10/11/9 Siem Reap to Phnom Penh

We were picked up early in a minibus and taken to a larger bus back to Phnom Penh. On the way to the bus station we passed a school with loads of neatly uniformed, all getting ready for their classes and it was before 7 am!! Under the bus, in the baggage store, there was a dog packed in a small box, with just enough space to get his nose through. he was yapping away obviously terrified, poor thing. At the first stop the owner must have got off as the yapping stopped, either that or the dog had a heart attack!! Unfortunately the air conditioning in our VIP bus didn't work so it was pretty stifling on the 6 hours back. After a few complaints all the windows were opened by the staff to let us get a little air even though it was warm air. After a long hot drive we finally reached Phnom Penh, where we were met by the wide grin of Diamond waiting to take us back to our hotel. We popped our stuff in our room, collected our passports with visas in them from Diamond and booked a bus to 4000 islands the next day. We needed to post some more stuff home so Diamond kindly went and got us a box from the market, which we packed up then got a tuk tuk to the post office. The process there was really efficient and we posted Lizzies nephew Richard a parcel for his birthday too, lets hope the post works here!! On the way back to the hotel we stopped at Wat Phnom to take some people free shots of it as it had been really busy when we went before because of the festival. We got out of the tuk tuk near to our favourite resturant, Anjali and had another fabulous meal there watching life go by. We went to the internet cafe to catch up and then had a quick goodbye drink at Petes bar then went to bed.

11/11/09 Phnom Penh to Don Det (Laos)

We were collected early at our hotel in a small bus to take us on to the bigger bus for the journey of 10 hours to 4000 islands in Southern Laos. We were glad to see the air con working and settled down for a comfy ride with our trusty neck pillows and ear plugs. We chatted to an interesting Kiwi guy sat in front of us called Don. He was a Vietnam veteran and had travelled the world during the seventies so had a few stories to tell. We slept a little and looked at the rural views until we got to the border. The border consisted of a small wooden hut and a barrier across the road. We trouped into the office and had our passports stamped for an unofficial $1 fee then walked no mans land to the Laos side. We walked under their barrier and into the wooden hut Laos border control. We had our passports stamped again for another unofficial stamp fee of $2, Laos is much more expensive in its dodgy fees !!! The bus drove along to pick us up as we couldn't go back down the road to Cambodia. We continued our journey through rural Laos. It all seemed a lot poorer than Cambodia with a lot less traffic and many more people living in wooden homes. There were less brick and iron houses here and life seemed based around farming and subsistance from what we could see. The scenery was lovely with tropical trees and rice fields. As we neared Don Det our final destination the bus steward asked us if we wanted him to arrange a bus and ferry to the island. If not he would just leave us at the side of the road to sort ourselves out. We had all bought our tickets with ferry and minibus transfer included but the guy insisted it was not and we had to pay another $4 each. It was pitch black outside and the ferry port was about 4km away according to matey boy on the bus so we had little choice. When we pulled to a stop, a bus was already waiting to take us to the port, the one we had already paid for no doubt!!! We all climbed in, there was only 5 of us going to the island and started down a really dark lane. In the headlights you could see the terrible state of the road with huge ridges and potholes all over it. It was like a roller coaster ride especially as the seats weren't bolted down!!! Once at the "port" we scrambled down the river bank in our flip flops to the waiting longtail (long canoe with an outboard) We climbed aboard and began a journey into the unknown across the Mekong river. It was pitch dark and the boat kept tipping over and we imagined ourselves as tomorrows headlines !! We did eventually arrive safetly at the other side in Don Det and were taken to the tour office to pay our $4 fee. After a bit of protesting and a few phone calls we all agreed to pay a $2 fee as a compromise. Enough about that though. The 4000 islands (Si Phan Don) is an archipelago of sandbars and rocky islets amidst the huge Mekong river. Don Det where we were staying was one of the smaller islands you could stay on. It only has generator driven power until about 10 or 11 pm and no water except from the river itself. We were pretty hungry and tired so Don and us checked into the nearest accomodation we could find. It was a wooden hut with an attached shower hose and toilet with bucket flush for $2...brilliant. We left our bags and headed straight for the nearest bar Josh's Place run by a bunch of Israeli dope heads who had overrun their visas!! We sat in the candle lit bar listened to the great music, had some good food and chatted until the generators were switched off and we had to leave. it was very funny watching the guys trying to work out the bill when they were stoned off their heads. Phil spent alot of the evening talking to an American guy who had married a Laos lady and lived near in Laos now. We went back to our room which was like a furnace and tried to sleep inside a strategically placed mossie net!!!

