel stories - always nice.

The two other Swiss travellers we met back in Pakse, Flavia & Flavian, were also at the islands so we met them for dinners and sunset-watching. It's been great getting to know them and I'm sure we'll keep it touch. They have totally convinced us to visit Switzerland, it sounds great!

The only exercise we did was a 30-minute bike ride (in the blistering heat, may I add) to check out the other island of Don Det. Basically, there was much more going on, a lot more backpackers and a lot less in terms of views in comparison to the island we were staying on - lucky decision, eh?

Wondering around Don Khone was really memorable. The Li Phi waterfalls were surprisingly good and riding along the dirt tracks was.. bumpy. So far Laos has only impressed us, let's hope it continues that way..

I've uploaded only a selection of island photos as the internet is so slow here. Also, the Mekong cycling trip/Phu Quoc island photos from Vietnam are so up - http://www.flickr.com/photos/kejalashra/sets/

Landing in a place of pure greenlands and mountains was lovely. From the top of our hotel we watched the sunset last night with a scenic back-drop. We booked ourselves onto a tour to the Bolaven Plateau, which have mountainous forrests and shows the rural side of life. The tour started at a tea/coffee plantation, included some top waterfalls such as Tad Lo and Tad Fan, and ended with a couple of village visits. It was interesting but the tour guide didn't really inform us about what we were doing.

We met two Swiss travellers, Flavia and Flavian (coincidentally they don't know each other), on the trip and have just had dinner with them at a surprisingly good Indian restaurant. They have interesting lives - always good to hear stories!

So far, so good.

The temples of Angkor were pleasant. The great Angkor Wat, the biggest/best temple of them all, surprised me though. I thought photo-taking at sunset would be amazing. I just couldn't find a good angle for photos! It annoyed me. I had seen some incredible photos of Angkor Wat but maybe due to my amateur creative streak, I missed out :( We did the mini-tour which still incorporated over 15 temple ruins. The whole complex is huge, and the number of tourists around was immense.

It was great fun spending all day on a Tuk-tuk which took us round the temples for the whole day.

We went into town last night and it was so westernised and modern! I didn't expect that, as we live 10mins out of town and that area was as Cambodian as you can get. Still, they've got some swanky bars/restaurants in town so we'll see how it goes.

On our last day Sony (hotel owner) took us around the city like a friendly private tour guide. He has a very polite manner and is always willing to learn more from foreigners. We went to a spot-on pizza restaurant. Sony said he would take us to a local's bar afterwards. A little dubious, but we knew he wasn't taking us somewhere dodgy. Turned out to be a really nice place tucked away behind the main road full of locals only. We tried eel here.. Ketan was a fan, I wasn't (how rare).

Off to Pakse ( southern Laos) tomorrow morning. Bit anxious about the flight because of Lao Aviations previously bad reputation for safety. There have been 5 crashes, three with fatalities, since 1990. Did I mention I hate flying?

Internet access in Cambodia is not as reachable as it was in Vietnam (which was always included in the room-rate), hence why I've just gone on a computer to blog 4 days later..

The border crossing between Vietnam and Cambodia was a bit long-winded, but otherwise fine. I wasn't really happy when the Cambodian immigration took our passports for a full 25 minutes as we drove off 5km down the road from the border for lunch. Panic set in as no one friggin' spoke English, but you can always rely on the Westerner's to fill you in on what's happening. We got our passports back safe and sound to find the visa nicely glued in. After the long 6 hour drive we arrived in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

We knew there weren't particularly great things to see/do here, but needed to use it as a stop-over point before heading North. The one thing we noticed - everything was so bloody expensive! Accommodation was $25 a night and food was around $9 per head for a decent meal. Maybe it was naive of me to think that SE Asia would be a lot cheaper than the UK?! Hmm. We had a great bowl of vietnamese Pho on the first day (Oh, how we miss it!) and went to a nice NGO-run restaurant called 'Friends' for dinner (the best sun-dried tomato humus I've ever eaten..)

It was all a bit rushed in Phnom Penh, what with booking the bus to Siem Reap and researching Laos flights etc, but that wasn't a problem because the city didn't have much else to offer. The most noticable thing was the amount of temples we've seen, all colourful and lively.

We are now in Siem Reap at the Golden Mango hotel (great room, interesting owner but a little out of town). Like every other foreigner in Siem Reap, we are using this as our base to see the Temples of Angkor. We've decided on the full 1-day itinerary for tomorrow (which is still costing $20 entry-fee each?!) which brings in all the main temples to see. I think we'd be a bit templed-out if we were to do the 2/3 day tours.

We've literally just booked our flight to South of Laos after the three days here - exciting stuff!

This is my last post from Vietnam. And boy, has it been fun blogging about this place. We've just finished 3 days of pure chillaxing in Phu Quoc, which was most welcome. I must admit the island does seem a little over-rated comparing it to the reviews we've heard. I mean, don't get me wrong, the beach was 1 minute from our hotel and the weather was hot and sunny but it didn't quite hit the 'paradise' level for me. None-the-less, watching the red glowing sun set, eating delicious fresh seafood and lazing around the crystal-clear waters will not be forgotten.

