Cambodia: part two

Bamboo Island, Cambodia June 2011



The next part of our journey started in Phnom Penh; cambodias capital city. This was the first real city we had been in for about six weeks, so it was nice to arrive. Here we met up with friends and did some drinking. Inbetween these activities we squeezed in some sights and learned about cambodias dark past. The s-21 genocide museum and killing fields of chouek (not so good hung over) were really moving.

We headed for the coast next for our first beach time. Thias turned out to be a slight disaster as our first day in the koh kong conservation corridor was heavy rain. Due to the weather we couldnt make it to the islands here but managed to go see the largest mangrove forest in south east asia. This turned out to be pretty impressive.
Next stop Sihanoukville, a beach town with beautiful white sand coves and a lot of prostitutes. The town was quite sleazy and the weather a bit wet, but we still  managed to get sunburnt in true brit style. The surrounding islands were also really scenic though the water was a bit murky for snorkelling.
Kampot was the next place along the coast. Another wet bus journey saw us in to the town where we decided the rain wouldn't stop us doing what we wanted. So we donned ponchos and rented a scooter to take us out in to the surrounding countryside; which was beautiful. A highlight of this was getting a crew of six together and doing a day trip of over 100 kilometers to kep. The crab market in kep did some of the best sea food we have ever eaten.
Back up to Phnom Penh to meet Amy and Abby some school friends and have our last Cambodian meal; Beef lok lak and fish amok delcious. (tina i hope your writing this down).

Photos from Cambodia

Cambodia - part one

Angkor wat at sunrise, june 2011

We arrived in Kratie after an interesting boarder crossing - the bus got stuck in the mud, and the crossing was still being built, so we had to walk into Cambodia.
The first night we went to see the rare Irrawaddy river dolphins, it was a bit wet but still good fun. Day two was an eventful day. A man approached us and asked if he could take us and a friend around koh trong island on his horse and cart (for $6). This included fishing and lunch cooked by his wife, a great start to Cambodia. That night we were woken at 1am and told to evacuate our hostel as the market directly opposite was on fire. We spent the night outside, the fire turned out to be really bad but noone was hurt physically.
Cambodian people are super friendly but a little pushy at times. We witnessed this first hand in Siam Riep where everyone greets you at a run with shouts of "hey laydeeeee, gentlemaaan you buy you buy". The temples of Angkor were amazing, we arrived at 4.30 for sunrise and by mid day were exhausted.
Our next stop was Battembang where we did a day of touring the countryside in a tuk tuk. This was very bumpy but we saw some really interesting khmer rouge strongholds and caves.

It is SOOOO hot here.......

photos from cambodia

The temples of Angkor

Southern Laos

Before heading south we went to the capital of Laos Vientiane. Because of it being so expensive we decided to do the city and its sights in one day on a moped. This was great fun but incredibly tiring. However, five minutes in to the bus journey out of Vientiane I  (alex) deleted the photos of the whole day, woops.

From there we went all the way down the Mekong to Pakse, from which we took a bus directly to the small town of tat lo in the coffee growing region of the Bolaven plateau. Tat lo is named after a waterfall in the centre of the village. In the evening we went to watch the villagers washing clothes and children playing in the waterfall. We arranged to do a half days trekking with a local guide. This was really good, walking through tiny villages, waterfalls and crop fields.
Pakse was our next stop, this only merited an over night stop so we headed south to Si Phan Don (4000 islands).
Don Det in the 4000 islands turned out to be a great place to stop off and we ended up lingering longer than expected drinking cheaper than cheap whisky and lying in hammocks reading all day. Cycling on the neighbouring island of Don Khon was great also.

 A perfect ending to Laos...

Southern Laos Photos