Forget backpacking - we are now tanning. The agent who sold us boat tickets to Koh Lanta showed us a lovely small speedboat in the brochure, which turned out to be a 200 man fast boat. We've been done - oh well, it was only 5 pounds. (monthly wage for new cicil servant here is 100 pounds). We were picked up and taken to the accommodation which were little air-con bungalows by the beach. A very small company with about 3 staff - not plush but seemeed ok and with ...

Flew from Bangkok to Kabi, a town that seems to have nothing going for it except as a travel node. It has an airport and the beach reports don't. Krabi has little in the way of tourist interests. We had internet booked a night at a hotel at a nearby beach resort to krab, at the nicely titled Grande Ville hostel. On the shuttle bus (25 seater with 40 people on board) we realised the internet page had been wrong and we were going to the wrong place. No worries - ...

Well, we won't do that again. 12 hours in a bus. 3 hours of which was along the Cambodian road to the Thai border. For such an important road, you have to ask why it is still made of stone and sand compressed flat. (Some say an airline is paying to keep the road bad). The road is rollered flat but it quickly gets pot holled, so for the first 90 minutes it was like a roller coaster with us literally being thrown airborne off our seats in the bus every 20 seconds o...

Welcome to the Siem Reap blog entry. Loads to talk about. Siem Reap is a small town which is probably supported solely by the tourists coming to see the 11th Century jungle temples recently listed as a UNESCO world heritage site. Day 1 was arrival day with the afternoon spent shopping in the market, and having a spa. Lins had a foot pedicure, and after much encouragement, Ian agreed to an all over (almost all over!) oil body massage with hot herbal compress for ...

The night before arriving in Phnom Penh was really cool, we stayed in Chau Doc and took motorbikes to the top of the mountain to watch the sunset. We had to go through tiny villages where everyone waved at the tourists on bikes. My driver ran out of petrol so stopped at a gas station which meant that we were miles behind everyone else and had to catch them up and super fast speed (at least fifty mph) We went up Mount Sam which has views over the Vietnam/Cambodian...