The Island

After being on our own for Phnom Penh and Kampot, we arrived in Sihanoukville meeting up with our band of fellow travellers and organised a boat across to the island of Koh Ta Kiev.
So like voyagers off to foreign lands we boarded our vessel, wading through chest-high waves to load our luggage.

Approaching the beautiful island of Koh Ta Kiev it appeared completely deserted, except for 5 small bungalows set back from the beach amongst the trees and one big hut on the beach edge. We docked in much the same manner as when we set sail from Sihanoukville, minus the waves.

We had brought food supplies from the mainland, and a big cooking pot, so in our bungalow that 5 of us shared we created a larder, giving it a very homely feel!

Balancing on the nipple!

Our stay here was sheer bliss, daytime hours were spent discovering the island's coastline, swimming, searching for shells, reading, or following trails through the jungle. Our evenings were spent cooking one-pot dinners and drinking home-made lemongrass and ginger tea spiked with good measures of cheap whisky!

A short walk along the beach and a very short trail through the jungle to find another small bay - the most amazing bar/restaurant, also providing treehouses and hammocks to stay in. From what we saw of Cambodia this is it's gem - and if you ever have the opportunity to go there you should swing by 'Ten103 Treehouse Bay' (the coordinates of it's location) and say hello to Joel and Roberto, an american/italian pair of chefs. There's not much information online as they don't like to advertise much, thus keeping the intimate tranquility intact.

Unfortunately their accommodation couldn't fit 9 of us so we stayed at Tom's bay, but spent much of our time hanging out there, lazing around with the uber-chilled cat with no name, enjoying brick-oven cooked sweet bread filled with raisins accompanied with caramel sweet milk, special cookies delicious coffee and good conversation.

Breakfast time

The atmosphere of the place coupled with nature at it's best and great company made the hours drift by like seconds. I'm sure in time the island will become more developed but currently it's a beautifully lonely island - there were times when James and I had the entire 5km beach to ourselves.



Needless to say we had the most peaceful time on Koh Ta Kiev, and came away with some very fond memories - to mention a few: Roberto's welcome, peeling and de-seeding 4 kilos of tomatoes to create Martin's special soup, searching for Shiva eyes and the 'perfect' shell, morning ritual of a dip in our private ocean, disco night jungle walk, the incessant mosquitoes that "don't deserve to live as they are just not polite!".

It was sad to leave but all good things come to an end... only to create space for more. We jumped off the beach at Otres beach, a quieter bay 4km from Sihanoukville, where we found a great guesthouse called Done Right with an inviting atmosphere and a creative way of building recycling cans and bottles instead of bricks. Check out their site here - the first pic is the dome we stayed in! Good ideas.

The guesthouse is not quite finished as they only started building 3 months ago after their previous site further up the beach was bulldozed and re-claimed by the government to turn it into a National Park. The guys who run the place are very chilled and sporting an array of pets, all as young as the bar. My favourite, Ninja (Felix) the ginger kitten, rivals the cat-with-no-name from Ten103 for uber-chilledness and comes up 2 steps ahead. He loves to be loved and being so small and cute he sure is loved.

ahhhhh.... Ninja!

The 2 sibling pups who speed around the volleyball court at lightning speed, and a fully tame chicken, being raised from a chick on her owner's shoulder. She would sit on the back of your chair and peer over your shoulder at your laptop, occasionally stretching her leg in a ballerina-style move.

From Otres beach we headed back to Thailand. We finally arrived at the border after a laborious bus ride - we got 2 flat tyres, the engine broke several times causing us to stop regularly and finally the air-con broke, pouring rivers of water onto the back seats. Luckily people on those seats could move forwards as the bus was no longer completely full by then, as many people fed up of the incessant delays had hailed passing traffic to taxi them to the border.

