Vang Vieng

Vang Vieng is a crazy little place, about 4 hours North of Vientiane. I'm wondering how it all happened, and reckon a group of backpackers came here maybe 10 years ago, to enjoy the wonderous scenery and fantastic caves and mountains. Then I think word got around a bit and after a while came the Loney Planet validation sticker. Then a bunch of entrepreneurial locals thought about what travellers wanted from a trip to Laos, a place not frequented by your average Brit abroad. This was the award-winning formula they came up with. This is what they believed that every future traveller coming to Laos wanted:

1. Pizza, burgers, pancakes and shakes.
2. Making use of local produce, a "happy" version of all of the above, to contain either magic mushrooms, ganja, or opium.
3. The same menu in every restaurant.
4. "Friends" showing in every TV bar along the main drag.
5. 20 different tour operators offering exactly the same tour for exactly the same price.
6. For those weirdos not wanting mind-bending herbs and vegetables in their dinner, we would want to "get wasted" utilising ethanol-based products. On offer everywhere are buckets (yes, buckets) of booze. Namely, Tiger whiskey, coke and a dubious-looking energy drink resembling Benylin. And all for a quid!! Much more reasonable than our favourite cocktail bar at "Drakes" back home.
7. Lots of water-based adventures such as kayaking, jumping off rocks and flowing down river in a tractor tyre (a.k.a. tubing)

So, Vang Vieng it seems, is full of cheeky youngsters who are porking out a bit; are a bit paranoid about being so; think they've seen this menu before, not that they remember where; wish they could be just like Joey; really want to go tubing again tomorrow, but this time high on a Benylin Bomber. Still, we aren't too old for this type of thing and think we are going to quite enjoy ourselves here. The view from our $8 room is amazing (thanks Rob & Faye for the tip - we are staying at The Orchid, see view below) and Andy has made friends with three small children who only seem to want to know him for his PlayStation Portable (they've never seen one and can't quite believe their eyes!).

Tomorrow we are going to have a bash at this tubing lark and maybe even partake in a bottle of Beer Lao along the way! We have made a new discovery - that of Beer Lao Dark. It has a lovely taste of treacle toffee and is 6.5% I think the next stop is Special Brew isn't it? Still sounds safer that a Benylin Bomber (my name, not theirs)...and just when we thought it was safe, snakes have started turning in bottles again. Snake whisky anyone? Make mine a double and lets show these youngsters how it's done.





Very tiny 6 second Sam 'Tubing' film

So there you have it - we can join in with the youngsters AND genuinely enjoy ourselves in the process. Dotted along the riverside as you float by on your tube, there are several little bars. More like bamboo platforms, from which to jump or cable-glide. By the way, I'm not as drunk as I look in the photo there. After a couple of Beer Laos a.k.a. "the full taste of happiness" at one of the bars, we set off on our way again. But it started to pour with rain - an increasngly common occurrance as we head into the rainy season. So we did the sensible thing and stayed for another beer. Once the downpour had susbsided, off we went on our merry little journey. Fearing the day would be spoiled by Tenerife-style lager boys, it was actually very chilled out and a great way to spend the day. Then Andy lost his sunglasses (his 4th pair so far?) All I did was mention "river snakes" (thanks Bison) and he thought he felt one tickling his bottom. The leaping and jerking motion he displayed to frighten the mystical creature was all it took for his shades to sink to the depths. Oh how I laughed.

This particular debarcle however, had further consequences. We lost the rest of the group and we pathetically dribbled along at a very slow speed. Being the dry season, there are no rapids to speak of and sometimes you get a bit wedged on a rock. You often have to paddle a bit with your arms and legs, which Andy kept reminding me, I looked very graceful doing. As for turning yourself over onto your front, I won't go into that. It was a beautiful way to enjoy the mountains and now that we'd lost everyone else, much more peaceful. We merrily floated on by a couple of sign advertising "tubing stop." "Oh no," we thought "No more beer for us, we need to be getting back before dark!" Contemplating how useful it was to be travelling with so many more years life experience than many other travellers, I suddenly started to wonder why our river journey had taken 7 hours, when it should have taken 3 or 4. After all, we'd only stopped once, for about an hour, yet we hadn't seen another tube for ages. Andy shouted upto a woman standing on a bridge above us to ask where Vang Vieng was. She pointed in the opposite direction to flow, with a bemused expression on her face. So we clamboured out of the river and ended up in the garden of some posh hotel, much to the bewilderment of the groundsman. He kindly phoned a tuc tuc for us, which promptly returned us to Vang Vieng. Turns out we'd paddled at least an extra couple of km - who knows where we might have ended up - Thailand possibly?

So Vang Vieng is a great example of the devastataion tourism can wreak on a beautiful, peaceful town. Check out the menu above. There are about 18,000 kip to the pound - it's easy to see why this place appeals to your average gap-year student. The Organic Farm is one place which gets the thumbs up by producing fair-trade mulberry tea, gorgeous Laotion coffee and other conscience-easing treats. The cafe does a fantastic mulberry shake and a brilliant harvest stew, for anyone planning a visit! Our adventure-seeking plans to go kayaking today were ruined by the weather. It's now rained for 48 hours almost non-stop. Instead, we jumped on a bike and drove around the town a bit. We found a very scary cave with no lighting and some more beautiful mountain scenery. Tomorrow we are leaving for Luang Prabang for a spot of much needed culture!

