The Final Countdown...

(you will have to excuse the lack of photos in this post...the story for this is a little further down)

So we finally broke from the group tour and made our own way towards the infamous Phu Quoc... Our first task was surviving the 4-5 hour bus ride from Phenom Penh to, well... we weren't 100% sure but we knew generally where we needed to be! Initially we were heading for a place called Kampot... along the way we found a smaller place that was actually closer to the Vietnamese border so we just got off the bus and hoped for the best. It was a really small fishing village called 'Kep', it was a beautiful little place with a few nice stretches of beach. We were so glad to get off the bus though, as it had been pretty gruelling. For one, the bus driver would not stop hitting his horn or slowing down for anything, so there was no chance to get a bit of kip on top of this we were on the worst roads we'd experienced since Ghana and so the bus was all over the place and almost got stuck in a couple of places.

Anyway we grabbed a bite to eat for lunch at a local eatery and a really nice guy came over asking where we wanted to go, "the border" we replied and we had the option of either taking a taxi or a tuk-tuk. The tuk-tuk was the cheaper option and wasn't going to take much longer according to the local guy, so we went with that. It was an awesome journey... about 10 mins down the road we got out of our new found friends tuk-tuk and into one of his mates which seemed a little more sturdy and was definitley better equipped for some of the roads we'd encounter already that day. From there we thought we would follow the route the bus took, and we did for a while, but then we took a detour onto some dusty red farm tracks which winded their way through farms and paddy fields, passing small local communities where all of the children would run out shouting 'Goodbye' and waving to us which was really cool, they all looked so happy. We had a few close calls with vehicles coming the other way, we even had to get out and push at one point as the rain had hammered one part of the road too much. We really felt this was what it was all about and almost seemed too easy....well I guess we have been travelling for 3 months so obviously seasoned veterans! lol After about 30 mins we came across 2 guys on mopeds who said hello and pulled up, we didn't click that these were the 2 guys that would be taking us the rest over the way and over the border. So we took our bags off the tuk-tuk said goodbye to him and climbed onto the back of the 2 mopeds.

This part of the trip was just as good and the 2 guys riding for us were super skilled... they had our large bags in between their legs, blatently restricting their movement and the movement of the handlebars while we were sat on the back with some uber cool helmets on and another rucksak on our back, all the while navigating dusty, gravel filled pothole ridden roads, it was quality. We eventually came to the Cambodian Border which was little more that a few huts and sheds and a handful of guards, had out passports stamped and then rode over to the the Vietnamese border at which point my driver shouted "goodbye Cambodia...Good morning Vietnam"!!! top that!!! The Vietnamese border was slightly more impressive and took us a little longer to pass but we made it and the moped drivers took us all the way to Ha-Tien a small fishing town which was where we would get the high speed ferry across to Phu Quoc. They found us some lodgings at a local hotel where we refreshed ourselves and took a power nap, later that evening we went out for a stroll, got some food and had a couple of drinks. I don't think that Ha-Tien see's many tourists as we got some strange looks but nothing that we hadn't seen before.

The next day we were up bright and early to get the ferry to Phu-Quoc! it took about an hour to get over to the island and we couldn't wait to hit the beach and do absolutley nothing for a few days. We arrived at 'Long Beach' which was the main beach to go to find decent priced hotels. Initially we looked at one which only had 1 double bed in it, me and neil are good friends but that might have been pushing it a little bit! So we moved onto a place called 'Nhat Lan' which was right at the bottom end of the beach. The beach hut was cool but basic, it had a veranda, 2 double beds, a bamboo roof, fan and bathroom...all we needed really. There were also 2 hammocks swinging outside the front on the veranda which we wanted to try out later on. As soon as we dropped our gear off we walked the scenic route all the way to the beach, all of which was about 15 metres!! It was lined with palm trees and coconuts that had fallen the night previously. It was a beautiful place, white sands and clear blue, calm seas. The sand was so hot we just had to take our places on the sun loungers and order some fruit shakes to ease the pain. It didn't take us long to try the water out and it was awesome, so warm and calm...The rest of the day was taken up with pretty much the same thing, sitting in the sun getting our tan on...getting too hot...going into the sea etc etc. Then managed to get hold of a couple of beers for the sunset...

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it was pretty special!

The next day we had earmarked for more chilling as we only had half a day before. The routine followed quite consistently with the previous day except we did it for longer!! :) In the evenings there really wasn't much to do which was probably a god send as it could have really put a dent in our travelling funds. So we would usually just go for a couple of beers, maybe play a bit of pool and get beaten by the local pool shark; 'Han' who was just 17 and had the best poker face ever. I did manage to beat him once and Neil also but in between we took many losses. After that we would just go pick up another couple of beers take them back to the beach-hut and chill on the hammocks listening to tunes.

