Discovering IndoChina!

Ok firstly our apologies for this well overdue post!! We literrralyy havent been within access of any decent internet and even the one we are on now my turn off at any second!!
Well lets go back a few days to the first day of our tour! In the morning Tod and I made our way to the Vietnam Embassy in the hope that we could finally get our bloody Visas!! We qued and then ended up paying 50 pounds for next day processing (which was triple the normal price) we also had to leave our passports there, so consequently we left there feeling very bare! Waht a stressful experience i can tell you! When we were done doing that we thought lets just go to the GrandeVille hotel ( the starting point of our tour) and just relax! We were pleasantly suprised with how nice the hotel was compared to hostels! Once checked in we decided to CHILL by the pool (which we had to pay for - absolute rip off!). In the evening we had our first group meeting where we all introduced ourselves and met our group leader Kakada Chimm from Cambodia ( a true legend) He was trying to explain that if we pronounced his name wrong it meant something else in Cambodia - we couldnt work out what he was saying "penish penish" until he said "you know morning glory!" well that left us all in histerics!!! We later went for a group meal of a lot of pad thai!
The next morning we took a boat troup along the river and saw little local villages as well as a spectacular view of Bangkok, we then went and saw Thailands largest reclining Budda, after which one of the girls on our tour fainted dur to heat exhaustion ( that should give you a general idea of how hot it was there!). After that we were given free time in which Tod and I got back in a taxi all the way to the MBK to get a skytrain to the Embassy which was at around 2 oclock but we werent allowed our visas till 3.30 , which was a bit stressful as our tour leader wanted us back at the hotel to leave for the train station at 4. So we were on a strict time limit and the traffic in Bangkok is horrendous! Luckily we managed to get our visas at 3 then swiftly made our way back to the hotel!! phew we thought as we had made it in good time and had our passports back as well as Vietnam visas!!
From the hotel we all went to the train station to get our 14 hour sleeper train to Chaing Mai, and as many of you can imagine i was panicking like anything getting on a train in Thailand. The train had bunks all opposite each other and we just slept with out luggage with us! The train was ok bit bumpy but most loved it! In Chaing Mai we checked into the guest house then those who opted to do elephant ridding made their way to the elephant farm. Tod and others did elephant ridding and really enjoyed themselves , i went but watched at a distant, what made me laugh is that all the men who worked there was smoking massive spliffs! After we went bamboo rafting which was very wet but very fun!! That evening some including Tod went to watch the thai boxing whilest others explored Chaing Mais notorious night market!
The next day we took a minubus to the Laos border, stopping off at a condom factory and cashew factory a long the way! Once arriving in Laos we checked in to a guest house which was really basic but fun as we all felt like we were camping!
Ok well thats all for now but we shall right again soon we promise!! love to all!