Dad mentioned today that we've had a city-break in Hanoi, a shopping frenzy in Hoi An, an adventure trip through the Mekong and a chill-out in Phu Quoc - All in all, I'd say it doesn't get better than that. I wish we could have visited Sapa for trekking, but we'll save that for another trip maybe..

My Mum and Dad are leaving Vietnam tomorrow from Hanoi so we parted from them this morning (as we are back in Saigon for the night). It was an absolute laugh having them here and Ketan and I were grateful for their company as well as their generousity when it came to meals and taxi's ;-)

We take a 6 hour overland bus to Cambodia tomorrow. Time is going fast. But it's fun when things are constantly going on and there is culture surrounding us, so you won't hear a complaint from me :)

(*Photos of Phu Quoc and Mekong should be up this weekend.)

It has been an awe-inspiring three days doing the cycling tour around the Mekong Delta. It went something like this:

Day 1: We were picked up by our private tour guide, Chau (who in some light resembled Quigmire from Family Guy), from our hotel and got in our minivan to the first Mekong town of My Tho, about 2 hours away. We saw four spot-on mountain bikes in the back of the van so we knew we were in for a treat soon! Once we arrived, we boarded a boat for the four of us to the tiny village of Thang Bhu where we were shown round a local woman's home and tried some freshly picked fruit with drinks. We were taken down to a small canal round the side the home where we took a small sampan (local tiny boat) to see some awesome quiet scenery of the back canals of the Mekong River - too chilled out! This small boat eventually led us to our first boat again, where Chau said we were going to the island of An Binh for lunch. The food was unbelievably fresh - A whole 'standing up' fish was brought over to our table where the waitress took all the good bits off to make me fresh yummy fish spring rolls with all the trimmings. The amazing food didn't stop there - it just kept coming. By midday we where back in My Tho by boat to start the cycling tour from Cai Lay. The first day entailed a 14km cycle to Cai Be. It was *so* good. I never thought (and everyone who knows me would agree) I would enjoy cycling but the scenery we saw was so unique and seeing where/how the locals lived was a real eye-opener. All four of us where given proper cycling shirts - we all looked so keen with our gear on! After a relaxing 2 hour ride, yet again, we were boarding a boat to our homestay for the night on An Binh island. It was literally as close to nature you could come. Some would say the accommodation was indoors, I would say outdoors with curtains is more accurate. Thank god for mosquito nets. We had panaromic views of the river as soon as we stepped outside our room. The dinner was again so fresh and filling with spring rolls, vegetable noodles, tofu, soup, rice etc.

Day 2: Another early morning start: 6:30am. There was no messing around today, just straight to the cycling. The saddle-sore - Oh My God. So painful. It looked like me and Dad were the only two really suffering from it and it was just our luck that the first 4km was THE bumpiest, most narrow track - not welcoming for the bum at all! After this 4km ride we were at the ferry crossing to Vinh Long, from which we cycled a further 17km to Binh Minh. The roads we rode through were never Highway type roads, they were quaint narrow, scenic roads where you would meet lots of locals everytime you passed their house. For the 2nd day it was all very flat, long roads with vast rice fields on either side - a very pleasant and relaxing ride crossing through canals at a few points too. Once the cycling was over, the minivan was waiting on the other side to take us to a small local lunch spot. They catered very well for vegetarians and myself, so all round another great eating experience. After lunch, we were taken to Can Tho by a short ferry ride - the biggest town within the Mekong region. It was a bustling town with a nice vibe where we were told we had the rest of the day free for us to relax, so we chose to go for a swim in a nearby hotel. Chau had organised for us to go to the best restaurant in Can Tho (according to him) for dinner and it didn't disappoint so another thumbs up :) We were staying at Tay Do hotel, which was very decent and a much needed change from the basic facilities of the homestay from the night before.

Day 3: The best day. 6am wake up call (Ugh). We were taken to Cai Rang floating markets in the early morning by a small private boat. It was so interesting seeing all the locals trade on the river. I saw sights that I couldn't even imagine, with an immense number of boats, floating villages, river homes and friendly locals giving us a warm smile as we floated by. Taking photos had never been so fun! Organised chaos would describe it well, but the atmosphere was great to be around. We were taken to the backwaters/small canals of the Mekong where there were no crowds/foreigners whatsoever - bliss. The scenery was sublime and so peaceful. We were the only ones floating around these canals for an hour saying Hi to locals and seeing how they embrace such a unique environment. We were all kitted out in our biking gear (of course), where at the end of the boat ride awaited our bikes all set up for us by the driver. It was the most relaxing 10km ride, with small children smiling and shouting 'Hello!' (the only word they know) all the time. We were cycling along narrow tracks within the Mekong backwater canals, which made it all the better. The river is what the locals live for. The children were so friendly and they were fascinated as we cycled by. The scenery was gorgeous with the water only footsteps away for pretty much the entire ride. The last 2km's were quite gruelling and I was peddling as hard as I could to the end. It was a very satisfying finish, not only physically, but mentally too.

We were sad to see the end to such an amazing trip. We left Can Tho for Rach Gia, where we stay for one night before heading to Phu Quoc island tomorrow morning. Beach fun is exactly what we all need after all that exercise ;-)