23rd March 2009

We were waiting at the travel agents in Saigon at 6.30am for our lift to the bus station to arrive. We waited anxiously for 20 minutes, sensing that there was some kind of problem occuring. We were told that there was a problem with the minivan, even though we had seen it drive past half empty ten minutes earlier and told to get on a moped with our backpacks. We refused, as not only has Clare never ridden pillion before, we did not think it was a safe thing to do. So they asked us to walk, as it was only 10 minutes away. Thankfully they hadn't left without us and we were soon in our seats and heading towards the Cambodia border. After a few minutes someone came down the bus to collect our passports and asked for a $24 fee for the Cambodia visa. This was a but strange as the actual fee is $20, so we maintained that we would do this ourselves, rather than pay the $4 each fir this service. Soon we were at the Vietnamese immigration and after another long and chaotic wait, we had our exit stamp in our passports. Then it was a short hop on the bus and we were at the Cambodia border. as we were completing our visas ourselves, we were pointed towards the visa desk, within a couple of mintues, we had our new visas and our passports stamped, all alot quicker than the passport from the bus and also saving us $8. As we left the immigration building, we looked around and couldn't seem to see our bus. The man from the bus company pointed to the road and told us the bus had left, then pointed to a moped and told us both to get on and catch the bus up! Both of us were in shock, afterall, all our luggage was on that bus! Having no option, we got on our 2 seperate mopeds and we started hurtling to catch up with the bus! Down a very busy road we went, weaving in and out of trucks and bikes, until we finally saw the bus had pulled into a food area. We got off the bikes and wobbled up to the bus. This was a baptism if fire for Clare, we both enjoyed it, but when you are not wearing a helmet and just shorts and a t-shirt, it is a little worrying! We got the impression the bus company had done this on purpose, as it makes their visa service seem worthwhile, but we did save $8 after all!!! The rest of the journey was thankfully not as eventful and by lunchtime we were back in Phnom Penh.

We were warmly welcomed back at the Super Star hotel, quickly checked in and made our way to the Blue Dolphin Restaurant for a tastey steak and onion baguette!

We had decided that our time back in Cambodia should be spent relaxing and doing less touristy things, as we had spent so long travelling in the past four months. After 2 nights in Phnom Penh we booked a bus ticket to take us back to Sihanoukville, so we could have some time by the beach.

20th March 2009

We had the luxury of a 1.30pm bus departure from Mui Ne, so we had a pretty relaxing morning and were waiting for our bus at 1pm. We were surprised when the bus arrived as it was a sleeper bus! They were very different from all other buses we had taken before, as they had small bed like compartments that you could lie down in. In true Vietnamese style, we were asked to put our own bags in the luggage hold and went about finding ourselves a seat. We were soon on our way and were finding the journey a pretty comfortable one, that is if it wasn't for the constant horn beeping that the driver was doing. They seem to be very horn happy in most if South East Asia, but Vietnam was one if the worst. Not that Clare was bored, but she counted over 50 beeps in a minute! Nice and peaceful!!

After a long but comfortable 5 and a half hours, we arrived back in the mayhem of Saigon. Luckily our hotel, The Orient, was just down the road, so we quickly checked in. This was a big mistake as it was worse than we remembered! The bedcwas hard and the room was very small, but we reckoned it would be fine for one night. We were wrong! At 2am we were still awake and just could not sleep on this rock hard bed, so we thought we would stay awake and find ourselves a new hotel at day break. Finally sleep took hold of us at 5am and we grabbed a couple of hours before we set about looking for a new hotel. After a quick walk around Saigon, we managed to find ourselves a decent hotel called 'Lien Ha', so we grabbed our backpacks and checked in. It was much more comfortable than the last place and even had a rooftop pool! After a little rest, we decided to check out the pool. As we made our way up to the 8th floor, past the scruffy laundry rooms, we found the gorgeous pool. There was noone up here and the pool was a very funny colour, it looked like a basin full of stagnant water, complete with floating insects! Needless to say, we never ventured into the water, as we didn't need a chemical peel!

We spent 2 nights at this hotel, trying to figure out what our next move was and desperately trying to find some food with flavour, until we decided that our best course of action was to leave Vietnam and head back to Cambodia. We bought a straight through ticket to Phnom Penh for the following morning and were looking forward to eating a nice steak and onion baguette in our favourite restaurant the Blue Dolphin.

15th March 2009

Our bus journey to Mui Ne was not the most comfortable we'd had, but thankfully it was only for five and a half hours. As we approached Mui Ne it was obvious that it was a quiet beach side town and our fears of another Koh Samui were quickly washed away.

As we had made a reservation at Sunshine Beach Resort, our bus was able to drop us off right outside our resort, which saved us the price of a taxi.

We had a beautiful seaview room here with a balcony practically over the sand, it was probably one of the best rooms we had stayed in so far. It was well over our budget, but we felt we deserved a little luxury as this was now hotel number 42 on our travels.

Breakfast was included in the room price, so on our first morning we decided to avoid the eggs and order some cornflakes. When they arrived we realized this was a big mistake as not only were they anemic in colour and pretty bad in taste, they were covered with long life milk! Thankfully there was an endless supply of toast and fruit, so we filled up on this!

We spent 5 nights here and pretty much relaxed all the time were here, which was a good job really, as there wasn't much else to do. It was nice not having to get any early buses and luckily breakfast was served until 10am. The best part of this resort for Clare was that the room included a hairdryer! It's funny how it's the simple things you miss when you are away from home.

Eating in Mui Ne was just as difficult as it was in Saigon, we were amazed at how bad the food was. Yet again the meals were pretty tasteless, totally lacking in flavour and also the people were pretty miserable too. They only seemed pleased to see your money, rather than being warm and welcoming you to their country.

We had a private beach at the resort, for the usage of the residents only, which was a good job really, as it wasn't on the large side! It was extremely windy on the beach every day, which was great for the local kite surfers, but for us it only led to streaming and watery eyes when we tried to catch a few rays. The wind led to the sea being very rough, but this wasn't the only problem, the sand disapeared as soon as you walked into the sea, giving way to shingle and broken shells underfoot. The massive waves coupled with the shingle, all made for a pretty unpleasant attempt at cooling off!

We didn't really enjoy our time here too much, it seems to be a great place if you are a kite surfer and enjoy eating bland food, but unfortunately we are not those people. Our time here did give us ample opportunity to research how best we could reach the north of the country, which is where much of the beautiful countryside happens to be. We discovered that Vietnam is a very hard country to travel around and the roads are far from straight and very slow. It would take a massive 33 hours of buses, including three overnight journeys to travel only 1200km up to the north and this was something we were not prepared to do. Especially as so far we weren't totally enjoying our Vietnam experience.

After spending five nights here and unwilling to get on another overnight bus, we had a bus ticket booked to take us back to Saigon in the morning.

8th March 2009

After a long and not very pleasant bus ride we arrived once again in Phnom Penh. We headed straight to the HRH Hotel where the staff were very welcoming and recognized us from our previous stay there. Unfortunately the room they gave us was not anywhere as nice as the last time we stayed, the shower even broke when we tried to use it, so we only stayed for the one night and moved to the Super Star Hotel across the road the following morning.