12/11/09 Don Det

We woke up at about 9am after a pretty rough night tossing and turning in the heat. We decided to take a look around and see what other accomodation was available as there were huts overlooking the river which had a bit of a breeze apparently. We walked around for a while looking at a range of rooms from really basic with shared squat loos up to a nice room with fan but settled on Little Eden. Little Eden is a block of rooms overlooking the river with a bar and resturant overlooking the Mekong and with a great view of the sunset. The rooms were much more money but were so lovely and with a fan and three windows we couldn't resist. We had breakfast there and chatted to the couple in the next room and also an English couple who were moving in the next day from the next island along. We went to get our bags and settled in to our better room hoping it would be alot cooler. We had a really chilled afternoon, chatting to the neighbours, Liz was dozing and Phil sorting a few things then we joined a little group for sunset drinks. Don came along too and about 7 of us watched the pretty spectacular sunset with a few cold drinks then went for a really good curry. After the curry we went to Joshs place for a few beers before he turfed us out when the generators were switched off. We went back to our new room and were able to have the fan on for a while before our generators went off too. it was a stifling hot night and Liz spent most of the first part of the night fanning herself with a freebie fan she'd had from Vietnam.

13/11/09 Don Det Friday 13th !!!

We woke up early enough to pick up hire bikes just before 8am...impressed huh! The bikes were little shoppers with baskets on the front so we looked very cool cycling along. We cycled along the river through the Don Det area where we saw plenty more river view huts and some little resturants leaning over the river. We stopped at one with an Australian baker we had heard about to get breakfast. He had baked the bread and an apple cake so we both had some and a piece of his cake too. We set off towards the next island of Don Khon which is connected to Don Det by a disused railway bridge. We passed through fields of workers and water buffalo, waving locals and laughing children, all pretty idyllic really. There were a few people washing and bathing in the river as thats their water supply like the rest of the island. We cycled through what was left of an old French port and continued through fields to Don Khon. We arrived at the bridge having cycled along the old railway line, the only one the French laid apparently. Tourists had to pay a 10000 kip entry fee , just over a $ so didn't break the bank, then carried on along the track. We passed by an old French locomotive parked along side the disused track and carried on a bit further. Liz was quoting the Lonely Planet, which had warned about getting a puncture on this ride as the walk back is an awful long way, then got a puncture herself !!! What a nightmare, added to that Phil had a real moan at her for getting a puncture as if she'd done it deliberately. The atmosphere was lovely as we walked back to the village to see if we could get it repaired and carry on with our tour. All the people we asked pointed to a "garage" but the woman there just pointed us down the road. The people down the road then pointed us back to her. When we got back to her, a man had arrived and told her to sort it so she eventually got up to do it. He was obviously elsewhere fixing something and left her running the shop much to her disgust. She peeled the tyre off and found the puncture in the inner tube really quickly. She rubbed the tyre applied the glue and patch but them clamped the tube under a weighted pot and set light to some fuel in it. She then left it burning for a good ten inutes before checking it. We assumed the whole thing would be a sticky mess of melted rubber but it was fine and the puncture sorted...or so we thought!!! As soon as Liz rode off the tyre went down again so we started the whole long process again. This time we found a thorn in the tyre which had caused the trouble so hoped it would be sorted. Unfortunately she found three of four holes and said we would need an new inner tube for $15 !!! b***** that we thought and decided just to walk the broken bike back to Don Det. Then we had a change of plan and decided to hire another bike from where we were and collect the broken one later after we'd at least had a day out. Phil was still pretty irritated as we'd lost a few hours messing around and not got anywhere so the day wasn't much fun. A little further on, along the river we stopped to take some photos of water buffalo grazing along the bank but Phils bike tipped up and the camera case fell out of his shopping basket and rolled into the river. Phil followed quickly afterwards and managed to rescue the case but was stuck in mud up to his knees in the river. At this point he started to laugh and said that he had his comupance for being an arse to Liz earlier. We both had a bit of a laugh and all was good again. Liz helped pull Phil out of the mud and we hung the cameras and case out to dry. Problem number three then happened when the video camers crashed to earth from its hanging place...Friday 13th nightmare day!!! We hoped that once the three things had happened our luck would change. We cycled through a temple called Ban Khone Nua along some narrow paths used by the villagers, carried on and joined an old railway line towards the end of the island. Phil had a call of nature and then got attacked by nature in the form of leeches climbing up his legs. An English lad joined us for about half an hour as we cycled to the end of the island where we stopped for a drink. After our drink we started off again and spotted what was left of a Japanese locomotive. We carried on to see a beach on the side of the river. It was really hot sand and we walked across to the rivers edge then back to our bikes to carry on. We cycled for another twenty minutes and reached our next stop at the Somphamit waterfall a pretty impressive waterfall where we sat and watched for a while, had a drink and some fresh coconut and set off again. We got back to the village about five minutes later to collect the punctured bike and walk back to Don Det. We took a different route back to Done Det along the cooler shady riverbank. It took us less than an hour to walk and we passed by some lovely scenes with children playing, families going about their daily lives and then we called in at the bakery to pick up some freshly made chocolate brownies !! Once we got back to town Liz popped her bike back in the rack and didn't mention the puncture..what a naughty girl !!! We walked back to Little Eden and spotted the English couple Abby and Nick in the bar. We sat with them for a while having a much deserved cold beer and then got showered ready for the evening. Don and Catherine another English girl joined us for sunset at the bar then we all went to Joshs for dinner. Abby and Nick had to sort out a bus so we went ahead and ordered our food. We had pretty much eaten ours by the time they returned and ordered theirs. The stonehead staff didn't bring any food over and after about 45 minutes they asked where their food was. The waiter reassured them it was on the way then about 15 minutes later came to take the order again. They then said they hadn't any of the food that they wanted so they had to chose again. It was quite comical but not for the two who were starving. We stayed at the bar until the generators were turned off and went to Little Eden to try and sleep but it was still really hot and sticky.