Vientiane

We have just spent a few days in Vientiane, capital city of Laos, enjoying some western food and fast internet access after our journey up through the south of Laos. Its a small place as capital city's go and it doesn't really have a city feel about it. Theres only a population of about 200,000, no tall buildings, the traffic isn't particularly busy and the only thing that tells you it is a capital are the prices, which are generally a bit higher than the rest of the country. Someone told us before we arrived that it was quite smelly here and they were completely accurate. The sewage system is pretty poor, lots of open holes with black liquid drifting along, just crying out for an unwary falang (foreigner) to fall in. Fairly regularly, a strong smell of egg assaults your senses and I do mean senses in the plural and No, its not me either! It does seem weird that the capital should have this problem, when the other 'city's' don't. You would think that they might spend some money on their sewage system as there are huge signs up everywhere reminding people not to litter, but who cares about litter when you are waist deep in a load of sh*t!!
Saying all that, its actually not a bad place, theres alot of French colonial architecture about, mixed in with the Wats, street food stalls and other Laos buildings. Its a really interesting mish-mash of styles to walk around and apart from the sewer problem, generally a very clean place too. We've been visiting some of the tourist sites today and two caught our attention. The first is called 'Buddha Park' and is actually about 25k outside of Vientiane and the clever ones amongst you will guess that it is A: a park and B: full of Buddha statues. This park was designed by a chap called Luang Po Bunleua Sulilat, a monk, who decided to fuse Hindu and Buddhist philosophy's into one big park of bizarre sculptures. The park was built in 1958 and all the statues are made from concrete, half of them look like they were built in 1658 though, due to the weathering on them.
There are some really interesting statues dotted about, a little different from the norm. One was like a massive apple that you could go into like a maggot and work your way up to the top of it, which is where this photo was taken of the park, quite a weird place. There was a gigantic reclining Buddha that you can see which was quite cool as well. I really liked the one in the photo with the suit on, a nice bit of contemporary Buddhist sculpture!
After the Buddha park, our tuc tuc drove us to the most famous structure in Laos, which is called Pha That Luang. Its a fairly big temple type place and looks pretty impressive from a distance, but up close, a little underwhelming and quite dirty. Still, the Laotians like it and thats all that matters. Apparently a piece of the Buddhas sternum rests within this temple, but as the temple has been destroyed, rebuilt, pillaged, looted and also the small question over the Buddhas actual existence, makes it fairly unlikely that the bone is still there (or ever was).

Captain Caveman

"Lets go to this cave!" He said with enthusiasm.
"Why not, sounds like a right adventure!" she agreed.

The cave in question, Tham Lot Kong Lo is described by the Lonely Planet as "truly one of the natural wonders of Laos." It also describes the journey there as "very difficult." Difficult I can do, but very difficult in Laotian terms, it seems I struggle with. We left Savannakhet by hot and sweaty bus. This relatively civilized leg of the journey took about four hours. The buses in Laos are, without exception, a nightmare. When the seats are full of passengers and the roof is full of boxes, crates and motorbikes, they fill up the aisle with little plastic children's chairs and cram people (23 on one count) into those aswell. When these are full, people stand around by the driver, holding onto the (open) door. Occasionally, one of the bus boys will climb out of the window and onto the roof to ensure everything is still secure. This all happens with the bus still in motion. Now and then the bus stops, to allow even more people or spatchcock chickens aboard. Sometimes, the busdriver lets everybody off to buy eggs on a stick, but usually the only toilet break if for him and the bus boys. Air con doesn't happen and so long as the bus is moving, there is just enough breeze. As soon as it's stationary, it turns into a dried-fish and chicken scented sauna.

After 4 hours, we found ourselves by the side of Route 13 - a good chance to have a well-earned bowl of pho. Before too long, a sawngthaew (like a pick-up truck taxi) picked us up and took us onto Route 8 for about an hour until we reached a tiny village called Ban Na Hin. Sensibly, we'd decided to stay the night here to break the journey down a bit. We found a very pleasant traditional wooden guest house and some decent grub and BeerLao to keep us sustained and were in bed by about 9pm. All looking quite respectable so far. The following morning, we headed off bright and early to the village nearest the cave, Phon Nyaeng. Our mode of transport? A tractor. Or should I say, a tractor-pulled wooden cart. I reasoned that whilst it was bumpy and uncomfortable, the road didn't appear too bad and it should take two hours max to cover the 30km journey. Two hours later and the road has deteriorated drastically and was covered with water-logged pot holes. The tractor-type thing was coping - just, but I was starting to loose my rag somewhat. Three hours later, the road was knackered beyond recognition and we were having to get out and push the vehicle through the muddy disaster they were still calling a road. At four hours I was actually in tears. Battered and bruised, despite sitting on Andy's rucksack and I felt sure that I'd smashed every techno gadget he owned. We were sunburnt and dehydrated, I had backache, a headache and terrible period pains. Worst of all, I was now completely devoid of humour. My turn to have a travel strop this time!

