Day 30 - Bangkok "OK ...... so that's what the mummified remains of a serial killer look like ....."

We spent the day catching boats as one would normally catch taxis, having decided on our last visit to Bangkok that the roads are useless & it much quicker & cheaper to boat everywhere the skytrain doesn't go.
This was our third attempt at trying to visit the Forensic Museum, on our last 2 visits to Bangkok it has been closed, so finally we made it this time. We were not disappointed, appalling and gruesome, it held many parts of the human body in various states of damage as well as some complete corpses! Some of the most astonishing were from traffic accidents as well as unborn babies with two heads etc etc!! We were both surprised to find some people had brought their young children along to visit.
After having such good, healthy fun we headed to Chinatown to buy Kathryn a gold bracelet for Christmas. Unfortunately for Kathryn no-one seemed to want to take our money! They either said the shop was closed, or it was wholesale only or just ignored us all together, including leaning on the cabinets so we couldn't see....most strange. You go from being so hassled over a t-shirt or a $1 fare to no interest in selling you something that is actually worth some money....go figure....
We headed back to the hotel and then out for dinner - lovely garden restaurant, wonderful ambiance - shame about the food though, too westernised for our tastes, we've obviously been away for too long!
Off to another market to buy a suitcase to carry all our purchases home, we have quite a collection of carry on luggage now as we seem to do this every trip. Time to call it a day ..... flying home tomorrow!

Day 29 - Bangkok "I didn't think getting a tattoo would hurt so much"

You could call today a shopping day - with both Christmas and the end of the trip looming, we had a few things to catch up on. Headed off to Chattuchak Market in the morning - the market is huge but having been to quite a few markets on this trip in all sorts of places already there wasn't much there that we were too excited about .... after an hour or so we headed back into the centre of the city for lunch, in the fabulous MBK food court.
After lunch, off to Panthip Plaza to fill some orders for music and software, then later in the day we went to the Patpong Night Market just as the stalls were setting up to check out the latest in fake clothing and watches. More purchases there, Kathryn bargaining hard and taking advantage of the "first sale" tradition where the stall holders believe that an early first sale will give them good luck.
While having a drink at one of the less seedy bars on Patpong 1, we were approached by a seller of temporary tattoos that we decided to take advantage of (I really really hope it is temporary and eventually washes off ...... ).

Day 28 - Ayutthaya to Bangkok "After 28 days, we're all 'watted' out!"

After breakfast we caught the ferry to the other side of the river and then a tuk-tuk to the first of many Wats in the town. We walked from Wat to Wat until we were all "watted" out then headed off for a tour of the quite small Ayutthayah Historical Centre. We then stopped for some lunch before catching a bus to Bangkok. The bus ride was quite easy at 1hr & 40 minutes and we finally ended up at our old faithful hotel, the Asia Hotel. This is our third stay at this hotel - it might not be the poshest but it has to have one of the best locations in Bangkok, being the only hotel with its own skytrain station, which means that wherever you want to go it is straight out the door and onto the fast, clean, cheap and efficient Skytrain.
Our first task was straight to the tailor next door for Mike to be measured for a new suit and shirts. The tailor made a couple of attempts to upsell to Kathryn but she couldn't really see herself standing in the paddock in a 3 piece suit!
It was then onto the train to what we thought was going to be the Siam/MBK shopping centre but instead was a new complex called Paragon, which sells everything from ice cream to Lamborghinis! We should be able to do our Christmas shopping here - but don't any of you look for something car shaped in your parcels!
Back on the train for dinner at a restaurant, however we couldn't find the one we had planned to go to so ended up at another one instead. Followed by another trip on the skytrain back to Paragon for dessert. Only to find the first place we came across was actually a branch of the same restaurant we had just travelled miles to have dinner at! Told you the Paragon has everything!
Finally starting to feel quite weary we headed back to the Asia to do our blog. One small problem there is no free internet at the Asia Hotel, but resourceful Mike has found a way.... sshhh.....

