Entry No.12 by Clare

Day 125- We took a taxi to Siam square and walked around a few malls. We visited China Town later,  full of Jewellers and took a taxi to Khao San for a look around the market area. Later we found some nice food at a place called Ethos, they sold Hummus and Falafals it was really good. We left for Pattaya the following morning only to find it was impossible to find reasonable priced accomodation (as this point we didn't really have any knowledge of Pattaya's rep) we had to settle for a room for about 11 pounds (cheapest by far in town) in a motel which sold room in 3 hour slots and the room was covered in mirrors and had a price list on the wall for different condoms, beer and lubricant, lovely. In the evening we found a bar which had a really good live band playing western covers called 'Tattoo Bar' with a nice atmosphere which made up for it. We went to check out the beach about 12pm the next day (full of fat white tourists) and we read and swam for a few hours. Food was equally as expensive so we had to hunt around for a bit of food afterwards and we went to 'Tattoo Bar' again for the evening. We went to another part of the beach the next day where they charge tourists an extortionate amount for jet skiis and relaxed there for the day, later we watched lots of football at the 'Heineken Bar' with Brighton winning against Portsmouth in the FA Cup Josh was vey happy. We left Pattaya in the morning for Rayong, we hadn't researched to much as our Lonely Planet didn't even have it listed but we had heard it is very peaceful. Once arriving we had to get a map and then find out to get to our guest house on the beach about 10km out of the town. When we arrived to the 'Reggae Guesthouse' there was a note that the gone out and to watch a DVD until they get back, so we did. Once you get out of Rayong centre its a quiet sea front with a handful of small shops and about 20 tourists there at any time, it was also very beautiful. Our room once checked in for 350Baht had a massive balcony over looking the ocean and was hand painted with lots of Reggae designs, the first night we stayed in. After a lie in we caught a bus into the main town to get some food supplies for the next few days from the big Tesco. We bought bread, peanut butter, plastic cheese, few snacks and drink. After returning we went for a really nice swim in the sea, warm clear water and the beach is so quiet you get your own section. We relaxed on our balcony with a few beers in the evening. The next day we spent relaxing on the beach reading, swimming, reading, swimming, it was nice. Our guest house had a BBQ in the evening, we didn't eat at but we joined after for a few drinks with the other guests and Jono the Manager from Exeter. In the morning we wanted to visit the fruit and veg market, we walked about 4km but couldn't find it so we walked back. We realised we hadn't walked quite far enough (most people get the bus there) so we went for another swim and after we caught the bus there and brought some juicy pineapple. We also stopped in on a schools sports day opposite and watched the kids playing a football match (with the school's permission). The evening we watched a DVD with Jono and the German guy. We got up early to leave the guesthouse to catch a bus back to Bangkok. We arrived at 3pm and had to first collect our Indian Visas. We couldn't find a cheap enough room in the area so we headed back to Khao San Road area back to the guesthouse we stayed last time. We had some dinner and had to book our flights to India, we then brought some new books and postcards to send home and read in the guesthouse lobby. The next morning we sent out our postcards and found out pricing to send our package home. We found out the flight was cancelled (stressful) so had to try and find another, we did and sadly 50 pounds more each. We went to our guesthouse and collected everything to send home and went back to the Post Office. On our way back we got some Rupees and got some food. We went for a little look around the markets before dark and went back to watch 'Inglourious Basterds' in our guesthouse. Today we have just been out around Siam square, MBK, Central World and Paragon. We both brought some really cool headphones for about 4 pounds each and are going to watch some football in a little while.

