15/8/2011:

Was feeling ambitous so thought it would be a good idea to walk from hostel in Silom, Bangkok, to Bangkok centre - it wasn't the best idea and I gave up after 30 mins as I was saturated with sweat.

Checked into Bangkok Centre Hotel to join the Indochina Discovery tour, was a nice enough hotel but preferred the atmosphere in the hostel. There was some other guys stuff in my room when I checked in, thought this was weird bvut then realised it was someone from the tour. His name was Mats (another Canadian), He is my roommate for the next 30 days but is a pretty cool guy so should be a abit of a laugh.

I was hungry so went out for lunch, had Japanese but is was pretty rank so only ate the good half. Should have just had rice of the street for like 10p - ah well know for next time.

Mats persuaded me to have a Thai massage (the clean type!) which cost 500 Baht (about a tenner) for an hour. It was nice and I felt relaxed after but it was sooo bloody painful and I kept screaming and giggleing.

In the evening we met up with the rest of our group, there is 15 of us in total and our tour guide called Long. Long is a Cambodian so his local knowledge is awesome. We had a briefing and then headed out for dinner and drinks.

16/8/11:

We had an early start and drove to the Thailand / Cambodia border which took about 3 hours. The Thai border was quite scummy and rife with child pickpockets. Going through the border (Cambodia side) was a bit of a hassel and I got delayed because the arsey border worker couldn't be arsed to write my visa number on the form. After a short 5 minute delay I was through and we boarded a bus to Siem Reap which was about a 2 hour drive.

The accomodation was better than I had expected, I thought it would be hostels but so far they have always been hotels.

In the evening we visited a local slum to see the hospital and school that had been built by fundrasing. All of the strips in the main resorts have proper buildings but there are a fare few slums and the other villages are made up of tin/wood/brick buildings. Almost every building is also a little market stoll / shop and you regulary hit a wall of stench and have to hold your breathe. Most of the street food is good though and dirt cheap so its well worth a try.

The hospital in the slum consisted of 2/3 rooms and thats it! Medicines and staff skills were basic but it was impressive as all of it had been done on the back of donations. The school was slightly better and they paired us up with a student to improve there English skills. I can't remember the name that I sat next to but he looked about 15, when I asked him he said he was 23 - just shows how little food some of these guys have to eat. I told the chap I was an accountant and he said "Teach me percentages", I tried but to no avail as he had not had much of a education.

Later we had dinner in the slum, it was surprising good (bar the snake we tried which everyone else said tasted like chicken - I did not agree as it made me wretch!).

After we got tuk tuks to a night market and after 15 minutes of looking around I sat at the bar with Charlotte (fellow gapper) and preceeded to get quite drunk. Later the rest of the group found us and joined in. We have a good mix in the group (2 New Zealanders, 2 Germans, A canadian, 3 Americans and 7 English) and there is always plenty of banter so it suits me down to the ground. I even surprsing love the elder German couple - they are really great people!

Anyway peeps I have to go so will update you guys about the 17/18/19 August when I next get a chance.

Hope your all well and I shall speak to you soon,

Baz X