Day 27 - Khorat and the trip to Ayutthayah "But I still can't figure out which toilet is which ....."

We decided to get a taxi to take us to a few sites around Khorat in the morning, as we needed to get the bus to Ayutthaya later in the day. Khorat isn't known as a tourist destination so our hotel didn't have anything like an organised tour. While we waited in the lobby for the taxi to arrive, Kathryn decided to take advantage of the facilities downstairs, and was quite amused with the signage for each toilet ... it's too hard to describe so check out the pictures!
First stop was Ban Prasat, where some archaelogical digs had uncovered the remains of a 3000 year old civilisation. The sites were small but quite interesting, and the town itself was also nice to walk around .... at least until it was invaded by around 100 schoolkids on an excursion!
Next stop was Phimai, to visit an old Khmer temple complex - very similar in style to Angkor Wat, but much smaller, but worth seeing nevertheless.
Finally we went to the Dan Kwian Pottery Village. Mike vainly tried to escape the ordeal by attempting to hurl himself from the taxi, but as he was carrying all of the money Kathryn kept a pretty tight hold on him. Most of the pottery was actually disappointing, as the main theme appeared to be garden ornaments, though Kathryn's keen nose eventually picked detected a few interesting pieces which she promptly purchased.
Once back in Khorat, our taxi dropped us at the bus station. We hopped onto a bus which we were both told would take us to Ayutthaya. A couple of hours of travelling later, we both started getting a little nervous as there were no signs of the bus stopping before it reached Bangkok! A quick word to the bus driver, and we were told "we're stopping in 10 minutes". 10 minutes later we were dumped on the side of the road next to a bunch of roadside stalls - where a tuk-tuk driver there informed us were were 25km from Ayuttayah! Of course he offered to help us resolve the situation, and as our options were limited we weren't really able to negotiate a good price for the ride into town. The tuk-tuk ride was an adventure in itself .... weaving in and out of highway traffic, being overtaken on each side by cars even though there were only two lanes, and speeding past cars along the edge of the road .... we almost got our money's worth.
Once we finally arrived at our hotel, we caught the ferry across the river into town, did a quick walk around the city, had dinner at a riverside restaurant where I think the mosquitoes had a better feed than we did, and finally called it a day!

Day 26 - Nong Khai to Khorat "Where's a good tuk-tuk driver when you need one?"

Another travelling day, so this will be short. We caught the bus from Nong Khai, near the Laos border, to Khorat, about 400 km south on the main highway to Bangkok. 6 hours and one lunch stop later we arrived and checked into our "trendy and boutique" hotel (well, that's what is says out the front of the V-One Hotel). After freshening up and researching where to go out for dinner, we decided on a place called "Cabbages and Condoms", which we had been to in Bangkok. We ventured out to the front of the hotel to find a tuk-tuk or taxi, but there were none to be found ... quite a change from everywhere else we had stayed! When we finally managed to flag one after about 10 minutes, the driver had no idea where the restaurant was, or any of the nearby locations listed in the Lonely Planet, and our dodgy attempts at pronouncing Thai words didn't help much either! Back to the hotel for some assistance, we finally managed to get to the restaurant, and ended up having a very tasty meal.

Day 25 - Vientiane to Nong Khai "Check out all of the weird statues!"

Today was our last day in Laos - and regrettably it's also the start of our journey homewards, as we have a few days of travelling ahead of us until we reach Bangkok.

We had an early start, walked along the Mekong for a while and then into the city to Talat Sao (the Central Market) for a bit of shopping, then over to the neighbouring bus station to check out the bus times to Nong Khai, today's destination which is just over the border in Thailand.

We ended up catching the bus at 12:40pm, a pretty easy way to do the border crossing since the one bus takes you between the border checkpoints for each country, and then on to Nong Khai.

Our accommodation there was the penthouse suite at the Pantawee hotel. The suite included the whole rooftop area to ourselves, outdoor jacuzzi, a laptop to use as needed, a mobile phone to call for room service at any time day or night, a fully stocked minibar, outdoor and indoor dining area, lounge suite, and a huge widescreen TV and entertainment system ..... all for just $74!!

