Hi!

I had a nice time on my last day in Siem Reap. We went to Taprohm - the temple with all the trees growing in, around and on top of it. It is where Tomb Raider was filmed apparently. It is a massive building, there is interesting stuff to see everywhere you look.

The day after we took the bus to Kompong Cham (taking about 6 hours or so!). On the way we stopped off at some services. The service places are very different than back home. You get off the bus and immediately people are trying to sell you stuff like fruit, bread and boiled eggs. At this particular service station however they were selling the local speciality of deep fried spider, and also roasted duck (with head still attatched). Mmmm just what you want when you are going to be on a bus without a toilet for a good few hours!

The toilets at the services (like in many place I went to in Thailand), and many bars and restaurants in Cambodia are squat toilets. Which you have to flush manually using a pan of water. Anyway toliet description over!! All I can say is some are better than others!!

I didn't see much of Kompng Cham as I was had a bit of a dodgy tummy that day, so just slept. But when I got up in the morning I found that it was a beautiful place by the Mekong river and took some nice pictures of the sunrise.

The next day we travelled back to Phnom Penh for lunch and then travelled on to Kampot. Kampot is on the banks of the Teuk Chhou river and seems to be a nice quiet town. When we got there I went to have massage by a blind person (there are alot of "Seeing Hands" places in Cambodia). I said that I wanted a strong massage - and that is definately waht I got!! He massaged between every rib!! If felt good afterwarsds though.

The next day we got on the back of 4 wheel pick up trucks to see Bokor National Park. The French decided in about the 1920's that with its cooler climate the Bokor mountain would be good palce to build a small tourist resort. The resort was then a battle field used by the Knmer Rouge in the 70's.

As soon as we got inside the national park we hit roads which I'm sure would have been closed in England as unfit for vehicles! Anyway we went up this mountain for about 3 hours along this bumpy road stopping to look at the old king's holiday palace (which is now just a burnt out shell), and to go for a walk through the jungle for a bit. When we got to the top of the mountain we had lunch at the abandoned casino. Lunch was a vegetable curry made by one of our drivers wives (it was nice but my tummy was still a bit dodgy so I only had a little bit).

Although it was interesting to walk around the old casino and the church (which like the kings palace are only shells of a building), I'm not sure it was worth the 3 hour drive along a really bumpy road!! Also the view wasn't that great from the top because the day before someone had lit fires in the jungle, so all the smoke spoilt the view.

Anyway after the 3 hour drive back down the hill - which was no better than going up it - we went for a lovely boat ride down the river. The scenery is fantastic by the river, and I got some great photos! We also went for a swim, even though by this time it was starting to get dark! It was really nice, especially after being on the back of a truck for so long, to just sit on the boat with a beer and watch the scenery go by.

Me, Pauline and Nadine (both Australian girls) then went for dinner. Since my tummy has been dodgy I have stopped eating Khmer food, and am now sticking to western style dishes. So that night I had a burger!! Pauline ended up feeding most of her dinner to the local dog as she was also recovering from a dodgy tummy.

After Kampot we travelled to Sihanoukville, which is where I am now. It is a beach resort in the south of Cambodia - I would recommend it to anyone who wanted a beach holiday without too many other tourists around! The sea is nice and warm and the beaches are clean, the only issue being people wanting to sell you things.

On the first night in Sihanoukville we went to a beach side restaurant. You could choose a fish from the boxes at the front of the shack and they would cook it for you on the BBQ. All the fish looked lovely and fresh and there was quite a selection! The whole group stayed out for a few drinks after dinner. Me, Nadine, Sam, Nicola and Dave went for a couple more further down the beach too - it was good fun!

The next day (yesterday) we went on a boat trip to a remote island. It was beautiful! Although it wasn't too good being on a boat with a hangover I can tell you!!

There were no other tourists on the island. Just a lovely beach, jungle and rocks to explore. After a nice swim our boat driver cooked us our lunch of BBQ fish, salad and bread - yum yum!! The beach and sea was really clean. It looked as though they were starting to build some accommodation for tourists though, so I bet in a few years time it won't be possible to see the island so quiet and clean.

Last night I had a lovely tea of cottage pie (something I never thought I would be eating on this trip!!), then was off to bed for an early night.

Photos are to follow! I have lots and this computer is not working too well, but I'll try and put them on asap.

Louise x.