Cambodia

Hello everyone,

Sorry we haven't updated the blog for a while, we have become v lazy travellers and the internet is painfully slow in some parts!

From Vietnam we took a 3 day Mekong tour to Cambodia which was really lovely. We got to see how the people live on the river, with all the markets and stalls etc, really interesting. After the trip through the Mekong we arrived in Phnom Penh and met up with our lovely friends Ben (Schuby) and Kia. It was so so nice to see them as we hadn't seen Ben for 6 years. They are both from Melbourne and got us really really excited about living there! So we spent 5 days with them doing lots of drinking of the local beer and catching up. Besides that we also did some sight seeing, we went to the Killing Fields and S21 which were both very harrowing places but so interesting and gave you a real insight into what the Cambodian people suffered at the hands of the Khumer Rouge-truly shocking. Phnom Penh had a real back packer vibe to it and we liked it a lot more than we had expected.

After Phnom Penh we headed to Siem Reap which was a really beautiful city, full of parks and charm and a lot quiter than Phnom Penh and of course there was Angkor Wat which was really break taking. We did a 3 day tour, i don't think we could have done any less time, there is just so much to see! We did one full day and then the next day we did the sunrise at Angkor Wat (which meant getting up at 4:30) but it was worth it and then the next day we went for sun set. One very random thing that happened to us whilst we were walking around one of the temples ( the ome where they filmed Tomb Raider) we bumped into Andrew, Sarah and Hannah Cheetham. Such a small world, none of us could believe it! So we had a lovely dinner with them that evening and we're looking forward to seeing them again in Singapore. One of Joel's highlights of Siem Reap (apart from the Temples) was meeting a land mine victim on the street. This guy was selling books and as we really don't need anything more to weigh down our books Joel didn't buy one from him but instead bought him several beers! Joel spent the whole afternoon with this guy drinking Angkor beer and hearing all about the history of the country. The man has lost both of his legs and half of his stomach when he was only 24. He was fighting against the Khumer Rouge before he stood on a land mine. Since then he has had 3 more wives and several more children so still makes the most of life, God knows how he got home, Joel struggled on 2 legs!! You do see quite a few landmine victims which is very sad but every body seems quite positive and progressive. We visited a land mines museum which showed how much work has gone into clearing the mines.

We are now in Laos which we are loving so far, we will write again when we have more stories to tell from here.

Love Caroline and Joel xx