At our new hotel we booked a bus for the next day to a town called Kratie. It was around 300km northeast of Phnom Penh and they have a small colony of freshwater dolphins living in the river, which was the main reason why we wanted to visit the town. We were given various reports on how long this journey was going to take, it varied between 5 and 8 hours, so we had an early night and prepared for our bus to pick us up at the hotel at 7am.

The alarms went off at 6am, the following morning and we both began to get ready. It was obvious that neither of us were in the mood for yet another long journey, so Adams skills came into play again and he used the poorly girlfriend excuse for us not to get on the bus. The hotel staff were very understanding and kind and they even gave us our money back!

As we had decided to make a move towards Vietnam, we had to arrange our entry visas, as you cannot get them as you enter the country. Our hotel offered a visa service, obviously at a fee, which meant they did all the work for us and we didn't have to queue up at the embassy all day. Seeing as it was only a few dollars more, we decided to let them arrange our Vietnam visas, but it did mean leaving our passports with them for the day.

As we had previously visited all the tourist spots in Phnom Penh, that afternoon we decided to visit the Cambodian art and crafts street, which was very near our hotel. We had a good look around at all the fine silks and wooden carvings and we eventually decided to treat ourselves to a late Christmas present as we'd been given some dollars as a gift. Clare bought herself a lovely silk handbag and matching purse and Adam treated himself to a rather tasteful silk dressing gown!

Later that evening, when we received our passports back with our new Vietnamese visas inside, we noticed that the 30 day period started immediately and not on the date of entry into the country.

We didn't want to lose too many days from our visas, so there was no rest for us and we immediately booked a bus for the following morning to take us across the Cambodian border, into Vietnam and through to Saigon.
After another tasty dinner at the Blue Dolphin restaurant, an early night was in store for us so we could get a good sleep ready for our early bus to Vietnam.

11th March 2009

We were being collected from our hotel at 8am, so we had a quick bite to eat and once again gathered our bags up to wait outside for our bus. We were both feeling a little nervous about going to Vietnam, we always seem to feel this way when we change countries, and also we were not really in the mood for yet another long bus ride. After all, we had already clocked up over 81 hours on buses by now and our enthusiasm for them had started to fade.

Our minivan arrived in time, and before we knew it, after they had squashed 15 people into 12 seats, we arrived at what they called a bus station! We were not very impressed with the look of our bus as it was the oldest and most run down looking one there. But we quickly loaded our bags on board, found our seats and finally began our journey into Vietnam.

Unlike our border crossing into Cambodia, this time we had someone to guide us through the whole procedure and we could even stay on the same bus for the entire journey. This did make it much less confusing, as our guide explained every step in detail, but by no means did it make it less disorganized!

Our exit out of Cambodia was pretty straightforward, our guide took all our passports, got them stamped for us and all we had to do was queue up outside the bus and wait for our names to be called. It was pretty quick and easy really. Then came the Vietnamese immigration. We had to take all our luggage into the passport control building, which looked like a very imposing communist structure. We all had to wait in here while they stamped our passports. You'd think it would be quite a quick and easy procedure as we all held visas for the country, but it took ages, as they let all the Vietnamese push past us and jump the queue! This painful process took over an hour and it was not the friendliest greeting we have ever had into a new country. Before we could leave with our stamped passports, we had to get all our luggage scanned, just to ensure we were not entering Vietnam with any drugs or weapons!

Finally we arrived in Saigon and it was pretty obvious that we were in a very big and very busy city. We had read that the traffic here was heavily congested and that the roads are hellish to cross. But this didn't prepare us for the reality of what we saw! It was crazy, masses of mopeds all over the place, scooting in and out of buses, up on the pavements, taking not a blind bit of notice of the traffic lights, never mind two bewildered and weary westerners trying to cross the road!

As we stood by the bus, trying to work out where we were on the map, we approached by a gentlemen showing us a business card for his hotel. As it looked pretty nice and was cheaper than the hotel we had booked, we followed him to see what it was like. At this point we were very grateful for his company as he was able to guide us across the road. There appeared to be no real skill involved in this, just a leap of faith and to walk blindly into the oncoming traffic, while raising your hand!

The first hotel he showed us was not really what we wanted as the room was very small, so he showed us to another of his hotels a few doors down the road. Adam went to look at this room and quickly returned with a positive note. We quickly checked in and took our bags up to our room, it had a balcony, so we both stepped outside to view our surroundings. We were feeling pretty nervous about this hotel as it was down a very dark and claustrophobic alley and we were feeling quite concerned about our safety down there. It didn't help that we had read in our guide book that Saigon was the most crime ridden city in Vietnam. But as the room was very nice, we thought it would do for one night for us at the very least. As we stood on the balcony we noticed a man calling to us from the next building. He told us that he lived there and proceeded to warn us that we must lock our door and never leave it open as people will jump across the balconies and get into our room. Nervously we asked him if the alley was a safe place and he replied saying that he'd seen a few bag snatches but only heard a couple of gun shots! We thanked him for his advice, retreated to our room, picked up our back packs and got the hell out of there! The man that showed us to the previous two hotels re-appeard and this time offered to show us another hotel on the main road where we would feel safer. It was Clares turn to look at the room, but this one was very dark and dingy. When she asked to see a room with a window, the man swished back the curtains to show her that there was indeed a window there. Wow! What a view! The next building was less than a foot away and all you could see was brick! After politely declining the room and after the owner was quite rude to us, we set out in the sweltering humidity to find the hotel that we had originally booked.

Eventually we got there, both a sweaty mess, but both glad that neither of his had been run over. We were welcomed with a lovely ice cold drink, which all seemed very positive until they told us that they had emailed us the previous evening informing us that they were now full! The hotel were kind enough to show us to a hotel that they recommend, but unfortunately this one again was down a dark alley and quite a depressing room. We thanked them for their help, but declined their offer.

After evaluating our situation, we decided the best course of action was for Clare to stay with the bags and for Adam to head off with the lonely planet in hand, to find us a decent hotel. In this heat and humidity it is very hard work walking around aimlessly with your back packs on, so off Adam went, a man with a mission! After a long half an hour and just as it was starting to get dark, Adam returned looking very relieved, saying that he had found us a room. We had to move quick though, as they would only hold it for half an hour.

It was a very hot fifteen minute walk, but we arrived at the hotel just in time! We obviously looked very hot and sweaty because the reception staff told us to take a shower before we checked in! This made us laugh, we've never been so bluntly told that we needed a shower! We couldn't help but agree with them, so up we went to our room at the 'An An 2 Hotel', it was more upmarket than what we were used to, it even had a lift!

We were still feeling pretty tired from all our sight seeing in Cambodia, and as Saigon is a pretty crazy place, we used the next day to rest, get our bearings in the city and work out where we might like to visit in the country. It was becoming quite clear that travelling around vietnam was quite difficult, it is a very long country and the only way to travel is by several overnight buses. Something we were keen to avoid.

The following day we ventured out on a day trip to visit the Cu Chi Tunnels. These were an underground system of tunnels with numerous levels that were used by the Vietcong during the Vietnam war. There are over 200km of tunnels stretching across the surrounding farmland and were used as living quarters, meeting rooms, weapon making, hospitals and defending the villages against the American army. People used to live in these tunnels for months at a time! It was truly an amazing sight to see. The tunnels have been made slightly larger in size to allow western tourists to enter them. Clare did not really want to venture in any of the tunnels, but Adam gave them a good try. Even though they had increased the size of them, it still meant that Adam had to crawl through these tiny tunnels on his hands and knees. After a good effort, he decided that being down the deep, dark and confined Cu Chi tunnels was not for him and made a swift exit.

