Hello everyone.

We have now left Cambodia and headed back to Bangkok so it is easier for us to make our way to Chang Mai later today. Once again it has been quite an eventful few days, ash is convinced I am some kind of omen that only these things could happen to me. We decided to go to the floating village on Thursday, we didn't know much about it or what to expect and the guide book didn't give too much away. We thought it was gonna be more like a floating market but it was nothing like that. We hired our drivers for the day again, me and ash went in one tuk tuk and mel and mike in another. To get there we had to drive through this village which must be one of the poorest in the world. It got worst the further up you drove, the houses were just bits of wood put together, most about the size of a room at uni with a full family living in. there was no furniture, just mums and babies lying on the floor. Most families just sat in the doorways watching the passers by. We saw some babies lay in the mud playing with it, I guess that's their way of entertaining themselves as they cant afford toys. People were washing themselves with brown water, I cant even imagine how many diseases are in that water. We just drove in silence cause it was so much to take in, one little girl sat on her own smiled at me and waved, I just thought how can u still be happy living like this? I made the driver stop and told her to run over and gave her a dollar note which I had, her face lit up like it was a million pounds. We drove on and I couldn't help but feel so sad that 50p can make someone so happy, I know that everyone calls me the ice queen as I rarely cry at anything but I felt so tight on these people that I started crying in the tuk tuk. Ash just said that they have never known any different so to them its normal but I still felt so sad that this was their lives and nothing could be done to save them. Once we got to the boat to see the village we were all feeling pretty saddened, but still not sure what to expect. The floating village was very similar to what we had just seen yet in water and dirtier. We passed one little hut and a baby about 2 years old was floating in a small wash basket with a stick to move himself, he clung on to our boat as we went past and was looking up at me begging for help. I put some money in his basket with him, he smiled and I watched him trying to get back to his house in the filthy water. Once we got to the floating 'restaurant', it was just some planks with a women serving food. I didn't want to buy anything as I thought that me going hungry for a few hours in a lot easier than what these people go through so I preferred to save the money and help them. A little girl came up to us with a snake round her neck, as if it was just her pet. Her mum and baby brother was in a tiny boat holding on to the side, I wondered if this was there home? The little girl was asking people if they wanted to hold her snake for 50p, I didn't dare but held a baby crocodile. I was dreading the journey back through the village but decided that maybe I could help in a little way. The guide book said it is always better to give them food than money as you don't know where the money goes so I made our driver stop at a little shop and bought a crate of 16 bottles of water, a big bag of wrappered sweets, and a big bag of pastry biscuits. I told him to drive on then when I saw some children just sat in the mud I told him to stop and ushered the children over to give them the clean water and a couple of sweets each. You should of seen the faces as if it was Christmas day, within a minutes there was hoards of children running towards the tuk tuk, parents running out of their houses with toddlers in their arms, all begging for just one sweet for their child. Within 5 mins all our stocks had gone. They all stood and waved at us whilst we drove away, it was really touching. I felt guilty that we didn't have anything for the other people so I made the driver stop again and bought some more waters, this time I just stopped when I saw someone alone walking, using carrying something heavy, they all looked delighted with the clean water as it is such a rarety there. One little boy I watched run into his house to show the bottle of water and all his family was cheering, over a bottle of water, it was unbelievable. Once all the water had gone we were near the end, I saw two little boys about 3 and 5, walking up the dirt track, the older one with his arm around his little brother, ash said he could identify with it as he has his younger brother. Lastly I saw a little school girl, about 12, walking on her own, I looked at her and she was waving as if we were best friends so I chucked our last note out of the tuktuk and watched her run for it, she looked really happy and waved at me until she was just a little dot in the distance. Once we were in the hotel we all agreed that although it had been a sad day it was the best day as in we're seen first hand how these people lived and it really put things in perspective. We went out to a really posh restaurant to watch some entertainment and have a buffet although the food was minging then went to a rooftop bar and played some pool. We met a guy from Yorkshire who had been travelling for 10 years!!Yesterday we spent the day travelling back to Bangkok which took hours, and more scamming, ie they dropped us at this place for 'half an hour', which actually turned to an hour and a half whilst the bus driver went off with all our stuff. Everyone was kicking off saying they wanted to check their luggage! I stuck my fingers up at the evil woman who had been involved in all the scams as we drove away (wouldn't of dared other wise). We were at the border for hours aswel, we met some local children who were holding babies even though they were only about 5 themselves. I looked after the babies for a while and gave them water, ash wouldn't touch them cos he said he would catch a disease. I told him he has no compassion and he asked whether I was thinking he will be a bad dad haha!! We got back about 10.30 last night, went for a pizza then to bed as I was poorly with bad tooth ache. We are going to the zoo today then getting the sleeper train to Chang Mai so no doubt ill have plenty more stories soon!

Lots of love Charlie and Ash xxx

Ps I don't know why I sign both our names ash doesn't have an input on this he is out now shopping for sunglasses, he said 'why cant you just put the day and the activity and leave it at that?', so ive told him that he isn't allowed to print this out when we get home and make a travel book he can make his own.

Pps, still no tan, think I'm actually paler than when I came!!