sorry its been a few days here is our latest update,

During breakfast the next day a very talkative tu-tuk driver was intent on telling us all the things there is to do in Battambang, we werent keen on his approach but decided to give him a chance and what a good decision it turned out to be.

On Sept 6th we spent the day with the driver, first off he took us to watch the monks eating while the locals looked on and prayed to them, next up was the amazing bamboo train track. Its litterally a bamboo table on a track powered by a lawn mower engine but dam that thing can shift. It took us about 8km up the track to a brick making factory and then retuned along the single track. The deal with the single track is that if you meet an oncoming train you jump off, dismantle your train and wait for the most loaded train to pass. The driver came then came into his own, his excellent local knowledge plus his great engligh made him superb as he took us to a killing field site and temple of the Khmer Rouge, for those who havent heard about the Khmer Rouge we urge you to get reading, imagine modern day Hitler but more brutal and barbaric. Next up we had some local sticky rice bbq'd in a bamboo caine followed by little educational trips to the local spring roll paper factory (rice paper), Fish Cheese (Fish paste) factory (urghh what a stink this place was) and ending at the closed down Pepsi factory (the guide had no idea why the lonely planet added this as a sight of interest and we agreed the sight of an empty building isnt that memeroable.

Off the beaten track I made the the decision to stop at a town called Krakor, it was close to a floating town of a popluation of over 10,000 people which I thought might be interesting and to be honest it was ok but the nearby town was a bit of a nightmare. A selection of 2 guesthouses, no restuarants, 1 english speaker in the whole town, and it wasnt the most pretty or friendly place which may of helped. Anyway we cut short the panned 3 nights and moved after 1 night onto Phnom Pehn.

Leaving us with 5 days in Phnom Pehn wasnt ideal but we were due a holiday/break so decided to sit stillm visit the local sites and generally relax before getting back on the packer trail in Malaysia. The first couple of days were filled with visiting the S21 and killing field sites of the Khmer Rouge followed by more local trips to the national museum. The last 3 days havent been so good, first I fell ill with the "tom t***'' which luckily passed (literaly) quite quickly then Nic jumped on the illness wagon with something more worrying, suffering from saw joints, headaches and cramps we were planning the trip to the docs but fortunately today seems to have seen off the worst of it and Nic is almost better.

Synopsis of Cambodia

This hasnt been our favourite place, the lack of tourists has made them desperate for cash from tuk-tuk drivers to beggers. The towns seem more dirty and littered than elsewhere and the smells horrific at times. The sex-tourist trade is the only thing still surviving and the site of of it has sometimes been unbearble for both of us. Perhaps we just havent been to theright places or met the right people. Cambodia does have some horrific and very recent past events and perhaps this has shaped the country for the moment. Please take a few minutes to read about the Khmer Rouge and it might help explain.

Off to catch a plane to Malaysia in an hour, plans for the next 3 weeks are changing daily.

Love to you all

Graham & Nicola x