Entry No.11 by Clare

Christmas day,we woke and went to read in our hotel raft restaurant which over looks the beautiful river. Later we wondered out for Christmas Lunch, Josh had Pineapple Rice and i had Green Curry Soup. We went to call home at stuff after. We went and played some pool after. The evening our guest house held a small party for the guests with free buffet dinner and festive music. We stayed for a while then headed out to the bar street and had some cheap whiskeys. Boxing day we had a bit of a lads day. We watched football, played cards and when to the river Kwai and relaxed there for the afternoon. The following day we visited the Bazaar, we got up too late to visit the Erawin Waterfalls as we had wanted so we went for a big walk for few hours. In the evening we sat on a swing bench by the river and relaxed. We got up really early the next day and caught the local bus to the waterfall. It cost about 1 pound for 65km. The waterfalls were really nice, 7 in total all at different levels. Josh went in one which had a cool big rock people use as a slide. I didn't go in as the fish in there nip at you and it doesn't feel very nice. We walked all the way to the last one throughout the day around 2km i think. In the evening we found a cheap restaurant called Tofu Bar, it was good tofu. We left Kanchanaburi the next morning for Ayutthaya. It took 4 hours and 2 buses for about an 8th of the price most tourists pay for a minibus. We arrived and found guest houses expensive. When we found a cheap enough room it was getting a bit late we decided to stay one night and find a new room tomorrow as it wasn't really nice. We went out for an explore and it had got dark. We were walking down a main street and we heard a noise but before we knew it a big dog came up behind me and bit my leg! It was a shock, we hadn't even seen it coming. We crossed the road to some street lamps and it looked a little deep so we decided not to take any risks and go to a local doctor or the hospital. Luckily we found a clinic about 2 minutes walk away and it had an English speaking doctor. I had to have a booster rabies, the doctor thought as i have had all my jabs and it didn't seem to bad, i was going to be OK without anymore medication. He gave me 4 days of tablets and cleaned it up. 16 pounds i thought was cheap and no messing around, hopefully the Insurance will cover. We went back for the night after this. The next day we found a better place to stay with a TV! we went looking for boat and canoe prices for the lake around the island. After we found a Mall, the first one I've seen in Thailand and a market surrounding it. We met a few locals and hung out with them in the afternoon and evening. We also met 2 guys from England, they were fun, Richard and Wez from Birmingham. We went sight seeing the next day (New years eve) around the temples, an elephant rescue park and to a big market complex this was really fun. We hired a dodgy tuk-tuk driver who tried to charge us almost 3 times the price he quoted. When we arrived back, our street is setting up a big street party for the evening. Live music stages, Balloons it looked good. Our hotel were holding a party with free food and drink for 6pm.We started our night there. After we went out to the street and watched an acoustic duet on the big stage. We moved to the street lamp bar where they had a full band playing English covers, other singers joined in and also band members changed. This bar was full of local young people and a few tourists. We had a great night there, met loads of nice people from Thailand and Germany it was a great New Years eve. New Years Day we didn't rise until around 2pmish. today was relaxed naturally. The following day we caught a bus to Bangkok. We headed straight to Khao San Road. Rooms are a lot more expensive here. Bangkok looks really good although full of tourists, more than anywhere else by far. We went for an explore which took a good few hours. Markets everywhere, massive shopping malls, street bars, food everywhere, on the streets you can buy any kind of license or degree. Get tattoos, dreadlocks, braids, piercing and of course beer vests. The first night was watched football in a small bar. Oh and ping pong show offers as soon as its dark. We went out the next morning by taxi hoping to visit some museums, we got out at the area and ended up spending about 6 hour it a massive mall. It was incredible, so big. I took so long to walk around. Josh brought a game boy which has about 500 games on it, it will be really good for journeys as our ipod charger is broken so no music for now. We also visited the stadium. Kids playing sports everywhere, boy/girl band rehearsals, break dancing groups, such a cool place where local kids can go. We returned back to our guest house and watched movies in the lobby/restaurant all night. Today we had to get up really early and go to the Indian Embassy. It was such a hassle to sort out our visas, at least 2 hours of faffing. After we caught the sky train to Victory Monument and walk to a large park area. There was a Zoo there for 2 pounds so we went. It was really good but sadly no pandas but we did see lots of penguins, they were really cool. and here we are now about to spend our third night in Bangkok!

