……Continued

Hi there again. Long time since an update I know, but no news is good news and obviously we have been so so busy flying around Cambodia and Thailand since we last wrote (it's hard being us!).

We left Dalat in Vietnam and went by car to Saigon or Ho Chi Minh City as it was previously known as. Our driver was a top wee man called Ahn who had loads of interesting stories. His Dad worked in a hospital during the Vietnam War and his uncle was in the army and fought against the Viet Cong. He told us how he went to school in Saigon and worked as many hours as possible to put himself through school for a better life. We only really caught a glimpse of Saigon as we passed through it to the airport, and had been led to believe that it was a more hectic version of Hanoi, and so had not planned to stick around. However it looked like a fantastic city and had we known we would probably have stayed a night to explore it.

So it's now another place on our ever-growing list of places to visit or go back to. It was busy, but with lots of grand old buildings and posh shops it looked like there was a lot to explore. We then landed in Phnom Penh, the Capital of Cambodia, and were whisked into a taxi towards town. So a new country, different culture, money, habits and expectations. We stayed right next to the Mekong river. That night we went for dinner and drinks at the Foreign Correspondent Club, where many journalists and photographers hung out during the invasion of the Khmer Rouge in 1975. The next day we visited both the Killing Fields and S21 prison, where over 17000 people had been interrogated and tortured, before being removed to the fields and killed. These places are now very quiet, and walking around them, it's impossible to believe the monstrous acts that took place here. It was so hard going round it and seeing the pictures of the people who had passed through the prison and inevitably been killed. Certainly changes your view on the world and makes you appreciate what the Cambodians have been through.

To lighten the mood when we left the killing fields our tuk tuk driver excitedly asked us if we would like to visit a shooting range were for a small fee we could shoot some chickens and ducks with an AK47. We kindly declined !!!! We had a wander round town that afternoon and then headed up to the National Museum on the good authority from Lonely Planet that we would see thousands of bats flying out the roof at sunset. We waited and waited for this spectacular sight only to be told that they left the museum 6 years ago!

On a recommendation from Steve we popped in Bar Cantina to see Hurley Scroggins that night. He's a journalist from the US who worked in Cambodia and decided to stay there and has now opened this bar that serves great Mexican food and to our delight also serves up Beer Lao. We then went along the road to watch a film about land mines in Cambodia. It didn't have a happy Hollywood ending but was quite interesting none the less.

The next day we were leaving for Siem Reap so decided to spend the morning chilling out. We went to a nearby Spa for a bit of TLC. Anna had a back and neck massage whilst Rik splashed out and had a foot rub with toenails buffed, polished and painted. Unfortunately he didn't have time for a chest wax and spray tan as we had a plane to catch. He's looking pretty good though! So we landed at Siem Reap just after lunch and we were picked up from the airport by a taxi driver called Sun Same (His first name was Same.... as in Same Same but different he told us). He had a first class honors degree in cockney rhyming slang and also had some knowledge of other English and Scottish regional phrases. So to add to his knowledge I told him were I come from we greet each other with "Ey up duck!" and Rik taught him the song "nae ye canny push yer granny of the bus."

We booked in a lovely hotel called Days Inn which was gorgeous and surrounded a pool. That afternoon Same took us to Tonle Sap Lake just outside Siem Reap. In the dry season the locals live in shacks along the dirt tracks and on the lake but as the rainy season comes and the water flows down the Mekong River from China and reverses the flow of the Tonle Sap river the Tonle Sap lake's maximum depth increases from 2.2m to 10m deep. Because of the vast amount of water flooding into the lake the people who live on or near the lake have to literally pack up their houses (walls, roof and all) and move to higher land. It was near the end of the dry season when we visited so we drove across miles of dirt tracks which in two months will be covered with water. We jumped on a boat and sailed up river to the lake. We had a young guide on the boat who was learning English and told us about village life here. There are hundreds of people who will live on the lake and they have created a village complete with fish farm, crocodile farm and pig farm, schools, basketball court, shops, churches and even a police station all floating on the lake. Children rowed out to us on boats or anything they had, some rowed out in what looked like washing up bowls and paddled with a wooden spoon. The kids held on to our boat and tried to sell us beer or soft drinks, they all shouted the same thing "one dollar!" Some of the tiny kids had snakes hanging around their necks. Cute as they were I paid them a dollar to keep their snakes away. We watched the sunset over the lake which was beautiful and then chugged back to shore. We were overtaken by another long boat which was headed by a young Cambodian boy who pointed to our guide as he flew by and shouted "He's my boyfriend, he's lady boy!!" Our guide looked embarrassed and said it was his friend and he always told the tourists that. As darkness set in and we were ravaged by mosquitoes we over took a boat that had broken down on the river. Our tiny wee boat tied on and pulled this huge ship like thing full of Korean tourists up river. The guy driving our boat had to keep stopping every 10 mins and jumping into the water to cut off plastic bags that had got caught up in the motor. Finally we reached shore where our taxi was waiting for us to take us back to our hotel. In the darkness we passed shacks were the families lived by candlelight, with the more fortunate ones having generators. These people have very little but all the shacks had decorations hung outside in preparation for New Year. We headed into town and went for a traditional Khmer meal which was washed down with more Beer Lao at a street side restaurant which apparently was good enough for Mick Jagger, so good enough for us we thought. Anyway the heat is currently soaring and the pool is calling so I will take a break for now and update more later on.........