Dear all! Soooo many apologies for the lack of contact but it's a little tricky to remain on the WWW when you are on an island in southern Laos without electricity! Can't quite remember when I last sent a postcard or what I was rambling on about then but hey - never mind! From Vangvieng (the crazy tubing place!) we travelled to Vientiane - the capital of Laos. Having heard lots of stories about how it was just a place to stop off and sort out visas, I was really surprised at how lovely it was! It has to be one of the most beautiful (and tiny!) capital cities ever! It was all very colonial again and I have to say I felt very French riding around on my bike -all I needed was some garlic round my neck!! After having sorted out our visas for Cambodia and shopped around the huge market (which, strangely, reminded me of the one in Grimsby!!!) we headed down to Si Phan Don (the Four Thousand Islands), a kind of river delta in the Mekong - where barely any of the islands have electricity. There are no motor vehicles either and so the only means of transport is bikes - not that there is actually anywhere to go - even if you did have transport! We spent most of our days chilling out - swimming in the river and jumping off trees, building sites and anything else that looked like fun! The evenings were a bit scary though as we had electrical storms each night and I hate the dark at the best of times - I was soooo scared! The only means of light we had was some candles and my pangly purple Maglite (cheers Sarah!!). After trying to leave every day we finally left on 11 May - the day our Laos visas expired and headed for the Cambodian border. I honestly thought I was never going to be seen again as the Cambodian official swept me off on the back of his moped to "the border"! The actual border was such a joke - it's not recognised as an official border yet and the fee you pay depends completely on the mood of the official on duty at that time! We managed to smile and get away with only 2 US dollars - bargain! After having crossed into Cambodia we then had to endure a 1.5 hour speed boat ride down the Mekong, in the pouring rain, to Stung Treng. All my backpack got soaked and all my clothes are stinking of mould, where's the Febreze when you need it?!?!?! BUT - on the up side, I did see a freshwater dolphin - so exciting! Having stayed the night in Stung Treng we have today arrived in Phnom Penh - the capital of Cambodia, after a 10 hour bus journey. Am shattered now so think I will go and sample an Angkhor beer and work out the plan from here! Lots of love to you all, Vicky xxxx