Saturday 17th January.

Chilled out at our hotel today before heading to the Centra Central Station hotel.

Arrived at the Centra at 4ish. Our room is nice but it's often an option here to have a room with or without windows. Ours has no windows which seemed weird when we arrived but only in the room whilst we moved our luggage around so we could leave a bag at the hotel with our excess baggage (we have a lot of that) so not a problem.

Had our meeting with our tour guide Shane, at 6pm then 15 mins to get sorted to go out to a local restaurant for evening meal. It was just a short walk away. We all sat on a long table together and Shane ordered a hot papaya salad and passed it round so we could all taste it. Really nice. I had thai green curry which was rather hot and nor really like ours as it had very little sauce but it was really tasty. I ordered it with pork and tried not to think too much, what part of the pig may have been in it (more about pork later).

Sam had red curry soup with rice. You get the rice on a plate and put it in the soup. He said it was good.

After the meal, everyone else headed back to the hotel as most of them had just arrived and were rather travel weary. Shane took us across to get a cab as we had to return to koh San Rd, yes you've guessed it, the tour operator had been in touch with the hotel to say a camera had indeed been found. We weren't sure if it was ours and were afraid to get our hopes up as we've already been so lucky getting it back before and my glasses too. When we walked in she was smiling and waved the camera at us. Same girl as before! !! I was extatic. Gave them a nice tip to give to the finder. It's incredible that in a country so poor, and as Mike said, the price of this camera is probably a year's wages, that they are honest enough to return it. We have the highest praise for the Thai people who are only too pleased to help.

So back to the pork. After we got the camera back (whooo hoooo) we called at a bar for a drink. There are lots of carts in the road cooking food on the spot and selling it. The one in front of us was doing good business so we took a look to see what was on offer. There was a large pile of steaming pigs ears, yes, I did say pigs ears. You were given the tongs and surprise surprise, you could choose your own. The woman proceeded to chop it into thin strips. There were a few plastic bags fasted to the cart out of 1 she took what looked like thin celery, and she chopped that and threw it in the dish and mixed it with the strips of ears. Next bag, lime. Piece cut off and squeezed into the bowl followed by some chilli sauce and more lime or lemon to suit. By the time she had served several people we were getting quite used to it and Sam was even looking a bit like he might have tried some. At 40 baht, 80p, it may have been worth a try - well not for me!

Got back to the hotel round 10 ish ready for our early start tomorrow. Going to bed a happy bunny hugging my camera :)

Sunday 18th January - Tour of Cambodia with G-Adventures. Our guide is Shane Minivan

Our day started really early with alarm call at 5.15am. Breakfast at 6.00 for leaving at 6.45. Really good choice for breakfast, everything from eggs, fried rice, bacon, every thing you could want really.

We had to leave early to get in line before the queue for immigration. I believe it can be upto 4 hrs queuing but we were through really quickly. Also had our finger prints taken, so we were looking round for anyone looking a bit shifty here! All through okay. There are 15 of us in our group plus guide and driver. People from Switzerland, UK, Canada, Australia ?........ All seem a nice group.

We've been travelling for 5 hrs now including border control but the minibus is comfortable and air conditioned and I had 40 winks so it doesn't seem we've been that long. And although it's hot outside, we are just right.

Everything seems well organised - All good upto now. Lunch stop 12.30. Another hour in the bus and we will arrive at our hotel in Battambang.

Nice suprise. Hotel really nice. Dropped off the bags and Shane took us for a little walking tour round the market and showed us some fruit we may not recognise like dragon fruit, lychee and another one called stinky fruit because, you guessed it, it stinks. Apparently it's been banned from many places because of the smell!! Back to the hotel for a quick freshen up then for a drink and a meal. Yeah!! They had wine. Nice bottle of pinnotage (not comparable to yours though Ian). It seems a good group and we had a few laughs this evening

Breakfast at 7 in the morning for 8am start. Tuk-tuk sight seeing tour tomorrow