Thailand and Laos

Hi everyone!
Adam and I are back home and at work (for the next 8 weeks leading up to our BIG trip anyway) after a wonderful 3.5 weeks in Thailand and Laos.

We flew into Bangkok (gotta love frequent flyer points) and travelled up to Northern Thailand, visiting Chiang Mai and Chiang Rai. We saw some wonderful things, with a highlight being a stay in an eco-lodge about an hour from Chiang Mai, which is run by the Lisu tribal village. From there we went mountain bike riding, white water rafting and elephant riding, travelled by ox-cart through local orchards and rice paddies and visiting a few local villages.

We also did a full day cooking school in Chiang Mai, so anyone who visits us can now expect to enjoy a true Thai feast (well in theory anyway).

From Chiang Rai we visited the Golden Triangle region and the Karen tribal village, which is wear the women wear layers of neck rings.

Then it was into Laos, which is an amazing country, quite diverse, and refreshingly, not yet too touristy. We spent two days travelling down the Mekong River through unspoilt wilderness before hitting charming Luang Prabang.

Basically from there we travelled down to the bottom of the country, seeing waterfalls, the fascinating ancient Plain of Jars site (they are huge stone relics of a long ago civilaziation and could be burial jars), staying in eco-lodges, saw the capital city and went down to the Four Thousand Islands in the Mekong River, where we stayed a couple of nights on an island in the river (so laid back and beautiful here). We also saw LOTS of temples, and saw the monks receiving alms from the people at 6am in the morning, just as the sun was rising over the river- gorgeous.

It was a great trip- but was also very hot and quite tiring, so when we arrived home, we needed a big rest!

I will try and post some piccies soon! We took a lot and are happy with how they turned out.

cheers
Emma&Adam.