hellloooooooo......thought I should write another blog as I have a spare hour! So where to start since my last blog....ah yes....We got the 6 hour bus trip to Vang Vieng from Luang Probang which was god awful.....literally 5 hours of driving thorugh the mountains with a corner every 2 minutes...Terri was sick as was another lady on the bus so it wasnt the best of days! Vang Vieng was ok again, not amazing though - Terri was sick so we spent some time chilling out and relaxing...didnt do the tubing I was planning to do, after seeing the colour of the river (and meeting someone that did tubing and came out in the worst rash you have ever seen because they had an open sore on their leg!!!!!) I decided it was not for Donna! We hired bikes for a day and did about 20km....went went to a place called the blue lagoon (which was not a blue lagoon!) and watched some local kids swinging themselves into the water for a bit....then when we started making our way back to town Terri got a puncture so that along with the desert conditions we were biking in made for a tough journey back! I burnt my nose badly again....think its ruined forever now! Then we went looking for an orphanage recommended in the Lonely Planet guide we have only to discover when we got there that there wasnt even one there! Lonely Planet has sent us on a number of wild goose chases in the past few months - dont believe a word it says!!! We didnt do too much else there and I wasnt sorry to leave.....so we got another bus to Vientianne, 3 hours, which is the capital of Laos. We stayed in a really nice new little place (the owner took pity on us and gave us a good discount).....after spending 7 nights with bugs and critters on our sheets and all over the rooms it was welcome luxury for a few days....Vientianne was my favourite of the 3 places we went to in Laos....quite a nice little city. We did some nice site seeing to some temples and went to a great rehabilitation centre for people who have been bombed in Laos - Apparently Laos is one of the most bombed places in the world (not that you ever hear about it) and there are still hundreds and thousands of scatter bombs all over that havent exploded yet.....There was a guy there who has lost a leg because of a bomb and we watched a great dvd about the history of the place and the people effected by bombing....apparently the USA bombed it when they were trying to get to Vietnam in the war even though they had signed a piece agreement with them not to bomb them....I really enjoyed it here, this was prob my favourite day in Laos. I also had a great facial.....at the end the lady put a face mask on me....it dried so much I couldnt even open my mouth, never experienced anything like it! I also think she forgot about me and maybe left it on too long as it felt like I was laying there for a lifetime!!! An hour facial (that actually lasted an hour and a half) cost me about 9 pound! On Friday we flew from Vientianne to Cambodia - we had to land somewhere else in Laos before coming here (no idea why it was very pointless! but as far as flights go it was ok.....it was the really tiny plane again! No more Laos airlines though now which I'm very pleased about!!!

So we got to Cambodia on Friday morning (got up at 4:30am).....its so much more built up (in Siem Reap) than I thought it would be.....when we left the airport we drove by some huge hotel complexes....I expected it to be really rural but so far its not been like that at all. We are on our 3rd day here and have spent pretty much the whole time at the Angkor Wat temples.....The first day we hired a tuk tuk taxi and he took us to the furthest temples....that were about 37km from the entrance to the place....thats how big it is....Had a brilliant first day..our tuk tuk man really looked after us and we saw some really beautiful temples (sounds boring but it really is amazing...especially after you learn the history of what cambodia has been through). Yesterday we got up at 4:30am again and got bikes (free with our guesthouse) to go round the temples again, different ones obviously, and we literally biked about 50km we worked out....no exaggeration! My bum is so sore today I cant even begin to describe it to you! Had another brilliant day yesterday...my favourite temple was Ta Phrom...it was used in the Tomb Raider film with Angelina Jolie and it was massive!! we must have spent about an hour walking round it looking around everything it was awesome!....got far too many photos of it to bore everyone with when I get home! Afterwards we went to a great little cafe place the does the ost gorgeous coffee ice cream shakes! So bad for you but taste so good I had 2! My treat to myself for biking the length of the earth! Last night we just went and got a little bite for dinner close by and got a much welcomed early night.

Today we got up at 4:30am AGAIN (this is becoming far too regular for my liking!!) and hired a tuk tuk man to take us round the main Angkor Wat temple for sunrise....unfortunately it was a bit cludy so didnt see much of a sunrise but it was still good to go really early as it wasnt too hot for most of it.....Its the biggest temple of all of them and really beautiful - though we were a little disappointed we couldnt climb to the 3rd layer for the good views, the towers are all shut for rennovations at the moment - one worker did tell us we could pay the police to take us up anyway - strangely we declined!!!!! CORRUPT!

When we left the temple we came back and had a sleep for a few hours and have just been into the main town area (couldnt bike too much as bums too sore) for another 2 delicious coffee shakes and a bite to eat. The only down side to Cambodia so far is the people (mostly children with the saddest eyes you have ever seen) hassling you to buy things...its constant. I dont mind it a bit, you expect it coming to these sorts of places but its literally every couple of minutes here....you'll be biking down the street and the tuk tuk drivers all shout to you to ask if you want a tuk tuk - I'M ALREADY ON A BIKE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Becoming slightly frustrating as you can tell! hahahahaha....also I'm very tired too! Oh and the other thing is, they use American Dollars, I got given change the first day I was here and one of the notes was $10...anyway, because its an old note, not crispy and new, no one will take it back off me! so I've being completely mugged off by one of the shops...I tried to take it in a bank and get them to change it for me but apparently its not their policy to take old notes! I had to walk out and hold my breath for a few seconds earlier! Never heard anything so ridiculous in my life.

So tonight we are just chilling out and getting an early night - got a 6hour bus journey to Phnom Phen tomorrow where we are spending a few days....there is another place called Shianoukville that has beaches I think we are going to go for a couple of days to and then fly to Kuala Lumper next weekend..... I'm getting eaten alive out here and they are swelling quite badly - thought I was through that barrier but they seem to be loving my flesh again - tiger balm works lovely though!

Think thats all my news...have a number out here but not everyone is receiving messages so if you need me email [email protected] or message me on facebook....

Not long till home now ! time seems to be speeding up somewhat the last few weeks.....prepare yourselves for an evening (or 3) of dvd footage and lots and lots of photos!!!

Lots of love xxxxxxxxx