The next day we thought we should get up and do something, so for $5 per person we each hired out a moped with the intention of finding a few of the more remote beaches on the island. All of the roads were either covered in the red sand we had seen in Cambodia the day before or thick loose gravel, which obviously isn't the best road surface for road going mopeds. It made for an interesting journey though... in general it wasn't too bad except the odd lorry driver coming the other way at full speed(usually on the smaller sized roads) trying to run us off the road! We headed south down one of the main roads passing a pearl farm and a few fishermen out with their boats, the weather was great but we did have to negotiate a small storm, which luckily passed pretty quickly. We then went east looking for a particular beach that was on the map, after missing a few turnings we found our way down an even trickier, rock filled track that lead us down to the beach, it was difficult but ultimately fun. We arrived and it seemed to be a resort/beach for the locals, which wasn't a problem but their were a few people down there and we did expect a totally deserted beach. It was beautiful and very picturesque however, with long stretches of white sand, palm trees growing out over the beach towards the ocean. We saw more beach down towards our right which looked more deserted so we went back up the track and tried to find it. After about 10mins riding we came across the beach we were looking for, we stopped and had a drink, marked it on the map and thought we should head out and try find some others(so on another day we could just get to that beach and chill) today was more of a reconnosance mission.

The next beach we thought we would try out was on the other side of the island but we had covered quite a bit of distance so far so thought it wouldn't be a problem. It turned out to be quite a lot further than anticipated. Along the way we got lost a few times as the roads on the tourist map weren't too precise. At one point we came to a round about which didn't seem to exist on the map. We chose our direction and as I was pulling off I heard Neils bike revving, turned around to see, what I thought was Neil doing a donut but his wheel had just spun on all the loose gravel and he dropped the moped. It wasn't anything big, just a few scratches on the fairing and the main thing was that he was ok. He did well though, cos it looked pretty cool! After riding for about an hour we had gone through the main town 'Doung dong' 3 or 4 times trying to find this particular beach, we did however, stumble across a sign for some waterfalls, bonus!! This track was a bit more 'back country' and required a bit less throttle. We arrived after aobut 30 mins and were taken to the bottom of the falls by a friendly local guy who couldn't really speak much, if any english. Being a Sunday their were a few families at the falls, it was nothing massive but a series of smaller waterfalls cascading down super heated rocks (was another baking hot day!) we climed our way up and there were various points to stop and relax in pools that had gathered at the top of each drop off. It was a really nice place but there was quite a lot of litter left around which, if it wasn't there would have made the place really special. It was mid afternoon by this point and we still hadn't found this other 'elusive' beach yet so we didn't stay too long and headed off to try and find the other beach. Yet more riding in circles, the time was ticking on and we had to get the bikes back so we found our route and headed back to the hotel jsut in time for 'beer-o-clock' and the sunset. That evening we had seafood BBQ (whole squid and huge prawns), it was fresh from the sea that day so was really tasty, took a bit of work getting into but was awesome.

The next few days involved more of our original routine of getting up, breakfast on the beach, lounging, swimming, lounging, swimming, lunch etc...etc... beer-o-clock and the sunset. Its a tough life!! But better we did it first as you never know what could happen...luckily we lived to tell the tale.

On the boat trip over we had briefly met another aussie couple who were travelling on their way back to Oz after living in London for a few years. They just happened to be staying at the hotel next to us and we found out that Steve was a Liverpool fan(good lad!) Funnily enough we had come across an english run bar just up from the beach that showed live football, or the repeats the next day. It turned out that Liverpool were playing Chelsea in the 2nd leg of the Champions league...BIG game. We went up to the bar and got homemade pie and mash!!! I can't tell you how good that tasted after months of rice and noodles! The plan was just to ask the owner if he was going to stay up and watch the match, because of the time difference it meant the match started at 1.45am and didn't finish till after 3am. We asked him and he wasn't really up for it, shame. But our luck was in and we didn't plan it but as we were all drinking a few beers and talking for a while, we checked our watches and it had got a bit late, we asked Steph(the owner) if he wanted us to leave but as it had got that late he would stay up and watch the game...good man! It turned out to be an epic, emotional roller coaster ride of a game and many beers later I ended up leaving an unhappy guy as Liverpool lost on the aggregate score it was 4-4 on the night though...gutted, a few swigs on the bottle of jim Beam we took back with us helped a little!!