The border crossing into Thailand featured no corruption unlike the Cambodian one - efficient with no "extra" charges. It reminded me of arriving into France from Spain, because all of a sudden everything seemed to be much more ordered and organised. It feels good to be back in Thailand - we went out for dinner straight away to enjoy a Pad Thai (james' favourite) and Tom Yam Goong, the best soup in the world! That very much introduced me back to the spicy food we had been missing while in Laos and Cambodia.

Keen for more island life we took the ferry to Ko Chang with Lolle and Phil, who we've been travelling on and off with for the past 6 weeks. We hired motorbikes, ran out of fuel 3 times in just one hour.... drank some SamSong (rum), swung in hammocks and beach swings for hours and chilled out with the locals. Now we are in smelly Bangkok impatiently awaiting a flight to Yangon in Myanmar - our 4th country.

Even the trees show their love on Koh Ta Kiev!

Sombre sightseeing

Phnom Penh is home to Tuol Sleng (S21) - the former school used by the Khmer Rouge to carry out some of the most inhumane acts of torture and murder imaginable, and of course the Killing Fields. Not the most pleasent of site-seeing but both James & I felt it necessary to understand how it has shaped the Cambodian culture of today. The tension in the air at S21 is highly charged. Walking around it was easy to imagine the building's original purpose, children happily hurrying about corridors and stairwells, however its recent use as an  interrogation and torture prison filled the air with death and destruction. Evidence was everywhere, from the blood staining of the floor tiles, Khmer Rouge rules of conduct chalked on the blackboards, the tiny cells created within the buildings, not to mention the horrificly graphic photographs.

We took a 15km cycle ride to the Killing Fields in the stinking heat through the city traffic (which is in one word..... mayhem, everything in any direction all at the same time, quite exhilarating if a little scary). We witnessed the excavated mass graves, one holding 450 people in only 4x8 meters. Towers of skulls and clothing from the victims continually surfacing from the ground with each rainfall. However it was a tree that struck me the strongest. It was used to kill children - they were held by their ankles then swung towards the tree smashing their skulls against the trunk. The tree itself seemed to be express an air of sombre in its branches, as if it had witnessed too much human tragedy in its lifetime. So with a desire to find more uplifting pastures we headed swiftly off to Kampot.

Freshly caught crabs at Kep's market

Kampot is a small fishing village with the destruction from the Khmer Rouge rule still visible in the ruined buildings. Despite the destruction of the past people here are happy and running fruitful businesses. We enjoyed some local delicacies such as fresh crab and shrimp from the market down the road in Kep, cooked to order steamed over hot coals!

Kampot is famous for its pepper. I have been informed that once upon a time no self-respecting French restaurant would be up to standards if it didn't serve Kampot pepper. Believe me it is truly brilliant, pepper has not tasted the same since we left. We took a motorbike and visited a pepper plantation (which also doubles up as a yoga retreat, fully equipped with eco swimming pool) where we enjoyed lunch in a beautifully designed building overlooking the pepper plants and learnt that white green and pink pepper all comes from the same plant. The corns are most delicious straight from the plant, however deliver a strong and fiery kick!

James wincing after a strong peppercorn

Angkor WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAT

Arriving into Siem Reap at 2am could have been a real hassle, but luckily a tuk-tuk driver by the name of Pot sorted us out a treat - a real friendly welcome off the bus, and he knew a cheap hotel and took us straight there where we instantly conked out. Upon waking and seeing the view from our 3rd storey room, we could really appreciate Siem Reap's charms - the town is reasonly small, low buildings and covered in greenery - palm trees and dense jungle foliage on many corners make it look almost as overgrown as the temples it provides access to. By midday I was baked, prompting us to seek out a way to escape the relentless midday heat. We stretched our budget ever-so-slightly and went for a $12 room, of which the main attraction was the classy swimming pool out front. Beth was already sold after seeing this, but we were then pleasantly surprised to discover that $12 also gets you a huge luxurious room with king and queen-sized beds, which together could have slept 5 enormous people quite easily.

