Jun 06

Morning Bloggers,

After 3 really good days in Siem Reap it as time to move on and check out the capital Phnom Penh. We both felt abit sad to leave Siem Reap because we had made some good mates especially with our Tuk-Tuk driver Mr D. He had been telling us how difficult business is in the low season and as he had been an absolute star driving us round all the temples we decided to start a book of testimonials for him to help secure future business and gave him a tip. You should have seen his little face - dare say we going to miss the little guy!

Anyway onto Phnom Penh - pretty straight forward bus journey on an actual bus this time, no pyscho's or guys with nets full of little birds, just five hours of Kareoke - my faverite way to travel! We were staying at a guesthouse ran by a mate of the guys in Siem Reap so we arrived to quite a welcoming party. We were whisked off through the crowds on the back of two mopeds - we both felt like celebs but without the fame or the fortune.

We ditched our stuff, got some food and decided we would get straight into the sights so The Killing Fields and S-21 (a torture prison) it was. The guy driving us told we could got to a shooting range and shoot all these mad guns, it wasn't far from the Killing Fields so we agreed to check it out. We were presented with "the menu" and before we knew we had handed over $30 and were taking aim with an AK-47! Felt like Samuel L Jackson in Jackie Brown - a real experience.

In retrospect this was in slightly bad taste as the next stop was the Killing Fields were hundreds of innocent people had been brutally murdered. As you walk in, there is a display of 800 recovered skulls of the victims, it is pretty sickening, powerful stuff. We then went to S-21, a prison where others were brutally totured. It was a very eerie place with lots of images of the victims and the torture techniques. We were both amazed at how evil people can be, we left feeling pretty sick. Naturally we went for beers with some guys from the guesthouse to cheer ourselves up afterwards.

Neither of us were really that taken with Phnom Penh, we spent the next few days exploring the place and chilling but decided we had seen all we wanted to so planned to move down to the south coast where there are apparently some really nice beaches (I hope Lonely Planet isn't lying - we need to get a tan so we no longer look like the new kids on the block)

We are going to split the journey down south by stopping in Kampot. There is a train you can catch there where you can sit on the roof and it goes through the Bokor National Park so we plan to do that for some decent scenery. We sorted our visa's for Vietnam in Phnom Penh so hopefully we will have a better border crossing this time!

Next Stop then Sihanoukville via Kampot.

Bloggers,

We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia two days ago after the longest journey of my life.

Mr Tong from the Monkey Bar dropped us off at the mainland from Don Det at 8am and we all piled into the back of a pickup to get to the border. We got stamped out of Laos fine but when we arrived at the Cambodian immigration we didn't have a visa as we were told you can get it on arrival. There was no way they would let us in (there was about 10 of from the bus in the same situation) so we all got back on the bus and had to drive a further hour to a different border crossing where we could get a visa. Got fleeced again for money to get stamped but only by a few dollars this time!

We travelled to Stang Treng where we stopped for lunch and had to trasfer to another bus. I am not kidding you now but the bus that arrived to take us the rest of the journey was the worst I had ever seen! It was a Mini Bus with no interior apart from seats, holes in the floor, the sliding door fell off everytime it was opened. It was an awful thought to think we had to spend the next 6 odd hours on it.

Some of the roads in Cambodia are just like dirt tracks so it really uncomfortable and noisy journey, luckily we were with a really nice group of people so we had pretty good banter which made the journey slightly better. We eventually got to Kampong Cham at midnight rather than 8pm so we had been travelling for 16 hours! We just got a room, had a shower and went sright to bed.

The bus the following morning to Siem Reap was a proper bus so it was much better, we travelled with two Danish guys we had met the day before so we had a laugh. We are now all staying in the same guesthouse so we have been going for beers and hanging out together at night.

Cambodia was a real culture shock at first, there are people begging and trying to sell you things everywhere so it takes getting used to but now I am starting to enjoy it. We went out last night with some of the guys who run the guesthouse to eat and then they took us to a club. I didnt think I would ever go clubbing in Cambodia but obviously there have been loads of tourists visiting over the past few years so more and more guesthouses, bars & restuarants have opened to accomodate this.

Yesterday we went to the temples of Ankor Wat. The guys at the guesthouse put on a DVD all about the history of Cambodia and the temples before we went which really helped to appreciate the history. They were absolutley stunning, I was so impressed by them. We watched the sun set there - very cool.

Tomorrow we are heading to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia.

Dear Bloggers,

For my last update we had just arrived in Pakse Laos. We only ended up staying there one night, it was very much a stop over place so there wasnt too much to do so we decided to keep it short and sweet. We did end up drinking with a couple that evening who had just come back from an Island called Don Det in Si Pan Don which is where we were planning on heading for the next day so the rucksacks were packed and we hit the road.

It's a 3 hour bus ride down south to Si Pan Don, as I was still getting into my travelling grove I was thinking more along the lines of the 88 then the big Tuk Tuk style vehicle we ended up on. This time I was definately getting a seat! It was again packed full of locals who had all gone to the market apart from this other white guy sat right at the back. Now I don't think I actually know any psycho's but I've seen them in films and he definately had this kind of psychotic look about him - oh and he only had one ear which was abit wierd....

We set off and about 2 hours into the journey the pyscho looking guy suddenly started going all pyscho and shouting at all the Laos people really agressively in english but with a really thick foreign accent. They were all just looking at me and Mark so we tried to find what he was banging on abit but he said he had a story to tell and he was going to finish it. About 5 mins later he shut up again.

Just as we were arriving at Si Pan Don (the bus thing was pretty quite by now) he started talking to me, apparently 2 of his mates had been shot a year ago (no idea where - didn't like to ask) so he was angry about that - hence the outburst. So we got chatting and I said we wanted to get to Don Det but wasnt sure which boat we needed. He actually lived there so he helped us get a boat across the Mekong River and he was actually really helpful but he disappeared as soon as we arrived, I think I hid my relief well.

We sorted ourselves out with a guesthouse and met a girl from the Netherlands who was staying next door so we went out and had some food and beers with her. As Don Det is such a small island it only has electricity until 10pm at night be she said the bar next to our guesthouse plays music till late so we decided to check it out. The bar, restaurant and shop is owned by a Laos family but there are two british guys (Martin & Andy) who help them run it. After 10pm they use a tractor battery to power the lighting and music so people tended to go there for late drinks. Needless to say we bonded over Laos Laos which is a tradtional Laos rice whiskey with them all. Martin actually had a pet monkey called Squeekie who chilled out at the bar cuddling you and then ran off with your beer (it was called the Monkey Bar)

We spent the next few days exploring Don Det on bikes we had hired, the island is set right on the bank of the Mekong River so it was really stunning. They have a rare breed of Dolphin which we didn't manage to see but we did see some pretty impressive waterfalls.

A few night later whilst we were drinking Laos Laos in the Monkey Bar, Andy decided we should go for a BBQ on Don Pom which is a tiny island not in any guide books so there are hardly any travellers going. We had got really friendly with a Canadian guy and a guy from Brighton so it would be a laugh. The next day we all set off in Mr Tong's (the owner of the bar) boat to this other island. Mr Tong and his Laos mates build a BBQ from scratch and cooked all this really nice fish and traditional Laos food whilst we chilled out drinking beers by the waterfalls. We had a really good day.

After 5 days on Don Det we decided we had better move on at risk of getting too settled so we got tickets sorted - next stop Cambodia.