A few days passed and we talked about leaving the island to check out more of Vietnam, we were origianlly only going to stay for 3 days, it had been 5 already. So we said "ok we'll get our tickets tomorrow and go the day after". This only lasted until that eveving when we were enjoying a beer and had the most amazing sunset, I said I needed at least 1 more day, it was so chilled out and relaxing, the cost of the room was so cheap. Why leave?? So we didn't!...

The next evening we met Steve and Renee(the aussie couple) and they introduced us to Laura and Luca(a Swiss couple) and Gregg and english chap from Cambridge, we played a strange dice game with them and then went off to play some pool. Luca and Gregg were both wearing these loose fitting pyjamas... we were intrigued and it turns out they had seen an old local guy walking around with his walking cane just wearing the exact same clothing, day or night, rain or shine he would be wearing it so they thought they'd do the same. We were impressed!!(doesn't take much) so the next time we hired out the mopeds (1 day later) we went to find the shop they had been at the purchase some for ourselves! We had taken a photo of Gregg and Luca so when we got to the shop the lady there would understand what we were after. As soon as she saw the photo she gave a huge laugh, went to the back and pulled us out a pair each...sweet! That day on the mopeds we actually visited the Pearl Farm and found out how pearls are made and cultivated, very interesting stuff. Some of the jewelery they had made from the pearls was beautiful, quite expensive but I'm sure much cheaper than in the UK. That day we had the intention of finding the beach we missed the first day out. We got on the right track this time, saw a turning for what surely must have been it but didn't take it. We had seen another beach further up north so thought we could always come back that way and check it out. It turns out Phu Quoc is a little bigger than we thought, either that or the roads were that bad we couldn't go particluarly fast and as such couldn't cover as much ground as we'd hoped. Anyway we found one deserted beach on the way but wanted to go further north. the next beach must have been another hours ride away and was a secluded resort on the north west tip of the island. We stopped and had some lunch, but the beach itself wasn't that great, the fact that the weather had turned slightly and it was over cast probably didn't help. On the way up we had seen a small track of the road which looked like it led to a small lagoon. It took a bit to find it but when we actually got there it wasn't all that, and the bit we wanted to get to wasn't passable on the bikes and a bit tricky on foot so we left it to go to the original beach we were going to goto in the first place. The ride back didn't take as long, I think we were giving the throttle a bit more stick :) We turned off the road to the beach and came to antoher small town/suburb, rode through a local market which was teeming with people and other people on bikes, it was tricky to make it through and when we did we found ourselves in a familar spot in the main town! The beach had managed to evade us once more! Nevermind it was a fun day out on the bikes either way. That eveing we flexed our new pyjama style and were an immediate hit with the locals!! All the other guests were giving us strange looks as we sat down for dinner but we were so comfortable and to be honest...looked that good they were just jealous. But we did get 'props' off the locals for apparently wearing traditional attire for local Vietnamese!! We didn't see Gregg or Luca that evening but we tried some of the local rum which was really good! suffice to say we were quite merry on our way back to the hut. We were sat outside on the veranda supping on a couple of beers when 2 vietnamese guys walked past and asked if they could sit and have a beer with us, it was just before this I was ready to hit the sack, but thought may as well sit up and chat for a while. It turns out one of the guys had just got married to a girl who worked in our resort and in 5 mins he had been down to the closed restaurant where she worked and brought back a large handful of beers for us all to enjoy. His mate couldn't speak any english but could drink....alot! We managed to wake the french family up who were staying next door so we picked up the speakers and beers and headed down to the beach where we stayed for a few hours. During this time 'Nam' the vietnamese who could speak english brought us out more beers and 2 bottles of wine and some boiled eggs, the eggs were quite an strange accompianment to the alcohol but welcome all the same as we cracked them on each others heads. It was a very random night, but funny all the same, the 2 locals we met were super sound.