As we had a few hours left until dark, we visited the Sala Kaew Ku Sculpture Park, which was full of surreal, religious themed sculptures of various sizes. However they weren't your normal, serious religious sculptures, some were quite funny, and other just plain weird, such as the sculpture of the pack of dogs driving various vehicles chasing after an elephant!

Back to town for dinner and a walk along the Thai side of the Mekong, then back to the penthouse suite!

Day 24 - Phonsavan to Vientiane "Just hanging around ...."

Yet another travelling day, but we had to wait around until 3pm to check in at the airport. As we'd pretty much seen most things of interest in and around town already, we had a very lazy day. Slept in, then hung around the hotel after breakfast until checkout time at 12, walked into town for lunch (the same place for three days running, but at least the Pat Phet with chicken was very tasty!), hung around at the hotel a bit more, hung around at the airport until boarding time, hung around on the plane (not much else to do on a Lao Airlines plane), hung around at the hotel in Vientiane for an hour or so as we'd had such a stressful day, walked into the centre of Vientiane for dinner, hung around in town for a while, walked back to our hotel past the riverside food stalls (where large toads seemed to be a popular menu choice), then finished the day with a bit more hanging around. The end result was complete and utter exhaustion (as you would expect), so we're in no hurry to do so much hanging around again on this holiday!

Day 23 - Phonsavan and the Plain of Jars "Do you eat kangaroos in Australia?"

At 9am we headed off on our tour of the three of the Plain of Jars sites. The jars are large sandstone jars, up to 2.5m tall, made over 2000 years ago by an unknown people - there are many theories and stories about their purpose but no-one knows for certain. Only three of the 400+ known sites are able to be visited, because of the danger of unexploded bombs (UXO) .

We visited all three sites - the first site has over 250 jars, the second and third have somewhat less. There were many bomb craters around the sites, and signs warning of UXO (unexploded ordinance). After visiting Site 2, Kathryn stayed with the bus while Mike and another of the tour members trekked the 5 or so kilometres to Site 3 with the tour guide. On the trek there were many more bomb craters, and even some examples of UXO - one a bomblet from a US cluster bomb, the other a couple of mortars found at the edge of a bomb crater.After Site 3, the tour continued on to a couple of villages, one where aluminium spoons were made from recovered aeroplane parts, and another where Lao rice whiskey was made, as well as viewing the remains of an old Russian tank. After all that it ended up being a pretty full day, we didn't get back to the hotel until after 5:30pm.

For some reason, we had been asked on more than one occasion during the day whether we ate kangaroos in Australia - our answer was no, only tourists eat kangaroos!

Day 22 - Vientiane to Phonsavan "I didn't know these sorts of things even existed any more"

Today is another travelling day, so not much to report. After breakfast we did part of the Lonely Planet walking tour of Vientiane, mainly along the Mekong river and into the "tourist" precinct, then headed over to the airport for the flight to Phonsavan (also known as Xieng Khuang), where we'll visit the Plain of Jars tomorrow. The flight was short, and the weather on arrival was quite cool (only 19 degrees). After checking in to our hotel and booking our tour for tomorrow, we walked the three or so kilometres to town and had lunch. As the town is in an area which is said to be one of the most heavily bombed places in the world, it wasn't surprising to see the hotels and restaurants decorated which old bomb and missile casings! We then did a quick tour of the very small town centre and the two markets, the highlights of which were finding a packet of "Viso" washing powder, and a shop that sold false teeth one by one, along with the glue to stick them into your dentures! Back to the hotel for dinner and an early night.

Day 21 - Vang Vieng to Vientiane - "Where is that music coming from, oh that would be Thailand".

Another early start to be packed and on the road again for another mini bus ride, this time 3 hours to travel to Vientiane. The usual tuk tuk rip off from the bus station to the hotel when you don't know how far it is and how much you should be paying, only to discover it is actually quite close. Though we are yet to have one to match a stop we had in Mexico where we got in the taxi with our bags & were driven around the corner - less than a block.

