Velkommen Inn Phnom Penh

My bus to Phnom Penh left at midday, so I didn't have to get up too early. I had breakfast about 10am, packed my stuff, then went on the internet for a bit. The place I'd emailed the previous night had rather annoyingly replied to say that they had no room at the inn, so I just asked a bloke on reception to call a few other places in my RG. When the first two failed to even connect I was unimpressed, but luckily, third time lucky, the next place answered the phone and I made a successful ...

... day, he would take us to the Genocide Museum, the Killing Fields 15 kms out of town, to Wat Phnom (pagoda in the middle of the city, at its highest point, a whopping 27 meters), the National Museum and the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda.<br><br>Heng picked us up at 9:00 am and off we went. The Genocide Museum is in a school that was converted to Security 21 Prison, one of the worst in the country. There were hundreds then thousands of prisoners between 1975 ...

... becomes phantasmagoric when diffuse fingers of rock fill the horizon and the sunlight reflects on the water forming a flickering path. Swimming in those hours of the day while chatting with your new day-friends and drinking beers from the numerous shop-boats around is an experience difficult to forget. <br><br>The same we arrived from Halong Bay we took a night train to Sapa, our next stop. Sapa is a mountain town in the northeast of the country. The ...

... hand of this Khmer lad and shouting at him, something went flying across the table onto the floor and broke apart. The lad is practically David Blane-ing, feet only just touching the floor, and Peter is shouting mad murder at him, I sat as an observer, very confused, Becky seemed a bit startled and Des objected with "Don&#8217;t punch him Peter!" It seemed what had happened was that in his placing of the paper on the table he had covered Peter&#8217;s mobile phone and ...

... alone. Awesome!!<br><br>With only a few days left before leaving Asia we headed for Bangkok, by bus to the border then a 6hr train ride to the city. Bangkok was a bit of a culture shock. <br>We stayed near the Koh San Rd which is hideous but has to be seen. Imagine every provincial town highstreet on a friday night concentrated into one steet with loads of tourist tat thrown in. lovely. <br><br>In a 5 minute period you will get offered hair extensions, tattoos, fish ...

Phnom Penh (11/7- 12/7) <br><br>Phnom Penh<br><br>We took a very long bus ride to the capital and started the search for a place to stay. It was just as hot as Siem Reap and though the first room we found was stifling and hot, we figured the rest were the same and took off to explore the city. We rushed off to see the Russian Market only to get there just before it closed down. Since it had been a long day we decided to watch the sun set over the riverfront. We thought the ...

... crossing at (Dom Kralor - it's too small) and we've heard that if we get a thai visa at a land border they will only give us 15 days. As it turns out the Thai visa was free (they must be desperate for tourists) but it doesn't state the duration of the visa so we might only get 15 days - or 30, 60 - we'll just have to wait and see !<br> <br>Truth be told we didn't intend to stay in Phnom Penh so long, but Paul kept up his ...

... Cowboys with guns blasting as they rode past a couple of volunteers on their motorcycles<br><br>Broken toe from falling down the stairs (I must state emphatically that alcohol was not involved... and no, it wasn't me)<br><br>Falling down a manhole to chest-height<br><br>Bicycle crash and worse still, a coconut dropped onto shoulder of a volunteer- we had just been discussing the number of deaths by coconut ...

... okay I guess you get the idea&#8230; Plenty of objects to take pictures of with my new Nikon. We spend the whole day with this temple, which was the biggest of the whole lot. Luckily our bikes had not gone missing since they were watched after by two girls, helping out their Mom at her water cart. They were fluent in English and understood very well to play their cards (Sir, buy water from me so I can go to school or Madam, here, beautiful necklace only 5 dollars&#8230; J), well ...

... or refurbishment. These wide arteries of the city flow with thousands of scooters, a great deal of them commercial moto taxis, and the traffic situation is respectably chaotic. A great deal of prosperity seems to be guarded by security staff in front of tall walls and steel fences which is in marked contrast to the semi-rural buildings that comprise the outskirts of the city. Large parts of the centre of the city seems to be owned by Chinese, given the amount ...