We spent a few more days on the island went to get our tickets out for flights on the sunday but were all booked up so we had to spend another day on the island...bugger! lol

Nha Trang and Saigon

We flew from Phu-Quoc to Hoh Chi Minh(Saigon) on a plane that only took about an hour. Sat next to us was the worst flyer we have ever met, he was 'bricking' it for want of a better phrase, I'm sure he crushed his girlfriend's hand on the way, much hyperventilating and swearing! We got a txi from the airport to the train station where we would be getting the 8 hour express train to Nha Trang. All the things people have said about the traffic in Saigon hadn't prepared us from it...it was MENTAL! I don't know how we didn't see any accidents, hoards of moped drivers crossing junctions driving headlong into cars and trucks, horns sounding every second, no attention being made to traffic lights, pedestrians crossing! It was so hectic but somehow it all seemed to work. I don't think roadrage exists over here otherwise all hell would break loose I'm sure. We got to the train station, got our ticket got the train and ended up in Nha Trang (east cost Vietnam) by 8pm. Easy peasy! After dropping our gear off in the hotel we went out for something to eat then found ourselves at a bar called 'Crazy Kims' a bar who's owner is fighting against Paedophilia in Nha Trang (as it is quite prevelent out here). It was quite a lively place, we were to find out a little later why... There was a wedding party in there comprising 38 Danish, 35 of which were females... who'd have thought it!!! As it was only our first night there they recommended a place called the Sailing Club, which is where most people go at the end of the night. The night passed without any real incident, we met a few randoms, of which one was a canadian guy who was doing organised pub crawls, the initial idea sounded good but we didn't really need any help in that department!

The next day was a late wake up and even later breakfast. We just mooched about for a bit and found one of the famous 'Bia Hoi' establishments. These places sell the local microbrewed beers and is ridiculously cheap. You could buy small jugs for 7000VND which equated to about 30p and there was almost 2 pints in the jugs!!! suffice to say we could pass without having a couple, yuo can't blame us for that. Unfortunatley that began a night that in the end we would rather forget...
we ended up on our own mini pub crawl, found a few places and met another australian called Natalie, she was travelling on her own and she joined us for the night. A few buckets and jam jars full of spirits later we ended back at the sailing club. we stayed there for a sometime and Natalie left before us. we had one more drink and thought best to leave. 10 mins down the road and suddenly out of nowhere there were 6/7 kids and a few women who were 'ladies of the night' shall we say. They were all asking for some change or if we wanted to buy anything off them, some of them were trying to hug us or grab us and they just wouldn't leave us alone. We also had the added hassle of guys on mopeds driving next to us asking if we needed a lift anywhere, they just wouldn't accept 'NO' for an answer. Because of the distraction we found ourselves in a part of town we weren't familiar with, being a little drunk it was all a little confusing. Eventually all the people just seemed to disappear, we walked for a bit longer before realising we were lost, we hopped on the nearest moped and got back to the hotel. We had read in lonely planet about the dangers of pickpockets etc and had a friend who recently had been on the wrong end of this, but after a few drinks you just end up being a bit more complacent. The long and short of it is that Neils camera was stolen from my pocket and the little blighters had also managed to get my wallet out of a buttoned pocket, emptied all the money out of it and replace it without me really knowing (if we had both been sober we would like to think we would have noticed what was going on). We only found this out the next morning!!! Not the best ending to what was another good one. Live and Learn. (this is the reason for lack of photos on this post)

The next day was a bit of a right off and the next day we spent on the beach rather than the pub, which was nice for a change! The day after was our last morning in Nha Trang and although it was a nice place and we had had a good time the whole pickpocket thing had kind of tarnished our visited there. Anyways it was another 8 hour train ride back to Saigon, which ended up being delayed by a couple of hours so we didn't get into Saigon until 9pm and reached our hotel about 9.30-10pm. we needed some food so headed out. It didn't seem quite as hectic at this time but was still lively and bustling with people, bright neon lights and music coming out from all the various bars and clubs. We turned down a random street, looked at the bar on our right and saw a familiar face... it was Stefan! (the german guy who was on our first trip in Thailand). A bit of a coincidence, so we sat down and started catching up only to find 10mins later, Doriecke (a dutch girl on the same trip in thailand) had tapped Neil on the shoulder! None of us had arranged to meet or knew we'd be there at the same time so, double coincidence which was really strange but also good to see familiar faces and we spent about an hour catching up with each other's stories.

The next day we were up at a reasonable time and went to see the war museum. Neither me or Neil knew much about the Vietnamese war apart from films we'd seen on TV etc so to find out about it and some of the images were really appauling, it was definitley an education and I have a massive respect for Vietnamese as a whole for the persecution they have endured not just from the Americans but the French before them. It was quite horrendous, but as with S-21 and the Killing Fields in Cambodia, something I'm glad I've been to see and found out more about.

