Hey sorry its taken so long to update, it has been pretty hectic.

ok i think the last time i wrote in here was after the tubing in Loas?!? if it wasnt and i repeat myself sorry...

so rushing from vang vieng we jumped on a bus and visited a place which is the most dangerous area in laos for land mines. there was the plain of jars there which was really strange. stone jars dotted about the hillside dating back 1000s of yrs. the journey from there to the very southern tip of laos was erm memorable!! 12 hours on a wooden bench seat in a little truck type thing. we had army guys in it and some little local women. it rained but the roof did nothing what so ever so it was raining inside aswell. we had to put metal chains on the tyres to get up some parts of the muddy track. as soon as we got off that we jumped onto a night bus and travelled all the way south. we finally got to the 4 thousand islands midday the next day so all in all 28 hours i think we worked out. so hot and tired!!

the 4 thousand islands is part of where the Mekong river spreads out and creates little islands and sandbars etc.. we stayed on one of them and explored around the area by foot. 20 km walk and we saw a pretty impressive waterfall, spotted none of the rare dolphins which is the main reason why we went there but nevermind.

we have been struggling with the whole money situation.. no ATMs meant we'v been living of what little dollars jon was luckily carrying. just managed to have enough to get us across the border into Cambodia and to an ATM.

Cambodia....we travelled to BanLung which is a jungle town out of the way towards Vietnam. We hired a motorbike and visited a volcanic crater lake which was so nice and relaxing, definately needed it after all the long bus journeys. on the way to finding a waterfall where you can swing on vines like tarzan, i managed to lose control of the bike and we had a slight crash. nothing to major but my leg isnt in a good state. burns and cuts and grazes. jon survived with some little red marks as he just sort of stood up and got of the bike as it was falling, where as i got stuck underneath it. can laugh about it so thats ok. went to the hospital today though to get advice as my leg isnt making progress and i dont want a messed up leg for my projects in India!!

sorry this is going to be a long entry..

from the jungle we quickly went to the capital city of Cambodia which is Phnom Penh. we visited the killing fields which had 8000 skulls, and went to an old high school which was used as a prison. i dont know if u'll have heard of him but Pol Pot! the leader ofthe Khmer rouge in the 70s. The cambodian Hitler! killed millions of cambodians trying to make the perfect race just like Hitler. Was an interesting day but very depressing and we just moped around the rest of the day.

We had a knock on our bedroom door in the evening and it was my friend from Peru called Liam. He'd tracked us down, i knew he was in Cambodia but didnt know where. So suddenly all cheerful again we went out for dinner. was brilliant ctaching up and gossiping about the Amazon again, im sure it bored Jon and the friend Liam was travelling with.

all four of us then travelled to the beach resort town of Sihanoukville. just to chill, as i wasnt really wanting to do anything more than lie on the beach with my leg all in bandages. strolling along suddenly someone starts shouting my name, it was our friends from Malaysia! so the 7 of us have spent the past few days just relaxing. has been really nice company. at night in the sea there was some sort of algae which when it was disturbed it would shimmer and sparkle that was pretty cool. apparently it only happens for a few days so we got quite lucky, i wasnt able to see it though because i cant go in the water with my wounds :(

so that brings us to now. We are in the town near to Angkor Wat, very excited about going to see that tomorrow.

Oh i completely forgot to mention... after the motor bike accident and on the way to the capital city our bus journey was quite eventful. so first of all we broke down that delayed us a little bit, then next thing you know the police pull us over and search the hold. one of the suitcases was moving slightly so they opened it up (im safely watching all this from my seat looking out the window) giant lizards had been crammed into these small bags. they were still alive but so tightly squashed in, obviously no water or food, i dont know how long they'd been kept like that! the police carried on looking and discovered bags of all types of species of snakes and bags full of turtles. the police escoted us to the police station where someone was arrested and the driver had to be questioned. we just had to sit around and wait. the police werent exactly treating the animals with care, but i suppose you have to be grateful they did catch the criminal.

Cambodia is a very different country. its really making me realise how corrupt countries can be. there is litter all over the floor everywhere you go,so many trees have been chopped down, it really is need of help. there are quite a few programmes set up for helping children etc.. so when ever we can we eat at restaurants which are charitable, and we buy things from charity shops.

It has been sunny, but its actually raining right now, we are in the wet season so alot of the roads are pretty much mud baths. our plan was to go see Angkor Wat at sunset but looks like that wont be happening.

Fingerscrossed we will have fixed the camera memory card so i can put photos on here, i plan to spend a while on the net in Bangkok getting sorted before i get shipped off to the middle of nowhere in India for my project.

well hope all is well back home

will get up to date with photos when i can and hopefully be able to but some videos on to :)

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