Gorgeous room overlooking the Mekong, very new, bright and airy. We headed down for a late lunch to the nice restaurant in front of our hotel, we then decided we were so tired we went for an afternoon nap!

We woke up to a lovely sunset from our bed overlooking the river and headed down for dinner. The music was very loud from the other side of the Mekong and when I questioned where it was coming from was told "Thailand"
So that was the lovely view from our bed - Thailand.

Day 20 - Vang Vieng - "If my parents were like you I would hang out with them more.."

Headed off to town to hire our tube and take the tuk tuk ride 5 kilometers up the river to start the cruise down, We passed many bars and restaurants on our way down the river - they throw out a long pole to you and haul you across the river and out of the tube to visit. We watched many huge swings and flying foxes that people were throwing themselves into the river from. There are some good videos of it on youtube. We visited one bar and then headed down the river only to discover that the rest of the trip was quite slow with no riverside entertainment. So we finished the trip and caught the tuk tuk to do it again.

By now it was about 2.30pm so the river had really fired up so we decided to visit some bars. There was lots of advertising for drinks by the "bucket" and sure enough that is exactly what they were! The buckets were a little larger than honey tub size filled with whatever alcohol you wished, for about $5. We splashed out on a g & t to share - it goes in the tube with you as you float to the next bar stop. The next one we stopped for lunch as well, while watching the mud wrestling put on by the local backpackers. Chatted to some backpackers from Doncaster who made us promise we wouldn't tell their parents what they were doing ... jumped back in the tube and finished the river about 6pm.

A nice shower and then on the way out of the hotel helped a couple who had driven their 4WD off the side of the raised driveway, surprisingly we got it out undamaged, headed in to town for dinner and then home totally exhausted.

Day 19 - Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng - Survived the dreaded bus ride.

Were picked up at our hotel to join the others in our mini bus to start the "5 hour" road trip to Vang Vieng. The road trip is notorious for its roughness, mountainous winding and is not popular with people with vertigo or travel sickness problems - so not one for you Charlotte! The spectacular views driving through the mountains and passing hilltribe villages made up for the road

The trip turned into a 7 hour drive, we were then dropped in the middle of town and had to make our own way to the hotel dragging our cases behind us.

We walked into town, had a drink at a riverside bar, found a place for dinner and sorted out how the river tripping went for the next day.

Day 18 - Luang Prabang "All that horse knowledge actually is useful!"

Very early start (6am) to watch the Buddhist monks receiving alms from the villages ... as it turned out it appeared to us that most of the "villagers" were actually tour groups trying to capture that authentic Buddhist experience as part of their holiday! The monks did look impressive though walking down the street in single file in their saffron robes.
Back to the hotel for brekky, then a quick climb up Phu Si, a hill in the centre of town with a number of wats and lovely views from the top.
We were then picked up for our elephant riding trip, we were driven about 10km out of town to the elephant ranch. We rode an elephant together through the forest for about 30min, then we went to a small lake where we got to "bath" the elephants. This involved riding on an elephant as it walked into the water. Once it sat down (getting quite wet in the process), we scooped water on it and scrubbed its head/neck area. Kathryn thought it was heaps of fun, Mike was just trying not to fall off!!
After lunch we took a 15 minute boat trip to the village of Ban Chan, renowned for it's pottery (yep, Mike's worst holiday nightmare has just become a reality!). A quick lap of the village watching some quite skilled (and speedy) craftsmanship, with quite large pots thrown with manually operated wheels in just a few minutes!
Back to town, a quick walk over the bamboo bridge the other side of the Nam Khan river, and the days adventures were done!

Day 17 - Luang Prabang "Yum, they don't make those biscuits in my country!"