Khmer Rouge & The Killing Fields

We arrived back in Phnom Penh which is a mentally busy city. It's supposed to be the 'Pearl of Asia' with bustling street markets and some of the best nightlife in Cambodia. We arrived and went for a meal at a restaurant called Friends, this is run by a Non Government Organisation that travels around the city looking for street kids and giving them life skills to try and integrate them back into society. The restaurant was run completely by street kids that had been 'rescued' and trained as chef's, waiting staff, bar staff etc. Due to the nature of the organisation it was slightly more expensive than a traditional restaurant however the food was amazing, well worth paying the little extra for good food and a good cause. After the meal we set out to find some of the amazing nightlife however only managed to find lots of bars with no one in them!! We headed to Street 104 which is supposed to be the party area to be met with a number of seedy looking places. One looked less seedy so we entered and grabbed a beer, within minutes the one other man in the bar on his own started jumping on the spot, whooping and going a bit nuts....'finish up lets move on!' In search of another decent bar we walked around and gave up before heading back to the hotel.

The next morning we visited a couple of places to learn more about the Khmer Rouge and the genocide committed by Pol Pot. After the chat with Sareth on the homestay it was something we all wanted to learn more about. First we went to S-21, this used to be a school for Cambodian Children however in 1975 Pol Pot changed it to a prison designed for detention, interrogation, torture and ultimately the killing of thousands of innocent Cambodians. Not one person who was taken to S-21 managed to get out alive!





The school was transformed into S-21 within a few days of Pol Pots regime taking power, he forced the whole population of the city into the countryside by propaganda and lies before putting up the iron and electric barbed wire fences around the schools and changing the classrooms into prison cells, 0.8m x 2m. Any body the soldiers brought back from the fields to S-21 was brutally tortured and murdered including women and children.





All prisoners were chained in the cells which had no doors, the prisoners could see there mums, dads, partners etc however if they spoke they would be killed, normally with a spade or bamboo stick after hours of torture. Even if the prisoners were asleep and wanted to turn over they had to call a guard to ask for permission. There were many torture devices around the place and stories told which are probably not what you want to read on a holiday blog so I won't go into it.

The worst and most suprising thing is that the soldiers of the regime were mainly children between 15-20 who had been brain washed into what they were doing. Pol Pot was that worried the word may get out about his acts and he was worried about an uprising he even got his own soldiers to kill each other once they had done it for a certain amount of time. In 1978 the prison held 5,765 prisoners all of which were detained for between 2-4 months of torture before being taken to the killing fields for execution. This was one of hundreds of similar prisons around Cambodia.

We arrived at the killing fields a short time later and started to have a look around. A large temple has been erected in memory which has shelf upon shelf of bones and skulls excavated from the mass graves. There are around 140 mass graves within the killing fields however only 80 have been excavated, the people of Cambodia have said it is enough, they want to forget it and move on. The graves were scattered everywhere and bits of bone still dot the walkways.










Some of the graves had been for women who had first been raped, others for soldiers who had all been decapitated with spades or razor sharp palm leaves, others for babies who had been smashed against the 'killing tree'. Again there were many more stories of torture and killings worse than this but I thought I'd put a little post on as it was and still is very difficult for Cambodia. In total over 3 million people were murdered by the Khmer Rouge regime in a country whose population wasn't very big to start with.

A few people from the Khmer Rouge regime are still in power with the new government as the new government believe if they kicked them all out another war would start and the country would descend into war, famine and utter chaos again. They have agreed to work with them and the trial of 5 of the major Khmer Rouge leaders who instigated the genocide is still going on today. To keep the peace only 5 of the top dogs are going to be trialled and punished!!!!

Anyway......off to Vietnam tomorrow in search of the elusive island of Phu Quoc. Hopefully the next post will be a little more cheery!!!!

not more beaches....!

We left the homestay all looking forward to some beach time, particularly as every morning had been far too early and the guide seemed to like getting us up. Coupled with the amount of bus work we had been doing I think it was well deserved. We arrived in Sihanoukville after about 4/5 hours on the road and as soon as we had the keys to our rooms we got changed and raced down to the beach! We weren't disappointed, the water wasn't as clear as it had been in Koh Tao and Koh Samui but was equally as warm and enjoyable. We set up camp on some loungers next to the shore and again...immediately set upon by a small lad called nick.



He was a local and was giving us some tips on how to not get our stuff stolen by some of the local kids. In a way we were trying to get rid of him as just didn't want to be hassled but he was a really good lad. He asked me my favourite colour and while i went into the water he made me a friendship bracelet which was cool. But ultimately his goal was for me to buy some of his other necklaces and bracelets. Being the fact he was so cool I obliged him and we saw him periodically throughout the day. We did get badgered alot by other kids and people trying to sell their wares which was mildly annoying, but the weather and beach was so nice it really didn't matter.