Finally, Sala Hin Boun emerged on the horizon like a vision of a Buddhist deity. We'd made it, it did exist and we weren't going to die! Just one problem, we weren't sure they'd have a room as the phone number hadn't been working and they haven't discovered e-mail yet. After a bit of argey-bargey, it was decided there was indeed a room for us. At $18 per night, this was luxury (sort of). Never before had a shower been so welcome nor a Beer Lao so quickly downed. After a lunch of dubious-looking black fish a few chips (strangely, we had a salt craving) we crashed out for a couple of hours. On waking however, I felt quite dodgy. Dehydrated (why didn't I just have water?!) and with a strange gurgling in my stomach, I spent the next 12 hours on the loo. The ominous fish - it had to be. Sometime in the evening a group of 5 travelers arrived and Andy joined them for dinner. Sensibly, they had all come by motorbike and had a great journey!

Sala Hin Boun was a wonderful retreat, set amid Nam Hin Bun valley. A Laotian-style wooden stilt bungalow looks out onto the river with towering, gothic karst mountains surrounding the valley. The shared veranda is a great place to chill out and play cards. The most I saw that evening however, was the inside of my mozzie net. Several feverish hours and a few Diareeze later, we set out on our next adventure. Descending the wooden steps to our boat below, we knew we were in for an amazing journey. We motored for 2 hours though tiny rural villages, made all the more magical by the herds of water buffalo taking a dip next to us and the groups of beautiful smiling children, waving manically as we passed. Occasionally, the boat would skim over an unseen rock or fallen tree trunk and we would lurch frighteningly to one side, feeling capsize was imminent. But the boatmen were very skillful and their knowledge of the riverbed amazing - all the more important in the dry season, as there are somewhat more obstacles. Not to mention the countless floating pats of buffalo shit decorating our path. Whilst I could have coped with capsizing, I hoped it wouldn't be into one of these festering mounds.

Tham Lot Kong Lo is a limestone cave through which the river, Nam Hin Bun, continues. It stretches for 7km and is 100m wide in parts and almost as high. As we approached its entrance, it felt quite scary and I hoped Andy wouldn't feel claustrophobic. No fear of that - it was massive. We soon lost all daylight from the entrance and as we meandered down the river, it felt very surreal to be floating along in such blackness. A bit like a flotation tank, I imagine. There was enough light to navigate by the boatman's headtorch and we passed the occasional local collecting bats (no doubt on the supper menu). We did have to disembark and help the boat along in a few places, but the water was very clear and pure. About half way through, we were led to a glittering stalagmite cave. Apparently some of them have been damaged by locals searching for gold, but it looked pristine. It took almost an hour to reach daylight again and after stopping for lunch, we returned home the same way.

I think we were in bed by 8pm that night and we slept very well beneath our mozzie nets. Something I'm always grateful for is that this clever device also keeps us safe from spiders and cockroach. This peace of mind always makes for a better nights' kip! We left bright and early the following morning BUT, the ingenious Pak (the owner of Sala Hin Boun) organised us to travel 2 hours by his boat to knock 3 hours off our tractor journey! Thank-you - you are forgiven the evils of your terror fish. We caned the rest of the journey all the way to Vientiane, the capital of Laos. After 9 1/2 hours, we were glad to arrive, the bus aspect being as fretful as ever. A bit tricky finding a decent hotel though. We stayed somewhere pretty crappy last night only to find there was no water in the taps this morning or even to flush the loo. After knocking a generous $1 off the extortionate $10 bill (and another $1 for the telly not working properly) we found somewhere else. Aside from the bizarre shrine set in the headboard, it's O.K. At least we have a double bed again for the first time in over a week. Maybe this has something to do with the fact that in some of the hotel rules it stipulates that you have to be married to stay there!

So, we've had a little adventure to last us a while. I don't think either of us will forget that place. It made the tears and pain disappear as soon as we arrived. The boat journey is the best I've ever done and we know we've achieved something that many travellers don't bother doing because of the hassle. Lets hope they manage to built a better road for the sake of the villagers who live in such a difficult-to-navigate environment, but not to the detriment of the villages themselves. Sala Hin Boun manages to integrate the whole traveller/rural environment thing very well. Seeing the old women of the villages respond to us positively by smiling and waving made us feel very welcome and accepted when I was afraid we might be intruding on their sanctuary.

