The last few days we have not done a lot, but have traveled quite far.

First of all we got a bus from Phenom Pehn to Kratie, where we had planned to visit an organisation that help the dolphins and arranged trips and home stays around the town, but unfortunatly it was not up and running yet so we just went to see the dolphins, we saw quite a few and some got quite close, but not close enough to get some good photos and i wasnt quick enough either, but i still got a couple!

After Kratie we went to Stung Treng where we stayed at a guesthouse called Le Tronle - this is a charity run by a Swiss man and his wife, they run the guesthouse but also have a little school downstairs where they teach 8 students how to cook and how to wait on people etc...so they can then go out and get jobs...they also have english lessons etc..as well as going to their normal school (i think) the room we stayed in was gorgeous and the food was incredible - the best fish i have had so far and a chocolate cake which was the nicest think i have tasted in months! the service was a little slow but that was understandable considering they were still learning, and our waiter asked if we could practice his english with us while we waited anyway which we were more than happy with.

Yesterday we got the bus to Ban Trung which is in Ratanakiri, in the afternoon we visited a giant lake which the locals believe was created by a meteor as it is almost exactly round - we walked all the way around the lake which took abou half an hour and it was lovely, i kept getting a little scared though as lizards kept running around and the rustling made me jump! Today we were all booked up for an elephant ride and to visit 2 waterfalls, but when the elephant came tramping out of the forest she didnt look too happy so we were a bit wary, when the owner got onto her back, she obviously did something that he wasnt happy with so he hit her on the top of the head with his pokey tool thing...that must have hurt her has she let out an almightly roar (i guess thats how you would describe it) and then she tried to shake him off. We decided then that we were not getting on the elephant, she was being mistreated and she was in a foul mood - i wasnt up for that. We were told that the reason she was angry was because she usually does the trek with her daughter but for some reason they had not bought her this time so she wasnt happy. I dont know how true that is but either way...we left. The Waterfalls were very pretty but unfortunatly we picked the worst day to come as it was a little too cold for swimming and it had just started to rain (not hevily though) but it was hardly weather for swimming.

Tomorrow we are getting the but at 6.15am down to Kompong Cham where we are visiting another charity center (while in Phenom Pehn we found a booklet called stay another day in cambodia which is full of charities and organisations that you can visit, you can either take part on activities, view what they have to offer and make donations etc....so we are trying to visit as many of these as we can - there are so many beggars around and i dont like to give to them as 1, you cant give to them all and 2, just how much are you helping them but just handing them some money? by visiting these centres where people are being taught skills and are actually being helped, i feel as if i am making a little bit of a difference and then i do not feel as bad for not giving to the beggars in the streets) anyway, in Kompong Cham we are going to be taught how to make scarves the traditional way and also how to play traditional cambodian musical instruments (which should be interesting)

Talk to you soon xxxxxx