4 layers of chicks - oh yeah

Since early on in Laos we had met up with a large group of people from varying countries, all vaguely heading the same direction and with the same vague notions of when they should be places, meaning the group had drifted apart and together again in plenty of backpacker spots - Siem Reap being no exception, with around 6 people from the group chilling by the same hotel pool as us. One night, after discovering a supermarket selling a ton of european goods such as french cheeses, freshly baked baguettes, saucisson, wines, and Beth's favourite chocolate (!), we decided to indulge in a 'european night' and with 5 others bought a selection of cholesterol-raising goodies for a bread meat and cheese extravaganza.

Within a few days of being in Cambodia we had started to notice an unusual fascination with pajamas... it's not uncommon to see women of all ages walking around in teddybear-motif tops and bottoms - we even spotted one mother and daughter whizzing past on a moped wearing matching Hello Kitty PJ's! Sorry no photo for that one! My camera finger has been too slow for quite a few gems as you can imagine (most involving monks in day-to-day activities such as serenely riding a moped side-saddle or using a cashmachine). So anyway the PJs thing is a little strange - we asked several people about it (not the ones wearing them!) and could never get a straight answer - the best we got was 'comfort', but it's also clearly a fashion statement here, albeit a strange one.

There isn't much to do in Siem Reap other than sweat and see temples, and not just any temples either - the star of the show is the mother-of-all-temples Angkor Wat. The largest religious building in the world, as you'd expect it attracts one of the largest crowds in the world, and seeing it in mid-afternoon (as we did) it's almost impossible to snap a picture without a group of Chinese tourists slowly shuffling by. In any case, the world's largest temple just didn't do it for us - as a monument to extravagance it works, clearly conveying the almost god-like status King Suryavarman II must have enjoyed, however it's just that - a monument to excess. We didn't dislike it by any means, as the architectural skill and design is dazzling, however in some of the smaller temples (there are over 100 in the immediate surrounding area) we found far more hidden charms - particularly the ones where Nature is reclaiming her territory.

Sweaty Betty ponders the goddesses of old

Our favourite temple experience, however, was sunrise at Pre Rup. The done-thing for sunrise temple viewing is getting up at 5am and standing in a crowd of literally hundreds of tourists waiting to get 'that shot' of Angkor Wat - as this didn't particularly appeal, we asked Pot where we could witness a quieter temple sunrise. He suggested Pre Rup, which is a relatively small but well preserved temple on the far side of the 'big loop' of the Angkor temples, a half hour drive from town. Witnessing the sun rise over the jungle from the temple's peak here was a magical experience - plus we didn't see or hear another person for the whole 90 minutes we were there.

At many of the temples, kids as young as 5 will crowd you as soon as you get there, hawking books, bracelets, postcards, fruit, beer, water - pretty much anything you'd need and a hell of a lot more you don't. They are incredibly persistent, often walking next to you the whole way to the temple literally begging you like their life rests in your hands, saying things like 'i need money for school, please mister'. You can't get annoyed with them as you know their parents make them do this every day, however due to their constant exposure to tourists many are incredibly adept linguistically - we met a 5-year-old girl would could speak several languages fluently and could count to ten in 9 other languages we asked her about, including many european ones as well as arabic and hebrew... she'd never heard of welsh though.

For a special treat, I'll leave you with a shot of Beth's grubby feet after a day's walking around temples. Enjoy!

Say "NO" to corruption

So there we are on the Laos/Cambodian border, in the blazing midday heat arguing with border officials why we shouldn't have to pay the $2 extra 'fee' they try and overcharge you, and a local pushes in front of us handing over his passport plus the $2 bribe - wearing a grey t-shirt with "Say NO to corruption" plastered across the back. The irony was clearly lost on him.


All told, the officials try and extort $8 in bribes per person on that crossing - for various dubious reasons (stamp fee, weekend tax, health fee). About 45 minutes of arguing managed to save us $6 - the price of a room for a night - so I was happy. In any case it was a good introduction to the endemic corruption in Cambodia.

