Its been a while since our last update so there's a lot to get through.

In battambang, Cambodia we hired a scooter and went with a guide along some seriously dusty roads, to visit some local temples. But first we went to the local railway and used a Bamboo train, bikes and all. These looked like they were knocked together in someone's shed using homemade train track wheels and axles, some bamboo sticks and whatever else they could find! Then stuck an old engine on top with a fan belt connected to the axle and a stick to pull it tight! The train wasn't even connected to the axles, it was just placed on top. The track was bent and buckled and looked like it was going to collapse or catapult us off at some points and doing what felt like 70mph along it with 4 people and 2 scooters that weren't even tied on, was a bit nerve racking!

Then we went to a couple of temples which were both about a mile up a million steps, and it was hot, HOT HOT! Halfway up to the second temple was the killing caves from the Khmer Rouge days. We didn't have a guide with us then so we followed someone that did for a bit and listened in. Apparently there were 10,000 people killed there by being pushed down a hole into the cave. There was a cage and a kind of shrine full of skulls. Nice. At the top of the second temple there were a few monkeys and some great views but it was too hot and we just couldn't be arsed so we went back down. The way down was different to the way up, apparently about 1000 steps down, so we found some and went down. After about 30 minutes of going up and down steps we were back where we started, Carol was not pleased!

From Battambang we went to Siem Reap to visit Angkor Wat. The town was really nice and we hired bikes for a few days (about $1 a day). We decided to bike it around the temples ourselves which saved us about 24 dollars and it worked really well, Carol read endless passages from her Lonely Planet and guide books while I slowly melted trying to pay attention. Angkor Wat is massive and had small forests within its complex, which is good if you needed cover, in case Carol had a dodgy tummy, and had to go.....in Angkor Wat! While we were there we did a couple of Geocaches which was good because one of them took us off the main tourist trail to a ruin almost totally muggle free.

We then took a bus to the border and on to Bangkok. The bus to the border was fine and the border crossing was totally stress free, Carol was jumping up and down a bit, but then anything to do with passports, visa's and borders is 100% her department! Ignorance is bliss. The next bus to Bangkok was a minibus and was a bit different to the trip to the border. I somehow managed to sit in the fold out child seats in the boot with all the luggage virtually on top of me, and a not so petite sweaty Chinese lady squashed in with me. I had so little room it was an effort to hold my book in front of me at an angle that I could read it, while Carol at the front had so much room she could run around a bit to stretch her legs if she wanted to!

Bangkok is a big horrible dirty city. It was hard to know how much anything was, especially tuk tuk's and taxi's where they seem to just pluck a number from the air and you then have to barter with them for a reasonable price. The problem was we didn't have a clue what a reasonable price was, so didn't know if we were getting ripped off or not. We decided to do some Geocaches for a day as there are loads, and to explore a bit by foot. We had a problem though, there was a huge event going on, the king's sister had died and this was her last day of mourning or something and there was a huge ceremony. There were police, army, hardass looking officials with loads of badges on there chest and bomb squads everywhere. So suspiciously rustling around bushes with little packages would not have been such a good idea. It was good to see though, especially the massive cannons going off every minute, which you could get seriously close to. The next day we went to the 'new Bangkok', the posh part with all the shopping malls. There we found Swensens. Here is where the biggest icecreams in the world are made (probably), and they are awesome.

Next we went to Pak Chong, near a huge national park. The town was small and had hardly any tourists in sight, lovely. After a couple of nights we moved to Bobby's Jungle Tours, a little guesthouse just outside the town. There they had 2 black Labradores which were brilliant and would come in our room if we didn't lock it and steal something like my sock. From there we did a jungle trek for a day which was fantastic, our guide was really funny and enthusiastic and a bit unconcerned about the more dangerous stuff. Like a huge spider I pointed out and when asked if it was dangerous he would say "oh yeah, the big ones could kill you." We also saw a pair of Great Hornbill's, monkeys, Gibbons, leaches, lots of leaches, Deer, wild dogs eating a deer, a Giant Black Squirrel, a White Squirrel and a Giant Scorpion, which our guide tried to pick up and got stung on his hand, which he laughed off! Near the end of the trek we went to a waterfall and had a swim.

The day after the trek we went into the town in the back of our landlord's pick up armed with 2 dustbins full of water for the Thai new year festival, Songkran. This was mental. For 3 days the local people get drunk and wet in a massive water fight. We drove around soaking anyone we could reach, and anyone who could reach us would return the compliment. And some people were seriously armed, and some people put huge ice blocks in there water so the water was freezing! It was good fun but 4 hours was enough for us, let alone 3 days! Some places do it for 8 days!

We are now in Nong Khai and are going to cross the border to Laos tomorrow. Its really hot here, about 37 degrees.