Thailand - Bangkok [again!] (23-26 June)

Another stint in the capital city, time to indulge in the great cheap street food they have there and have a nose round the weird concrete jungle of Siam Square and the shopping areas. Caz got her teeth fixed by a nice dentist who has done a much better and cheaper job than that cowboy in Horsforth. Caroline became besotted with a small white cat at our guest house who we called Lilly. (Freddie - watch out, she's cheating on you!)

Thailand - Chiang Mai [again] (20-22 June)

Extremely comfortable night bus from Laos border to Chiang Mai to meet Heather an Chris and watch England give another see-saw performance in the World Cup. At the bus station they had monkeys as pets; on the bus we had more legroom than on an aeroplane and got old fogie blankets to keep of the air conditioning chill. Best of all, we got free water, yoghurts and cakes.

By some weird twist of fate we ended up staying at not only the same guest house as Heather and Chris did a week ago, but also the same room. After an incident with a bin that we won't speak about, Heather and Chris were unwelcome there and were staying at a much nicer place instead.

Watched the footie at 2am behind possibly the only group of Swedish fans in Chiang Mai. We were ready to sing Abba's 'The Winner Takes It All' to them but England's shoddy defending gave the unusually vocal Swedes something to shout about at the end. Got up a couple of hours later to book tickets to watch England win the Ashes in the Melbourne Boxing Day test match - woo-hoo!

Did an Indian cooking course (where better than Thailand to do it?) run by an old Indian couple in their Indian restaurant. The kitchen as fairly ramshackle and the woman bossed us around a bit (poor Caroline wasn't allowed to do much cos the woman kept correcting her!). A big fat ugly lizard crawled across the kitchen wall and the owners took fright and shooed us out of the kitchen and looked genuinely scared. Ended up making about 18 dishes and our own samosas and nan bread - really good stuff, though we got the feeling we were cooking rather large amounts for them to sell in the restaurant that night.

Laos - Luang Prabang & Vientiane [again] (15-19 June)

Back at the guest house that did free tea and coffee, but it only does free green tea now, talk about disappointment! As you can see, we saw some monks, meddled with a rusting anti-aircraft gun on a hill and Caz did some Beer Lao modelling.

Saw England (eventaully) beat the mighty Trinidad & Tobago in a bar that had a fair few England fans. It was like watching it at home, except that the beer tasted better and the commentary (in Thai) was better than John (Rooney!) Motson.

In Vientiane we went to a tinpot shooting range, located in a small building just behind the national stadium, slap bang in the middle of town. It was a strange place, run by a couple of freindly women, who kept the guns in a drawer below their desk in the reception area. We had a go on a rifle, a small pistol and also a powerful Smith & Wesson 6-shooter pistol, like they have on cowboy films. That there's some fancy shootin'!

Laos - Nong Khiaow & Muang Ngoi

Two pretty riverside towns, surrounded by huge hills. Found a rat in our riverside shack in Nong Khiaow which was disappointing, so moved on to Muang Ngoi and got a shack there for the hefty price of $1 per night! Took a river boat trip with our guest house owner's son, saw a really long spooky cave by the river and visited a local village. The scenery was amazing. Sadly our man managed to break the engine so we had to paddle back with one paddle and we helped by paddling with our flip flops. Luckily we were going downstream so it only took an hour to get back. Back in Nong Khiaow, explored a cave where villagers hid out in the war with the help of a bunch of kids. Rory's efforts to watch the World Cup football are being thwarted by the King of Thailand's birthday. The football is on Thai TV, but the poxy coverage of the King's celebrations (so dull that it makes our queen's recent birthday seem like the Rio carnival) keeps running over the football matches, aaaargh!

Laos - Xam Neua

Another cowboy bus journey in a little school bus to the small of Xam Neua in the mountains near the Vietnamese border. Just about managed to see England beat Paraguay: there had been a day's power cut just before we arrived. There were no bars or anything so watched it in the guest house reception on Laos TV with funny commentary. A big crowd for the match: Rory, Caz, a Finnish guy and an Alaskan girl and the guest house owner who kept having to fetch a flagpole to twiddle with the aerial.

Visited the Pathet Lao caves where the Lao Communists hid out for about 10 years in the 60s and 70s, set in beautiful mountains and now surrounded by pretty gardens, hiding the troubled past. Then set off on a random unguided trek to find a waterfall that we'd heard rumour of. Ended up squelching through rice paddies and clambering up a rocky river to get a view of it, it was huge!

Laos - Phonsovan & Plain of Jars

A hair-raising 8hr bus trip: the driver was determined to race the clapped out old Korean bus over the mountain roads; we bounced around on the back seat too much to see the scenery. The Plain of Jars: lots of giant stone jars scattered around the hills here, nobody knows who put them there or why. The scenery was a bit like Derbyshire, except that the hills were pock-marked with what looked like golf bunkers. They're all bomb craters: this was one of the most heavily bombed areas in history, by the Americans against the Laos communists in the 60s & 70s. Our guest house had a large stash of old bombs, rockets, grenades etc lying around at the reception.

Laos - Vang Vieng (4 - 8 June)

Back in lovely Laos after a marathon 24hr bus trip from Hanoi. A few late night stops on the way for the crew to tinker with the engine (or stash stuff to take over the border) the bus was piled high with boxes all over the place, but it made a nice bed to sleep on. On the Laos side we kept having to stop to tow another bus up the hills.

Vang Vieng: backpacker town surrounded by dramatic mountains and caves and rivers and stuff. Went tubing down the river - riding in an inflated tractor tyre inner tube. Some seriously heavy afternoon monsoon downpours are livening things up a bit. All the cafes/restaurants/bars here play films and stuff and 3 of these places all next to each other play Friends over and over, all day. Noooooo! (Rory) Yessss! (Caz)

Vietnam - Hanoi (1 - 3 June)

Here again and it's as hectic as ever. No culture on this visit, instead lots of shopping (2 handbags, bowl/plate/chopstick sets, pictures, 2 shirts and some other prezzies for families who can expect packages in a few weeks). Spent the afternoon / evening drinking Bia Hoi on a street corner. This is home brewed beer served from a barrel: costs 6 pence a glass and tastes surprisingly good, especially after 6 glasses.

Talked to a Vietnamese man (for several hours) who, oddly, wasn't after our money. He was practising his English as he is having trouble getting a job as a tour guide. One of the australian people we were with has promised to help though by sending him a fake australian tourism certificate from Cambodia, so we're sure he'll get lucky soon.