2025 - Waterfights, Motorbikes & Mayhem!
2025, just where did the year go?! As we sit here writing this, we’re feeling a mixture of both terror and excitement as we relive everything we got up to last year!
2025 was another jam-packed travel year full of new destinations, new adventures and lots of amazing food. We started the year in the tropical climates of Southern Laos and finished 2025 in a crisp and chilly London. In the months in between, we dodged tuk tuks in Bangkok, swam from beaches in the middle of the Mekong, climbed sheep-filled mountains in Wales, went to our first travel conference and saw the shimmering Christmas lights in London.
It’s been a year of many firsts, many laughs and a whole lot of good memories. So before we really dive into what we got up to last year, we’d recommend sitting back, opening a beer and getting comfy whilst we tell you everything we got up to in 2025!
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January to February - Laos
We saw the clock hit midnight in the city of Pakse. Earlier that afternoon we had crossed the Thai / Laos border and arrived in a completely deserted city. As we wandered around the empty streets, fearing we would have to see in the new year without dinner, we stumbled upon the only noodle stall open in the whole city. After slurping up a bowl of delicious Laotian style pork noodles, we took refuge in our room in the super comfy Anou Hostel. As the skyline lit up to welcome in 2025, we had a chilled night ready to catch an early morning bus south. We were heading somewhere which would very quickly become one of our favourite places in the whole of this world, Don Det!
This little island, sitting slap bang in the middle of the mighty Mekong, would become our home for the next month. There are certain places in this world which you just fit in. The vibe matches your heart and you almost feel as though you’ve somehow found a new home. As our boat pulled onto the sandy shores of Don Det, it simply felt like we were exactly where we should be!
Over the next month, we spent our days cycling and eating our way around the island, climbing waterfalls, kayaking on the river, chilling in hammocks and watching as the sun lit up the sky at sunset. It was a blissful, relaxed month that was everything we could have hoped for. We’ve always been after a slice of the old-school backpacker scene and for now, Don Det is still managing to hang on to its charms!
After we eventually managed to drag ourselves away from island life in the middle of the Mekong, we headed north, following the banks of the river to the small town of Champasak and Laos’ ancient Khmer ruins of Wat Phou. From Champasak, we caught an early morning bus stuffed full of Aunties and headed north, back to the city of Pakse. It was here we were to embark on one of the most exciting, thrilling and most exhilarating experiences we’ve had so far on the whole of our trip. It was time for Jellie to take on the Bolaven Loop!
Most backpackers heading to South East Asia have heard about the Ha Giang Loop in Vietnam. In fact in 2024, we did this ourselves, sitting on the back of two easy riders who drove us around the peaks of Northern Vietnam (if you’re interested make sure to read all about the loop here), but now in Laos, it was time for us to ride ourselves! On paper this sounded great, however, the Bolaven Loop would be the first time Ellie would be riding her very own scooter!
After a couple of minor tantrums Ellie took to riding a scooter like a duck to water. We spent the next couple of days practising our riding skills by riding up to the big golden Buddha overlooking the city, and using our scooter practice as an excuse to try as many of Pakse’ coffeeshops as possible! After a few days in the city, it was finally time for us to take on one of Laos’ famous motorbike loops. We left Pakse early in the morning and headed towards the Bolaven Plateau. Along the way we stopped at waterfalls, coffee farms and noodle stalls, before pulling into the village of Tad Lo in time for a sunset beer. What followed was four incredible days, riding around the Loop. We stopped at busy markets, rode along steep mountain passes, explored abandoned resorts, sampled some of the Plateau’s famous coffee and saw all of the epic Four Sisters Waterfalls. The Bolaven Loop was an amazing experience and ultimately kick started our love of biking!
After four days on the Loop, we arrived back in Pakse in time for the Lunar new year celebrations before taking a bus north to the city of Thakhek. Thakhek was going to be the starting point of another motorbike trail (ok scooter trail!). This time, it was time for us to ride the Thakhek Loop! The Thakhek Loop is much longer than the Bolaven Loop and despite being only a couple of hours north of Pakse, the scenery is completely different. The Thakhek Loop is much more mountainous, more dramatic and includes a lot more riding. The Loop crosses over high mountain passes, winds through the eerie ‘drowned forest’ and weaves its way through flat plains surrounded on all sides by jaw-droppingly high, limestone karsts. One of the best bits of the whole loop is stopping at the small village of Kong Lor. The village of Kong Lor is famous for the Kong Lor Cave, a humongous cave network of underground passages and rivers that snake their way 7 KM through cathedral sized rocky caverns. The village is also home to one of our favourite guesthouses we’ve ever stayed at, the Kong Lor Eco Lodge (read more below). After a couple of nights relaxing in Kong Lor, we had one final day or riding back to the city of Thakhek.
