Since our last blog, we've been to Koh Samui, back to Bangkok, and we are now in Cambodia.

We were on Koh Samui for 4 days, but to be honest, we didn't think much of it. We arrived in the afternoon so after checking into our hotel, decided to go for a walk around the area, looking for the main strip and the beach. We took a wrong turn and found ourselves walking down what we can only describe as a dump of a road! A big change from Koh Tao! We went back to the hotel and took the free taxi service into the town which was more like we were expecting. The rest of our time in Koh Samui consisted of going into the town or sitting around the pool, so there's not much else to say about the island. Out of all the Thai islands so far, we liked this one the least...and it was the most expensive.

It was a long journey back to Bangkok after this. Firstly, a taxi picked us up from the hotel to take us to the ferry dock...however he didn't seem to have a clue where he was going, stopping every few meters to ask someone for directions. Eventually, he took us to the ferry dock, but we then had to get on a coach to take us to the RIGHT dock. The ferry took around an hour and a half before arriving at Donsak. We then got back on the coach for about an hour which dropped us off at a cafe where we waited for half an hour for a taxi. This took us 5 minutes up the road where we then got on ANOTHER bus, for around 45 minutes, and finally, we were at Surat Thani train station! We were around an hour and a half early for the train, so we knew we'd have to wait a while, however, they then put a sign on the board to say our train was delayed by 90 minutes! (God knows how or why!) All in all, the delay was actually about 2 hours, so you can imagine how bored we were!

Finally we were back in Bangkok! We met up with Frances and Barry again that evening and had previously decided to go to one of the infamous ping pong shows. Well...what a horrible experience! It's just scam after scam, with people outside telling you you only need to pay 100 baht for a drink....which then turns into 300 baht when you get into the bar, plus a charge for watching the show! We could tell straightaway that we were going to get ripped off, so we quickly paid for our drinks and left after about 10 mins. And no, we didn't see any of the ping pong show!

Frances and Barry flew home the next day so we said our goodbyes that night. In the morning, we decided we'd go back to the Siam Center for our last day in Bangkok. When there we went to the cinema which was quite impressive and so much cheaper than at home!!

The next day, we flew to Cambodia. Again, this was another worrying experience in the taxi which seemed to be going round in circles for a good 45 mins - 1 hour. We thought we were going to miss our flight! Luckily we didn't, and when we arrived in Phnom Penh, we were greeted by heavy rain and very flooded roads!

The weather was better the following day though, so we walked to the National Museum (and planned to go into the Royal Palace but it was closed). The evening was spent sipping cocktails in happy hour at the Foreign Correspondents Club!

On the last full day in Phnom Penh, we went to the Killing Fields at Choeung Ek. This was where the Khmer Rouge tortured and executed some 20,000 people in the late 70's. It was a very moving and sad place to visit, but we're glad we did. They have preserved the mass graves of the victims and apparently during the rainy season, pieces of cloth and bones still come to the surface. It's hard to believe that human beings could do that sort of thing to other human beings...especially as recently as the 70's. Later that day we went to the Royal Palace (where Sam nearly got bitten by a monkey!)

We checked out of the hotel yesterday to continue our journey in Cambodia to Siem Reap. The bus was an hour and a half late and was supposed to take 5 hours, according to the hotel where we booked the trip. In actual fact, it was a 7 hour journey in a Ford Transit van, with 3 quick stops along the way. We're starting to realise that nothing ever runs on time in Asia and the journeys are always a lot longer than advertised!

First impressions of our hotel in Siem Reap were very good. The staff are helpful and we've found all of the Cambodians we've come across so far to be very friendly and smiling. The hotel seems to be in a good location - the Angkor National Museum is directly opposite our hotel, which we went to today. This was much better than the one in Phnom Penh, much more informative and has given us a bit more knowledge for when we visit the Angkor temples tomorrow. This evening we went to Pub Street for dinner. We ended up in a place called Cambodian BBQ which seemed like a good idea at first, but after sitting down and realising you have to cook your own food, we kind of regretted it a little. But we did get to eat crocodile, barracuda and shark (or dogfish) so there was an upside to it!

We shall update again in a couple of days when we have finished our time in Cambodia and move on to our next destination - Vietnam.