Hello, getting a little behind with the blog entries i'm afraid. Some of the internet connections leave little to be desired!!

Currently in phnom pehn for the second time, cambodia has been pretty cool, the people are in my mind some of the nicest we've met so far. But overal the country is an absolute mess, not many pancakers which is good but far too many yanks.

Alots happened since our last entry! MAinly lots of horrendous bus and boat journeys.

We spent a few days in Vientiane the capital of laos, which must be the quietest capital in the world! Its was nicolas birthday so we booked into a half decent hotel and kicked back for a few days. Nics birtday was spent eating our first western food for weeks and having a sing song in a local karioke bar.

We left Vientiane and made our way to a town called ban hin, the gate way to the kong lo caves. A 7km river cave straight through a hug limestone mountain and into a hidden valley. Hired a moped to make the 50km drive to kong lo village on the newly constructed dirt road. Managed to get lost 5 mins after leaving the village, eventually made it to the caves and boy was it worth it. These caves are huge and the scenery surrounding the area equally impressive. Made it back to ban hin on the bike just as it got dark.

After Ban hin we made our way down to savannakhet and then onto pakse, nothing much to say about these places - savannahkhet was a dump but we got pissed with a mad scot married to a ladyboy and pakse we ate the worst meal of the trip.

From pakse we travelled to the 4000 islands in the mekong river, we originally planned to visit a couple but Don Khong was perfect and gave us a real insight into how the local mekong river people live. Spending our 3 days there cycling around the tiny villages that cover the islands river banks. And from here onto cambodia, yet again we were ripped off with the cross border transport, i lost my rag and nearly hit the tour company owner at the border as he tried to add another 5 people to our already over crowded mini bus! Eventually arrived in Kratie our first port of call in cambodia.

Kratie was a dump, but nicola was pleased because she eventually had the opportunity to see some dolphins. Kratie is the home to the rare fresh water irrawady dolphins. Hired a boat at sunset and saw approx 5 dolphins on the mekong.

Left Kratie for Phnom Pehn the capital of cambodia, i immediately fell in love with Phnom pehn, its a s*** hole... But cool all te same, its how you imagine a se asian city to be. Spent a few days visiting the main tourist sites, Killing Fields, s21 prison etc...

Left for Siem Reap the home of the Angkor Temples, the town is a mad mad place. Really nice hotels & restraunts everyhere, mainly to service the american package tours!!! Bloody Yanks. Our original plan to cycle the 60 km route of the temples was soon ditched in favor of a tuk tuk. Just too blooody hot (39 degree's ) and it rained. The overall temple site is huge stretching for miles and littered with temples dating from different periods of the khymer kingdom. The temples are really impressive, but quite hard to appreciate with so many people around, especially the Angkor Wat site.

Left Siem Reap for Battambang, booked the journey by boat. Big mistake!! Will learn one day! Headed off at 7am across the Tonle Sap lake, after 30 mins the boats engine blew up! The captain managed to coax the boat onto an island. After an hour wait a replacement boat arrived, the journey began again. All was going well until the river started to become narrow and shallow. The boat became stuck in mud and on the banking on several occasions, but the crew were able to get the boat moving again. Finally the boat hit a mud bank at speed and the boat became really stuck! The captain and his mate stripped to under pants anbd dived into the filthy brown water, they nearly had after and hour the baot freed! But a second cargo boat rammed us and sent us 6 feet up the banking. b*****, after another hour a 3rd passing boat stopped, towed us free and we were back on our way. But the captain decided enouh was enough and off loaded us at a tiny village and onto 2 hilux pick up trucks for the final 2 hur journey across sunbaked paddy fields to battambang.

Not much to say about Battambang, former stronghold of pol pot nad another s*** hole. But the wedding capital of cambodia. Was a nightmare. Back onto Phonm pehn for two days and then onto chau doc, via boat to chau doc in vietnam.