Went out after breakfast to book some tickets for the next day's activities, on returning to our room Kathryn caught the cleaning lady in the act of stealing some biscuits she had brought along from home. "They were in the bin" she said .... Kathryn knew they were from the bag she kept her supplies in.
We booked a tuk-tuk for a trip to the Pak Ou caves and the Kuang Si waterfall. The trip to the caves started off well, but when we turned off the bitumen road onto the worst dirt road we've ever been on, things started going downhill .... after 8 km of jarring, bumping, jerking, funny bangs and weird noises, the tuk-tuk stopped. The driver made a couple of attempts to restart it, but no luck .... we left him there while we walked to our destination (about 3km down the road). On arrival we spoke to the people there and sent them off to help our driver, while we conitnued onto the caves, their claim to fame being hundreds of Buddha statues of various shapes and sizes.
After the caves, Kathryn managed to beg a lift from a tourist boat heading back to Luang Prabang. On arrival back in town, we flagged another tuk-tuk to take us to Kuang Si, some of the most picturesque and prettiest waterfalls we've ever seen. It's a popular swimming spot, but we didn't go in as it was too late in the afternoon and too cold, we settled for a visit to the Sun Bears and a climb up and over the top of the waterfall.

Day 16 - Siem Reap to Luang Prabang (Laos) "I'm sorry, we can't let you into the country, everyone who works here wants to go home"

Slept in on our last day in Cambodia .... off to town so Kathryn could get a massage, and finally managed one after two aborted attempts - the first due to jackhammer noise on the other side of the wall, and the second because of a strange massage technique requiring donning a pair of pyjamas. Mike spent the time while waiting for Kathryn fruitfully doing nothing useful at all (except drink coffee), which he is becoming quite good at on this holiday.
We met up with Mr Kao back at the hotel for our trip to the airport, where he told us that his son had been bitten quite badly by a dog the day before, and as a result we managed to learn how the Cambodian health system works - you queue outside the front of the hospital with everyone else until it's your turn for free treatment.
The flight to Luang Prabang was interesting .... we got to chill out on the tarmac at Pakse airport when it stopped there to pick up more passengers, it felt more like a bus trip than an air flight!
On arrival at Luang Prabang airport we were very amused to find that the customs officials were very keen to help us through so they could go home .... to the extent of filling in Kathryn' paperwork for her while she went to the toilet! Lucky we didn't have anything to declare!

Day 15 - A quiet day in Siem Reap .... "I used to be a size 9"

A quiet day today after the temple explorations of the last couple of days. We slept in (until 8am!) and after breakfast Kathryn went to the hotel counter to confirm our flights to Laos tomorrow. While there she noticed that the exchange rate for Australian dollars was only US$0.50 - this was a big drop from the rate of $0.70 that was there for the previous couple of days and which we had already taken advantage of. The hotel had finally worked out that their exchange rates were a little out of date .... they would have found this out when they banked the AUS$190 that Mike had already changed!! It's a bit sad when you think US$0.70 is a good deal ......!
We then headed into Siem Reap to avail ourselves of some free WiFi so we could update the work of literary art which is this blog. Some shopping in the market (again ....), and then off to some of the more tourist oriented shops to see if there was anything we'd missed .... after two quick stops it was apparent that all we'd missed was the 500% markup they charged. Needless to say we didn't buy anything.
Back to Siem Reap, a quick look in the Night Market where we discovered the new massage technique of Dr. Fish. For only $3 for 15 minutes, you can put your feet into a pool of fish and watch them eat your dead skin from your feet. One guy there was very popular with the fish .... while we were laughing at him and the others there, he said "I was a size 9 before I started ....".

Day 14 - Siem Reap and even more temples "Can I have a t-shirt please?"

More temples (of course!), though a more leisurely day as today we did the 26km "large circuit", with overall fewer temples and greater distances between them, with the bonus of fewer tourists as well. We also added in a visit to Banteay Srei (a further 21km), Banteay Samre, and the land mine museum. We are both amazed at how many people travel all the way to Siem Reap and seem only to visit just the two or three main temples ... the number of people at Angkor Wat would have been in the thousands, but at some of the smaller, but still very interesting temples, at times we felt as if we were the only ones there.