After the tunnels, we were shown all the original traps that the Vietcong used in the jungle. They were all pretty barbaric, but very cleverly designed and the most ironic thing was that they were made from the shrapnel of the bombs dropped by the Americans!

Finally we followed our tour guide who explained we were going to take a break, we could use this time to use the bathroom, have a coffee, buy an ice cream or shoot some bullets! This is where Adams eyes lit up. You had to go to a cabinet where you choose your gun and then over to a till where you buy your bullets! Adam chose an M16 machine gun, Rambo eat your heart out! He was aiming for the targets, but in all truth he didn't really care if he hit them, he was firing an M16 in Vietnam and that's what mattered!

After all the men had proved themselves, we were taken to the kitchen area of the tunnels. These would have been underground, but for tourism they had recreated it at ground level. We were given a taste of what the Vietcong soldiers would have survived on, Vietnamese tea and boiled tapioca. Neither of them were bursting with flavour or taste, but the tea was very refreshing.

On our way back to town, we were taken to a factory where crafts were made by disabled war victims and the profits go to those affected by the war. It did seem like a typical tourist trap as we didn't see many disabled people and we couldn't help see it in a cynical light.

The following day we took a taxi to see the Reunification Palace in Saigon. This was quite an interesting place to visit as it was the old central government that ruled Vietnam prior to the war. It is unique in the fact that it is preserved in almost the same state it was in when the Vietcong liberated Saigon from the Americans in 1979. It felt like you were almost in a bad guys lair from an old James Bond film, they even had an old US helicopter still on the helipad and tanks in the front grounds!

Our opinion on Vietnam at this early point was far from a positive one. Eating out was not easy at all, the food was very bland and lacking in flavour and the people were quite unfriendly as a rule. Saigon was also far too hectic to stay for any length of time. We were feeling quite disappointed as we had high hopes for this country. So, we booked a bus for the following day to take us to a beachside town called Mui Ne where hopefully we can relax for a few days and work our out where we are going next.

8th March 2009

After a long and not very pleasant bus ride we arrived once again in the crazy city of Phnom Penh. This stay was not intended to be a long one, so we headed back once more to the HRH Hotel. The staff here were very welcoming and recognized us from our previous stay. Unfortunately the room they gave us this time was nowhere near as nice as the previous one, so we stayed there for one night and moved to another hotel call Super Star, just down the road.

Having read our guidebooks we decided to book a bus for the next day to a town called Kratie where we could visit freshwater dolphins. We were getting different reports on how long this journey would take, some as long as 8 hours, but we prepared for a bus to collect us at 7am!

So the alarms went off at 6am the following day and we both began to get ready to leave. It was obvious that neither of us were in the mood for another long bus journey, so Adams skills came into play and again used a poorly girlfriend as our excuse not to get on the bus! The hotel staff were very kind and we even got our money back!

Having decided to start to make a move towards Vietnam, we needed to arrange to get our visas, as you need one before you arrive in the country. The hotel where we were staying provided a visa service, obviously for a good fee, but it did mean we didn't have to queue up at the embassy all day. The only drawback was having to hand over your passport, which did feel a little nervous!

When we received our passports back with our new Vietnam visas, we noticed that the 30 days that it is valid for begins when it is issued and not on the date of entry.

This meant that there was no rest for us, as we did not want to lose too many days from our visa, so we booked a bus to take us from Phnom Penh, through the border, into Vietnam and all the way to Saigon.

An early night was in store for us, to get a good sleep ready for our early bus to Vietnam.

2nd March 2009

The minivan picked us up from our hotel at 7.30am, just in time for a quick breakfast. It wasn't quite the VIP van we had imagined, just a converted Ford Transit with seats added in, but at least it was 2 hours shorter than the regular bus.

The four and a half hour journey passed quickly, but we were unlucky enough to get the back seats which happened to be right over the rear wheels. As the roads in Cambodia can be a little bit rough and unfinished, it felt like a real rollercoaster ride. They should have given us cushions for our heads for the amount of times we were launched out of our seats! We arrived in one piece thankfully, albeit a little dazed at our destination of Siem Reap.

As soon as we ventured out of the minivan we were approached by a tuk tuk driver offering us a free ride to our hotel if we used him for our upcoming three day temple tours. After discussing prices, we agreed and he explained that The Mehkong Angkor Palace Hotel, where we had booked for our stay, was a little noisy due to building work. He showed us a different hotel which had a swimming pool too, but we weren't really too enamoured with it, so we returned to our original choice and checked in. We arranged with our driver to pick us up the following day to begin our tour of the ancient temples and Angkor Wat.

We had a lovely big room at this hotel and there wasn't too much building work going on, just a little around the swimming pool area. After a quick lunch, we used the afternoon to explore the local town and also enjoyed a nice cooling swim in the pool. Siem Reap was looking like a nice and enjoyable town, but boy was it dry and dusty! There was a permanent dust cloud over the main road from all the traffic moving past!

The next morning we woke up in a far from enthusiastic mood for seeing temples, we really needed a day of rest before embarking on a busy three day tour. So after breakfast, Adam went to meet our driver and told him a little white lie, that Clare was feeling poorly today and asked him if we could start the tour tomorrow instead. It was all systems go, we had a full day of rest ahead to prepare ourselves for our temple tour. We spent the day relaxing by the pool and re-energizing for the onslaught of the next three days to follow. It was so hot in Siem Reap, so hot in fact that when Adam asked reception for towels for the pool, the receptionist asked if he had been exercising, as he was sweating so much!

The next day quickly came and we were feeling very excited about seeing these legendary temples. At 10am we were picked up by our tuk tuk driver and we worked out what we wanted to see over the next three days.

Our first stop was the ticketing area, we queued up for our 3 day passes and had our photographs taken, as they put this onto your pass, all very official. Then we headed off to the entrance of the park and into the ancient city of Angkor Thom through the very ornate south gate and already it was looking impressive and magical.

Our first stop was as The Bayon. This is a huge old temple which has vast stone heads carved into the towers and top levels. What was very special is that you could simply wander around and inside this fascinating place through the crumbling passageways and tunnels.

After exploring this amazing place we headed off to The Baphoun which we weren't very impressed with. The walkway up to the entrance was amazing but the actual temple was a little too over restored for our liking.

All the temples and palaces here are still hidden away in the middle of the jungle, so you can only imagine how it was looking around these great buildings as it got nearer to midday.

We walked to our next temple, Phimeanakas, which is a pyramidal building built on a square base. You can even climb up some very old and crumbling steep steps right to the very top of the temple, which gave us a great view over the area.

Next up was the long walk to the Elephant and Leper King Terraces, which had some amazing stone reliefs in a maze of ancient corridors. This gave us some well needed shade as we were getting so hot it was unbelievable. As quickly as we were drinking water, it was just pouring straight out of us! Luckily for us our driver spotted us, came and picked us up and took us to a restaurant for lunch.

Our driver joined us for lunch and we had a very good chat with him. He told us about his family and more harrowingly he told us of his very own sad memories of the Khmer Rouge and how his family had to hide down a trap door to avoid the soldiers. He also told us stories of when he was only eight years old, when he had to crawl across the fields on his chest to avoid the gun fire. At that very moment there was an almighty bang in the restaurant and our driver jumped into the air! It wasn't what we all feared, but a fan blade had fallen off into it's guard and sent splinters flying around the restaurant and fused all the electrics! We were all very glad it wasn't anything more sinister.