Entry No.10 by Josh

Our second day in Luang Prabang was just an exploration day really. We woke up fairly early to try to find ourselves some cheaper accommodation, but even dorm beds in a hostel were 6 dollars each, and finding nothing even as cheap as what we were paying, we decided to stay where we were. We went and got some street food for breakfast, and just did little bits and bobs, like book exchanging and walking around looking at what is around the town. Then as we were walking we saw a couple who we had shared a tuk-tuk with from the bus station from the night before. We arranged to meet up with them the next morning and share a ride and go to the waterfalls together, which is about 25km outside the centre of Luang Prabang. That evening we went to a bar where they were hosting a free ethnic fashion show and a hip hop dance group were peforming after. We ended up staying there until it was closing up, and both the shows were good fun. It was a little bit expensive for drinks, but we made sure we got the best deals by drinking LaoLao, which is like a locally made whisky, at around 50% strength. It tastes rough, buts it is drinkable as part of a cocktail. We had the same problem that night, as we did with every night in Luang Prabang, the town closes at around 11pm so we just had to make do with buying beers from a supermarket and taking them back to our room. The following morning we got a bit to eat before meeting up with Kristof and Alix, the couple who we had arranged to meet. They were a really nice couple from Belgium on a 3 week holiday in Thailand, Laos and Hong Kong, who we ended up spending practically all day with. We got a tuk-tuk to the waterfalls and spent a few hours there climbing to the top (anti-climax because there was no amazing view at the top like we had hoped for) before going back down the same way and going for a swim. The waterfalls were beautiful and really refreshingly cold, definately worth going to. There is also a Moon Bear sanctuary we had a look around next to the waterfalls, before getting the tuk-tuk back to the centre. When we got back Alix and Clare wanted a foot massage so Kristof and I left them doing whatever you do when you egt a massage and we went off to find a nice bar. When we got back we arranged to meet up later for some dinner, and reserved a table in a restaurant called 'Tamarind Cafe' that the other guys knew about. We met them there in the evening and the food was really good there. It had a really good veggie selection and it was Laos style dining, where you make balls of sticky rice in your hand and dip them into different dishes, not using any cutlery at all. We had a really good night and by the time we left, the town was shutting down so we went back to our rooms. Kristof and Alix were leaving to go to Thailand the next day so we didn't see them again, but we exchanged details so maybe we will meet them somewhere again. The next day we booked our bus tickets for the next day to Chiang Mai, which was a lot more expensive than we thought it would be, but still cheaper than the other choices of slow boat or fast boat. We spent our last full day in Luang Prabang visiting a temple on the hill, with the best views of the city, where we also released a caged bird as a good luck symbol.  We went to the museum but didn't end up going inside because the entry fee was a little bit much, so we just walked around the grounds and sneaked into the side buildings and managed to see the vintage car exhibit without paying anything. In the evening we decided to go to the Luang Prabang Film Festival, which coincidentally was going on for a week and for the whole time we were there. It is completely free and open air in the centre of town, surrounded by cheap beer tents and street food. We had watched half of one of the films a few days ago and it was alright but we looked at the lineup and wanted to watch the Malaysian film called 'Talentime', that they were showing that night. We found a street vendor selling veggie food buffet style, where you can have a bowl for about 80p and just have as much as you can cram onto it. So we topped up with overflowing plates before going to watch the film. We caught the end of a terrible Lao film called 'From Pakse with Love' which the locals found hilarious but for us, it was really bad. But Talentime was pretty good, but didn't finish until about midnight so we had no chance to do anything after that.
The next morning after checking out we dropped off our bags at a travel agents and had time to kill before our bus to Chiang Mai at 6pm, and spent the day going to a few cafes and reading, and looking around the markets. Then at 6pm we got on the bus and had the worst journey of my life. It was a 14 hour trip to the border, even though we only covered about 250km in that time. It was overnight but the roads in Laos are terrible so it just makes everyone feel sick and the 5 foreigners on the bus couldn't sleep all night. Somehow the locals can sleep through anything though so they were Ok. We were seated at the front of the bus and they had wedged loads of water bottles in our leg room so we already had the worst seats on the bus apart from the girl on the other side whose chair was broken. Being a gentleman, I offered to swap seats with her but I didn't realise how much worse the other seat would be. The driver now in front of me was chain smoking all night and my head was now directly next to a loud speaker blaring out Thai music non-stop all night. On top of this I was feeling sick and used all the plastic bags we had as sick bags that for the second half of the journey I was reusing the same bag again and again. The journey really was horrible, and between me and Clare, we probably managed about 2 hours sleep put together. When we arrived at the border town at about 8am we then had to queue at customs before getting a small boat over to the Thai side of the river. It was such a relief to be off the bus but we still had another 5 hours journey to get to Chiang Mai, which was pretty daunting. I was feeling better now and my body was completely empty so I wasn't being sick anymore but we had to wait until half 10 before a minibus picked us up. In comparison, it was an amazing journey, and 5 hours seemed like nothing, but we were both knackered and it was a relief to get to Chiang Mai. When we got off we just both needed sleep and looked for the cheapest gusethouse we could find. We eventulally found one for 200 Baht (about 4 squid) and thinking it was better to wait a bit until it was dark before crashing out we explored around the city for a few hours. We went to a veggie cafe (Chiang Mai is full of vegetarian places) and Clare had a nice Thai curry, but I wasn't up to eating. We slept around 15 hours that night. The following say we wanted to find a new guesthouse because our room was right next to street works and if we weren't in the state we were in, then surely we wouldn't have slept that night. We found one not oo far away for 250 Baht and it was much cleaner and generally nicer so we ended up staying tehre through all of our time here. Then we spent the day looking at what to do. We found a nice vegetarian cafe that donates all of its profits to Burmese refugees, so that was quite nice, and really cheap as well. That evening, we spent 4 hours in a huge market that is held every Sunday. It was probably the best market we haev been to so far and we bought a few little things. I got Joel a really good Christmas present, but I wont say what it is on here, and also bought some other bits. Went out for quite a few drinks that night, and spent a lot more than we have been used to, but we went to some good bars, and I watched some Premier League football (when Chelsea played Tottenham and Drogba missed an injury time penalty) for the first time in weeks. The next day we alked to the museum with hangovers only to find out that the museum does't open on Mondays so we spent the rest of teh day looking at what to do for the rest of our days here. We booked a day trip doing various things, and also booked oursleves onto a vegetarian cooking class. Also made some other plans. We also discovered another cafe that sort of became our local, and where I had the best veggie burger in my life and Clare had the best salad in her life. That evening we went to see some Thai boxing (Muay Thai). There were 8 fights and we had really good seats, I lost 200 Baht stupidly betting with a local guy, and there were womens