Soooo we finally made it back to Phnom Penh after another arse-challenging mini-bus ride - 4 people, 3 seats... do the maths. What a different city now there are people in it, not just tourists and when everything is actually open. It's a big change especially with our latest experience of a big city being Vientiane. We have finally managed to visit the Royal Palace and the silver Pagoda, which had a lot of carpet over the tiles, so not quite the dazzling sigh...

Kratie - 13th and 14th November Trip over to Cambodia wasn't too bad, although crossing the border was a bit of a joke and was massively corrupt as our guidebook had warned us. Amazingly the visa cost had somehow gone up $3 since we were last in the country a few weeks ago and we had to have a bulls*** 'medical check' which involved a disinterested woman in a surgical mask pointing a temperature gun at you and trying to charge you a dollar. I argued with her ...

Si Phan Don - 9th, 10th, 11th and 12th November Found a hostel on Don Khong straight away (Don Khone guesthouse and got the best room with a river view) and chilled out for the next 3 days, lapping up the river views and scenery and loving the fact it was VERY quiet with hardly any traffic at all. The small 'strip' of restaurants and hotels was about 5 long so got stuck into our reading material up on the hostel veranda and down by the riverside bar. Most tour...

Vientiane - 7th/8th November Pretty decent minibus trip of about three and a half hours to get down here and everything was pretty much on time for a change. Was a bit of a bunfight finding a room (didn't book in advance which was a mistake) and we had to charge around in the hottest part of the day with the rest of the people from our bus, looking at the same places. Was pretty close to killing someone at one point if I'm honest. Standard was pretty crap for a...

They weren't joking about needing travel sickness pills on the 5.5 hour minibus trip from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng - pretty much back to back hairpin bends and potholed roads. We were crammed in with a few German lads and another older German bloke in a fashion crime shirt who refused to give his ticket to the organiser chap for some reason, nein, nein, nein. We'd already been back in touch with Jess and Chloe who we met in Kampot, Cambodia as they were ...