That evening we had a group meal and the food was excellent. One of the dishes which happened to be a local dish 'Amok'was served in a coconut and was basically like a creamy curry type dish. Gorgeous. After this most of us were going to head down to the beach to try out a few of the bars and music but the heavens opened and it absolutely tipped it down with rain. We thought this would be the end to our night but after about 30mins it stopped as quickly as it had started. So instead of heading to the beach, which we were told wouldn't be that great because of the rain we headed to a club called Utopia.






To my delight they were playing some old skool jungle, drum and bass and a bit of reggae. We indulged in a few drinks and later went down to the beach just to see what it was like. It turned out to be very busy, almost everybar was still open and loads of people, many travelling just like us so there was lots to talk about with lots of randoms. It was areally funny night...I ended up going back to the hotel at stupid o clock with someone while Neil and Sasha(the scouse) went for a nightime/early morning swim, climbed into a boat and watched the sunrise. I only found this out at 7.30am when I was woken by a knock at the door. It was Neil and Sasha still feeling the effects of the drink dragging me out to the beach, I found it hilarious and was still half cut myself so we hit the beach again and all got a massage and a beer!





The rest of the day was just as funny. Neil and I decided to beat the local kids at their own game and went down the beach trying to sell all of the necklaces and bracelets I stupidly bought from the all to cute kids and it was so funny, we almost had a few sales but maybe the people were just humouring us, I believe their is some video evidence of this somewhere! The rest of the day carried on in the same vein.







That evening our guide took us to a restaurant where we all tried some Porcupine, Wild boar, Black duck and Iguana. All very interesting but some not as nice as others. The biggest problem was all the small bones but was worth trying out.

The next day we were all up early again and feeling slightly worse for wear. We were to head out on a boat trip with some snorkelling, fishing and island hopping. The water happened to be very cloudy and the snorkelling equipment had seen better days so I only stayed in the water for about 2 mins and decided fishing would be a better option. The fishing involved a fishing line attached to a small empty water bottle, a hook, weight and a bit of squid for bait. Easy times!!! I was the first to catch a fish which was awesome, not very big but still successful. Unfortunately Mark and Neil didn't manage to catch anything, which was a shame as they would be cooked up for us to eat at lunch. The fish, not Mark and Neil!







After about an hour we moved on and headed for a secluded beach on another island. It was really nice, clear blue water and golden white sand. We all just crashed out when we got onto the beach, played with a football for a bit and then had BBQ for lunch and ate the few fish we caught....very tasty. We stayed for a few more hours in the afternoon. A storm was starting to come in and was about time we left anyway so we set sail back to the mainland. The sea was a lot choppier this time round but made for a more interesting voyage back. After getting back to the mainland we just found a lounger on the beach, got a drink and relaxed as it would be our last day on the beach before heading back to Phenom Penh.

Floaters

We woke feeling surprisingly good after the Angkor What? Bar challenge and grabbed some breakfast (at lunchtime I might add!!) before grabbing a Tuk Tuk to Tonle Sap Lake about 45 minutes drive from Siem Reap. We visited in dry season and the lake covered nearly 2000 sq km however, in the rainy season this can expand up to 16000 sq km making it the largest fresh water lake in SE Asia.





We were visiting a floating village on the lake called Chong Kneas where the whole population live on house boats making their living from the lake. We picked up a boat and a guide and set off up the Mekong River aiming for the lake. It was a few kilometres up the river and due to us visiting in dry season the levels were quite low in some parts, we got pushed wide on a corner by another boat fighting for the same space and ended up getting grounded on the river banks. After a couple of minutes trying to move the boat without our help the guide gave up so we all had to jump in and get it unstuck from the river bank, much to every bodies amusement passing us by in other boats.




We set off again and got to the mouth of the lake, it opened up into a huge area of water and we could see the village on the horizon. Showing us various areas of the lake and village as we approached we saw floating houses, bars, shops and even a floating basketball court!!



The guide asked if we wanted to visit the local school to which we agreed so had to stop off at a shop to by some books and pencils to take to the school. As we boarded the shop the pet monkey went for George and would have got him if it wasn't for the short lease. Not good seeing a monkey tied up in the middle of a lake but cultures etc mean they look at it differently. We bought the books and made our way to school.