fights, kids fights, title fights, International fights (English guy and Swiss guy fightin Thai guys) and also a special fight with 4 blinfolded boxers in the ring together. It was a really fun night and the first time either of us have ever seen live Boxing or Thai boxing. The next day we got a tuk-tuk to the 'Tiger Kingdom', a tiger conservation centre which ahs about 30 tigers in, from all ages. The tigers are well looked after and not drugged, like some people say about other places. It wasn't cheap but was a rare oppurtunity so we paid to be allowed into the enclosures with the Tigers. We got some amazing photos of us feeding the small tigers and playing with 6 week old tigers. We also chose to go in with the biggest ones they have. It was pretty scary at first but you get used to it, the tigers normally just sleep during the day and they aren't taken from the wild so they are used to humans. I even spooned the tiger, romantic. After the Tiger Kingdom, we went to a snake farm. As soon as we got in, they put huge snakes around our necks without any warning and then practically forced me to hold a huge scorpion. It was a small place but run by a guy who is in one of the Rambo films, so there are photos of him with Sylvester Stallone around the place. Then they had a snake show, where a nutter was basically just winding up snakes as big as 6 metres and he had paralysed some fingers from snake bites. Then just round the corner there was an insect farm so we thought we might as well go there as well. It was really tame in comparison to what we had been doing all morning but they did have some huge stick insects you could hold and a nice little butterfly farm as well. The driver tried to get us to see the funny monkey show, but as we got there, the monkeys were in tiny cages and didn't look very well treated so we didn't want to go there. Instead we went to a centre that does extreme sports, run by a Kiwi. We didn't fancy the bungee jumping or anythying because its a really simulated environment, dipping into a swimming pool at the bottom. But we agreed that if we are going to do something like that we would rather do it with better surroundings and less Aussies around trying to prove how 'Extreme' they are. We were thinking of going 'Zorbing' (look it up) there but it was too pricey for only 15 minutes worth. Back in the centre we spent the evening at the night market. It was Ok but nowhere near as good as the Sunday market so didn't stay that long.
The following day we had our day trip booked so we got up early and went for our free breakfast that we had haggled as part of booking the tour. The day started with a group of 9 of us being taken to an Orchid and butterfly which were alright but nothign special, then we were taken to a car park before having an hours trek up to a waterfall. It was a shallow waterfall and not the best we have seen, but still nice to have a swim in and it did look quite impressive. After walkign back down the same route we got back in the jeep and taken to go white water rafting for 45 minutes. It was really fun actually and afterwards we had to get off our raft and move onto a bamboo raft. The bamboo raft was really slow and we had no influence on direction, as we had a guide who was controlling. It was boring and you are sitting in water so you get really wet but it was only 15 minutes long so it was alright. Afterwards we got taken to a lodge to do some elephant riding. There were only 4 elephants there so one guy had to sit on an elephants head, but I didn't volunteer, it looked really dodgy. The elephant riding was a strange experience. It wasn't very comfortable and you feel like you were going to fall off and it doesn't seem like the elephants are very happy. The trainers (mahouts) were quite rough with them using sharp sticks to control them and they pulled their ears quite hard as well, even though one was pregnant and making noises, probably in distress. They also threatened the elephants with stones in a slingshot. The ride was about half an hour and the track was up a mountain and down again, which didn't look very easy for the elephants either. It wasn't very enjoyable because the whole time we both just ended up feeling guilty about how they were being treated. I think because we had found a cheap tour (about 15 quid for the whole day) they had a deal with a badly run elephant camp. It is a shame because there are apparently a lot of good elephant centres where they look after them properly. I don't think we will do it again now, we felt too bad after that time. The next day we went to the museum, which was quite fun, it was a really good exhibit, its just that Chiang Mai doesn't have a particularly interesting history so it seems like a waste of a good museum. That afternoon we had the cooking class. We got to choose 9 dishes between us and cook them with a teacher called 'Poo'. It was fun but it dragged on a bit and cooking isn't my thing at all, but Clare had a really good time. After the class we tried to eat all the food we made but got about half way through before giving up. We felt a bit special when they gave us a ceretificate for passing the class, and gave us a recipe book for the dishes we had made. To be fair, the food was really good and I actually I did learn quite a lot. We had a day of resting and visiting markets the next day and a half but in the evening of that second day we went to the night safari about 10km out of town. It was amazing, but I would describe it as more of a zoo than a safari. We arrived early and did the 'Jaguar Trail' where you walk around and see loads of enclosures with different animals in. We saw loads fo animals, like Tigers, Lions, White Tigers, White Lions, Leopards, Hippos, Crocodiles, Jaguars and loads more. Then later we went on the 'Savannah' safari for half an hour, and that was the best bit. There were loads more animals, like Bears and stuff, and we got to feed Zebras, Giraffes, Wild Hogs and Deers. It was really good, and because it was late, the animals are a lot more lively. The second Safari was the 'Predator Prowl', which had Tigers, Elephants and Hyenas and stuff but wasn't as good because they were further away from the vehicle because they are more dangerous obviously. There was then a water and laser show in the lake which we stayed for before leaving. At one point, we were standing around and someone told us to stand back. Not knowing what it was for we casually moved back a bit and then turned round to see a white tiger coming straight towards us, only being held by his tail, on no chain or anything. After shitting our pants scared, we went back to the centre of town. The next morning we got oursleves to the bus station and got a 6 hour bus southwards to Phitsanulok. After arriving and finding somewhere to stay we walked around town and found a good Night Bazaar. We couldn't find anything to eat in town as there aren't many tourists there so bars and restaurants don't really exist. We ended up eating snacks from 7/11. The next day we went to the local Folk-lore museum, which was quite fun, then went to a Buddha statue making factory and an Aviary which had some huge birds in small cages, so we didn't stay there for very long. After spending another day there relaxing, using some local bars on the riverfront, and even going to floating bars where we are the only ones drinking beer (everyone else drinks blended spirits with soda), we decided to move on to our next destination. We wanted to go to Kanchanaburi next which is where we are spending Christmas but this means going via Bangkok so we spent most of the next day on buses or at bus stations before arriving in Kanchanaburi at around 8pm. This town is famous from the film and is where you can walk on 'the bridge on the river Kwai'. After having some drinks when we arrived, we found a bar called 'get pissed for 10 Baht' where we stayed and spent a lot more than 10 Baht. That was last night anyway, and today we have spent the day going to different museums dedicated to the POWs that worked here and we also visited the cemetry where most of the bodies are. Then we walked to the bridge itself and walked across the death railway on it, which was interesting. Its Christmas eve here now and it doesn't feel anything like it probably does in England. Occasionally there is someone wearing a Santa hat but that is about as Christmassy as it has got for us. Tomorrow we will try to make it feel festive but we are not sure how yet.

