Tom: This is just a quick message to let everyone (especially parents) know that we've had a change of heart with our travel plans. It seems stupid to try and make it up the whole length of Vietnam during the Tet new year celebrations. We're now going in the opposite direction: Back into Thailand (via an awesome-looking island called Koh Chang), up to Chang Mai for some trekking, into Loas from there and then on to Northern Vietnam. We've just bought two plane t...

Tom: We're learning more each day about Southeast Asia's past. It's not unusual that any culture/region should have such a bloody history, afterall Europe saw its most recent genocide only 30 or so years ago. Nevertheless, to see it all laid bare in a museum devoted solely to one prison during Cambodia's civil war (1970s - which ended up becoming international anyway with Vietnam's involvement), is quite a moving experience. Tuol Sleng prison, in central Phnom P...

Nilufer: Hello everyone! I'm afraid that uploading photos has proven more difficult than we'd first thought - it takes ages to upload because the servers here are so slow. Sorry about that. So, right now we're in Phnom Penh. We left the beautiful beaches and fun travellers for some culture! Yesterday was particularly cool because we found this quieter beach away from the hordes of tourists, and it was just blissful to sit and read in the sun. I also got ...

Tom: 10 hours by bus will get you from Siem Reap all the way to Sihanouk Ville via Phnom Penn - it's a rather nice little beach town in a large Cove (probably visible on world maps) in Western Cambodia, which has unfortunately been "discovered" by the tourism industry a year or so ago, so it's got a lot of bars orientated towards Westerners, but it's still really peaceful. It's possibly a nicer place to stay than Siem Reap, friendlier people and more t...

Nilufer: Hello again! Today was quite an epic day. The word is that the best time to see Angkor Wat is at sunrise. So we followed the band wagon, hired a bicycle and took to the streets of Siem Reap at 5am.. yep, it was pitch black, there were no street lights and we were cycling along dirt tracks. In hindsight this wasn't the safest mode of transport, but it was the most fun. It felt amazing to be cycling along in Cambodia to catch the sunrise at one of th...