After cooling down a little at lunch, we headed off to see Angkor Wat, stopping at the south gate of Angkor Thom to marvel at the impressive gate and bridge. As we arrived at Angkor Wat we were astounded at the sheer scale of the place, it is the largest religious building in the world and 1.5km from end to end. We walked over the moat and onto an ancient causeway, passing up to the main entrance of the temple, it was an impressive sight to see ahead of us. We wandered around the temple and grounds for a good couple of hours, visiting the different levels and walkways. After much exploring we stopped for a well earned drink of water, our hats had come in very handy here and the blazing sunshine. It was 4pm and we were exhausted, it was definitely time to head back to the hotel for a much needed cool down in the pool.

As we arrived back at the hotel it became clear that the building work had got much worse, there were bits of rubble at the bottom of the pool and at one point we had to dodge some flying masonry when we were in the pool! Our minds were made up pretty instantly, we would moving hotels the next day. We had an early night, not only were we tired, but we had an early start the following day to see the sunrise.

We were awake at 5am and we had to leave our packed back packs at reception, so we could check out later in the day. At half past five we were on our way to Angkor Wat to see the sunrise. We made our way to the lotus pond and got ourselves a front row seat the sun come up over the temple. This was a beautiful and serene sight to see and us both wonder how this city would have looked all those years ago.

After a quick breakfast we pressed on and visited another ancient temple in The Eastern Baray. This was another one that you could climb up to the top and it had some spectacular views over the countryside.

We then headed off on a long 30km drive to Bantaey Srey, The Citadel of Women. This was a small temple that had many complex carvings in the sand stone walls, but it was a little spoilt by the sheer number of tourists here. It was however a lovely drive through much farmland and traditional Cambodian villages, which made it worth the while.

On the way back we stopped off at Bantaey Samre which was absolutely stunning. It was like it was straight out of a Tomb Raider or Indiana Jones movie. We wandered around the crumbling temple practically on our own, exploring the tunnels, walkways and hidden rooms, it was just like stepping back through time.

Our last stop for the day was Ta Prohm and we had been especially looking forward to seeing this one. We were dropped off a little way from the temple and had a lengthy walk through the jungle until this ancient ruined building finally came into view. It was simply a magical sight as huge trees were growing through the huge green stained walls while gigantic roots wrapped themselves around the bulging brick work. We explored every inch of this stunning temple, walking through the ruins, amazed at how these massive trees had become part of this eerie building. After a thorough exploration it was back on the tuk tuk and a well deserved lunch.

A short rest later and we were back off to the town to try and find ourselves another hotel. We picked our back packs up and our driver took us to The Encore Angkor Hotel, we had a quick look but it seemed a little expensive, so our driver took us to the previous hotel we decided against on our first day, but they were full now! So back we went to the Encore Angkor Hotel, after all it had a swimming pool and we really needed to cool down. We said goodbye to our driver and checked in quickly, we were given a very nice room here and decided to check out our view from the balcony. We stood and looked down at the pool, noticing something very strange out of the corner of our eyes. It was a pool full of alligators, there was only an alligator farm next door! As we'd had a full ten hour day exploring the temples it was no surprise that we didn't do much else that day.

The next day quickly came and after an excellent breakfast at our new hotel, we met our tuk tuk driver at 9.30am. As we had seen most of the temples we wanted to see over the first two days, we didn't feel up to another gruelling day of them again, so we decided to visit the local silk farm instead.

We had a guided tour around the farm and it was fascinating. We were shown every process, the silk worms hatching, feeding, removing the chrysalis, making the thread, dyeing the fabric and weaving the finished material. Obviously the tour ended in a gift shop and we couldn't resist buying ourselves a little something each!

When we got back to our hotel we said a sad farewell to our driver, who we'd got to know very well, he even invited us to a family wedding! We exchanged email addresses and gave him a little gift of a toy monkey, as his wife was expecting a baby.

We decided to stay on in Siem Reap for a couple more days, as we were really enjoying this laid back town and some well earned R&R. So after a very pleasant six days we booked the normal bus this time back to Phnom Penh.

28th February 2009

After an easy three hour minivan journey, we arrived in the centre of Phnom Penh. We had made a reservation at a hotel called Her Royal Highness Hotel and fortunately for us our driver dropped us off right outside. We had a nice and spacious room here, the only odd thing was that the bathroom had no ceiling, so you could hear everything from the bedroom! It was in a very good position too, near all the tourist attractions and close by to some bars and restaurants on the river front.

We only wanted to spend a couple of nights in Phnom Penh, so as our time here was limited, we quickly had some lunch and set about walking to the Royal Palace. On the way there we noticed that it was quite a dirty city, but at least it wasn't quite as hectic as most other capitals like Bangkok.

After a short but very hot walk, we arrived at the palace. As we were waiting to get in, a young girl approached us and tried to sell us some water. Unfortunately for her, we didn't need any then, but if we did later, we told her, we would buy some. With our ticket to the palace we received a map and a guide book, so we quickly set about looking around. It was interesting at first, looking around the various buildings and temples and seeing where the king of Cambodia now lives, but as it got hotter, in all honesty it did get a little boring. After all it is quite a recently built palace and not that different to others that you find in Asia. We spent a good couple of hours here looking around and finally decided to head back to our hotel. As we left the palace, the water seller bounced back up to us and once again tried to sell us some water. We didn't need any more as we'd had to buy some inside the palace or face dehydrating, so we declined her desperate pleas. We've never seen anything so funny, as soon as we'd said "no", she began sulking and then threw herself onto the pavement in a heap! It was just like watching our niece or nephew having a tantrum, very funny!

We headed back to our hotel for a rest from the heat and prepared ourselves for an evening out. We were pretty nervous about being in Phnom Penh as we had read some pretty stern warnings about gun crime and muggings, so we headed out with only a small amount of money on us. We had a very nice dinner out at The Happy Herb Pizza (very Cambodian, we know) and the city wasn't quite as bad as how our guide book makes out, although there are no street lights at night which does make you feel a little uneasy.

For the next day we had arranged a tuk tuk to take us around the city to visit the remaining must see places and he was waiting outside our hotel right on time at 10am.

Our first stop was the famous S-21 prison. This was an old school that had been converted into a prison by the Khmer Rouge for the incarceration and torture of over 17,000 innocent people. As soon as we made our way inside, a very sombre mood hit us, this was going to be a very emotional visit. They have preserved the prison, just as it was the day Phnom Penh was liberated from the Khmer Rouge in 1979 and it was a very eerie place. We walked through all the old detention cells, some which still had instruments of torture left in them and through a smaller solitary confinement block. These cells were only as wide as a coffin, they were tiny. Some of the rooms had photographs of torture victims displayed in them, but the true brutality of the killings here were made so real with the gallery section, which showed all the innocent victims. There was no discrimination here, from women and children to old men and babies, a whole generation was wiped out here. This was a very interesting visit, where we learnt a great deal about how the Cambodians have suffered so recently, but it was also a truly saddening and emotional visit.

After the horror of S-21, we made our way back to our waiting tuk tuk, through the many war victims begging for money and set off for our next cheery destination, The Killing Fields of Choeung Ek.

