Weeks 2, 3 and 4

Hello Again!

Well it turns out I am not very good at this whole blog thing(it takes up a lot of time) but thought it was about time for an update since we have now been here for a month! WARNING.....its a long 'un!

Pakse, Laos

Since the Vietnam part of the trip had to get the boot we decided to go south right down through the bottom of Lao and into Cambodia that way. This involved a 20 hour bus journey, which we survived and actually turned out to be one of the easiest journeys so far. The bus from Luang Prabang to Vientiane was just a scenic on the way up as the way down, funny that considering it the same road, the guy behind us on the bus was packing heat so that to giggles through out the journey (laugh or cry type situation). We came to the conclusion he was part of the Luang Prabang mafia and was traveling south on the 'VIP' bus to negotiate with the Vientiane massive about the rice trafficking issues in Lao. After our mafia involvement, we got the over night bus from there to Pakse in the south of Lao this bus journey was amazing, instead of seats there are steel bunkbeads, which was great for us we just cuddled up and watched a few episodes of brothers and sisters on my ipod then slept through most of the night! The one bizarre thing was the beds were made for 2, meaning that if you were traveling on your own you could be cuddling a complete stranger for the night! We arrived in Pakse at 6 am and managed to get booked into a hotel, it is more of a stop over town rather than one of interest so we stopped over on our way to the 4 thousand islands.

4 Thousand Islands, Laos

These are a set of islands in the Mekong that sit at the bottom of Lao near the Cambodian border, they are very rustic but beautiful, the island we were on, Don Deth, only has electricity between 6 and 10pm, we had a small hut over the river with a hammock, very picturesque. We hired bikes and spent the day cycling round the island. The only real issue with our hut where these MASSIVE cockroaches that obviously thought they were on BMXs or something as they would jump up, throw themselves at the wall of the hut and back flip off, I kept well away from them!

Phenom Phen, Cambodia

Made it to Cambodia YAY! We arrived in Phenom Phen quite late in the evening after getting on and off a million mini buses throughout the day had to check out of Lao check in to Cambodia, which meant we all sat round a table with a Cambodian official with a suitcase, he had decided it was too hot to wear his uniform so was sitting in his vest dishing out visas and watching a boxing match, all very official!

Our visit to Phenom Phen was a whirl wind of sight seeing, we managed to visit S-21 the school that was turned into a torture center during Pol Pots Khmer Rouge, visited 2 markets, one had more bling in it than Puff Daddy's closet! From there we saw the Royal Palace and all it has to offer. In the evening we ventured out to the 'hot spots' of Phenom Phen, well there are tons of bars and restaurants but no one in them and no atmosphere. Very bizarre! The next day we ventured to the Choeung Ek - the Killing fields, I think our adventure was a wee bit more exciting than most as we went on a motorcycle. (Don't tell my mum). Choeung Ek was heart breaking and chilling but very interesting. A massive temple sits in the middle filled to the brim with skulls they recovered from the mass graves at this particular site.

Sihanoukville, Cambodia

After a rather serious few days we decided to head south towards the beaches of Cambodia, Sihanoukville is an 'interesting' town, others may describe it as a s*** hole. The beaches are full of rubbish, waste and hawkers, making it very hard to enjoy your book additionally there is waste being pumped into the sea and to top it all off.....people swim there! Needless to say we didn't last very long on our local beach and walked the 1/2 hour to another privately owned resort beach that cost us $6 but it was worth every penny!

Siem Reap and Angkor Wat, Cambodia

Siem Reap is my favourite place in Cambodia, people aren't as in your face the atmosphere is far more laid back than Phenom Phen there is also the added attraction of Angkor Wat!

Our entry into Angkor Wat was an interesting one! 1stly I would like to point out that Roben and I were ever so slightly hungover, combine that with what one may call a retarded tuk-tuk driver and you have us walking next to the moat and 'discovering' what looks to be an interesting temple. Now anyone who has been to Angkor Wat or has seen the photos knows that it is a pretty spectacular site and hard to miss. Well how is it that Roben and I manage to stumble upon it and not know where we are? I'll tell you.....the stupid tuk-tuk driver dropped us at the back entrance where we walked through the jungle with no idea where we were or going! So after about 1/2 an hour we figured out, yes this in Angkor Wat, lets walk out and not look back so we can get the full effect, it is as spectacular as they say!

Cambodia has lead us to coin the term 'bus butt' - a condition that occurs after being on a bus for 10 hours on the Cambodian roads, they are horrendous. Bus butt normally occurs about 1/2 way through the journey when you have already tightened up your bra straps as far as they go, for fear of black eyes (had I know I would have packed my sports bra, but I only came prepared for low impact bus journeys!) and gotten on and off the bus too many times, the drivers in Cambodia are very civilised, you couldnt possible eat on the bus you must stop for a full meal in a restaurant (probably owned by a family member) and of course it takes at least 45mins for lunch.

The last journey was the worst and caused Roben and I to not only suffer from bus butt but what one can only describe as a major sense of humour failure! We were the last 2 to be collect and got shoved in the back seat, with all the bags. Everytime the bus driver breaked, which is often and not very subtily all the bags slid off the back shelf and on to our heads. To make things worse the bus route we were on (Cambodia to Thailand) is notoriously bad, its even been said that an annonymus airline has paid an undisclosed amount the keep the conditions bad. No good to us when there is a military coup going on and protesters have occupied the airport! Anyways after me becoming silent for most of the trip (I was affraid to open my mouth incase insults and obsenities poured out of my mouth) we repacked the back of the bus and Roben told an Italian man to f*** off....he had watched us repack the bags, didnt offer to help and then asked for his (b******o)

Bangkok, Thailand

So that is us now back in Thailand, in the midst of a military coup, all very exciting! Tonight we are getting the night bus down to the islands from some diving and the full moon party woohoo!

Well done if you got this far!

Love to you all

Lauren x