At one stage after Kathryn had delivered one of her "care packages", the kids crowded around us and kept asking for more t-shirts. As we had no more with us Kathryn threatened to take off her shirt ... when she started to lift it off the kids started screaming ... and so did all of the tuk tuk drivers who were watching. At this point Mike decided it was in his best interests to keep very very quiet ......

After temples, back to town, more shopping (much to Mike's dismay), dinner, and back to the hotel for a well deserved rest .... these holidays are such hard work (or so Kathryn kept telling our tuk tuk driver Mr. Keo).

Day 13 - Siem Reap and the temples "You mean you've lost your glasses again???!!!"

We spent the whole day exploring temples .... started at Angkor Thom and Bayon (the temple with the large faces), and from there explored a number of other temples, on what is known as the "small circuit" (17km). Each temple comes with its own set of locals trying to sell cold drinks, books, and souvenirs, which did get a little tiring after a while, though Kathryn managed to give out a number of her "care packages". plus 5 pens, and about 457,000 hair ties. The day was quite sunny and warm, so we both were quite hot and tired by the time we got back to town around 5pm. A bit of shopping at the night market, an attempt to replace Kathryn's lost reading glasses (yes, that's two pairs she's lost now), Thai food for dinner.

Day 12 - Battambang to Siem Reap "Best boat ride I've ever been on ....!"

Early start, the trusty Mr Mo took us to the boat ramp to meet the 7am boat. A wonderful journey awaited us .... first along the river for a while in the cool morning air, eventually reaching narrow water ways (wide enough for only one boat), and past the floating huts of the river dwellers. Amazing scenery and birdlife, and a great way to see how the river people live. We climbed onto the top of the boat and worked on our suntans while we enjoyed the magnificent views.
On arrival in Siem Reap 7 hours after we left, our boat was swamped by hordes of tuk tuk drivers looking for customers. We had arranged for a driver since transport to town was free with our boat tickets ..... but of course our driver still tried to charge us $10 on arrival.

A quick ride into town after checking in, then off to see sunset over Angkor Wat, which is as amazing as you would expect. We booked our tuk tuk driver for the next day. After heading to Siem Reap for dinner at an Indian restaurant, it was back to our hotel.

Day 11 - Battambang Countryside "Hello Kitty!"

Mr Mo and his uncle collected us this morning on a motorbike each, no such thing as helmets or any kind of safety here as we head off down a road so dusty we have to stop & buy facemasks. Mike was sure everyone was laughing at him in his Hello Kitty face mask. We climbed to the top of Wat Phnom Sampeau, where we saw another monument to the people killed by the Khmer Rouge, next to the hole in the cave where the victims were thrown to their deaths.

Off to Wat Bannan next, where we were hassled by a woman telling us "slow slow" and wafting us with a giant fan as we climbed the 358 steps to the top. After several attempts we finally persuaded her that we were quite capable of climbing without any assistance. Nice views at the top, then back to the hotel where we had been moved to the most ridiculously large room in the whole of Battambang.

We walked into town and sat on a balcony in a restaurant relaxing for a while, then dinner at the Asian Beer hotel, where we were greeted by 20 young girls all bowing to us as we entered, which Mike thinks would be a good thing to introduce in Australia.

Day 10 - Battambang - "Why do your arms and teeth look funny, are they real?"

Our moto driver Mr Mo picked us up at 9am and took us to the market to check out what was on the menu for the night. We passed frogs, snakes and dog legs combined with a dead rat lying on the path. We then drove to the bamboo train due to become extinct in January. Being a single track train whenever you met someone coming from the opposite direction someone had to take their "carriage" off the tracks until the other person passed. Being the "foreigners" i.e. paying more money than anyone else we embarrassingly had right of way until we came across one overloaded with fuel then we exited for them. We then drove around checking out the Wats (temples) in town & finished off at the orphanage. We took exercise books and pencils and were taken on a tour. The young children were very clingy including one little girl (covered in sores) who had only been there 10 days after being taken off the streets. They had quite a discussion pinching the skin on Kathryn's upper arm. Whether they were discussing the colour or fat remains a mystery, although Mike says it was the fat. One of the boys picked up that there was something strange about Kathryn's teeth (translated by the carer), the horrified look on his face when Kathryn removed her plate was priceless!