It was a long journey through many rural areas, slums and pretty villages and we eventually pulled up at our next stop. This is the site where the Khmer Rouge buried all the torture victims from the S-21 prison in mass graves, sometimes when they weren't even dead. They have built a large memorial here in the middle of the fields, it is a large stupa which contains the skulls of over 8000 people that they have so far unearthed. The burial pits are all still there to see, we had heard many accounts of bones still sticking out from the ground, but we scoured them all and didn't see any. We were a little disappointed in a strange way! The fields are over quite a large area surrounded by farmland, it is now very lush and green and although it was very sad, it did feel like just a stroll around a park, had it not been for the constant begging of children around the fences.

The last port of call on our day out was The Russian Market, which is named after the Russian traders that mainly used it many years ago. It is a huge covered market which sells pretty much everything from fruit, car parts, spices, silks and tourist souvenirs. We had a well deserved lunch before heading into the market. Once inside it was a massive labyrinth of small corridors all heading in different directions and it was extremely hot and humid in there. We enjoyed having a look around for a while, but soon the heat just got too hard to handle, so we left, found our driver and headed back to the comfort of the air con in our hotel.

We had a great day out and it really made us appreciate how much this country has suffered so recently and just how far they have come since these terrible times. It really is a credit to how friendly and welcoming we have found the Cambodian people.

We spent the rest of the day resting and had a very tasty dinner at a friendly restaurant called The Dolphin which was very near our hotel. Then it was an early night again for us in preparation for another early minivan journey, this time to Siem Reap.

26th February 2009

As Kep was only a half hour tuk tuk ride away, we were able to have a relaxed departure from Kampot. So we had our breakfast in a very leisurely fashion and then hired ourselves a tuk tuk to take us there.

We had done some research on where we wanted to stay in Kep, but after talking to the owner of Blissful Guest House, we changed our minds after he recommended a different guest house called 'Kukuluku'. After his description of really nice rooms and a private beach, we thought we were on to a winner with this one! After we arrived and checked in, we quicky realized that the rooms did not fit the description he had given us, they were very depressing and sparse and the private beach was a gross exagerration too! It looked more like a tiny muddy riverbank!

Adam noticed that opposite the guest house was a sign pointing to a place called 'Malibu Resort', so we trundled off up the dusty track in the heat of the midday sun to see if was any better than ours. It was beautiful and we immediately knew that this was out of our budget. After asking for the prices, this was confirmed, but we were encouraged to look at their camping option. Not being the outdoors types, we chuckled and said that we would take a look. To our amazement it was actually very nice, no tents to be seen at all, they were more like wooden gazebos with a raised floor and a double bed inside. As nice as they looked, it really wasn't our cup of tea.

After politely turning the camping option down, they called a tuk tuk for us, as we knew we didn't want to stay at Kukuluku. It was no time at all and the tuk tuk arrived for us. We talked to the driver and explained where we wanted to go and he quickly phoned all of our choices to see if they had any free rooms. This was starting to get a little tricky as they were all fully booked. We had one more option left, so we returned to Kukuluku to pick up our back packs. As we loaded them on to our waiting tuk tuk, our driver noticed that he had a flat tyre! Kep is a very quiet place and there are hardly any tuk tuk's around, so the driver kindly phoned his friend who owned a car to come and help us! Very quickly we were having a bags taken in to a very nice looking room at The Star Inn Hotel on the beach front. The tuk tuk driver and his friend did not ask us for any money, but we gave them a couple of dollars each for being so helpful to us.

Later that evening our tuk tuk driver came by to our hotel to thank us for the money, as it enabled him to buy a brand new tyre, rather than just having it repaired! He was very happy, so we chatted to him for a while and he even invited us to a party with him that evening! We thanked him very much, but declined his generous invitation. That evening we both ate in the hotel restaurant and we both had some very fresh crab. It was very messy, hard work but very tasty.

Later that evening it rained so hard that it woke us up, this was a proper monsoon and storm. We stood on our balcony watching the lightning move across the bay and lighting up the clouds and sea for our enjoyment. Suddenly we realized we had made the right decision not to go with the camping, we would have been a little wet by now!

The following morning we were looking forward to our breakfast that was included in the room price. Normally that would be a plus point but unfortunately here it consisted of coffee that could remove the enamel from your teeth and eggs that were deep fried in oil, nice and greasy! We asked for some butter to try and moisten the bread, they pointed at the triangle of laughing cow cheese on our plate and told us that was it! That's a new combination, cheese and jam!

We spent the day relaxing around the promenade and enjoyed a very nice sunset on the beach front with a nice can of beer in our hands, looking our to sea at the small islands in the bay.

Kep is a lovely and relaxing beach side town and we do hope to return. But next time we will book in advance for the resort we originally wanted.

We are off in the morining again and this time have arranged a minivan to pick us up from our hotel at 9am, It is taking us to the capital city of Cambodia, Phnom Penh.

23rd February 2009

Our minivan was collecting us at 8.30am, so this gave us plenty of time to have some breakfast before once again gathering up our belongings for our move to Kampot. As we stood on the already blazing heat we were both surprised and amused to see that Rob & Luke were in fact on the same bus as us!

This journey was an easy one as it was only an hour and a half journey to reach Kampot. We had the name of a guest house that we thought looked very good, but upon arrival there it was fully booked. Being honest, we were pretty pleased, as it wasn't in the best location and it was a long way from anywhere. Eventually the minivan dropped us off at a decent location, where most of the guest houses were located in the town. The first guest house we visited looked nice with little bungalows, but it had a lotus pond next to them, which looked like a stagnant pool! We told the owners that we were concerned about the mosquitos, to which he replied "we have no mosquitos here". We found this a little hard to believe. We quickly found another, better hotel and before we knew it we had checked into the Kampot Guest House and were having lunch in their restaurant. Would you believe it, Rob & Luke had checked into the same guest house!

That afternoon we decided to go for a walk, as we do like to get our bearings in new places, and locate the nearest shops, ATMs, Chemists and of course any nice looking bars and restaurants. As we walked it was pretty obvious that this was a very quiet town and it was also where we first noticed the attrocities that took place throughout the Khmer Rouge regime. The buildings however were beautifully designed in a French colonial style. The one thing that stood out to us was the lack of cars & mopeds, people seemed to mostly cycle around the town. It was a nice break not to hear the sound of mopeds and cars speeding down the roads. After our walk a cold beer was needed. We sat with Rob & Luke and decided to embark on a day trip with them the following day.

Our lunch at the guest house was not the greatest so we headed to another restaurant for dinner at Blissful Guest House. This is where we ate for the rest of our time in Kampot and got talking to the owner, who was from Manchester. He was later to give us advice on where to stay at our next destination, Kep, a small seaside town further down the coast.

