Following are last entry from Kratie just a little bit to add about the night time of that day which would be Thursday evening we had dinner at the starlight guesthouse which was very nice but what was not so nice was the flying COCKROACHES (never knew cockroaches could fly till we got to Cambodia) that kept dive bombing us and they were not little!! We didn't enjoy it one little bit, the local's found it very amusing and couldn't understand why we were so scared of them as the eat them here they are a delicacy cooked with chilli and spring onion we haven't tried them yet!!!

Friday 29th June 2009

This morning I got up early to finish up loading my photo's from last night while Suzie stayed in bed, we met up for brunch then went to catch the bus at 12:15pm to Ban Lung. This bus was the worst and most expensive bus we've been on so far it was full of locals who instead of putting there rubbish in the bin they just chucked it on the floor so the bus was full of fruit peel and water bottles it was delightful!! When we got on there was no room for us to sit together so we had to sit separately, I sat next to a Monk, who promptly made another man swap seats with me so he didn't have to sit next to me (I think he was over come by my beauty and didn't think he would be able to restrain himself!! lol). The Journey seemed to take a life time the roads were in an awful condition so it was a bumpy ride and it didn't help that we had a very heavy thunder storm too!!

We eventually arrived in Ban Lung about 6 o'clock and as usual we were again ambushed by hotel owners we decided to have a look at the lake view guest house, which turned out to be very nice and cheap $3 per room so we obviously stayed here (No hot water though :-(). Had a nice meal and booked a motorbike tour and an elephant trek for the next day we then had an early night as we were tired from the bus ride.

Saturday 20th June 2009

We left the hotel today at 09.45am, for are first stop 10km out of town for are elephant trek to the waterfall which I was really looking forward too but within five minutes we both wanted to get off it was awful. When we first got on we wondered why the man who was riding the elephant had a axe but all was revealed if the elephant stopped just to try and eat some grass he would then hit the elephant on the head with the axe it was dreadful to watch and it really hurt the elephant he would cry out and then make a really load growling sound the guy who was riding it had a serious anger problem. We were very pleased when we reached the waterfall so we could get off not an experience we will repeat unless we know the elephants are kept better.

After we had seen the first waterfall we had a two hour motorbike ride to the seven step waterfall the road was very bumpy, muddy and wet. My guide managed to flood his engine by going through a very deep puddle (we'd call it a small river back at home) so we had a twenty minute delay on the way there while they fixed the problem. We also visited a Muslim minority village on the way where Suzie and her driver managed to slide down a muddy slope so they both fell off the bike no serious injuries though!! After that Suzie got off the bike and stepped back and fell down a hole and scraped her leg on a bit of wood (not her day today obviously!!). Just before we got to the waterfall we stopped in a tribal village for lunch it took a while for us to find anywhere as a few places didn't want westerners there I think as the drivers asked at one place and they said they didn't have any rice even though they had two great big sacks full of the stuff. We eventually had a very good sandwich at a funny pub even though we did get stared at throughout another place they don't see westerners very often I think.

The seven step waterfall was very impressive and we decided to have a paddle but what started of as a paddle turned into a full swim near enough fully clothed with are trainers on (The trainers are still drying now 5 days later and they smell disgusting think we may have throw them away). On the way back from the waterfall we could see the sky getting darker and darker and it started to rain a little bit but within five minutes of us getting to the hotel the heavens opened we were very pleased we were not still out on the motorbikes.

Tonight we had dinner at the hotel again and played cards with 3 Canadians that we had been on the bus with and they had also decided to stay at the lakeside (Suzie had sat next to one of them on the bus and had taken an instant dislike to him and his friend in front who kept squashing her legs with his chair and he had blue dreadlocks what more can I say?) but as usual never judge by first impressions they turned out to be very nice people and we had a good night.

Sunday 21st June 2009

Today we had a lay in as it was Sunday!! We got a lift into town from the hotel (we still can't get used to 3 on a motorbike) and rented some bikes, had a quick bite of lunch (one of the worst sandwiches I've ever had!!) before cycling to the volcanic lake (Nobody told us a lot of the bike ride was up hill so we also walked some parts). We got to the lake and walked round it before finding a spot to have a swim. This lake is a popular place for the locals to come to swim, but the difference is they swim fully clothed so they found it very strange that we had are bikini bottoms on and a top, somebody had warned us to swim in a top due to there being a lot of locals there and im glad they did we would have felt very uncomfortable in just are bikini's.

The ride back to town was much easier and we dropped the bikes back and got a motto taxi back to the hotel. Had some dinner and read are books on the balcony at the hotel before going to bed.

Monday 22nd June 2009

This morning we left Ban Lung at 08.30am destination Laos!!