A quick blog for Siem Reap and the floating village of Chong Khneas Siem Riep is a strange place, it’s a bit like the Disney land of Asia, it’s very commercial and ludicrously touristy. Most tourist fly in to Siem Reap to see the temples then head straight out destined for the beaches of Thailand which is a shame. Just seeing Siem Reap will give you the feeling that Cambodia is a rich and tourist filled place where there is plenty of tourist dollars to spread around, which is very much not the case in the rest of the country. just outside of Siem Reap is the floating fishing village of Chong Khneas on the mighty Tonle Sap lake which is the biggest lake in Asia. the village is made up of about five thousand people ... read more

Greetings This is part two of my travel blog for Angkor Wat Out of all the temples I think Bayon is the most interesting to look round. It has thousands of faces carved into it and the Architecture is really striking both from a distance and close up. It is also incredibly well preserved and surrounded by the jungle and has an incredibly long and striking walkway to access it over the moat. Which when the only way to get around was by elephant must have been a real WOW to people who approached it. We visited Bayon three times and each time we saw something new as we visited at different times of the day. The Tree Temple or Tombs Raider Temple of Ta Prohm was made famous by the film, and also the incredibly ... read more

We Crossed into Cambodia via the Ha Tien border crossing with Vietnam in the far south of the country. We had a 6 hour minibus transfer through to Phom Penh which I was strangely looking forwards to. For me the best way to get a feel for the countryside it to travel through it overland. The roads once we crossed over the board were dusty dirt roads and we travelled through some very poor looking villages with lots of people toiling in the fields. Not a piece of machinery in sight although there were plenty of water buffalo’s (South East Asian Tractors). Apart from the buffalo’s the landscape reminded me of parts of Africa and the basic houses we passed could have been from Zambia or Malawi. As Cambodia is one of the world’s poorest countries ... read more

Hello All For the last 4 days of our trip to Sicily we decided that a bit of R & R was in order, so we chose two of the islands most famous beach resorts, Taormina & Cefalu. Taormina is on Sicily’s Ionia coast famous for its warm crystal clear water. Its Idyllically perched on a rocky promontory high above the sea, Taormina has been the most popular tourist destination in Sicily for a couple of hundred of years. It famous for its beautifully restored mediaeval buildings, breathtaking views around every corner and a giddy network of winding streets strewn with shops, bars and restaurants. In my opinion it has to be one of the top holiday resorts in Europe. Added to this the town offers fantastic views of the coast, with Mt. Etna towering behind ... read more

Greeting All This is Part two of my Iceland Blog We arrived in Reykjavik after a long 400km and slow (I couldn’t afford another speeding ticket) drive along the south coast. It had been drizzling most of the day and as we got closer to Reykjavik it started to get a lot heavier. Our first impressions were that is was a ghost town, there was hardly a car on the road or anyone on the streets. We had to double check that this was a Saturday and not a Sunday. We subsequently learnt that on the Easter weekend the majority of the population like to get together as a family and east a meal of lamb at home. After we found our hostel and dropped our gear off we headed out into the rain to explore. ... read more