Okay, so I thought I was going to write often and I think I may have been on the internet enough to write often but its hard to put thoughts into words when we are travelling through different countries, different towns meeting so many different people and experiencing different feelings everywhere we go!! For these reasons I ahve not written either on paper or on this blog since we were in Cambodia. (I can't actually remember if I managed to write about the Temples of Angkor including the infamous Angkor Wat!)...

The temples were incredible. THe most enjoyable part of the day for us was the tuk tuk journey around the temples. Our tuk tuk driver picked us up and recommended the usual route of temples that are explored in a day trip. We agreed that looked the best route and off we went. He dropped us off on one side of each temple and met us at the other side. He was somewhat surprised when we arrived at the other side - I dont think he thought we were spending enough time inside!! We spent the most time inside Angkor Thom where the faces of Bayon can be found. Huge faces of the buddha and gods on all four sides of each of the corners on each of the structures - if that doesn't make sense there should be a photo either on Duncan's facebook or on here!! Thesecond longest period of time was spent with the monkeys!

So, the temples were great but we didn't think we could spend three days temple watching! Siem Reap was full of tourists and massiver hotels - a town that supposedly was not there until Tomb Raider was filmed. We left for Battambang, a city that we didn't reallly explore or get a great feeling from but travelled to by boat ( supposedly a speed boat but not like a speed boat that anyone would picture). An eight hour journey on the river Tonle Sap - a beautiful river that for over a thousand years has been home to people living in floating huts.

Next installment:....

So.. we are still in Laos. But I am going to just finish updating on Cambodia...

There is so much to say that I don't think I will ever be able to write down but for those of you that are thinking of going to Cambodia stay a while as there are so many problems and so many projects that are trying to improve things. If only I had learnt more about the country before I arrived I would not have planned such a fleeting visit.

By the time we had arrived in Phnom Penh we were both mentally exhausted and Duncs was physically exhausted from a stupidly long cold that just seemed to get worse and worse. The city is particulary hectic. No-one walks as the scooter is the preferred mode of transport. The pollution is thick and corruption is everywhere. The tuk tuk driver will ask for commission from everyplace you are dropped off at - even if it is a massage centre run by blind people. Once we had got on our feet we visited S21 genocide museum - an old school that the kymer rouge took over and turned into their reeducation camp. Horrific. The prison has been kept in relatively the same condition as it was, with the intention the cambodian people will be able to confront and remember what they suffered and visitors will be able to learn. Torture equipment remains in the rooms, barbed wire covers every possible escape route having prevented anyone from committing suicide, blood stains are still on the floor despite the effort to clean them. Once you have walked through the rooms full of brick compartments that people were locked within you are confronted with pcitures of those that were killed and those that killed them - some of which are still alive. After visiting here it is absolutely impossible to walk around Phnom Pehm feeling anything but disturbed and sad, especially because we were leaving without doing anything about anything. Luckily we were taken in by two beatuiful French girls working in Phnom Penh and Duncan was able to recover and we were able to learn a lot more about life in Cambodia. Thanks guys!

So, thats about it for Cambodia. We headed north, not really stopping along the way, to get up to Si Phan Don - Four Thousand Islands in Laos. The plan was to go to Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam but after Phnom Penh we needed some time out....