Entry No. 9 By Clare

Day 83, We left for Na Hin early by bus, we had to catch two buses to the nearest bus stop from the town and we luckily got a free lift from there (40km from the town) by a man who had a guest house. We politely stayed as he had been kind and also stopped at a beautiful view point of the mountains on the way too. We found a small market, lots of empty guest house's and not much else. We found the tourist info, all the trips they arrange seemed to be very pricey. We decided we would sleep on it and think about it tomorrow. We deciding the following day to visit a waterfall, 3km walk each way through the jungle, we swam and it was very peaceful with no other people there. We left Na Hin the following day. The guest house tried to charge us 50,000kip for our 'free' lift but we refused. We arrived in Vientiane after about 6 hours by bus. It was really touristy and quite expensive. We spent $10 on a room but it was quite nice, really clean but no TV and shared bathroom. In the evening we just went for a little explore and a drink. We walked out to the market, its really really big and sell everything you can image. We found a locals restaurant which is veggie and for 20,000kip you can get all the veggie food you can image, amazing. We went to a book exchange and got a really good deal of $5 per book so we walked away about $13 dollars richer and 2 new books. We went to the stadium and found a girls football match about to begin so we stayed and watched. They had linesman and everything, took it really seriously. The stretcher was used 7 times. The end score was 11-0. In the evening we went to an English pub and watched the Man U-Blackburn match. We visited the National History Museum, it wasn't so interesting. We went to the famous Arc afterward and got some beautiful photo's over Vientiane. I send another bundle of postcards also. We found a really crappy bowling alley and the lane was really uneven. Needless to say we both did really badly, the winning score about 70 points. We also played pool at the bowling alley. We had to sort out our Thai visas on Monday morning, this took about 2-3 hours waiting and just spent the rest of the day reading and playing cards. We had to go back the next day to collect our visas which took equally as long. Later we went along the riverfront visiting local shops, seeing lots of people selling fabrics and handicrafts. We left for Vang Vieng the next morning. The bus took about 8 hours. When we arrived in took a while to find a cheap room but we got one for 30,00kip (under $4) and went out for some drinks. Vang Vieng is full of bars and restaurants. We ended up having quite a lot to drink and I
went to bed very early. Josh went out for dinner in a restaurant nearby that plays family guy all day. The following day we went tubing. I felt pretty bad so didn't drink too much all day. (Tubing is when you are given a doughnut ring and float down the river for about 6km being pulled in by bars along the way. lots of spray paint, loud music, water slides and swings). It was really fun, we met lots of cool people, you have to finish by 6pm to get a deposit back so we just went to a local bar after. We did miss the 6pm deadline by ten minutes also. The next day we relaxed by the riverfront most of the day, reading and paddling. We booked a day trip for tomorrow too. We went for a day trip to a local cave first which we went tubing through it in a group of about 15 people about 15km from town, then had a really nice lunch of vegetable kebabs and rice. After we drove to the riverfront and went kayaking for the afternoon about 10km. We stopped half way at one of the tubing bars for a drink and some people went on the slides etc, it was a really fun day and Josh and I were the fastest kayaks by a mile. We went tubing again for our second time the next day. This time was much better for both of us. We went by tuk-tuk with a group and mainly stayed with them for the day. We played mud volleyball, went to some really cool bars and got back by 6pm this time. We went out after for a few more drinks and dinner after. The next morning I woke up early to get Josh and I bus tickets to Luang Prabang for that morning. We left at 10am and its only just over 200km distance but it took over 8 hours because the road are in such bad condition, you just travel on the edge of the mountains most of the time and the air-con didn't work so it was really hot. We found a room after about an hour of looking around, everywhere is really expensive, $30+. We managed to find a Twin-bedded room for $10 which was good enough. We went out for an explore and looked around the market, its really nice handicrafts, fabrics, jewellery, clothing and foods. It got to around 10.30pm and everything had closed. We later found out that its illegal not be within the property you live in after 12am for locals and they get heavily fined for having bars etc open later. We went back to our room then after.

Entry No. 8 by Clare

