Well we have our fleeces, trainers and trousers on for the first time since we were in Himal Pradesh, India. Dalat is so much cooler but beautiful, the terrain is filled pine trees, lakes and lots of fruit and flowers are grown here. We leave tomorrow to start a five day tour through the central highlands so thought I'd better try and catch up as we will be no where near a computer. Our trip will take us up to Hoi An. It should be really good, hopefully we will see some great waterfalls, minority ethnic groups, stay in some local villages, do an elephant trek and have the knowledge of a local guide.

The picture above is called crazy house, an architect who studied in Moscow, came back to Vietnam and decided to build this mad house. We had a look at it yesterday and were not impressed. It looks like a theme park!

So the last time we did a proper update we were leaving Bangkok heading for Koh Samui. The trip was very long we left at 7pm and finally got the hotel around 3pm the next day! The hotel was lush and it was a treat to have access to a swimming pool and jaccuzi. Koh Samui's main street is full of tourist shops, pubs, seafood resturants and tailoring shops. So we chose to avoid this and spent the week exploring on a motorbike. The weather was not great unfortunately I think we caught the tail end of the monsoons. Unfortunately the marine national park was also closed. Nevermind, we still found some great hideaway beaches, at which we did have a small mishap. After spending the day playing with resident dog on the beach, collecting coral, drinking wine and eating chicken satay on this beautiful deserted bay it was time to headback. Well, we were ready until we discovered that we couldn't find the motorbike key! In the end we had to get someone to bring the spare key, bearing in mind we were about 1.5hours away. To top it off the next day Darren discovered a pocket on his shirt he didn't know existed and of course the key was in there! So that was the main event of the week so it was pretty chilled and laid back.

The trip to Cambodia was another mammoth day, finally getting to Siem Reap 9 hours later. Siem Reap itself is very touristic, everywhere you go you hear 'only one dollar, please look lady, you want to buy, please look' but its inevitable to happen. The wats (temples)are all in a park, which we did over three days. Its mind blowing really, its incredible. The scale of the temples, the detail, the design, the locations its all incredible. I think by the third day we had our fill of wats. We chose to take a river trip to Battombong which took 8 hours and cost $20 where as you could take the bus which takes 4 hours and costs $5! It was worth it, though after 6 hours I think everyone had enough. It was so so hot, the boat had wooden seats and was open so after wearing my sunglasses over the whole trip I had a sunburn strip across my nose! You are warned that the boat goes through narrow waterways, we didn't realise how narrow. At points we were literally ducking and diving away from the branches and foliage! Obviously it would be me who had some pollen or something from one of the plants which reacted on my skin. So I had this very angry rash appear on my neck and shoulder which took days to calm down. Battombong itself had not much to see. It was so hot the next daywe actually turned back around 11am the next day to go back to the hotel as we couldn't bare the heat!.

The next day we travelled to Phnom Phen (capital). The city had a kind of charm. Its not Bangkok but its certainly better than Delhi. We visted the Genocide museum here which was very distressing to both of us. The museum was once a school which the Khmer Rouge transformed into a torture prison. 20 000 Cambodian women, men, children and babies were tortured before being taken to the killing fields. Pictures were taken of all the victims as they arrived in the prison, of which are all on display in the museum. Very sad and distressing but it gave us more of an understanding of their past.

The next day was Darren's birthday. We intended on visiting the palace in the morning, only to get there and it was not open until the afternoon so we took a walk around and ended up going to see a pagoda. On the way up we decided to sit down as the view was rather nice before we went in. Within five seconds of sitting under this tree we heard a creek, then another and then Darren said 'move' the tree branch was falling. Of course i got up ran for it, in the middle of this slipped on mud hurt my backside and was covered in mud. No one else moved!! Very embarrased. So that week was not good, sunburnt nose, rash and nasty fall! After getting a tuk tuk back to get changed we did have lovely lunch and managed to visit the palace in the end, at which Darren shared some of his musical talent. I will put some pictures up.

We travelled south to riverside town called Kampot. Not much to do but a beautiful riverside town which is full of French archicture. The pepper is wonderful from here, its what the area is famous for. We travelled around the countryside on motorbike again. Cambodia is so beautiful, everywhere you go all the people are so friendly and always smiling. Kep was our next destination. Its known for its crab markets and wow the crab is wonderful. We were really spoilt with seafood here. There is a nearby island called Rabbit Island which we stayed on for 2 days. It was literally a hut on the beachfront, no electricity, a couple of resturants with lots of sea food, lots of hammocks and a load of people just chilling!

So that was the end of our Cambodia trip and off to Phu Quoc for Chistmas! Vietnam is so different the pace of life is a hundred times faster than Cambodia and the people are well so far don't seem so friendly and some are actually quite rude. Though here in Dalat they do seem to be better. So we will now see what the central highlands have to offer!