As we arrived the school was just closing and the kids were going nuts running around fighting, turning over tables and just generally playing up. We boarded and handed over the books and spoke with the teacher who was just waiting for the children to be picked up. The classroom/school was about 20ft squared and they had to teach 215 children on 3 shifts throughout the day....crazy. Luckily an Australian company has just donated them a new school which is currently being built that is marginally bigger and has 2 floors which should improve the standard of education they will get. After here we floated across to the crocodile farm and grabbed a drink, a little girl had a few snakes and she hung one around Georges neck and promptly charged me a dollar for taking a picture!! Heading back down the river to the port the sun started to set and the sky lit up in incredible colours of red and yellow.....one of the most impressive sunsets we have seen and we have now seen a few.




The next morning was another early start as we started a 7 hour bus journey to Kompong Cham. Upon arrival we headed to a local persons house for lunch, it was a traditional Cambodian hut on stilts with no fan and we were sat on the bamboo floor while they brought out the food. There was plates and plates of food all of which was amazing, freshly prepared traditional food.



After the main course and fruit our host started to tell us that the area was special and renowned for a certain dish and wondered if we wanted a try. Next thing his wife was coming out with a plate full of large, hairy, fried tarantula!!!!! Our guide took a bite into one and the little boy who lived with the family was all over it, he couldn't get enough of them.



It took a while but some people tasted little bits and I had a leg, honestly it tasted like pork crackling. Nice but I still couldn't bring myself to eat any more! Next was the special whisky.......a huge jar of whiskey full of tarantulas! We couldn't be rude so had to give it a go, tasted a bit like Raki and was extremely strong.



After drinking it the guy said he can't drink it straight, he has it with coke as he is a Tuk Tuk driver and people won't get in his Tuk Tuk if he has a red face and is driving in zig zags.

The next morning we had another long bus journey to Kampong Speu in the Cham Bok Commune where we were spending the night living in a village in the middle of no where with a local family.





During the day we were all sat around having a laugh and joke and then Sareth our guide started to talk about the Khmer Rouge regime and for a good hour nobody said a word, just listened. What this country has been through in the not so distant past was very, very dark and the stories he told about how close him and his family were to getting killed were shocking, a sobering moment for everybody listening. A little later the food cooked for us by the female villagers was brought out and again it was really good. The drinks were given out and we all sat chatting around the tables at the community hall before heading back and playing cards in our hut. That night it absolutely chucked it down with rain for a solid 4-5 hours, it was still really hot and humid and the tin roof made it impossible to sleep through the racket so not much sleep was gotten...again!!

Across the Border

After returning to Bangkok on another overnight train from Koh Tao, we were all a little tired and sad that we had left the beaches. we checked into the hotel and went out for some breakfast. We whiled away the day waiting for Mark to arrive, as he'd be coming through Cambodia with us. He arrived about 6pm and we got our glad rags on and went out to show him a bit of Bangkok. That night we introduced him to the marvel of eating bugs and insects, beer towers and buckets and the delights of Gullivers ( a western style bar at the end of Khaosan Road).







Unfortunately this was the fateful night I would lose my camera!! booooooo. I think the only way I survived the trauma is the fact that I have been reading about and exploring the Buddhist inside me (not literally of course)!!

The group we would be doing this trip with was a quite a bit different from the last one as there was an Australian family (mum, dad and young daughter) and also 2 older australian sisters. It was just a surprise as we just expected more people of the same age. Later on we would meet a few of them as they would be meeting us in Siem Reap (home of Angkor Wat).

The first day was a long minivan trip out to the Thai/Cambodian border. It was super hot and we had to lug our huge bags around with us for about an hour while we went through all the checks and checkpoints before finally making it though.



Already the country seemed different to Thailand, as expected it isn't as developed as Thailand but still the people were equally friendly. There was another long bus ride to the hotel in Siem Reap, so by the time we got there we were all tired and starting to smell just a bit! We sorted ourselves out and went out for group dinner where they had free Apsara dancing, which is traditional Cambodian dancing. Most of it was done by the girls and a few lads too. Different dancing depicting different aspects of daily lives or particular events, like a wedding for example. We all headed back for a respectable early night as we were all pretty shattered.

Angkor Wat
Our guide Sareth had organised a tour for Angkor Wat but we all decided that we would rather just explore it ourselves, which proved to be the best option as we later found out it was a rather rushed and over involved tour hopping on and off the bus being carted around etc.

Our plan involved more sweating but but ultimately was much more enjoyable. We hired bikes out from Siem Reap and rode to Angkok Wat, this must have been about 7/8km and was another hot day.