We visited The Angkor Temples, the main five. We spent most of the day climbing and walking around, they were huge beautiful stuctures. They were so touristy it was hard to take a good photo, we had to sneak off around the backs were nobody seems to go. This was our last day in Siem Reap, we booked a bus for the next day to Kratie. After our 5.30am alarm we got our bus, we took about 9 hours in total after a swap to a minibus half way through (really bumpy ride). Kratie is a riverside town, with narrow streets and a big market. We got ourselves a room and rested for the evening. The following day we got on a trip to visit the Irrawaddy Dophins, which cost us $10 each, we set off at 7am, tuktuk to the riverfrot & a boat from there. The trip was overall quite dissapointing, we hardly saw any dolphins and were back by 10am. We napped and went to the market, brought some pineapple and some rice and beans in a bamboo stick with a little coconut juice (a local speciality) and booked a bus to leave for Ban Lung. We watched a beautiful sunset that evening (see my facebook photos) with a beer, it was lovely. Once we arrived in Ban Lung Josh had been feeling sick all morning on the bus. We arrived at this hotel around 6pm called 'Star' it seemed ok at first for a $5 room, but we started to notice it was really dirty, ants all over the bathrooms, lots of cockroaches crawling in under the door, flys etc it was really horrible. Early the next morning Josh was feeling worse (D&S) so I went out to find a new hotel to swap to, I found one for $8 but it was so much nicer. Josh stayed in bed all day so I went an explored the market, which was so cheap, a bunch of bananas for 20p and I went off the look at tour offices. This town was very prone to powercuts which was bad for Josh stuck in the room. The next day Josh was a little better, I took him to have some food early morning and to check out some treks I'd found. Josh starting feeling bad again so he went back to the room for the day. We had some rice in the evening and just played cards. Josh was a little better the next day so we went for a big walk around the town, lots of sports being played by the locals, volleyball and bowls mainly. We relaxed for the rest of the day as we had an early start for our trek. The first day of our trek started at 8am, we went off with our trekking bags from a jeep ride to a boat to the first villiage. We were also with an Austrian journalist there to do a piece on rural villiages in Cambodia. We trekked through the forest for about 6 hours to a waterfall, stopping for lunch and water breaks. Josh and I were with a ranger, an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier, who lived near the jungle and a tour guide. We had a beautiful waterfall all to ourselves, it was so clear and we swam as soon as we arrived. Our tour guide cooked us dinner on a fire, we went to bed in our hammocks about 8pm. I was a bit ill in the night and didn't sleep well in a hammock, Josh was OK. We had a really hard start to the trek, up a mountain, it was so hard to walk. After this we walked a further 5 to 6 hours through the jungle to a village where we slept in a storage shed belonging to a farming family. We slept in our hammocks again but made them into tents, another early night. The final day was a lot easier, we visited a dam made in The Khmer Rouge era to force the farmers to try to continue farming all year round. We then visited a mass grave of the village from the Khmer Rouge era, where around 100 bodies were found. After we trekked to the centre of the village and visited the local primary school, cemetry and meeting room. The population is 1300. We had lunch in a locals house and got a boat to another village. The buildings were quite different here, more land also. We walked in on a local celebration, drunken Cambodians everywhere singing and swaying. We left back for the town after. One of the tour guides saw a small puppy on the road and stole it to have as his own, it was really cruel but is the kind of thing that hapens all the time there. The next day we wanted to get money out and the ATM's didn't accept our cards (all mastercard) and we only had about $46. We we planing on leaving the next day for Laos as our visas run out and go to Don Det, a small Island. But they don't have ATM's so we have to get a bus to Pakse, further up and miss the Islands, after paying for our bus we had only a few dollars, so we walked 8km to a lake which was lovely and clean and we swam. After we returned we spent almost our remaining money on some beer, bad priorities. The following day we got up, got on the bus and stopped for an hour at Stung Treng and got to the Laos border about 2pm, paid the stupid stamp fees and had to wait there until almost 6pm for our bus to Pakse. The man who worked there all seemed a bit dodgy but friendly and we tried to teach them card games but they didn't understand. When our bus arrived we were really happy, then we were told it was full and we had to get into the luggage compartment (under the bus). It was really uncomfortable, already had 3 people in and they said in 15 minutes it reaches Don Det, so we thought we would get a seat then. We arrived, the three got out and then another 3 girls and a man and his son got in, we had another 2 hours to go. It was horrible, the other girls were complaining explaining they had spent more money than the locals and didn't get a seat. The drivers assistant was just getting rude and threatening to throw us all off. We arrived and walked for about 90mins looking for a guest house. Everywhere was full becasue it was lame on a saturday night. We found one and just relaxed. The next day we wanted to go to the province's Museum but it was a public holiday so it was closed. We walked around, went to the market and we booked a bus for the next day to Savannakhet and had some dinner. We had a 5 hour bus ride, it was really uncomfortable. In Savannakhet, we went to a Dinosaur Museum as there are many fossils and bone remains from the area. A team of French Archeologists sponsor it. We went to a Karaoke bar in the evening which was very cheesey but a fun night. We hired bikes the next morning, cycling around the town and riverside was really nice. We cycled to the bus station to look at tickets for our next visit. We also tried some lovely barbequed Bananas, yum.