Laos I felt was a horizontal country - in that I seemed to have spent most of my time there in a horizontal position, be it lying in a hammock, hospital bed, conked out on boats along the Mekong, or even while loving the comfort of the sleeping bus - this was a new concept for both of us! These buses have full-on sleeping compartments arranged over 2 floors - although if you're a single traveller, finding yourself snuggling up with a stranger may not be your favourite way to travel!

We had travelled overnight in the sleeping bus from Vientiane to Si Phan Don (4000 islands) in southern Laos in search of a nice quiet place to spend a few days after the craziness of Vang Vieng. We aimed for Don Det, a small island on the southern tip with a few bungalow operations and shops. The place was only introduced to electricity 2 years ago, but it's been a quick introduction thanks to the backpacker trail (for better or worse - already a lot of the residents are entranced most of the day by a multitude of melodramatic Thai soap-operas).
Our experience was slightly soured by the seemingly schizophrenic guesthouse owner who alternated between aggressively demanding and overly friendly in seconds. It could only be dampened slightly though given the stunning location of our bungalow perched on the water's edge.

Life is particularly stressful here as you can imagine - waking up slowly and taking a morning dip, swimming across the Mekong to the small island beach opposite - one morning we even stretched so far as to swim around the island! With no roads the only sounds come from outboard motors propelling the longtail boats as they weave through amongst the islands.

We toured the small island on push-bikes....

...and were pleasantly meandering by the water's edge one afternoon when an old Laos guy, caked in brown clay as he was making an outdoor oven, got my attention by throwing a lump of mushy clay at me. He missed thankfully, but beckoned me over and though he didn't speak 2 words of english, through some animated gesturing he proceeded to predict the course of our lives over the next few years... using our birthdates, gender and a strange 16-sided calender shape drawn in the dirt.

First he described the last few years and how they were for us (spot on), then moving onto predicting when we'll have a house, get married, have kids... I won't tell you exactly what he said but the dates struck close to home!

Boats, bikes and breaking glass doors...

Laos - our 2nd country! A short hop across the Mekong river, all seemed much the same on first glance, although a slower pace and a slightly less organised atmosphere.

Our family from the Lahu village had been reduced to 5, however then grew somewhat when we met 2 english girls who live and teach in China. Later on collecting a few travellers from holland and canada, that evening we watched the sunset over the Mekong on the roof terrace of the hostel. A beautiful evening sharing many a Beer Lao, G&T's and refreshing conversation. As it was so hot and with the need for cold beer, I created a home-made fridge, from two metal bowls and a big bag of ice.

The evening was slightly dampened when James came running through the glass door of our room - to surprise me with a hug - cutting his face, nose, throat and knee quite severely, needing a trip to hospital to get 18 stitches with no anaesthetic. Lucky for him he still had some Beer Lao in his system to dull the pain. A few hours later and £12 lighter (2 hours work from 2 nurses whom we awoke at midnight) we swept the glass shards from our blood-stained bed and enjoyed a few hours sleep.

Notice the 'dazed' look in his eyes

With James by now thoroughly tranquilized on a cocktail of pain-killers, anti-biotics and looking like he'd had a few rounds with Mike Tyson, we headed up the Mekong for a 2-day boat ride with our now group of 10, enjoying a leisurely ride and wondeful scenery, finally arriving at Luang Prabang - a lovely city with more of a small town feel about it. There we enjoyed some welcome rest-time for James to recover, delicious and fresh meals from the food market every evening - the cheapest and best way to eat here - and a trip out to Tat Kuang Si - the most amazing layered waterfall.

At the very top, looking across the falls

Despite being a city, Luang Prabang was a very peaceful place - I enjoyed bicycling around and getting up early to see the local rituals such as monks heading silently bare-footing the streets to collect their alms. I managed to squeeze a little shopping in in the night market - full of hand crafted and antique delights - in between playing nurse.

