Greetings from Oz! I know, I know - you thought we'd disappeared off the face of the earth?!?! Sorry, we've been a bit slack with our up dates recently - no excuse really - we've been too busy enjoying ourselves!!!

Anyway - we've been through 4 countries since our last post so here are the highlights:

Cambodia - after Sihanoukville we moved on to the capital Phnom Penh, and then Siem Reap to visit the temples at Angkor. Two equally important but completely different experiences. In Phnom Penh we visited the Killing Fields and S-21 prison - truely horrific. In the prison, which was a former school, 17,000 people were held and tortured during the Khmer Rouge period, which I still can't believe was within my life time. It is such an ordinary building but it was the scene of some awful things... and there are photos of all of it. The Killing Fields are even worse - everyone from S-21 ended up here and no-one survived. Many of the mass graves have been exhumed now and there is a monument in the middle that houses 8900 skulls of men, women and children. There are still bones and clothes coming up through the ground all round the site. It was a very depressing day, but crucial to understanding the country's past.

Siem Reap was a far more hopeful and up lifting experience. The temples at Angkor are absolutely amazing. Angkor Wat is the biggest and most impressive - I can't think of any superlatives that do it justice!! We went up to another temple close by to watch the sunset over Angkor Wat in the evening and then explored it properly the following morning. More temples followed - including one that has 216 giant carved faces staring down at you and one that is still over-run by the jungle. They filmed Tomb Raider here and when we went back to the room that evening it was on the TV!

Then we moved on to Singapore, which was a culture shock, temperature shock and financial shock all at the same time! The city is rediculously controlled, you can't chew gum, can't cross the street outside of a crossing and can't eat or drink on the metro... but no one seems to mind all the rules. We visited the Indian quarter, the Chinese quarter, the Colonial District, Raffles hotel, the crazy new exhibition hall that looks like a giant spikey fruit, and a water park! (we felt like being kids for a day!) Our visit coincided with the APEC meeting so Mr. Obama dropped into town to see us too.

On to Hong Kong and the temperature shock got even worse - it was 13 degrees, exactly the same as London! The jackets, jeans and socks came out for the first time in 2 months (I know what you're thinking - poor us! but it was a shock!!). We did the obligatory trip up Victoria Peak and watched the Symphony of Lights show over the harbour and of course did some shopping - then I was unexpectedly whisked off to a 5 star hotel in nearby Macau (the Las Vegas of the East) for my Birthday - what's a girl to do!!

Robin treated me to a couple of nights in the Grand Lisboa hotel - complete with casinos, outdoor swimming pools, dancing girls (that part was for him) enormous bedrooms with TV's all over the place and more restaurants than you could shake a stick at! I don't think they've ever had guests turn up with backpacks before though! We had a great couple of days - no big win on the tables but a great time none-the-less.

Then we really did come backdown from our 5 star trip with a bump when we hit Australia and picked up our 'Wicked' (yes that's really what its called) campervan!! It was nearly going back after our first very hot, very sleepless night but we've got into our stride now - and invested in a mosquito net so we can leave the windows open! Now we are enjoying getting around at our own pace, finding great little spots to park up next to beautiful beaches and amazing rainforests. We've had our first wildlife encounter - Robin had to defend our dinner against a cassowary - a very large, rare bird (think ostrich and you're not far off) only found in Queensland that is quite partial to chicken and salad as it turns out! We didn't know until later that they can be quite agressive and you shouldn't really mess with them. I'm just hoping we don't have similar encounters with their other native species - notably crocodiles and kangaroos!

So having visited Cape Tribulation and Port Douglas in the North, we've now made our way down to Townsville and are heading out to Magnetic Island to see the Koalas this afternoon. Then its on to the Whitsunday Islands for some snorkling on the Great Barrier Reef - its a hard life...