The Thakhek Loop will be one of the things we’re most proud of doing. There’s no better feeling than being completely free, riding down the open road with the warm breeze on your face. Riding back into town on the last day of the Loop, we were on such a high. Packed with adrenaline we cracked open beers as we watched the sun dip over the Thai town of Nakhon Phanom on the other side of the Mekong. As we clinked our Beer Laos bottles together we both said in unison “I wish we could ride it all over again!”.
After the excitement of the Thakhek Loop, we travelled back south, stopping in the old French city of Savannakhet where we dined with the locals in a huge night market set in the heart of a disused cinema. From Savannakhet, we headed back south stopping in Pakse for the night before returning back to Don Det (we just couldn’t stay away!) where we spent the next few weeks in an endless cycle of watching sunsets, playing pool, slurping noodles and swimming in the Mekong. Don Det you’ll always be special and we can’t wait to return!
March - Cambodia
As we came to the end of our Laotian visa, we had no choice but to say au revoir to Mekong island life and head south, crossing the border to neighbouring Cambodia. This trip would be our third visit to the country and this time, we planned to stray a little further away from the well trodden tourist spots. We only had one month to play with, but we still managed to cram lots in!
After an easy border crossing, we drove for an hour and arrived at the small riverside town of Stung Treng. We were on a tourist coach and as the coach drove away, 50 faces looked down on us through the windows with a look of concern at having dropped us off in what looked like a random town in Cambodia. We know lots of people would be worried to be the only ones getting off the coach in a “non touristy” town, but this is exactly what we do best! After a quick bit of negotiation we hopped into a tuk tuk and headed to our accommodation. Bags dropped, we headed straight out onto the streets. Stung Treng is effectively one big market, and from dawn until dusk, the streets are filled with locals selling all kinds of delicious eats. After a couple of days of munching our way through the market, visiting local ruins and soaking up the laidback vibes we hopped on another bus and headed northeast to Banlung.
Banlung sits in the northeast of Cambodia and is home to a huge lake, lots of waterfalls and a massive market stuffed full of Cambodian delicacies! We stayed in a beautiful wooden tree house and booked a jungle trekking trip. The tour took us across farmland, through jungle all the way to a massive, secluded waterfall. We absolutely loved our time in Banlung.
From Banlung, we headed to Kratie. We first visited Kratie with GAdventures, but since our visit over a decade ago, the town has changed a lot! We spent our days in Kratie eating at the night market, cycling around Trong island and even spotted some of the super cute, Irrawaddy dolphins on a kayaking trip along the Mekong.
From Kratie we took a bus to the town of Kampong Thom and visited the ancient ruins of Sambor Prei Kuk and climbed the 800 plus steps to reach the stunning Phnom Santuk temple. We did this ourselves with a local tuk tuk but there are tours you can arrange in advance, check them out here. After a few days in Kampong Thom, we took a mini bus up to Sra’aem and headed to the ancient ruins of Preah Vihear. From Sra’aem, we had a very hectic morning trying to get bus tickets to Siem Reap. Using our very limited Cambodian language skills we managed to score the last two seats on a minivan bound for the city. As with many of our bus rides in rural South East Asia, the journey didn’t go completely to plan. What was meant to be a 3.5 hour journey turned into double this, as mid-way through, in the midst of a torrential downpour, our van’s engine started smoking! We quickly bundled into a roadside garage and watched a local mechanic take apart our van piece by piece. A couple of hours later, one small packet of fruit Mentos and no let up of the rain and we were back on our way - it was time to head to the ancient Angkor capital! One thing you can be sure of in South East Asia, is that when things are broken, it won’t take long for the locals to get it fixed!
After spending over a fortnight in Siem Reap in 2024, and having extensively explored the Angkor Archaeological Park, we had a very relaxed week in Siem Reap that consisted of a lot of eating, drinking and working on the website.