Sah - Bah - Deeeee

Or in other words, Hello! I don't know how you spell it, but that's how you say it and its currently my favourite word! You can say it at any number of speeds and I like to prolong the "Deeee" sound which I've noticed a lot of the locals doing. One of my other favourite words is "Spatchcock", its a classic I know and quite appropriate to Laos as on any bus journey (a nightmare), as soon as the bus stops, women gather near any open window bearing spatchcock chickens on sticks! I would have one, they look kinda tasty, but we always seem to see them late in the day and so you know they've been sitting around all day covered in flies...mmmm. They sell pretty much anything on a stick, bugs, meat things and....eggs, yes with the shell on, three eggs to a stick?? How weird is that :) Still, better that three spiders on a stick!
Well we've been busy little people since we last blogged and are now sitting in Vientiane, the capitol of Laos (see map children). We've done some heavy duty proper traveling this time, none of your namby pamby tourist buses, oh no, but more on the journey from hell in the next blog.
We left you whilst we were in Pakse and it was an alright kinda place, not good, not bad really, but we did get ourselves on a couple of nice trips. Unlike Vietnam and Cambodia, in Laos you have to organize everything yourself, a bit of a shock, but fine once you get on with it. In the other country's if you wanted to go somewhere, you would wander down to the hotel reception and they would sort it all out for you, very nice, thanks. We wanted to go and see Wat Phu in Champasak, about 50k (35 miles?) south of Pakse, so we ended up taking a tuc tuc. Well I copped a right strop about it, these are tiny tuc tucs and you use them to get about town, 2-3k maybe, but 100k there and back?? After I got over myself (girlfriend) it wasn't too bad, but we got a lot of looks from the locals, you don't see any tuc tucs outside of the towns. After 50k of tuc tuc and ferry cross the ...river and being soaked several times by drunk Laotians and their kids (it was still New Year) we arrived at the Wat. It was built donkeys years ago by the same people that brought you Angkor Wat and you could really see the similarities, after all its not really that far to Angkor. It was a real steep climb up lots of stairs, luckily not daft ones a la Angkor and a pretty nice view of the surrounding countryside once you got up top. At the top was an ancient little temple, monks included and we spent a lot of time looking for a boulder with an elephant carved into it. We found it, it was an elephant and we also found a crocodile carving that may have been used for human sacrifice, nice! It all turned out to be well worth the 100k trip there and back.
Our second little sojourn out of Pakse was to a couple of delightful waterfalls. We'd met a nice couple called Rob and Faye (Hello guys!) and we all trooped off in a 'Sawengthaw' (pronounced Song Telle) and is a truck version of the tuc tuc. The first waterfall was called 'Tat Fan' and was on the Bolaven Plateau which is famous for its coffee, we bought a massive bag for 60p. You wander down through some trees and come out to gaze across a massive rip in the jungle and across the other side a waterfall that plummets 120 meters down to the bottom. It looked like something out of Jurassic Park, I expected to see pterodactyl flying about. We then drove onto the second waterfall which was called 'Tat Lo' and was even more impressive. It wasn't as high as the other one, but you could get really close to it and the scenery and atmosphere was really tranquil. Here is the gorgeous Samantha next to it!
On the walk back from the waterfall, we were heading to our sawengthaw when I spotted something in a tree. I had a second look and to my horror / amazement it was the biggest spider I'd ever seen! We all went over for a closer look and it was sitting in a web at least a meter wide and it was easily as big as your hand (not yours Jeremy), absolutely massive!! Of course the one time I forget my zoom lens I needed it, so I've zoomed in to this photo on the computer, hence slightly blurred. I looked it up on the net and its called a 'Giant wood spider', we've been on our guard whenever we've been in a jungle / forest since! Its not poisonous apparently, but because its so massive it could give you a nasty bite. That day was a real insect day, we also saw an incredibly hairy catapiller and later, a Preying Mantis in our hotel.

Laos slideshow

Wat we have read...

We've all been reading lately. You've been reading our blogsploits and we've been reading your comments and emails. In our spare time away from temples and the internet, we've also been reading some books and we've read some absolutely cracking ones! In no particular order then:

Under the Skin by Michael Faber.
Read the small review, it doesn't give anything away which is exactly what you want with this extraordinary book. A short, brilliant read, not what you will expect if you start reading it, we both loved it, really different!

Shogun by james Clavell.
It's an absolute classic. I obviously read it because of our visit to Japan and my love of that particular period of Japanese history. Sam didn't read it because of her boredom with all things samurai :) It's boys own adventure stuff, 1150 pages of samurai action, what more could you want?

The Damage Done by Warren Fellows.
12 years in a Thai jail for a crime he did not commit... Not really, he tried to smuggle some Heroin and got caught, spent 12 years in the Bankok Hilton, a notorious prison in Thailand. We both loved reading about the horrors of this blokes time in jail and are now bricking it about going to Thailand :)

Anansi Boys by Neil Gaiman.
This is a tale of Gods and men and one particular man called 'Fat Charlie Nancy'. A dark fairy story from one of the best Graphic novel writers out there. We both loved this one as well, in an 'Under the Skin' kind of way, its another really original book!

Underground: The Tokyo Gas Attack and the Japanese Psyche by Haruki Murakami.
I'm reading this at the mo and Sams already read it. Accounts from victims of the 1995 Tokyo Sarin gas attack. This is a real insight into the mind of the average Japanese citizen. Alot of trying to get to work even though they are blind and vomiting. Even more interesting for us, cause we've travelled through some of the stations where it happened. Fascinating stuff!

Laos

Happy New Year!! We've arrived in Laos and its New Year from 14th to 16th April in Laos and everyone is chucking water at each other, more on that later. After a marathon ten hour journey, we crossed the border from Cambodia which consisted of a small hut in some woods and then a drive of about 100 meters to another small hut which was the Laos immigration HQ. After that, we drove about 1/2 hour along next to the Mekong and then swapped to a small narrow boat to cross the river to our destination, which is Don Khong island. On the map we are at the most southerly point, almost on the border below Champasak. Don Khong is the biggest island on the Mekong being around 18k long by 8k wide, it amazing how massive the Mekong is, apparently it is 14k at its widest!
Laos is a bit of an unknown for most people I guess, the only thing we're ever told is that it's a really chilled lovely place and it definately seems that way so far. A few facts for you, its about the size of the UK, has a population of only about 6 million and has a communist goverment. During the Vietnam war the west side of the country was heavily bombed by the Yanks around the Ho Chi Minh trail and bombers on their way back from Nam would randomly drop any bombs they had left on Laos...nice. The currency here is the Kip and there are 10,000 Kip to the Dollar, which is 18,000 to the pound, but as everywhere here uses the dollar, thats how my mind works these days.
We are staying at a little $5 place called Pon's River Guest House. The main man around these very quiet parts is...Mr. Pon, he's a sometimes quiet, sometimes very giggly fellow who is always happy to help and his family make some fantastic grub, the best we've had for ages, Cambodian food wasn't all that to be honest.

