Cambodia

Oooh Cambodia, it used to be dodgy, now its fine but you can immdediately see how much poorer it is than Vietnam. The traditional buildings we had to look so hard for in Vietnam are everywhere in Cambodia. However the rules regarding western imports are a little less strict here so in many ways it appears more developed, i had my first cappuccino for 3 weeks the other day and it was like mana from heaven. They also have normal bakeries which has allowed suze and i to resume our staple breakfeast of croissants and various sticky gooey cakes.

So we've been to Phnom Penh, the capital and Siem Reap which is where Angkor Wat is. Phnom Penh is cool, better than Hanoi and Saigon. We haven't covered all the attractions here (which are mostly based on the indiscrimnate slaughter of cambodians in the 70's) as we were feeling a bit tired and there's only so many prisons/torture camps/killing fields you can go to before you just want to chill out by the river with a beer. We spent 2 nights in Phnom Penh before heading up to Siem Reap.

After a very hot and sweaty bus ride we got to Siem Reap and wound up staying in a wooden shack with a mosquito net in it, very rustic. We found a friendly TukTuk driver (think moped with a 2 wheeled carriage on the back, you feel like a king until you hit a bumpy road) and went up a tall temple for sunset and then spent the whole next day seeing pretty awesome temples. They are about 1000-600 years old and trees have recolonised some of them creating some amazing images, i'll put some up soon.

Due to the regular bus journeys we are making our standard wake up time is about 6am at the moment, i trust all those people working hard will be glad to hear it. We're back in Phnom Penh now and tomorrow we're going to Kratie to see some freshwater dolphins and then off to Stung Treng to figure out a border crossing into Laos. I don't know when i'll next be able to post as Laos is quite backwards but i'll see what i can do, hang in there!