It[s been a long time since I wrote in the journal so I'll try and make this as concise as possible. Met up with my parents and brother ok in Bangkok and we stayed in a lovely hotel. Showed them some sights for a day. Then we flew to Siam Reap (Cambodia top lefthand bit). We then spent 4 days of intense touring round all the Temples (saw Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom amongst all the temples). must have seen a million temples - but they were all really amazing! It was like something out of Indiana Jones - really incredible - especially since they're so old (over 1000yrs) and all the history and religion associated with them. Siam Reap was a nice town - think it will be a really posh touristy place in a few years. We had a lovely guide who looked after us. Also went for a visit to a silk farm and on a river boat tour of the Tonle Sap lake. Ate at lots of local restauramts = much to the horror of my Dad - who was looking positively depressed towards the end of the 4 days - we went for a pizza on the penultimate day to cheer him up! We then got a 6 hour bus journey (stopping off at yet another temple on the way) to Phnom Penh. Phnom Penh is the capital of Cambodia - its a large city/town - no skyscrapers though. Quite dirty and there are a few slums on the outskirts. Everyone in Cambodia is very poor - and there are lots of beggars - especially children. It's a strange place - there is a sadness about it, but there are also lots of smiling people everywhere - difficult to describe the atmosphere. The War finished in 1999 so the country is still rebuilding itself and most poeple have lost members of their families, in very cruel ways, under the Khmer Rouge, Pol Pot Regime. Lots of Orphans and street children. There are also lots of landmine vistims with horrific scars or missing limbs who have to beg to survive becasue they can't do anything else. Our tour guide in Phnom Penh has a very sad history - he was very small when the Khmer Rouge Regime began. He watched his mother raped and killed by the soldiers. His father was also killed. He managed to escape being killed twice, the final time was at the killing fields whre he and his siter managed to run away to a nearby village. The Khmer Rouge were trying to eliminate all the educated people and turn everyone into to peasants working on farms. Amazing that they manged to get away with it for so long!! In 3 yrs they killed 3 million people! As a result, Cambodia has lost most of its skilled and educated people. Most doctors/teachers/lawyers etc etc were killed during the regime. The landscape in Cambodia is amazingly lush (it is the rainy season though) and in the rural areas there are farms - consisintg of houses on sticks in paddy fields with a few cows/waterbuffalo/chickens. In the city it is quite crowded - they drive like maniacs, don[t stop at traffic lights, drive the wrong way down dual carriage ways, cram the whole family and the dog and 3 huge bags of rice onto the back of 1 scooter! - and when you cross the road you don't wait for a clear road, you just walk and hope the bikes (mainly motorbikes - not many cars) part around you! In Phnom Penh we visited the Royal Palace, saw traditional dancing and Silver Pagoda etc. We also went to the S21 prison, Genocide Museum where a lot of the educated people were taken to be tourtured and killed. It[s horrible to think that people were there as recently as 1978 being tourtured to death - you can still see the blood stains on the floor - very harrowing. We also visited the killing fields where the some of the mass graves are. It was a very uplifting day!! Important to see it though. Cambodia has a very unsettled past - always at war. And now it's over there's so much corruption here that it[s difficult to imagine how it will move forward. All the street sellers pay protection money to the police. All the government officials are stupidly rich living in grand villas whilst the rest of the population live in slums just down the road, starving. There are very few hosptials - and most are very expensive. AIDS is a huge problem, as is TB, Malraia, Dengue Fever etc etc... There are only 3 trarmaced roads in Cambodia - built using borrowed money. All the other roads are dirt tracks. It[s a really interetsing place - am having a nice time here - just amazed by the corruption and the fact it is so openly accepted! My parents and brother left yesterday to fly back to Thailand and spend a few days recovering on the beach in a luxury resort!! Think Dad was more stressed than when he arrived! Don[t think he liked Asia. I[ve met up with Claire - she[s working at an orphanage for children with AIDS. I[m spending the next few days seeing the city and planning where I[ll go next. I[ll also help out at the orphanage for a bit. Think Claire and I will go and see some hill tribes in the North East for a few days (she has a week off work soon) then I[ll head south for a week or so, to see Sihanoukville and the towns round there. I[m heading over to Vietnam for the 6th October where I[ll spend a week in the South (Saigon area) before meeting up again with Claire on the 14th. Will try and upload some photos when I can - but be warned - there are lots of temple ones!