The next day we met up with Luke & Rob, we had hired a tuk tuk and driver for the day to take us to the local sights around Kampot. Our first destination was to the salt fields, it was quite an amazing sight, spread over a huge area and continuing right to the horizon. You could even smell the salt in the air. We then continued on our way and stopped at a local fishing village. This gave us great photo opportunities and also the chance to see how people really live in Cambodia. Our next destination took us on a picturesque journey through many farming villages. This is when we truly experienced the friendliness of the Cambodian people, with eveyone waving to us and shouting "hello" as we drove past. Finally we reached our third stop, a temple in a cave. As we stepped off our tuk tuk, we were surrounded by local children, it quickly became apparent that they were to be our guides through the caves. They were amazing children, brilliant English, amazing sense of humour and smiles that will stay with us forever. These children go to school in the mornings and then in the afternoon work on the farms with their family. Although we had given them our names, they did insist on calling Adam "King Kong", because he looks big and strong! After quite a climb up the mountain in the midday heat, we quickly reached the cave entrance. It was quite amazing and also gave us excellent views over the surrounding countryside and rice fields. We had the option to climb deeper into the cave, but as it was pitch black in there, we decided against it. Cambodia is not the place to find yourself needing hospital treatment! After saying farewell to our guides and parting with a few dollars, we began our journey to the pepper plantation. Kampot is very famous for producing pepper, some of the finest pepper in the world is produced here and it was fascinating to be able to visit the source of this. We quickly arrived at the plantation and this was another amazing sight to see, with hundreds of pepper plants stretching as far as you could see. We even got to pick and taste some fresh peppercorns straight from the plant!

Our final stop was at the beachside town of Kep. This little town is where the Khmer Rouge really showed their destructive power, with many old houses still barely standing and showing the scars of that awful time. Kep was also the setting for the film 'City of Ghosts', starring Matt Dillon, which was about these terrible times. The main thing that Kep is famous for is renting a small hut on the beach with hammocks in and eating fresh cracked crab with pepper. So when lunchtime came, Adam and Luke tucked into the crab. Wiith crab claws flying all over the place, they appeared to have a very nice lunch. The beach in Kep is not the most beautiful, but it is the lack of tourists and laid back pace of life here that makes it a worthwhile place to visit. After relaxing on the beach for a while after our lunch, we headed back to our guest house. We had a really great day out, full of fun, and after a couple of beers that evening we had ourselves an early night.

We did not really have any plans for the following day apart from relaxing and staying out of the hot sun for a while. We did however need to get some more money and as there was only one ATM in Kampot, which was a fair diatance away, Adam hired a bike for an hour so we could reach it. This is where he got to see far more of the town, which was filled with beautiful French colonial houses and also cycled along the riverside which was very picturesque. He had a great time, but was very sweaty on his return!

Kampot is a lovely town and it is easy to see why people plan to stay for a couple of nights and end up staying for longer.

We are off to stay in Kep tomorrow to try and get some beach time. We have a great tip of somewhere nice to stay from the restaurant owner and it is only a tuk tuk ride away!

17th February 2009

At 4.45am we were sat outside our guest house, it was still dark and there was no sign of a cup of coffee from our landlord! We were pretty nervous about this journey as we only had a vague idea how our travels were going to pan out. It was a quick hour and a half journey in a minivan to the Cambodian border and to a small town called Hat Lek. We arrived just after sunrise and had to wait nervously for the border crossing to open at 7am. We were under the impression that we had bought a straight through ticket to Sihanoukville, Cambodia, but we were still none the wiser as to how this was going to work, as our minivan could not cross the border.

Right on time, at 7am, the border crossing opened and we had our Thailand departure card stamped promptly and found ourselves in no mans land until we reached the Cambodian immigration. It became very apparent that there was no love lost between the two countries as there were many Thai soldiers present and quite a few angry looking Cambodians.

This was where the fun really started for us. People swarmed around us asking if we had a bus ticket and as soon as we showed them the tickets, our passports were handed over to the touts and they were filling out our immigration forms for us! We stood by bemused, watching our passports flying between different people, while we handed over our visa photos and 1200 Baht visa fee. Once we finally had our visas and passports tightly clenched back in our hands, we were then told to follow 'our driver', who incidentally looked about ten, to his waiting car, as he would be taking us to our 8am bus to Sihanoukville. It was now already 7.30am, so we were getting pretty nervous about getting there on time. Before we knew it, our backpacks were loaded into the boot of his car and we were told, "you just wait", as there were apparently 2 more people to join us in this chaos! At this point we got very worried as we watched our driver disappear on a moped! Then we became aware of the man who had completed our visa forms, after polite small talk all became clear when he blatantly, but politely said "I helped you, so you pay me". With our bags locked in a strangers car, we felt that the best option was to give him 100 Baht! Funnily enough, after that we never saw him again! At 7.50am our driver made an appearance and we were told to put our bags into a different car that would take us to the bus station!

This was an interesting drive and full of colourful language from our driver who was merely expressing his "love" for Thailand and the Thai people. Our drive to the bus station took us through a toll booth which only accepted Cambodian Riel, so our driver kindly paid for this and took us to a very shady money exchanger. We hastily changed some Thai Baht into Riel at a very poor rate. Someone has got this down to a fine art and is making some great commission here!

Eventually we arrived at the bus station to discover that our bus was actually leaving at 8.30am, rather than the 8am or 9.30am times that we had previously been told this morning. Was it any wonder that our nerves were absolutely shredded at this point! As soon as we had got out of the car, our backpacks were being thrown through the back window of the waiting bus and we were finally on our way! Did we mention that the bus station wasn't your usual looking one? It was just a dusty wasteground with buses randomly parked on it!

As we pulled out of the border town and into the depths of Cambodia, the change in countryside was very apparent, we were now driving through a lush green wilderness and through rolling hillsides.

After a pretty uncomfortable 4 hour journey, we arrived at Sihanoukville. As we pulled into the station tuk tuk's and mopeds surrounded the bus, waiting to greet all us weary travellers. At first this appeared quite intimidating, but it was clear from the beginning that they did not have an aggressive edge at all and were very laid back. Even though we were nervous about coming into Cambodia we had no accommodation booked, only a recommendation from a couple we had met in an Internet cafe in Trat. We quickly agreed a price with a driver and headed on our way towards the beach. In all honesty we weren't really in the mood for haggling, he could have said anything and we'd have agreed!

We played our Mary and Joseph roles for a couple of guest houses until we finally heeded our tuk tuk drivers advice and headed to The Beach Road Hotel. Thankfully they had a good fan room with all the trimmings at a good rate of 15USD per night. After settling in, we quickly grabbed some lunch at the hotel and returned to our room for a quick nap, it was time for our nerves to settle after our border ordeal.

Later that afternoon, we decided to have a walk along the beach, to see exactly what it was like. As we headed off to the beach, it became quite clear that we were in a fairly undeveloped country, as the road was just a dusty track leading down to Serendipity Beach.

The beach was filled end to end with bars and restaurants, so we wandered around until we found the cheapest happy hour on offer and treated ourselves to a well deserved cold beer. As we were enjoying our first beer, we noticed Rob & Luke, two canadians we had met at the border crossing earlier that morning, so they joined us for a few beers.

As we were enjoying a drink on the beach we were approached by three young girls who were desperately trying to sell us friendship bracelets. After quickly realizing they were not taking 'no' for an answer, we quickly found ourselves arguing why we didn't need one! Their English was outstanding and their sales patter and wit were incredible, so before we knew it, we were helping them make their bracelets! They even gave us all one for free! It was pretty clear that this beach was a magnet for hawkers and beggars, but thanfully no does mean no here and above all else are friendly and not aggressive in the slightest.

So, off we all went, with our new friendship bracelets on our wrists and headed to the Seahorse Restaurant for our dinner. No surprises that an early night was in store for us.