Sam interjecting now...The National dish is chicken laap (but you can have any other type of protein instead)...consisting of minced chicken, served with fresh red chillis, lime, mint & coriander. Bosh it together with some sticky rice and a bottle of Beer Lao and you're in business. It is with great relief that I post this picture of Andy - alive. As soon as we arrived in Laos, he started complaining of aching joints and a fever...this continued for the next 48 hours and I had him diagnosed as having Dengue fever. Ever the drama queen, I was making plans to get him shipped to Bangkok for specialist tropical disease advice (their best hospital is called Bumrun, if you can believe it!?). But seriously, he was so hot, I thought it was the end. So, I took control of the situation (despite protest) and called in the local doctor. Anyone who has worked with me will know I'm always first in line to give the docs a hard time, Em will know this is especially true when a potential tropical disease is threatened. Anyway the "doc" arrived and pulled a thermometer from her handbag.
The helpful Mr Pon had disappeared as translator and I had to haul him back to the room. After several agonising minutes she declared that Andy's temperature was a mere 38 degrees and decided upon erythromycin! This was without examining him or taking any history whatsoever. Well, you can imagine my response. When I asked what I thought the matter was, she just giggled nervously and kept saying "erythromycin!" Anyway, we thanked her and sent her on her way. Thankfully this shoddy advice from a first year student nurse went unheaded and she didn't charge. Even more thankfully, Andy turned a corner in the night. Sorry about my fraught e-mails to Em & Heidi. We've since decided that Andy has developed photosensitivity due to the doxycyclin (malaria prophylaxis) and he actually just had a bad case of sunburn. He's now asking me to add that he had a virus aswell.

Anyway, back to the photo. After 4 days on the island, we were desperate to leave. So we took a trip to the waterfall. The journey there was more exciting than the falls themselves and commenced with us boarding the "ferry" on the motorbike. After some initial hesitation to pull on the brakes, Andy managed to stop in time before we landed head first in the Mekong. The ferry, as you can see is basically two wooden fishing boats tied together with some boards across them...safe! So, once on Laos mainland, we pootled along for a bit, passing through a picturesque village along the way. Being New Year, this actually means it's the festival of water...which gives the locals an excuse to chuck water (and sometimes flour) at anybody passing by. (James Smith, this is the festival for you!). Possibly not the best time to be riding a motorbike, but after a few wobbles (and five drenchings) we were there. Or nearly - a huge insect flew up Andy's sleeve and stung him in the arm pit - leading to more wobbling. The waterfalls were quite nice, not as impressive as we were imagining given they were the biggest in SE Asia.

Today we arrived in Pakse, about three hours North of the island. Seems like a very nice city - very clean and friendly. The New Year celebrations continue and we have been soaked many timed today. We managed to buy some replacement sandals and sunglasses for Andy (a monthly reqirement as he'll only ever spend $5 max on any one item, regardless of item) and were forced ;) to drink beer with some of the local ladies. Thinking we were safe in the supermarket, we were then showered with medicated talc (by the person working at the till!). Oh how we laughed. Ask us again in five days' time when they're still celebrating....

Cambodian wildlife

Our final night in Cambodia has been spent in Kratie which is situated on the banks of the mighty Mekong river. It's a really nice chilled place, especially after the busy town of Siem Reap where Angkor Wat is. Tomorrow we get a bus to Stung Treng and from there a boat to Laos. We actually travelled to Kompong Cham from Siem Reap as this was where the bus went and a hot, sweaty, karaeoke playing bus it was to. As always the bus stopped for lunch and one of the tasty snacks available was what we've been waiting to see, er...not to try. The deep fried spider, mmmmm. Some westerner, French I think, dived straight in and got himself a nice little bag of spiders to much, to be honest he looked like he'd had a few to many spiders already and pigs, cows, goats and food generally. Even after my recent encounter with an edible beatle there was no way I was going to be brave enough to have a go at a spider, not even a nibble on a leg!
Before we left Siem Reap we payed a visit to the crocodile farm. A charming place where they keep crocs to turn into bags, belts, steaks, you name it... It whiled away a few minutes anyway and made for some good photos of the condemned.
Another sweaty bus ride today brought us to Kratie and we found a cracking little hotel called 'You Hong'. Very clean (Tom) with a ceiling fan and cable Tv all for $4! Even Sam was impressed with it :) Apart from being a nice stop over on the way to Laos, Kratie is well known for one thing. Dolphins! And no, they don't eat them like evrything else with a pulse, these are special dolphins that live in the Mekong called Irrawaddy dolphins. There are only about 75 of them left along this stretch of the Mekong which includes the southern part of Laos where we are going tomorrow. I wondered if we would see any on our little boat trip as they are so rare, but we saw loads of them! I'd never seen dolphins before and it was fantastic to see some! You'd only see them for a couple of seconds while they were getting some air and then they would be gone, so you had to keep your eyes peeled. Absolutely superb! The ride on the moped 15k to the dolphins and back was amazing as well, really beautiful countryside and lots of lovely Cambodian huts and houses with the usual friendly waving kids and with the Meknog in the background all the time, it was one of those journeys we won't be forgetting in a long time.
So thats is, bye bye to Cambodia, we have now crossed the border and are relaxing on our hotel veranda overlooking the Mekong! It's a beatuitful view and on first impressions Laos seems really nice, very chilled people and cheap :) Laos blog to follow soon!

