Paul sat at the back of the boat to take photos along the Mekong rivers. We arrived at Chau Doc and decided to walk to our hotel near the covered market. I had done a reccy on its location the night before. Our backpacks have been great, even though I am now a couple of inches shorter than when I started. Chau Doc has a great feel to it - it is not primarily a tourist town, so you get a sense of authenticity. There are a few posh hotels on the waterfront and a fe...

We spent a few days in Phnom Penh arranging our visa and transport for Vietnam. We stayed in Europe guesthouse, which is in 136th street (lots of Sexy Sex bars here - no trouble at all, though). Great place, $17 per night, great staff - really smiley - who arranged everything we needed. Phnom Penh (Penh Hill) is on the Tonle Sap river, we were in the Riverside area at Sisowath Quay which has a wide promenade away from the traffic and bustle. We did a few touristy...

The weeks fly past, but boy do we cram a lot in. Monday we explored Banteay Srei Butterfly garden. Run by locals, they raise revenue from the international sale of pupae as well as from the entrance fees of $4 per person. They have 40 species of butterflies here and the guides take you round and show you the various stages of the butterflies' development. We also were shown some giant stick insects. Lovely garden and lots of photo opportunities for Paul. (See lat...

This week's offering is a photo blog - see our latest album. Many thanks for your lovely messages - keep them coming. Happy New Year!

We arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia at noon on Monday. Our guesthouse picked us up for free from the airport. We settled in at Sam So guesthouse - it is even cheaper than our Koh Samui hotels at £7.76 per room per night and it includes breakfast! For breakfast we have ham and veg omelette, two pieces of toast with jam and butter and fruit (usually a banana and mango or dragon fruit) free refills of tea and coffee too. It is so much cooler here with highs of around...