From Siem Reap, we crossed the border to our final South East Asia country for the year. It was time for…
April to June - Thailand
This time we were starting our Thai adventure in the city of Ubon Ratchathani. In 2024, we had delved into the lesser travelled region of Isan and followed the Mekong from Nong Khai to Mukdahan before turning inland to Udon Thani. This time our Isan adventure would take in the south of the region. Starting in Ubon Ratchathani and finishing in Nakhon Ratchasima, we would use the fantastic Thai railway network to travel between the cities of Surin, Si Sa Ket and Buri Ram. Our days in each of these cities followed a similar pattern. We would get up early, find a bowl of noodles or a rice and curry joint before heading out on a scooter out into the Isan countryside where we would stop to visit the ruins of ancient temples, walk through vast national parks and visit the local markets. In the evening we would dine with the locals in the busy night markets, slurping up bowls of tom yum soup, piping hot plates of pad thai and devouring mango sticky rice.
Isan is so full of spectacular Khmer ruins, but so empty of tourists! This was the amazing Phimai Historical Park near Nakhon Ratchasima.
From Buri Ram we took the train to Nakhon Ratchasima. It was in this city we would encounter our first experience of an earthquake together. As we sat on plastic stools underneath a bright blue tarpaulin enjoying a bowl of pork noodles, we both felt the world move beneath. Feeling a little as though we were about to pass out, it was a relief when we both said “did you feel that”. We instantly went to Google and it quickly became apparent that the jolt we had felt was the earthquake that had struck Myanmar around 1400 miles away!
From Nakhon Ratchasima, we headed south to the city of Chanthaburi. Sitting close to the Gulf of Thailand, we feasted on a bounty of seafood, explored its coastline and beaches, visited unique temples and climbed up a waterfall. From Chanthaburi we headed up the coast to Ranong, another coastal city home to vibrant night markets, delicious seafood and an enormous mangrove walk. From Ranong we had two choices, one to head over to the island of Koh Samet or two, head to our favourite place in the world. With very little discussion we packed our bags for our beloved Bangkok!
As we arrived in the Thai capital the whole city was gearing up for the Songkran celebrations. Songkran has spiritual and religious beginnings, but is most famous as being one huge water fight that takes place to welcome in the Thai new year! For three days over Ellie’s birthday we took to the streets, donned vibrant shirts and joined the locals in celebrating in a huge city wide water fight. The Thai people really do know how to throw a party!
Plan to get very wet if you’re heading to Thailand over Songkran! 💦
After a fortnight of colour, water fights and celebrations, it was time to leave Bangkok and head south. We booked the last remaining third class tickets and boarded a 12 hour overnight train bound for Nakhon Si Thammarat, one of Thailand’s most southern cities.
Nakhon Si Thammarat quickly became one of our favourite spots. Not only did it have some of the best food we’ve ever eaten, but surrounding the city, the region is studded with incredible mountains, waterfalls and jungle.
After Nakhon Si Thammarat, we hopped on a local bus and headed up the shoreline to another coastal treasure, Khanom. Despite being only a short boat trip away from the more popular islands of Koh Samui, Tao and Phangan, Khanom felt a world away from the popular beach sides. We loved our time there that much, we almost didn’t want to share it with anyone for fear it’ll get overrun!
From Khanom, we headed over to the party island of Koh Phangan. Although we were a little sceptical of its party reputation (we’re not big ravers) we quickly fell in love with the island. We stayed in the north and spent a week exploring by scooter, chilling on beaches and watching some incredible sunsets! There is so much more to Koh Phangan than neon paints, buckets of alcohol and late night raves. It’s an island full of stunning beaches, viewpoints and waterfalls. In fact, Koh Phangan quickly became one of our favourite islands, and one we will definitely be returning too!
Haad Rin Beach looks a little different when it’s not Full Moon!
After Koh Phangan we headed back to the mainland and had a couple of nights in Surat Thani before catching a bus and a ferry to the island of Koh Yao Yai. Yai felt completely different to the busy beaches of Koh Phangan. Koh Yao Yai was very much a local island, with only a small part of the island focussed on tourism. We spent a week exploring the whole of the island by scooter, starting every morning eating our favourite breakfast of roti and curry and spent our afternoons swimming on almost deserted beaches!
From Yai we headed to Krabi. Most travellers skip Krabi and head straight to the beaches of Ao Nang and Railay, but we absolutely love the town. The town is an treasure trove of Southern Thai delicacies and we spent our days munching our way through the streets. Krabi is also perfect if you want to get to Railay as you can easily board a boat from the centre of town which will take you straight to the famous beach!