As Serendipity Beach was a bit too overcrowded for us, we decided to head to Otres Beach on our second day, to try and find some accommodation there for our stay. We left our hotel, arranged a good price with a tuk tuk driver and within a few minutes we were at the west end of the beach. As we walked down to the white sand, it was pretty obvious that this beach was much more beautiful and quieter and that we really wanted to stay here.

As we made our way up the sandy beach, two things struck us, firstly, that there weren't many bungalows here, and secondly, that the sand here was really squeaky! It was like walking through snow, very weird! It was slow and hard work looking for a room, as it was such an intensely hot day, but we found a great resort called, 'The Little Green Bungalows'. Unluckily for us it was full, but we were told to ring back the following day to see if anyone was leaving They had no real booking system, so this was really helpful to us! We carried on looking for the rest of the day, but had no luck in finding anywhere decent to stay. Although we did manage to track down Clares sisters colleagues cousin (bit of a complicated one), Mark, at the newly built Big Chill Bar, where we had a quick chat and some well needed water!

On our way back down the beach, we bumped into our Canadian friends, Rob & Luke, who had co-incidentally moved down to Otres themselves. We had a quick catch up, gave up on our search and headed off, back to our hotel.

After we'd cooled down, we decided to head off to the beach to try one of the many three dollar barbeques. It was pretty good, but we did get pestered by the usual beggars, hawkers and mine victims. So, after dinner, we thought the best idea would be to head nearer to our hotel where we wouldn't get as much hassle.

After ordering a couple of beers at the Cool Banana Bar, Adam disappeared to use the bathroom. As he queued up outside, he noticed a fairly familiar face in front of him. Adam realized it was Dave Pinto, a guy he worked with in Peckham, of all places, two years ago! What a small world! They stood open mouthed for a few moments, then couldn't stop laughing, this was a crazy place to bump into someone you know and Cambodia was the last place we thought it would happen! So, we joined Dave for a couple of beers and had a well deserved catch up. Clare even got invited to take part in a spaghetti wrestling contest at the bar the following week, for free drinks all night! Funnily enough she declined the generous offer! After a few beers too many, we made our way back to the hotel for a good sleep.

The next day we woke up in a positive mood and telephoned the bungalows on Otres Beach to see if they had any available. It was the same old story, still full and try tomorrow. Adams razor had stopped working a few days ago and he was starting to look quite beardy, so we hired a tuk tuk to go shopping for a new one in the local town. First stop was the supermarket, but they had none, so we carried on to the market. This was a huge covered market and was like a maze inside, with only tiny corridors to move around. Needless to say it was very hot and sweaty inside there, but as luck would have it, we stumbled across a cheap shaver, bought it and headed back to our hotel. As we took the shaver out of the box, we were both surpised to see how tiny it was. It was much smaller than a pack of cards, it must have been made for midgets! It doesn't matter if it does the job, but after half an hour of rubbing it against his face, Adam gave up, it wasn't doing anything. It must have been made for hairless midgets!

As Adam was heading to the local shop to pick up a normal razor, he bumped into Dave once again. They were both relieved it wasn't just a crazy dream, but luckily he gave us some details of a much quieter beach nearby to visit. It was called Sokha Beach and was part of a rather expensive, private resort and for a nominal fee you could use the beach and loungers.

We pulled up at the five star resort in our coughing and spluttering tuk tuk, by the look of the limousine and golf carts parked in the entrance, no-one arrives this way usually! We later found that it was only a mere 300USD here per night! We had some lunch by the gorgeous pool, that looked like it was straight out of a Kuoni brochure, the only thing we could afford was a $5 hot dog and we were glad we bought our own water with us! After a good feed, we headed down to the private beach and found a couple of loungers to settle on. It was very quiet here and nice not have anyone bothering you every few minutes!

After an hour had passed, we thought we were going to get away without paying, maybe we looked like their regular guests! No such luck, the security man came round and asked is for a massive $4 each! Clare fought a good argument, after all, why should we pay for a whole day, when we were only going to be there for two hours? They wouldn't move on the price, so we gave them the cash and after a couple of hours headed back to our hotel.

That night we really struggled and really sweated, we were now moving into the hot season and boy were we feeling the difference. So after a sweaty and sleepless night, we bit the bullet and upgraded to an air con room. We didn't do too much on this day except enjoy our lovely and new cool room while watching movies on cable!

Another day came and another phonecall to Otres Beach, but still no joy! We were really beginning to give up hope of ever getting there, but we managed to find another resort on the beach called 'La Casa', who had a free bungalow the following day! We decided that a relaxing day on Otres Beach was in order and we could also see how these bungalows looked.

We soon arrived and they looked very good! It looked like we had finally landed on our feet here. After a chat with the owner, we found out he had our names written down for the reservation, but the only issue, was that he didn't know for definite that the person was leaving the next day! It would have been useful if he went and asked them, but no, this was surely to easy for him. Our growing suspicions were compounded by the fact that he was drinking beer and whiskey chasers at 10am, not the most reliable word we thought! He was very kind though and let us use his comfortable sun lougers all day on the beach.

We had a great day here, it was so relaxing and quiet with no hassles, just staring out into the deep blue sea. We made use of the local beach sellers and both had a well needed pedicure. It's times like these and especially days like these that people don't realize how hard this travelling business really is!

The following morning we did the usual chores of calling Otres Beach and there were still no confirmed bungalows. We decided that simply just turning up with our back packs in such a remote spot was pretty daft, so we decided to abandon all hopes of getting a place to stay there and look into moving on elsewhere the following day.

After doing some research, we decided on a small Khmer town called Kampot and booked ourselves a mini-van leaving the following day.

That evening we went out to our usual bar for our pre-dinner gin & tonics, at 75 cents they were an absolute bargain! As we walked in we were surprised to see our Canadian friends yet again! After a quick chat we discovered that they too were off to Kampot in the morning, but were unsure if they had booked the same bus as us. After a tasty dinner and a farewell drink with Dave, we headed back to our hotel to get some sleep before our journey to Kampot.

9th February 2009

Excited about leaving Laos we headed off early to the bus station to catch the 9.30am bus to Nong Khai, Thailand. We arrived in plenty of time at half past eight and headed towards the ticket counter, which was clearly labelled Vientianne to Nong Khai. Confidently we asked for two tickets for the bus, but we were slightly bemused at the answer we received. We were told that we could only buy a ticket at the time the bus was leaving (9.30am), this seemed slightly odd as surely the bus would have left by the time we bought our ticket. It was clear he was not going to move on his decision, so we moved away from the counter. Suddenly all became clear when we were approached by taxi touts offering a more expensive route to Nong Khai, the ticket clerk clearly had connections and a financial interest with these drivers! Luckily for us there was a change over in shift and we returned to the counter and purchased our bus tickets in a very straightforward manor. This did not really help with the bitter taste of Laos already on our lips.

Our long wait for the bus to leave gave the local monks and school children a great opportunity to practice their English with Adam, while Clare sat and avoided all eye contact, clearly not in the mood for a chat. During the lessons we were asked for our phone numbers and were also offered a guided tour of Luang Prabang. We are not sure if we'll be taking them up on this generous offer, but declining without insulting their country was a difficult one.

The bus journey was a short one, which entailed crossing two immigration check points, one leaving Laos and the other entering Thailand and then a quick journey across the friendship bridge. It's amazing how these confusing things become clear when you get there.

