10 weeks since we left the UK

What we miss…

PG Tips with fresh milk (not extremely sweet condensed milk)

Curling up on a sofa

Cheddar cheese

Brown bread

Straight hair (Helen)

Ironed clothes (actually that's not too much of a hardship)

Cooking

Regular toilets

Having a minimum of 9 hours a day where he doesn't have to talk to Helen (Matt)

(Of course it goes without saying that we miss our furball, Mrs C and family and friends - perhaps the crying smiley is a bit over the top??)

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Anyway, yesterday we re-visited the post office to send a parcel of stuff home. We sought out a nearby market which was a good 20 minute walk from where we're staying. We made the HUGE mistake of returning back just as rush hour hit. I have NEVER known traffic like it. Having visited Paris several times I always thought that was bad; Ulaan Baatar and Moscow were pretty manic too. This is a different kind of madness due to the intense volume of motorbikes and scooters. There were hundreds of the things. Again as we have discovered before, the red light or the green man mean little to most people although some do obey. This actually renders it extremely difficult to cross a road. So, hundreds of bikes soaring passed, the lights change and a lot of them do stop, you step into the road only to have to frantically dodge those who, beeping their horns (the audacity of it) have chosen not to stop. And you might as well forget the more optional zebra type crossing. You just have to walk into the bikes with your palms held up and they do actually dodge around you, it's pretty scary though especially when buses and cars are thrown into the equation. To top things off, it was dark and tens of bikes decided to skip the road altogether and to mount the pavements instead to cut corners.

Mild mannered Matty's alter ego appeared again as he yelled down the earhole of a woman who had beeped us out of the road as a green man was showing, 'It's on RRREEEEEDDDD!!!!' I half thought the locals would lamp him but a nearby group of men jumped and then laughed, possibly at him but almost in acknowledgement of the fact that, yes, it is a truly stupid system of disorder. Likewise when bikes are on the pavement, Matt refuses to move out of their way resulting in a kind of stand off and again locals passing by gently laugh in acknowledgement. I mean I know we're visitors to the country and all but the thing is, just don't bother having red lights and green men if you're not going to use them. At least we'd know where we stood then. It does kind of take the edge off a gentle stroll back to the hotel.

Anyway, today we have sorted our onward transport; tomorrow at 7.30am we set off on a 2 day trip around the Mekong Delta. By Thursday afternoon we should have crossed the Cambodian border and be in Phnom Penh.

Now we've been at this travelling lark for a bit we're thinking of getting us some ankle beads...or perhaps dreds .