Day 9 - Phnom Penh to Battambang - Don't leave your shoes outside or the monkeys will steal them!

Long bus trip from Phnom Penh at 9am, finally arrived at La Villa in Battambang around 2:30pm. Cute large attic style room. Battambang is the second largest city in Cambodia but it feels like a country town, nothing like Phnom Penh. Unbelievable amount of garbage around the place, the public park along the river was full of people relaxing after work, but also full of rubbish, quite disappointing to see after the neat and tidy gardens of Phnom Penh.
Spent two hours walking the town and ended up eating back at the hotel, though we did stop in to look at a local restaurant first whose main feature was a very loud singer, so loud we could hear him making strangling noises while we ate dinner back at our own hotel.

Day 8 - "you could sell this to an Australian museum for $500"

Our final full day in Phnom Penh, we do like Cambodia so far. Headed off to the National Museum in the morning, followed by some markets. Found a great antique place so of course had to purchase some 8th century Angkor pottery- apparently worth lots of money to a museum, if he can be believed? Then off to a fantastic massage for $7 an hour. A quiet lunch, handed out more "care" packages to the kids on the street, who are now running around in Charlotte & Courtney's old clothes.

Headed back to the hotel to finally do the blog - hope you find it fun, as we are on our way out to dinner.

Day 7 - Tears, rats, cocktails and skinnydipping.......

Just when we thought we were getting over the atrocities of the shocking War Museum in Saigon we visited the Killing Fields. It is unbelievable what we saw, the thousands of skulls, the huge open graves and for every person found there are still 450 missing. Depressed & miserable as we were we continued on to put ourselves through more by visiting what was the high school until it was turned into Tuol Sleng Prison of the most extreme torture unimaginable. An incredibly sobering day.

So there was only one thing to do and that was to start the Happy Hour with the $2 cocktails. As Kathryn had lost her glasses during the day (only cheap ones) Mike had to read her the entire cocktail menu plus ingredients. She finally chose one and was most amused to discover it was a Cosmopolitan. After 2 lovely cocktails in a very nice place Kathryn headed off to the toilet as a rat scampered in front of her and entered the kitchen!

Headed home after a nice Thai meal. The weather is so wonderful for sightseeing - 20- 23 degrees and overcast, but not good when you have paid for a private pool. However we forced ourselves to grin & bear the colder evening temperature just so we could say we had used it!

Day 6 - Cambodia here we come..if we can just stop the boat tilting.

Another early start, this holidaying is hard work! Piled into a cyclo and were driven to our boat for the 5 1/2 hour trip to Phnom Penh. The boat was comfortable but there was an hilarious start as they moved passengers around according to their weight. There was still a lean so they got the biggest guy to swap sides, the boat levelled, everyone laughed - he good naturedly patted his gut!

Stopped at the border crossing and we disembarked to get our visas before continuing up the Mekong.

Arrived in Phnom Penh, ambushed by cyclos and taken to our lovely hotel with our private pool.

We walked to the Royal Palace which is similar to the one in Bangkok but not as large.

Lovely meal at "Taboo", great Penang Curry and $2 gin & tonics. Cambodia is so cheap!

Day 5 - We've got so much luggage we had to buy bus tickets for our suitcases!!!!

Another early start on an incredibly small boat to the floating markets. On our return to dock Kathryn stands up to exit the boat, puts her foot through a plank and very nearly ends up in the Mekong. Boat girl was horrified, Mike just shrugged "par for the course with her".

We then headed to the bus station to travel to Chau Doc, problem was each time we tried to enter the bus we were sent back to buy another ticket, 4 tickets for us to travel the bus..