Photos

Here are some photos from the trip so far in no particular order, its just the first time we have got round to doing it and the order that the camera uploads them. Enjoy.

View over Hong Kong from the peaks

At the Forbidden City

With Black H'Mong people in Sapa, they aren't children, they are just small

 During our cultural trip to Disneyland

 I stole her stuff

Forbidden City again

 

 Big Buddha in Hong Kong

 Giant Pagoda in Xi'an

Clare and our Sapa guide Linh

 Walking through Sapa

 Elephant in the Citadel of Hue

 Monkey drinking Red Bull on Monkey Island

At the Killing fields in Phnom Penh

 At the Angkor temples

 Fishing village near Pursat

 View of the sunset in Kratie

 Shoes I got made in Hoi An

A foot massage by fish in Siem Reap

On the Bamboo train in Battambang

The Crocodiles at the Crocodile farm in Siem Reap

Halong Bay

Girls from a town near Battambang

An entry into the Cu Chi tunnels, ridiculously small

Photos from our bus during the flooding between Hanoi and Hue

Silk Worms at the Silk farm in Siem Reap

From the Phnom Penh killing fields

The weather we had to get through after Koh Kong Island

And this is the boat we were on during that weather

Handsome man with a rocket launcher

Halong Bay tour

The Citadel in Hue that was bombed during the way

A torture room at S-21

Angkor Wat temples

Entry No. 7 by Josh

This has been the first time we have had the oppurtunity to write a blog, because the internet speeds are frustratingly slow in most places of Cambodia so thats why it has taken a while. Sorry.
So I will continue from where we left off from Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City-HCMC) in Vietnam. On our first full day we got a coach to the Cu Chi Tunnels, about 2 hours away from Ho Chi Minh Central. They are probably the most famous series of tunnel networks in Vietnam from the war. It was really interesting to see how the network was built, and it was really well thought out which is why it worked so well against the Americans. The traps were everywhere and the site now still has signs everywhere saying 'Danger!! Mines!!'. We got the oppurtunity to get in the tunnels which was really horrible. I am far too big for it and it had been raining earlier that day. I was also wearing a bag which made in even harder, so I didn't really enjoy squatting through the tunnels for about 5 minutes, but its unbelievable to think that the villagers at the time spent around 6 hours down there at a time. On the way back we stopped off at a handicrafts place that the government fund so is fully staffed by disabled people or land mine victims, its a nice idea but and you can see them making the pictures, sculptures ect but the price in the shop is way too high (roughly 45 US dollars for a bowl) so I don't think they sell much. Back in HCMC we spent a couple of hours at the War Remnants Museum. It had a lot of old weapons and tanks and had a lot of documents about the war and the anti-war movement around the war, however it was presented in a quite obviously biased way. For example, the north Vietnamese troops are always 'glorious' and the USA army are always 'barbaric'. Overall though, the museum was quite impressive, and they had remade a section of a South Vietnamese prison which was quite grim. That evening, we found a vegetarian restaurant that was really cheap, which we would go on to use a few times in the next few days. That evening, I found out about Brighton's 4-0 away win at Charlton.
The next day was really relaxed, didn't do anything significant, just explored the city. We did more of the same the day after that, but managed to find an olympic sized swimming pool so we had a nice swim. I think me and Clare both agreed that HCMC was the worst place we have been to in Vietnam. It has quite a lot of tourists, so everything is pretty expensive, and there still isn't that much to do
We had an early bus to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Cambodia is apparently the worst place in the world for corruption and scamming, and we experienced that even on our bus journey into Cambodia. The only place to get a visa there is on the border. So on our bus the driver told us that the only way to get a visa was to give him the money and he will sort it out for us. We sort of just ignored him thinking we would sort it out ourselves so he went away. The only tourists on this bus were us, and a Japanese man and he gave the man his money. So as we approached the border we were the only ones there without our visas sorted. As we went through immigration we spoke to a english girl who had done the same with her driver but had given him 25 dollars for it (the Lonely Planet says that the usual rate is 20 dollars). So we asked the border control officers where we can get one and they just said to get one from our driver. We knew it was probably more expensive than it should be so we got back on the bust and just went for it and gave him the 24 dollars (cheaper than the other driver, suspicious). As it turns out, the visa booth was just a one minute drive up the road and as I saw it had a price list on for 20 dollars for a tourist, I asked him for the money and our passports back. But it was too late and he just got it done for us, making 8 dollars out of us. It was really frustrating but being in the minority in their country where every official is corrupt, there is really nothing you can do about it, so we just had to accept the losses. The bus dropped us off in Phnom Penh quite far away from anything significant. We walked around for about 15 minutes in the heat before giving up and getting a tuk-tuk to a hostel we knew the location of. Phnom Penh is quite expensive and was fairly busy so we ended up getting a room for 10 dollars a night, more than we usually pay for a room. We found Phnom Penh to be fairly boring, especially considering it is a capital city. But the next day we hired a tuk-tuk to go to S-21 (Toul sleng prison) where they kept and tortured thousands of political and regular prisoners between 1975 and 1979. It is an old school converted by the Khmer Rouge, yet knowledge of its existence has since been denied by high ranking Khmer Rouge officers when they were trialed. Most prisoners weren't killed here, but taken to the killing fields about 20 minutes away to be killed. So that is where we went next. It doesn't look like much when you arrive, the only buildings are a small museum and a tower full of bones dedicated to the 8000 people who died here. But when you walk around the ditches that have been excavated its quite strange. In some sections, the heavy rain has caused the bones to be lifted to the surface, so you can be walking around and will occasionally see a tooth or a piece of a bone on the floor. In the killing fields, nobody knew what happened here as they used to play loud music to drown out the screams. But it was really sick, they never used to use bullets as it wasted ammo, so they would bludgeon them with farming tools, and they even had a designated tree where they used to hit babies against to kill them. Before coming to Cambodia, I din't know much about the genocide here so we are learning quite a lot.
On our last two days in Phnom Penh we had to go to the Laos Embassy for our visa and spent the rest of the day around the market, which is huge. Our next stop was a seafront town called Sihanoukville. We found a room for 4 dollars and ended up staying for 2 nights and 3 days in the hostel that was called M*A*S*H. The weather was amazing during the day but every night was torrential rain and lightening, then you wake up sweating in the heat in the morning, it was really odd. The area of the town we stayed in seemed to be full of old English men with their young Khmer wives. Clare got challenged to a game of pool by a ladyboy where the winner could take me home, and she accepted the challenge. Clare lost the game of pool on the black ball, but luckily I don't I was the ladyboys type so I got away with it. The hostel we were staying in had a dog which had just given birth to puppies in the last three weeks. They were tiny and couldn't walk or open their eyes properly, but Clare became a little bit obsessed with them. After one night of heavy rain we woke up to find one less puppy, but Clare made us look for it. I found it soaking at the bottom of a step it had obviously fell down, so being a hero I picked it up and saved it, and it was OK.
