Tuesday, 12th April 2005 Clare set off with Imogen on her big trip - first stop Thailand. After a mid-journey break to come back for my wedding (isn't she wonderful) she travelled round South East Asia and Australia before finally returning on 8th April 2006. These pages record some of her travel adventures and pictures.
Well this is the end of my diary as for the next 3 weeks I will be spending it on Ko Pha Ngan with Imogen as we will finally be in the same country at the same time for the first time since we last saw each other last July...it will be great to catch up. After nearly a week there I will be heading to Ko Lanta to meet up with my mate Tony who I met in Bali last year for a final 2 weeks of sunbathing and relaxing on the coast and maximising my sun tan obviously!! Then it's back to Bangkok for the 8th and final time to shop until I drop and then to head home on Friday April 7th via Singapore. I have had the most amazing time, I've seen and done so much I can't believe it sometimes and I've loved pretty much every minute of it (except getting stranded on Flores island!!) Thanks to everyone I've met along the way, many of whom I hope to keep in touch with and catch up with on my return to the UK - thanks for the good times, the laughs and the memories! Thanks also to Mum for putting up with endless wierd post sent to her and for Vikki for doing such a wonderful job of the website for me!! I'll see you all soon.
From Luang Prabang we got the bus down to Vang Vieng where Dee and I were promptly ill with food poisoning. It could have been much worse and only bed bound for just over day and not seriously ill but fever and lethargy were the main problems! But thanks to Josh taking care of us and his DVD player it all could have been far more boring than it was!! Once recovered it was out to explore Vang Vieng and get on those tubes. The thing to do here is get on a big rubber tube and float down the river for the day stopping off at bars along the way....and great fun it is too, highly recommend it! Vang Vieng is a place where one chills out and does not a lot - bars are playing Simpsons and Friends plus films all over the place (I can think of a few of my friends who would like that!!). But it was nice to stop and begin my wind down for going home in 4 weeks time. After Vang Vieng we headed to Vientiane, the capital city, for a few days and although there isn't much to do there it is a pretty town and much nicer than expected. It was hear that I bumped into Louise and Nasreen again and had a much amusing night out with them before saying our goodbyes and then a last night with Josh and Sally as they are heading to Cambodia and I'm off down south to Thailand.
After 3 wonderful days in the forest it was back to Huay Xai for the fast boat to Luang Prabang (according the Lonely Planet this is dangerous but I thought it was just fine!) where I met up again with Sally and her travel companion Josh. We spent the next few days in Luang Prabang which is pretty town with surly Laos people living there and a few days up north in pretty Nong Khiaw and Nong Ngoi Neua with another beautiful boat ride back to Luang Prabang. Laos is a beautiful country but so far I'm not feeling the love for the Laos people...laid back to the point of lazy and rude so far but I'm assured that I'll feel the love in Vang Vieng which is our next stop.