Hey,

We've just realised that we haven't put anything on the blog since before Cambodia and we're in Laos now having been back to Thaliand as well.

Anyway the journey to Cambodia was a very interesting one. I was well prepared, as usual but we still managed to have to pay more than we should have. We got the bus to the border town and then a tuk tuk to the border. The tuk tuk driver tried to take us to a 'Cambodian consulate' to get our visas at an inflated price but i refused to get out of the tuk tuk and so he finally took us to the border. We got stamped out of Thailand ok but as soon as we crossed to Poipet, the Cambodian border town it was madness. The visa officials tried to get us to pay 1000baht for the visa so we said we didnt have any baht. Then he said $25 even thought the sign above his head said $20. He wouldnt even speak to us until we gave him the extra money. After we got past that we have to get a taxi to Siem Reap. Again we were overcharged but there was 4 of us (Bob and Nina, a Serbian couple, we met Bob while diving in the Similans) so it wasnt too bad. The journey lasted 3 and half hours but it was the worst road i have ever seen in my life. I'm not talking potholes, more like craters!!!

When we arrived we sent the boys off to find a room for a change. I usually do it but Darren and Bob did a good job. Nice and clean and comfy. The centre of Siem Reap is nice, you can see the French influence in the buildings. Very touristy in the evenings along Pub St. During the day though it is very quiet as everyone is at the temples of Angkor. We went to the Temples the next day and the day after and they are stunning. They really do take your breath away. Darren's favourite was Ta Prohm - the one where the trees have taken over the buildings and my favourite was the one with the 5 pools. We saw 10 in all but there are loads more, some people might call us philistines but after a while they all started to look the same. So, in total, we spent a week in Siem reap. Bob and Nina left for the coast and we stayed on. Met up with Davis and Colleen from the boat again and then eventually moved on to Phnom Penh.

What a mad place that is. Its a dust bowl and it is so poor. Its hard to walk past people begging all the time. You can't give to everyone though. The main thing we did there was visit the Killing fields and S21 used to be a high school but the Khmer Rouge used it as a prison and tortured thousands of people there. It was so chilling. You can still see bloodstains on the floor and everything. We dont have any photos from there as it just didnt seem right to take any. We met up with Andy and Gemma again that night which was nice.

We ended up flying out of Cambodia because it was going to take us at least 2\3days to go over land. We were running out of time too so we had to take the decision to leave out Vietnam as well. So we flew back into Bangkok (just in time before the protesters took over the airport) and got the night bus with a ladyboy hostess up to Chiang Mai.