After Krabi we hopped on another bus and headed north, up the coast to the city of Ranong. Ranong is a small city, but there’s plenty to see and do. As the province borders neighbouring Myanmar, there’s a strong Burmese influence and the market is stuffed full of Burmese treats! From Ranong, we took a small speedboat and headed to Koh Phayam. Koh Phayam is one of those Thai islands that you dream of finding. We were lucky to be visiting in the heart of the rainy season and around 75% of the island was shut down. For most travellers this would scare them, but for us, it gave us a chance to dine with the locals who actually live on the island, have whole beaches all to ourselves and really slow down and enjoy the slower pace of life! We did get quite a bit of rain, but it would always pass and leave us with the most spectacular sunsets.
During our stay, we were often the only ones on the beach and even managed to get our own swanky beachfront bungalow at the wonderful Starlight Resort. After about a fortnight scootering around, spending days swimming on completely deserted beaches and drinking beer in a wooden pirate ship, our time on the island sadly came to an end.
We finished up our three years of full-time travel in the only place we felt was fitting enough and that was our beloved Bangkok! There’s something about the frenetic energy, the concrete overpasses, the grit and the grace that we absolutely adore. Bangkok feels like home to us and every time we are there we discover new neighbourhoods, new restaurants and new street food stalls that we dream about for weeks after!
Our final day in the city quickly came round and it was a busy morning trying to pack large packets of noodles, sichuan pepper corns, multiple packets of Dewberries (if you know, you know) and two, quite large, Moo Deng plushies (not both for us) into our luggage.
As we climbed Suvarnabhumi’s “Escalator of Sadness" we were a bag of mixed emotions. It had been 3 years. We had set out with no plan and two backpacks leaving our old life behind in 2022. When we left our London flat we didn’t know how long we were going to be away, how far we would travel, or whether we would even enjoy backpacking! Now, as we climbed the “Escalator of Sadness”, it hit us: this would not be the end!
Over 3 years we had seen so much and also changed so much. Our blog has grown and so have we. We might have been going back to the UK, but we were not going back to our old lives. So many people had said to us “you must be sad it’s all over” or worse, smugly stating that it was “time to get back to reality”, we disagree! Our South East Asia travels may have been over for 2025, but as we headed through to passport control, we knew it was just the beginning of the Adventures of Jellie!
Obligatory plane selfie!
June to December - UK
After an overnight stay in Guangzhou Airport (we will always find the cheapest flight ticket!) we touched down in London’s Heathrow airport just as the sun was starting to set on a glorious June day. It’s strange coming back to the UK after such a long time away as nothing really changes. The supermarkets look exactly the same as they did when we left, the same, familiar adverts crop up on TV and the high street (apart from a couple of closures) looks for the most part, exactly the same. It’s a strange feeling as we have changed immensely since leaving, but everything we knew at home seemed to have remained the same!
Overall the last 6 months in the UK have been a complete blur. After 3 years away, we’ve spent a lot of our time catching up with family and friends. We’ve split out time between the busy streets of Streatham and the quiet roads of South Wales alongside visiting friends in Surrey and Edinburgh.
Within a month of returning we headed into Central London and took part in our first ever travel conference with Traverse. It was a steep learning curve, as we learnt to navigate the concept of “selling” ourselves and our website, but after a couple of meetings with some tourism boards, it all seemed to fall in place. Traverse was a great stepping stone for our next big event in November, London’s humongous World Travel Market (WTM). We knew WTM would be large, but we didn’t anticipate just how big it would be! Tourism boards from across the globe set up in London’s Excel Centre. Over two days, we travelled from Africa to the Caribbean, South America to the Stans. Both days were extremely full on as we met with different organisations and talked about what we could offer. We absolutely loved WTM and cannot wait to go back in 2026!
London’s World Travel Market was a lot of fun!
At the end of November we headed north, stopping in Newcastle for an amazing night before visiting our friends in the beautiful city of Edinburgh, Scotland. The following weekend we took the Eurostar with John’s parents and headed to the Christmas markets in Bruges and Belgium where we feasted on moules frites, tested the Belgian beer and sampled delicious Belgian chocolates in the Christmas markets!
As Christmas neared, we headed to Central London to see the Christmas lights. London often gets a bad rep, but London at Christmas is truly magical! Everywhere from London’s Borough Market through to the iconic Angel lights on Regent’s Street, is decked out and carpeted with glittering lights.