Landmine Museum

The Landmine Museum is a non-government organisation (NGO) set up by a man named Aki Ra in order to increase landmine awareness and provide support and housing for children who have become victims of landmines. There are currently 16 children living at the museum and it provides them with shelter, food and language education. Most became injured whilst working in the fields or playing and many saw friends or loved ones killed in the same explosion.

Aki Ra, was actually a child soldier of the Khmer Rouge and along with many other children was brainwashed into believing destruction of human life was part of a normal existence. At the age of 10 he was given his first gun, an AK-47 and from then he learned how to plant landmines and other weaponry in the countryside and jungle regions. Captured by the Vietnamese, he then began to fight back against the Khmer Rouge regime and began hid life-long project to rid Cambodia of landmines.

When not at the museum, Aki spends his time deactivating unexploded ordinance (UXO) or destroying them in controlled explosions. His equipment is worryingly unsophisticated and often uses only a wooden stick and his foot for feeling his way through dense jungle to locate mines! Other members of his team use metal detectors but it's generally hands-on work. UXO can remain active for upto 150 years and the evidence of the destruction they can cause is evident on every street in Cambodia by the startling number of people who have lost at least one limb.

The variety of UXO is very sophisticated and are designed either to kill upto 20 people at a time or to maim in very specific ways. Some aim for one or two limbs to be amputated, others such as the "Bouncing Betty" to jump in the air and decapitate. Often, UXO contain hundreds of ballbearings which are spewed at the point of detonation, killing or maiming for meters around.

There detailed were "cigarette bombs" whereby a ballbearing is placed halfway down a cigarette, causing the head of the victim to be blown apart on ignition of the TNT component. Gruesome stuff. Others included the "Pineapple Mine" a very deadly method of distributing hundreds of pieces of shrapnel into the air, and anti-tank massive weaponry. The mines are triggered to detonate either by pressure being exerted on it, or by means of a trip wire. We were assured that all the mines at the museum weren't live, but it was still quite unnerving wandering around on dead mines set into the dirt as "decoration!"

Can't quite remember the specifics, but I think 80 people are killed each year in Cambodia as a result of UXO. This doesn't include those injured or maimed and despite mine awareness and clearance programmes, this number is actually increasing rather than decreasing due to the amount of new land being used for agriculture. The devastation spreads far and wide - not only are individuals affected, but families loose breadwinners and they are often forced into begging around tourist areas - especially Siem Reap. On a larger scale, the whole infrastructure of the country continues to be negatively affected, years on from American and Khmer Rouge activity. It is thought that perhaps 7 or 8 million UXO remain in the country - especially around the Thai border and we are always reminded to stick to clearly marked paths. Difficult when you are desperately looking for a sneaky outdoors toilet...

Angkor Wat

Prepare yourselves - this is a big one...

Having just spent 30 hours exploring the temples of Angkor, we are well and truly knackered. But how brilliant was it?! What a place. Our good fortune started with our selecting the best tuc tuc driver in Cambodia...actually that sells him short, the best in SE Asia, we are sure. Vuthy was hilarious and initially we only hired him for the trip from the bus station to the guest house on our arrival in Siem Reap. In the midst of the most horrendous scrum of drivers bustling and shouting for our custom, Vuthy stood quietly at the back holding a sign reading "I do not want to hassle you. I only want to take you where you want to go." Sold. If only more Khmers had clocked this business tactic. Andy actually lost his mind with the crowd (something I have only witnessed twice before) when he couldn't see me or either of our backpacks. We sped off in a cloud of expletives, already fearful of the level of harassment awaiting us in Siem Reap. Although the police were there, they did nothing to keep those naughty men in order.

There are several less than-honorable schemes going on in Scambodia at any one time. A popular one being you ask a tuc tuc or motorbike driver to take you to a guest house and he might say it is closed for redecorating, that it has gone out of business or simply that you have made a very bad choice. Whatever the score - he will take you to his mate's place and bag a nice little earner. The most common scam we have encountered involves getting a bus to your next destination and it takes you to a guest house of their choice, where they receive commission. You aren't under any obligation to stay there, but they make full advantage of the fact you will be knackered, hot and sweaty and saves you the bother of looking elsewhere. Sometimes the guest house will be decent, but more often than not it will be crap - much better to do your own research.