Arrived in Chau Doc, cute town cute room with balcony for $13 for the night. Caught a motorbike each to go up Sam Mountain. Fantastic views across the rice paddies into Cambodia. Mike's bike picked up a nail so he got left on the side of the road until the other bike could take Kathryn home and come back for him.

Lovely dinner at upmarket Victoria Hotel, they were advertising tours up Sam Mountain $34 each, we paid $5 - shows the difference in what you are charged for where you stay.

Arranged boat to go to Phnom Penh, Cambodia tomorrow.

Day 4 - Uptown girl/boy survive boat crash

Today we joined a cheap tour to travel up the Mekong as far as Can Tho. We had planned to get there on our own as per normal but found a tour for $17 each that would take us to all the sights we wanted to go to and get us to our destination cheaply. On the way we talked to the tour guide re our continuing plans so as to get some advice. Only to be told that as I was an "uptown girl"' & Mike was an "uptown boy" and we were obviously "not backpacker"s that we were basically out of our depth and we would find it "too complicated" to travel on our own! You can imagine how insulted we were! Vietnam is a breeze to travel in compared to other countries we have done on our own!

We had a lovely trip up the Mekong until after lunch when we found out they had changed boats on us, but assured us our luggage had been transferred. However one of our bags was missing, thanks to mobile phones we finally got to collect it from the office in the next town we stopped at.

They drive their boats the same as they do the vehicles on the road - with gay abandon.....so it was that we rounded a corner and coming straight for us was a much larger boat. It was obvious we were going to hit I grabbed Mike's arm for support as we watched it unfold in slow motion. Crash straight into the bow of the boat (Mike said later he thought it was going to go straight through and take the front of the boat off). There was a smashed upright beam and a caved in side (right next to our suitcases) - they leaned over the side, had a giggle and we moved on.

Day 3 - Chu Chi Tunnels

A very interesting day, going through the viet kong tunnels - Kathryn only made it to the first level with lots of complaining, Mike went to the end on his hands and knees, unbelievably small - no wonder they were safe from the US - they are built Vietnamese size.

Back to Saigon in time to witness peak hour traffic - what a sight, all those motor bikes.

Day 2 - Saigon "No Enter!" President's Chair

An early start for sightseeing of the town. We followed the walking tour in the Lonely Planet (LP), seeing all the major sites and Kathryn ending up with prickly heat as it was so damn hot! Booked on a $5 USD tour to go to the Chu Chi tunnels the next day.

Day 1 - Arrived Saigon

After an uneventful flight via Darwin, we arrived in to HCMC about 1am Melbourne time, and promptly went to the hotel. Mike was amused to find the board inside the foyer door was welcoming "Alfred Visentin" - first photo opportunity...

Got the new laptop

We've picked up a new MSI Wind mini PC, it's small and white (a bit like an albino pygmy I suppose), and seems to work pretty well. I'm having a bit of trouble with the keyboard but I'll get used to it, I also expect Kathryn will do most of the typing and emailing and stuff while we're away because keeping in touch isn't something I'm driven to do when I'm on holiday, I'd rather forget that places like ""Somerville" or even "Australia" even exist. But I guess it'll help me with the plane trips, I'll load up some decent games and that'll help me keep my mind off the fact that Jetstar doesn't serve food. Too bad I can't cook up a batch of two minute noodles while I'm on there, though maybe I could try rigging up a quick heating element with my Ipod battery and one of those old water boiling elements you probably can't get anymore.

Anyway, I have to get back to installing Skype and Picasa and whatever else Kathryn needs on this new laptop, it even has a webcam which isn't something I'm too fussed on either, I'll show you an example of why in another post some time, they they do tell me it's a great way to make new friends and see bits of people you would never ever see if it wasn't for the wonders of the internet.

Bangkok Delay

What a shame- 8 weeks to go and our flight has been changed and we now have an extra day in BBK. We won't be home until Christmas Eve.

First Post!

Well here we in our home in Somerville with 3 months to go .... but Katie is always prepared!