The next place we went to was also along the coast, it was fairly small and was called Koh Kong. There are 40 white people living in the town, all running restaurants and hotels, so when you speak to one they say things like 'you're new in town, whats your business here?'. It feels like a western film or something but it was actually a friendly place. It had a large market which was fun and we also spent a day there going to Koh Kong Island, where we had a BBQ on the beach and went snorkelling. You aren't allowed to sleep on the island, apparently because their is a lot of illegal logging that goes on that they don't want tourists to know about so we got an evening boat back. But the weather was horrendous on the boat so the journey wasn't very nice. We wasted another day in Koh Kong thinking there would be something to do, but there wasn't so we just went swimming and relaxed and looked for where to go next. Roads aren't very well made in Cambodia so everytime you want to make a big journey you have to go back to Phnom Penh annoyingly. So going back on ourselves, we got our bus back and got an immediate transfer in Phnom Penh onto a bus going to Battambang. Battambang was quite poor, and it showed, and everything shuts down at around 9pm, but we managed to find some things to do. We found a dirt cheap veggie place just open for breakfasts for locals, and we went there on both days in Battambang. On our second full day there we met a tuk-tuk driver who took us around all day doing some things in the neighbouring towns around Battambang. He took us to a peanut farm and through a papaya farm, then onto a mountain that has a lot of Buddhist shrines at the top, surrounded by monkeys that bite, and then on the way down you can go into the killing caves which is were a lot of bodies were dumped during the war. That day we also went on the Bamboo train which is closing in December to become a commercial train line. But basically its a track with lots of one carriage mini trains. In fact, they are just a platform on wheels which local villagers use or its used to transport rice. The track only has one line so if a platform comes the other way, then the general rule is that whoever has less weight on it, has to disassemble the carriage and let them through and then ake the carriage up again. Annoying, we had a light carriage so we had to stop 3 times and nobody ever got off for us. The village we stopped in was a brick making village so we had a little look round the furnaces.  Our driver, called Mr Tony was a really nice guy and grew up nearby so everybody knew him. He bought us some snacks for the day as well. One of them was his favourite, which is coconut and jasmin wrapped in like a sticky rice dough, packaged in a leaf. It costs less than 2p each and called something like 'Noom Com' and Clare and I have become a bit addicted to them, eating them most days when we can find them now. We left Battambang the next day and went to a small nearby town called Pursat. I don't really know why we went there but it was Ok. The room was 3 dollars and we only saw one other white person in the two days we were there. We went to a floating village that changes location depending on the weather. We shared a motorbike to get there and hired a boat when we were there to look around the village. For some reason, in a small village of about 3000 people, they even had a floating police station with police canoes. Seemed a bit unneccesary. Other than that, Pursat was quite boring. Its not very developed so we didn't see any alcohol or bars there, so we ended up staying in for the evenings and watching TV.
The next day we came to Siem Reap, and found ourselves a reasonable hostel. It is very touristy here, it feels a little bit like a Spanish Villa town in the summer or something like that. The market is very big and there are loads of restaurants and bars. Its the best place to get to the Angkor temples from so there are basically tourists all year round here. After the first day here settling in we went to a crocodile farm which was quite good fun. The farm boasted about conserving crocodiles and looking out for them, however in the farm shop they were selling croc blood, bags, stuffed crocodiles and other products, and most restaurants around town sell crocodile meat so I am not that sure that they care too much about the well being of the crocodiles. For dinner, we went out to a vegetarian restaurant and met someone who we had spent some time with in Vietnam, so we stayed out drinking with her until quite late. The next morning we had a vegetarian cooking class which we had heard about. Not my thing at all, I don't have the attention span for it but it was good fun, and Clare liked it. We learned how to make a few things like Spring rolls. Then in the afternoon we got a tuk-tuk to the national museum but didn't even go in because entry was 12 dollars. We spoke to the tuk-tuk driver and he agreed to take us to the War Museum which was only 3 dollars entry. It was actually a really good display. They had loads of destroyed helicopters, artillary, anti-aircraft guns and normal tanks, and you could get inside them and hold guns and mines and stuff. They also give you a free tour guide. Our one was a nice guy who was a land mine victim and lost his fingers from the shrapnel. But he didn't like his job, because every time he cried when he explained about how each thing worked, as he had lost lots of friends during the war. It was quite sad, his family had all died in the war and he wasn't paid to work there, they just provided him with a bed instead, but he was actually a nice guy and would always say 'now you know how lucky you are'.
The next day we went to a silk farm outside of town where you can see the whole process of making silk. I guess it is government funded because its free to get in and you get a guide, and they use minimum technology in order to provide more jobs. It was really interesting, and they had hundreds of thousands of silk worms alive at any one point.
The next day was my 21st birthday and I woke up with Clare having loads of small presents for me. I told her I didn't want to carry anything really so she got me lots of small sweet presents like bracelets. We went to a vegetarian place for breakfast and Clare treated me all day. She took me to a new hotel where we would stay for two nights. It is probably the nicest room I have ever stayed in, with everything you need like a swimming pool and stuff so it was amazing to stay there, and we got the best room in the whole hotel for only 18 dollars a night as well. We found a gym/spa thing during the day which we thought would be fun for my birthday so we went there but it was a bit of a con calling it a gym/spa. The steam room wasn't steamy, the sauna wasn't hot, the jacuzzi wasn't warm or bubbly and the gym equiptment wasn't working, but we made it fun and didn't take it seriously so it was still good.  Then we went for a swim back at the hotel before going out into town. I didn't want to do too much on my birthday, just have some nice food and drinks at the good bars. We played pool, had some Gin and Tonics, found some nice bars with some nice cocktails, had dinner at a Thai restaurant, then went back to the centre for some more drinks. We also had a 'Dr Fish massage' where you dip your feet into a tank full of small fish that bite away all the dead skin from your feet. Its sounds really wrong, but it feels alright after a while. Clare didn't like it so didn't do it for long and used their promise of 'If my fish don't make happy, we will no charge'. The night was really good, stayed out until the bar street was closing down in most bars then went back to the hotel. As we had planned for the next day, we did nothing all day. We stayed in our nice room, had beakfast in bed, watched 18 episodes of prison break in a row, and only left the room in the evening to get dinner.
Today we are looking at finally going to the temples, then planning what we are doing next. We are thinking about going on a long trek possibly somewhere in North Cambodia, nearer the Laos border.
So far, Cambodia has been really good fun. The weather is quite hit and miss, but mostly is a nice warm temperature and not too hot. The people here are really friendly, and considering what they suffered in the war, they all seem open to talk about it. Most people who we have met have been personally affected by it, given that a quarter of the population died, but they just seem to get on with it. Most of them only seem to be angry that none of the Khmer rouge leaders are getting punished for what they did. A lot of them still work in the government today, which people don't like. The trials for a lot of the high ranking officials are still going on today, but are in the meanwhile are being kept imprisoned in a nice facility. It seems unjust that they aren't punished and most just die of old age or disease now rather than exectution or whatever. A lot of people don't like that Pol Pot was allowed to die of natural causes as well rather than being executed or punished severely. From what we have read, most Khmer Rouge don't even show remorse, they just deny responsibility, but the whole trialling system is flawed here, mainly because like I said before, everything is corrupt. You can even see the corruption yourself, people who we have met say that the police take money off the tuk-tuk drivers and take bribes for almost any crime, its ridiculous but people just get on with it.
Anyway, I'm finally done.