Monks collecting alms at 6am

After a trip to the local hospital on arrival to have James' wounds checked and redressed, most of which were falling off as we left the hospital - some wounds only 3/4 covered - we had little faith in the hospital skills. I redressed the wounds and later removed the stitches myself with a sterilized pair of nail clippers and James' penknife - not the easiest task (especially trying to differentiate between stitch and beard hair) however I'm pleased with my work and he is now healing well.

We took a small boat trip upriver to the little village of Muang Ngoi Neua (incredibly difficult to pronounce) which is only accesible by boat with no other vehicles in sight - idyllic and surrounded by amazing scenery. Last night at the bar I spotted Pimms on the shelf, yet the barman had never made a Pimms so I tried to teach him how to make an english Pimms - with the lack of strawberries and cucumber it was difficult but we finally achieved a satisfactory taste! He told me he will be adding it to his list of cocktails from across the world. Strange to find a bar like this in the middle of nowhere, I mean the village only had electricity from 6pm till 9pm but yet they had a bar with an amazing selection of liquors.

How about the riverbank for a workshop, Dad?

Relaxing at the Utopia bar, overlooking the Mekong

Back in Luang Prabang, I managed to persuade Beth to catch a night bus down to the capital Vientiane, which after the first couple of hours wasn't too bad, although the roads in Laos are so badly maintained it doesn't matter what level of comfort you opt for - you're still gonna be shaken around like maracas for the whole ride.

Sunset over Luang Prabang

Vientiane (christened by the French) is a fairly nondescript small capital sitting on the banks of the Mekong - the advantage of its size is that you can get everywhere by bike!

Happy cycling around Pha That Luang, Vientiane

We were passing through to arrange visas for Myanmar, a process that takes 3 days so the military government can run background checks making sure you're not a journalist or known for voicing strong political views. While they were checking up on us we decided to spend a few days in Vang Vieng, a small town a few hours north, infamous for it's "tubing experience".

Firstly, the town itself is in a spectacular location, nestled on the valley floor between towering limestone cliffs. It's beauty hasn't gone unnoticed - this is possibly the most visited location in Laos, where young travellers come to rent tractor inner-tubes and float down the Nam Song river that runs past the town. Innocent enough, you may think, except the riverside is dotted with 12 or so makeshift bars that pull you in, each one offering unlimited free shots and lao-lao buckets (a strong local rice whisky) and pumping out the latest dance tracks. The crowd is reminiscent of a southern Spanish holiday resort - young, scantily-clad, covered in felt-tipped obscenities and suitably drunk. As an extra thrill each bar has erected huge precarious swings and ziplines above the river, the highest around 15m, where revellers can hone their trapeze artist skills. No harness, no nets, just a vague indication where not to land (floating bottles indicate rocks), these are of course great fun but it's no surprise that accidents happen here all the time - and even the occasional death.

Our friend Nora the (apparent) trapeze artist

Back in the town, the bars have set themselves up to appeal to the hungover crowd by a load of video-bars - in which rows of cushions face a couple of TVs playing endless reruns of Friends and Family Guy. If that's not enough to dull the pain, the bars also offer a "happy" menu where you can order your shakes or pizza with extra marijuana, magic mushrooms, opium or even yaba, a locally made methamphetamine - not surprising then that many travellers end up spending weeks here!

Away from the town, we found a little sanctuary with beautiful new bungalows for dirt cheap. Beth started a morning ritual of meditation and Tai-Chi as it was so peaceful, in contrast to the video-bars and general debauchery half a mile away.

Not a bad view to enjoy breakfast with!

The view from our remote bungalow

We're now about to board a sleeping bus (full-on beds!! can't wait!) to Si Phan Don, or Four Thousand Islands in southern Laos, it will be our last stop before heading on to Cambodia. A couple more amusing signs of the pidgin English variety...