So, not having tried any of these tactics, we deemed Vuthy honest and gentile, and hired him for the next three days. Day one of our grand temple tour saw us crawling out of bed at 4:30am and returning around the same time in the evening. The reason? We were following Uncle Bison's advice to see Angkor Wat emerge from darkness on the first day. Not only does this afford fantastic photo opportunities, it is much more cool and serene, which generally makes for a happier Sammy :)

For those of you who don't subscribe to National Geographic, Angkor Wat is the largest temple in the world and was once the centre of the ancient Khmer empire. Preserved in the Cambodian jungle, the many temples of Angkor were built between the 9th and 13th centuries, by a succession of 12 Khmer kings. Angkor Wat is the mother of them all and the most famous, but all in all, the temples cover an area of 112 square miles. Angkor Wat is thought to have been built as a royal mausoleum as it faces West ( the direction of death) and is a magnificent shrine to the Hindu god Vishnu. Taking 37 years to construct by an army of artisans, architects and stone cutters, it is instantly recognizable by its five great stone peaks. Although many of Angkor's temples were damaged significantly during the Khmer Rouge business, Angkor was not attacked, in order that the prime example of Khmer wealth and ingenuity be preserved. Many of it's Buddhist shrines were destroyed however as the Khmer Rouge wanted to rid Cambodia of Buddhism.

Today though, shrines have been recreated and within it's walls are monks (usually elderly ladies) offering you incense to "Pray to Buddha - good luck." Given that Buddhists believe in preserving all life, I wasn't too sure about the sentiments of one monk who was brandishing a stick at a trespassing monkey. He was certainly very tame and we took lots of photos. It was only when he was about to sink his teeth into the calf of a German woman did we realize the potential risk the rabid creature posed and we legged it.

The steps to the towers make for a terrifying ascent (and even worse descent). They are narrow, steep and crumbling - the addition of a delicate handrail on one side does nothing to reassure. They are supposed to lead to the celestial realm of the Gods and I focused on this thought as I knew for a certaintly that Andy would be helpfully photographing my ample arse from below. My boyfriend never lets me down - he is always predictable. The galleries of bas-reliefs are amongst the most extensive in the world and depict historical and religious events such as battles, ceremonies and dancing. The most beautiful depict the apsaras or celestial dancers which are carved in more than 1,700 places. Each has individual characteristics such as hair ornaments, clothing and jewellery. On occasion, there is some nipple tweaking, which I think leaves us in no doubt about whether the carvers were male or female.

Perched at the top of the scary stairs by one of the towers on our first morning was a Westerner sat in the lotus position, meditating. I can't bear that sort of pretetious behaviour and wish that either Jamie or Bruce could have been there to witness it. Other than scores of middle-aged Koreans and a few fat Americans who looked like they were actually melting, nobody annoyed us too much. Whilst it's a shame you are allowed to scramble all over the stones on the ground, there were still the odd few who like to climb on the actual monuments. Wondering why the breasts of the apsaras were a much darker colour in some places than others, we were informed it is because of all the lads who cop a feel for an "hilarious" photo moment.

We were fearful of horrendous crowds, but sunrise is the best time to go. Although many pilgrims choose this time to visit, sometimes you can strike it lucky. Probably our favorite temple was The Bayon Temple, which belongs to Ankor Thom. Today we headed there for sunrise and were the only people there! Amazing. Characterized by a series of over 200 enigmatic faces, you are watched at every movement. Said to represent the bodhisattva of compassion, they were also modeled on the king who built the temple, Jayavaraman VII. Through this, the king also became God-like and hence his power expanded across the universe.
Another third fave temple was that of Ta Prohm. Built as a Buddhist temple and monastery, evidence of the damage trees can do to the temple structures is apparent. Strangler fig trees cause destruction the the buildings, but are also integral to them - to remove the roots would result in further undermining. Even so, it adds to the appeal and interest. This is where they filmed "Tomb Raider" and with the deafening sound effects from the jungle, you really do feel like an intrepid explorer. Circadas, crickets, frogs, grasshoppers, birds and monkeys all add to the magical ambiance. We met a group of kids nibbling on a bag of beetles and stopped with fascination to watch. I'm not sure what came over Andy, but sparked by a moment of
spontaneity, he took one and joined in with their feast! It took him a while but eventually came up with "nutty & salty" and apparently, "very nice." However, I couldn't bring myself to kiss him for the rest of the day.

Banteay Srei was a further 25km NE of Angkor, but worth the journey as the artistry of the carving is said to be amongst the finest in Khmer history. It is intricately carved from pink sandstone, which makes it uniquely beautiful. What it lacks in size it makes up for in exquisite detail and is the only temple to have been almost totally restored. Unfortunately, we didn't get the timing quite right as it was very busy when we visited it.

We bought a 3 day pass which by Asian standards was quite expensive at $40 each, though it is free to Cambodians. It is such a shame though that few can afford to make the journey to Angkor. The tuc tuc was an extra $10 per day - very good value considering Vuthy ferried us about from on temple to the next and with some very early mornings! There are numerous vendors to test your patience in the mid-day heat - mostly children selling butchered or homemade bracelets. "No thank-you" is not a deterrent to any Khmer, young or old. And they always have a quick response. You can try saying you already have one, but this will be met with a "You need another one," or "You buy for your friends at home." You can try waving the bottle of water you are drinking at a kid selling drinks and they will say "You buy for your driver, he looks tired!" Another favorite is they will say "Where you from?" Your reply will me answered with "Capital: London, Population 10, 000,000. I speak your language, you don't speak Cambodian, therefore you buy my postcards." Or they will ask for money so they can go to school - they have thought of every possible tactic.

