What is it with Cambodia and pick ups!!!!!! In Siem Reap they forgot to pick us up for the bus and they've done the same in Phnom Penh! The bus left at 8am and we, 2 phone calls later, eventually got picked up at 8.05 so after jumping on a moving bus we were off. This was not the bus we had paid for we're certain of that, we were on a normal local bus and were the only non cambodian people on the bus. Now I don't mind what bus I go on but I bet they paid a fracti...

We have arrived in the bustling city of Phnom Penh and the good news is we have met up with Annabel and Emma again who have just done a whistlestop tour of Vietnam! I'm sorry but I really can't be very witty about Phnom Penh - it is a city whose major attractions relate to the pain and suffering of the Cambodian people and it is a dirty, busy city.The photos probably tell the story better than I can here. But here goes.... On Day 1 we decided to follow a walkin...

OK we've been lazy but we are travelling for 12 months!!! We have flown to Siem Reap from Pakse. Pakse is a tiny airport and David was delighted at their manual daily arrivals and departures board (see photos). It was quite amusing - the plane was supposed to leave at 8.25am so they called us through to the departures lounge at 8am where it was pretty obvious that there was no plane in sight. At approx 8.15 a plane landed pulled up outside the window, everyone go...

We decided to stay 2 days in Pakse and use it as a base for day trips to the Bolaven Plateau and Vat Phu Champasak. The Bolaven Plateau Our tour guide for this trip was a camp pop singing university student called Jack. He set the scene straight away by making the 'family' introduce themselves and then singing us a song. He did actually tell us some really interesting facts about Laos: 1. The 4 main industries are now as follows - Tourism, gold and silver ore,...

We decided to take an overnight bus from Vientiane to Pakse and I can't even start to describe our excitement when we discovered that our 'King of Bus' had beds on it. Ok so they resembled a tarts boudoir with studded red plastic walls and they were quite snug but it was still a bed and we were on a bus!!! (see photos) We arrived in Pakse at 6am and immediately jumped onto a public bus to take us down to 4000 islands unfortunately the bus stopped continuously p...