14/11/09 Don Det

We were up early to join a half day trip to see the rare Iriwaddy dolphins. We waited at the tour office for a while then were told to walk to the port to catch a boat to the mainland for our tour. There were masses of people and bags to get on the one longtail and it looked like we wouldn't all fit in but the Laotians sure can pack and we all managed to squeeze on. The boat manged to negotiate the river without tipping thankfully and we reached the other side safely. we went up the village and were then told to wait in another office while all the other passengers were dispatched onto their inter city buses along uo the very bumpy road again. We were put into a mini bus full of other passengers and headed along the bumpiest road in the world to the main road. Once there we had another wait for the intercity bus to arrive for the other passengers to get on. By the time we were ready to go on our trip it was 10am two hours since the trip should have started, we were now on Laos time. We drove about 20 mnutes to the place where we were to ge ton our boat. We followed the boat owner scrabbling down a steep bank to the boat then noticed a flight of concrete stairs to the side which we could have used. We cruised along the Mekong for about 20 minutes to a site where the dolpihns were and immediately saw the fin of one . We saw quite a few sightings of fins and tails come out of the water but they were quite a distance away. We were happy to have seen them at all as they are very rare. The man docked at the river side and ran off to pay a fee to "protect this rare spicy" . We were in Cambodian waters where we were and we stayed for about 30 minutes watching for the quick glimpses of dolphin we managed to see. We then cruised back to where our driver was and got back in the bus to drive ti see SE Asias largest waterfall. The waterfall called Khone Pha Pheng is a km wide and completely stops anything being transported doen the mekong assed that point. It is a wide rocky ridge with narrow gullies that creates a torrent of water crashing through it. It is quite an impressive sight and we stayed there for a while to look at it. On the way back to the bus we had icecreams and then drove back to the port via the horiffic road again. We jumped on a longtail to get back to Don Det and as it was lunch time we met up with Abby and Nick for some lunch in the village. After lunch Nick and us decided to go tubing. We went to get changed into swimming stuff then went out in another longtail about twenty minutes up river. We could see where we had to get back to and it didn't look very far at all but once we were on the tubes we realised there was hardly any current and we were moving really slowly. We had a beer and a nice gentle start but had to do a lot of paddling to make any progress. We met a group of kayakers who were travelling down the Mekong for a few days which sounded like a great way to see the place. As we floated along we watched life go by on the banks of the river. Most people shouted Sabaidee (Laos for hello) and were all having a good time either on the banks or playing in the river. At one place there was really loud music playing and the biggest speakers sitting outside a wooden house!!!!We were still on the river as the sun was setting and as we got nearer to the start end point the current really picked up. We all tried to paddle towards the bank but we ended up getting sucked off around a little islet. Phil managed to get to the bank ok but Liz had to get a tow from our longtail which was following us down. All very funny stuff. Once back and showered we met up for sunset drinks and to exchange notes. Abby and Nick are doing the opposite route to us so we swapped hints and notes for the next bits of each of our journeys. We took Nick and Abby to the place we had the curry before and had a good meal again and then all went off to bed.