Leaving Thailand - and those bloody bankers again!

Have really enjoyed Chiang Mai - could definitely come back here to spend more time - will have to plan another trip!

Our arrival in Luang Prabang went very smoothly -hotel car waiting for us at the airport and a very pleasant room at Villa Pumalin - stretching the budget a bit at $70 per night - but in addition to A/C, wifi and a roomsafe, it also had one of the best showers since we left our Barbican flat. The town is full for Chinese New year - both expats from neighbouring countries enjoying the long weekend, and tour groups of Chinese who seem to go everywhere in a mob (more on this later). It is a charming town and worthy of its World Heritage designation but the current levels of tourism - while good for the local economy - may soon destroy the special nature of the place.

Before coming here, we had been advised to take money in US$ and Thai Baht as it was often difficult to exchange other currencies and the ATM's were not always reliable. As we got off the plane - loaded with cash - we tried the airport ATM - just to see whether it would work or not. You can imagine our delight to get a message that our cards were declined and that we should contact our bank!

On Friday morning - after trying a couple of other machines with the same result -we were on the phone to Lloyds again to learn that our cards had been stopped for a second time - despite all previous conversations - as a security precaution and that we would have to speak to the fraud team. Unfortunately they only work UK business hours - so please call back after 9.00am!

When we finally got it sorted we were told that this was all due to the security systems on their computer systems and that there was nothing that they could do. Since we will be in at least two more countries before we head home, I assume that we will have to experience this again and again.

I would love to change banks but I doubt it would be worth the aggravation and they're all as bad as each other anyway. Perhaps I should move to Canada where the banks are - allegedly - more efficient.