As soon as we arrived we were surrounded by men and women, girls too, trying to sell us water and guide books, postcards....you name it, they were trying to sell it! Eventually we made it past them and headed into the main temple. This was one of the highlights of the trip for all of us and it was really impressive. Unfortunately because some people had hurt themselves on the steps going up the temple, they had been closed off so we couldn't go up. We had a wander around and its hard to imagine how these structures were built with so much precision and the detail on every wall was incredible and to such a high standard.










Ta Keo
This was the next Temple within the whole Angkor Wat 'complex'. Again very similar in style but smaller. This one we were allowed to walk up, and the steps were incredibly steep and seemed even more so on the way down.





It was really nice to be away from the rest of the group to be honest and just do our own thing, so we just took as much time as wanted and moved on. Each of the temples was a 2/3km apart as the whole area is immense. You can buy a special 3 day ticket if you are into temples and want time to see it all! When we got to the top of this temple there was a little girl trying to sell postcards and braclets, she tried every trick in the book to get me to buy some, even turning on the water works, I felt so bad for not buying some but I had already been duped into buying some postcards I didn't want when we first reached Angkor Wat.



It turns out i'm a magnet for this sort of thing and it didn't stop all day. I think my technique for getting rid of them was bad as Neil and Mark didn't really seem to have too much of a problem. All of the kids were so cute though it was hard to say no.

Ta Prohm
This was another one of the temples we definitely wanted to see as it has been made famous by the film 'Tomb Raider'. It has also been shown in many other things(can't remember what now but i know it has so you'll have to take my word for it! :)). the pictures will probably do it more justice than I can, but it was just mad how the trees have grown and become part of the stone work... roots and branches weaving their way though and ultimately breaking much of the structure itself.







Quite a lot of it had fallen down and when we arrived there was many people working on different sections to rebuild/restore it. Unfortunately the camera battery was running a little low so we couldn't get all the photos we wanted from here as we needed to save some for the sunset.

Bayon
This was another famous/popular temple as on almost every spire (and there were a lot) it had faces carved into the stone, the face was of the king at the time. This was the busiest of all the temples we had been to so far and we had been surprised at how few people there were there. It was empty but we though it would be ram packed and difficult to get some nice photos. The architecture and workmanship that had gone into everything was just immense and probably the most impressive thing about it all.







We also went to see another temple which was made just for the king, he had 234 wives and as such the swimming pool for the men was smaller than the swimming pool for the women (interesting fact 1). Time was pushing on and after bumping into the rest of our group we headed off back to Ta Keo as out of all of the temples we thought the sunset would be best seen here.

As we headed back I jokingly said last one there is a 'loser', just thinking Mark and Neil would not take the bait I didn't make any effort to speed up until I saw both of them tear past me. this proved to be a massive mistake as by the time we all made it to the temple we were sweating buckets!!! I did win though, just for the record! Forgetting we had to climb a million massive steps, we eventually made it to the top with about an hour to go before sunset. We were hoping for something spectacular, but it wasn't to be. It had been sunny all day but quite hazy and by the time sunset came round the sun disappeared behind a band of clouds. we thought it best to head back before it was pitch black and we had to navigate both the steps on the way down and the unlit, unfamiliar roads around the complex to get home. On the way back my chain came off which was a bit of a pain as I ended up covered in grease, but we did see Angkor Wat lit up and it looked amazing. The huge lights changed colour and really brought it to life. The ride back was interesting to say the least. The roads were so dark as there wasn't any street lighting, riding on the wrong side of the road took a little bit to get used to but the biggest thing was navigating the junctions. This just seemed to be a free for all, we just decided to go for it, keep our eyes peeled and we survived. This seemed to be the way everyone approached the junctions and somehow it worked, cars, mopeds, pedestrians all criss-crossing over some huge junctions and no injuries!


Angkor What?
For the evening we had planned to check out a famous bar called Angkor What? where you can get a free t-shirt if you successfully finish 2 buckets full of spirits and redbull!







Never one to back down from challenge we all stepped up. People always say its a small world and funnily enough we proved that again as the guy i was sharing a room with had been travelling round the world for 3 months and lives in Roundhay (15 min taxi ride out of Leeds city centre). Originally a Scouser he was a really funny bloke and we ended up heading out with him. As you can imagine after consuming 2 buckets worth of caffeine and alcohol we were all in a funny state, combine that with a few more beers, we definitely deserved the t-shirts. Some how I managed to end up in a kerfuffle with the so called owner of the bar! According to all the bystanders it wasn't my fault...honest!!

The next morning I was shown various pictures and video of how i was used as a human game of Buck-a-Roo after i had passed out!!! much to my amusement