Siem Reap itself is actually very nice and I'm grateful to get Andy away from the distractions of Sihanoukville. Considering we were staying in the very small backpacker area of Weather Station Hill, there were at least four flourishing establishments offering all manner of services, in all probability for the cost of $10. One night we'd just spent a relaxing day on the beach and Andy seemed particularly keen to go into this one bar. He quickly took his seat facing out onto the street, ensuring I was facing inwards. An unusual seating arrangement as I always like to have the best view. During a quick game of cards, Andy seemed more distracted than usual and I seemed to be winning every game. Becoming increasingly annoyed with his lack of attention, I looked round to discover he had in fact been enjoying an altogether different type of entertainment. The scantily clad "ladies" in the pink-lit bar were getting down to a spot of pole dancing. Filled with Western men, they bars seemed very busy. This didn't stop them propositioning my boyfriend as we walked along and on more than one occasion I was told "Your boyflend velly handsome!" I do think Andy was having a whale of a time and has suggested we return to Sihanoukville soon. His request has been declined.

So, nice one Angkor - I've been divinely inspired to do some art. In the meantime though, I'm off for a rejuvenating massage to help my aching limbs...$10 for 2 hours! Blissful.

Please enjoy are extra-special limited adition length Angkor Wat slideshow.

And...for the first time... the Andy and Sam blog is proud to host its first short film.
Please enjoy 10 seconds of Sam walking past Angkor Wat.
You may be required to install the latest Flash software, it only takes a short time to do this.

Sihanoukville

We have just arrived back in Phnom Phen after having spent a very lazy week in sunny Sihanoukville! The bus journey back was....uneventful, for a change and we are now back at the 'Okay' guest house where we were last time. Sihanoukville is kind of the 'Costa del Sol' of Cambodia, but without the Costa, ie, no frills, no fancy hotels, no lads (yet), but plenty of sun, nice beaches and the odd cow or two roaming the roads. We felt we deserved a beach holiday after all the hard travelling we've been doing (snigger) and we are now thoroughly relaxed and ready for more hard graft :)
As always the bus to Sihanoulville dropped us at a hotel of the bus companys choice and we ended up staying there for 3 nights at $5 a night. After this short time we realised we were in the boring bit of town, so we packed up our stuff and headed over to stay at 'the Green Gecko guest house'. This was a nice family run hotel with much nicer rooms, still at $5, about 3 quid for the both of us!
We've spent our days lounging about on the 5 beaches, our favourite being Sokha beach. Why? Well, its a private beach belonging to a 4-5 star hotel and for a measley $1 each (60p) it was literally all ours all day, as apart from 1-2 other people it was empty. Travellers being the miserly people they are (myself included on occasion) will refuse to pay this extortionate price and would rather go to one of the many free beaches. On the private beach however, the sand was swept lovingly by a couple of ladies every day so that it was just the right sandy featheriness for our delicate feet and a security guard ensured that there were was no-one to hassle us with their constant mosquito like offers to sell us beads, fruit or prawns.
In the evenings we spent our time frequenting the local bars and restaurents and I'm afraid to say that I am back on the pork again. Although the horror of the pig execution is still on my mind, I am being brave and trying to eat pork whenever I can in tribute to the poor piggys suffering! One such evening took us to 'the Snake House'. An establishment known for its massive collection of snakes! It was wicked walking around looking at all the different types of snakes in their glass cages, they even had a snake cage built into the table that we sat at, so that you could stare down at the snake whilst you were eating :) Which was good, because the food was so awful that you were praying for a distraction to come along and then that distraction to get even with the 'chef'!
In the two streets around abouts our hotel were plenty of bars with and some of these bars had names like 'the Crazy Rabbit bar' and it was definately crazy. From the bar over the street where we would play cards, I would take an occasional glance to confirm my suspisions and indeed, there seemed to be alot of young Cambodian ladies who had discovered the joys of dancing around a pole! Said pole was virtually on the street and there were some fairly horrible looking 50 year old westerners around it to. As we would walk back to the hotel of an evening I was often flattered to receive an invite to join the ladies, but Sam always turned them down on my behalf. Still across the road in the other bar, I made friends with an English Bulldog called Elvis and let Sam beat me at the odd game of cards.

Over the course of our week in Sihanoukville, we would chat in passing to another couple who were called Stephane and Katherine and no, they weren't English! On our last night we went out for drinks in the spirit of strengthening E.U relations, for respectively they were French and German. Anyway they are a very nice couple of people and we hope to bump into them for a beer, maybe in Laos. Over the evening I investigated their views of us Brits and I can now report back, that the French really do call us 'Roast Beefs'! :) As you can see there was alot of geo-political discussion that night and brilliantly at one point a real frog jumped out of a tree onto Sams lap :)

Tomorrow, we are on the bus once again, to go to Siam Rep, a city every single tourist who visits Cambodia comes to see. The reason to visit is Angkor Wat, the biggest religious building in the world!
Wat blog to coming soon...