It was our first Christmas in the UK since 2023, and we spent the week before celebrating with Ellie’s family in Wales and then spent Christmas in Wimbledon with John’s family. New Years was a quiet one for Jellie as we cooked up a delicious feast, sat with a couple of beers and watched Tomorrowland on YouTube.
As 2026 rolls in, we’ve been spending almost every hour working hard behind our laptop screens. We’ve got lots of exciting plans already in the works and we hope these all come to light!
But in the meantime all we can say is, Happy New Year everyone!
2025 Travel Stats
Countries visited
5 countries:
Laos 🇱🇦
Cambodia 🇰🇭
Thailand 🇹🇭
UK 🇬🇧
Belgium 🇧🇪
Although technically it could be 6, as we did have an overnight layover in China but seeing as we didn’t leave the airport it feels a little like cheating!
Favourite Accommodation of 2025
This is a tricky one to answer as we stayed in some phenomenal places in 2025, but we’ve chosen the following three places as our favourite stays!
Budget Friendly
For this category it’s got to be the Kong Lor Eco Lodge. From the outside the rooms just looked like your standard wooden bungalows, but inside it was a completely different story. Basic, but stylish and super comfy, the room had everything we needed. The star of the show however, has got to be the wooden balconies set overlooking green fields and the limestone mountains. Laos has some great spots to stay in, but this simple, comfy bungalow is probably one of our favourites. The view alone simply cannot be beaten! We spent hours just swinging in the hammock taking it all in.
Mid-range
This is a tricky one as there’s two places we’ve got to give a shout out too!
First up is Lost Inn BKK, although not as cheap as other hostels we’ve stayed in, Lost Inn BKK is a great shout if you’re after a bed that’s still close enough (a short 20 minute walk) to the action of Khao San Road but also has some more local dining options just outside. We’ve absolutely loved both our stays at this hostel. The rooms are massive and super comfy and the hostel staff are always super helpful and friendly. They even left us a key out so we could check-in super early after we had arrived back in the city on an overnight bus at 5AM! In terms of facilities there’s a common area downstairs, plenty of dorm rooms, a small cafe and even laundry facilities on-site (super helpful for those backpackers out there!).
Coming in joint first is possibly one of our top stays of the whole of our travels to far and a place we cannot wait to head back to and that is the beautiful Starlight Resort on Koh Phayam. We’ve always wanted to have a week or two staying in a beachside bungalow and we couldn’t have picked better with the Starlight Resort. Super comfy bungalows set in a stunning garden, all with the sound of the waves crashing all around. It was the perfect stay!
Favourite Activity / Experience of 2025
This is a simple one to answer, in fact we’re going to cheat and say two experiences, but both share a theme. Riding the Bolaven Loop and the Thakhek Loop. Both loops were phenomenal and gave us such a sense of freedom, it was an adventure we’d repeat over and over!
2025 - Blogging Highlights
2025 was another year of amazing growth for our website. We wrote, edited and published 27 articles and have grown our website by another 72% compared to last year. The numbers are growing (half a million visits!) and so are the amount of people who are reaching out to us to say they’ve read and used our guides. Although we didn’t publish as many articles as we hoped (we were having far too much fun), we’re still proud of where Adventures of Jellie is and, we really cannot wait to see what 2026 brings to the site!
It’s not been a smooth ride for adventuresofjellie.com. The rise of AI, growth of short-form video content and briefly falling out of favour with the mystical forces of Google 2025 has given us all sorts of challenges, but we’ve learnt and grown from everything and face 2026 far more prepared than 2025! We’ve got loads of plans for the website and plenty of new articles to come!
The garden of the Starlight Resort wasn’t a bad spot to work in!
Final Thoughts
Don’t worry this year in review is nearly over!
As the new year begins, we just want to thank each and everyone of you who have visited our website, read our blogs, followed us on our socials and reached out to us. We’ve received so many lovely messages from people who’ve read our blog and it really boosts our confidence in knowing that we’re not just writing into the aether.
We really are so grateful that Adventures of Jellie is growing and we really cannot wait to share more content with you!
So to finish this very long recap, all we can say is, we wish you all a very Happy New Year and hope you all have a wonderful 2026!
As for what we are doing right now… we just couldn’t stay away. We are writing this overlooking the rooftops of our favourite city, Bangkok. We really couldn’t stay away!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
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