Before we knew it, we arrived at Nong Khai bus station. We had no accomodation booked here, as our mobile phone had mysteriously stopped working, but we had a shortlist of two places that looked good. So we jumped on a tuk tuk and headed to our first choice, Mut Mee Guest House (www.mutmee.com). Very luckily for us, they had one bungalow available, so we hastily checked in. The bungalow was very nice, our own veranda and even a four posted bed, but the downside was that we only had a scoop flush toilet. We'll let you work out what a scoop flush means, but hey, you can't have everything! The resort itself was nestled in between trees on the bank of the Mehkong river and overlooking our favourite place, Laos. The guest house had it's own restaurant, but the biggest bonus was the free wi-fi. Just as well really as you had to buy your own toilet rolls, they were even listed on the breakfast menu! Our stay here was mainly for us to recharge our batteries and to research the next stage of our travels, which was good as there wasn't much else to do here.

The night we arrived happened to be a Buddhist holiday, so that evening we headed to the main temple in town to witness the local traditions. This entailed people lighting incense sticks and walking around the temple three times at dusk, we would like to of had more information on this, but nevertheless it was fascinating to watch.

Our first full day was spent updating our blog on the iPhone, as we had got quite behind it only took around four to five hours!

We stayed here for three nights and on our last day we decided to visit the local tourist attraction, a modern art Buddhist sculpture park, Salakeawkoo. We enjoyed it here, it was full of huge sculptures of serpents, Buddha's and even dogs riding mopeds! On the way back to the guest house we stopped off at the bus station to buy our VIP ticket to Bangkok and also visted a tall Wat on the bank of the river. We climbed up many steps to the roof of the temple to see an enormous gold Buddha and to also enjoy the views over Nong Khai and the river.

On our last night we went on a sunset cruise down the Mehkong river, this would've been quite romantic had it not been for the stench of the river that the boat churned up every now and again. We did however enjoy this and we can now finally say that we've been on the mighty Mehkong.

Nong Khai was a nice and quiet town, although maybe a little too quiet for us, as most of the bars and restaurants closed at 8pm. Mut Mee had great potential of being a pleasant stay, had it not been for the lack of privacy in the bungalows. There was also a very odd mixture of New Age, Raiki and meditation types with a handful of Internet nerds thrown in to the mix.

A long journey awaits us tomorrow, to get to our next destination, Trat.

13th February 2009

Rather than staying in Bangkok for one night, we decided to do this journey in one hit. This meant us catching a nine hour overnight bus to Bangkok, followed by a further five hour journey to Trat in the early hours. As you can imagine, we were not looking forward to this!

As we arrived at the bus station, we were greeted by the bus driver with the typical Thai friendliness that we love. After loading our back packs onto the bus, we were offered generous sized portions of fresh melon by the driver, delicious!

It was a very hot and sticky night and as the air con was already running, we boarded the bus to get ourselves cool and comfortable. Before we knew it, our bus driver was sitting with us, giving us packets of biscuits and chocolate sweets. Maybe this journey wouldn't be so bad after all!

As our time of departure grew nearer, we realized this bus was pretty quiet. When we were handed some water and juice it became clear that we were the only two passengers on the bus! Excellent, we had the whole bus to ourselves, this was not VIP, this was like having our own chauffer for the night.

Things got even better, after a couple of hours the driver asked if we wanted to join him at the front of the bus. So, we sat up there and watched the world go by, he even let Clare smoke a cigarette out of the window! We decided to make use of the empty seats and spread ourselves out, giving us two seats each. This enabled us to have a little nap and a relatively enjoyable journey.

We were amazed at how busy it was at Mo Chit bus station in Bangkok when we arrived there at 4.30am. There were hundreds of people there getting on and off different buses. This confirmed our decision not to stay in Bangkok and to carry on with the second leg of our journey.

Our bus to Trat was leaving at 6am, so we had ample opportunity to have something to eat to while away the time. This bus however, was not VIP and there was a very obvious difference to the last one. Tired, hungry and with our backs aching, this made for a very unpleasant five hour journey.

Finally, at 11am we arrived at Trat bus station and were soon on a songthaew heading towards the centre of town and to our guest house, Residang.

Our room here was very good, for the price of £5 a night, we even had our own balcony and cable TV. The downside to the cable TV was that the only English speaking channel was The Australian Network, where programmes were repeated every 2 hours! There is only so much Home & Away you can watch!

Our first full day here was spent organising the easiest journey into Cambodia. Luckily our guest house could arrange a straight through ticket from Trat to the the Cambodian beaches of Sihanoukville. For once a journey appeared to be very straightforward, so we booked our tickets for the following Tuesday as we had to yet again arrange another currency, this time US Dollars!

That evening we visited the local night market, which is said to be one of Thailands finest. It was great to eat some tasty Thai street food once again, the fish cakes were some of the best we'd had. But we decided to give the deep fried chicken feet and duck heads a miss!

The only thing left to do after dinner was to find a relaxing bar selling nice & cold beer. The best one we found was right next to our guest house called Basar Garden. We were greeted by the very friendly owner, Noi, who gave us some useful local information, showed us baby fireflies and even gave us a packet of Werthers Originals. Do we really look that old?!

That evening we arranged a day trip to the beach through our guest house owner, for a 10.30am pick up. The next morning we leisurely made our way down to breakfast at twenty past nine, only to be told that our songthaew was booked for half nine! So after a very hurried breakfast, we jumped on our songthaew and headed to ------------ beach. After a 45 minute journey, we arrived at the beach and were pleasantly surprised at how beautiful and tranquil it was. Maybe it's got something to do with it not being in the Lonely Planet guide book! The price for our day trip (£10) included the journey there and back and also the driver waiting all day for us. We spent the day relaxing on the sandy beach, writing our blog and watching the locals picking coconuts from the palm trees. As it was the weekend the beach slowly filled up with Thai families playing in the sea and it was nice not being surrounded by westerners. We had a great lunch here of fried rice on the beach front looking out to sea. We made our way back to the guest house after a thoroughly relaxing day and did our usual night Market visit for dinner followed by a few cold beers at Basar Garden. No Werthers this time though!

On our last day we arranged a change of currency at the local bank, as we needed US Dollars for our trip into Cambodia. As Clare had been finding it hard to cope with her ever growing hair, she decided enough was enough and a visit to the hairdresser was needed. After spotting a Loreal logo and four pounds later, a wash cut & blow dry was complete. Clare was very nervous about getting this done and after putting it off for a few weeks, she need not have worried as it looked very good.

That night we decided to give the night market a miss and we went to a rather fancy restaurant near our guest house. It was called Kluarimklong Cafe and the food was the best we'd had since Chiang Rai. We even had polished cutlery and china plates! Even though we had a very early morning start at 5am the following day, we couldn't resist a few drinks with Noi at Basar Garden before we left. After having a few beers too many we made our way back to our guest house only to find it locked up and in total darkness. This wasn't the first time this had happened, so it was no real surprise to us. The German owner ran a little too much of a tight ship! So we rang the doorbell and a sleepy German came and mumbled at us, we said goodnight and ran up the three flights of stairs giggling. As we are getting pretty laid back with this travelling, we still had yet to pack our back packs. By half one we eventually got to bed, knowing that we had to be up at 4am for our bus ride to Sihanoukville, Cambodia. Good move!