Well, its been a while....

Kampot seems like a long time ago now so I best tell you what we were up to there!

Kampot is a beautiful little town. Very laid back and a wonderful place to stop for two or three days. While we were there, we visited Bokor, a mountain based in the national park. Up on the mountain stands a casino, a royal palace, a Catholic church and a small town, all empty and deserted from the around the 1940s (I think). THe whole area is quite eery, as its over 1000m above sea level, so clouds come in pretty fast. And the view up there is spectacular as are the buildings.

The journey up and down Bokor mountain is something else. Our weapon of choice was an early 90's Toyota Camry. The four of us jumped in and off we shot - literally. From start to finish it was like being in a rally car with Colin Mcrae at the wheel! Although I don't think he would have had bold tyres and he certainly would'nt have attempted it without a Subaru - to be honest I don't think anyone would have attempted that mountain with an ounce of sense. We actually got up the mountain quicker than any 4x4 basically cos we over took them all on the roughest road I've ever had the misfortune to be on.

Another great trip to do, is to go out with some guides, with mopeds. This way you get out into the villages and countryside. We had two guides and three peds, so it was down to me and Si to be responsible for each other's safety and as I had never ridden a manual change moped before, I feared for Si.

After visiting a temple in a cave we went on to visit our first killing field. This was our first taste of what horrors the Khmer Rouge bestowed upon Cambodia. We were shown a small building by a temple which had the remains of approximatly 300 people, all executed. Quick history lesson, the Khmer Rouge killed approx. 2 million people including women and children, between 1975 to 1979. Our guide told us that from his family only his father remained. Plus the Khmer Rouge leaders (with the exception of Pol Pot, who died of malaria a few years ago) are still at large on jungle, near the Thai - Cambodia border and have still not been brought to trial. We were then shown the ground the bodies were dumped in, pieces of clothing can still be seen today pushing through the ground.

Back onto the bikes and we went on to see the tiny coastal town of Kep - the best seafood in the world!! Crabs with Kampot pepper - me mouths watering again!! More empty royal residencies in beautiful locations - fortunatly those who have nothing have moved in and are now squatting there!! In some places charging tourists to look round!! Power to the people!

More travels round the countryside then back to the Kampot Guesthouse.

Apologies to Si for driving too fast over the bump tracks - he was walking like John Wayne the following day!

On to Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia. Via yet another mad driver who likes to speed up when he drives thru a village!

Phnom Penh is an strange place, but I like it, it feels more like a town and it has no real centre to it havin sadi that its great. Where did we visit? Kim and Rach went to the markets, me and Si went to a bar. We visited more killing fields and the infamous S21, school turned prison, now left as a monument to those who died there, a deeply humbling experience.

We are now in Siem Reap!

Lots of love,

Rick and Kim

PS Its raining here too - not flooding though.

No, we were'nt on the plane.

Get well soon Vicky and Thomas.

Sis, is your conservatory finished yet.

Seen loadsa monkeys!

Fired an AK-47 (not proud)