AmblingAlongNicely

Ever wanted to get up close and personal with an elephant? Then this, ladies and gentlemen, is your golden opportunity. For the meager sum of $50 (or $25 if you're prepared to work in the afternoon rather than ele watch - I did not chose this option, my excuse being lack of food to provide energy for working in the blazing sun. Ahem, it may be weak but it's all I have) you can spend the day at the The Elephant Valley Project and do just that. The project rescues mistreated elephants and lets them live in elephant heaven (quite literally as it turned out) for the rest of their days. A very worth while effort I'm sure you'll agree. Upon arrival we joined up with some of the long term volunteers and headed out to ... read more

Fresh water dolphins are possibly the biggest attraction in Kratie, and I was determined to see them. Ideally alone, but then when is life ever ideal? My moto driver arrived a little late and driving a tuk tuk with 2 people already seated in the back. "You travel with 2 other tourist" he beamed "cheaper for you" (lol, more money for him more like, but who am I to begrudge that), as I reluctantly nodded my assent he thrust $2 back at me and off we went. My two companions were very nice, proper backpackers who'd met that day on the bus and were already sharing a room (I'll never understand this need the average backpacker has to save a dollar and share a room with a complete stranger - do they not crave some time ... read more

Joy of joys, this trip was to be taken in air-conditioned comfort. What a treat indeed. I may have mentioned how hard am finding it adjusting to the heat out here. Have I? Am sure I must have, it has pretty much been my all consuming thought this last week. Am sure I didn’t have this much difficulty adjusting the last time and I’ve been pretty darned miffed over it I can tell you for it is impacting on my enjoyment to an uncomfortable degree. However, I subsequently discovered that 2 paracetamol (taken after a particularly rough run in with a particularly unyielding rock whilst clambering through a particularly tight space at Bang Malea) makes the heat that much more bearable. It is likely then that I am running a small fever of sorts; this cheers ... read more

Gosh, so early in the trip and already I am behind with the blog. Really must try harder. Am still in Siem Reap as I write this and plan on remaining here for another few days yet (hmmmm, really must let the guesthouse know of this plan or they will throw me out Friday) but enough of the future, lets back track a little shall we... Arrived in Siem Reap 7:50am Monday morning, 1st plan of action was to find a guest house. Not so hard (I thought) as I had a few ideas of where would be good. Had swithered over booking before I left but on this trip I am holding firmly to the "this, or something better" philosphy and so booking is not allowed. Seemed to go well enough at first, there is ... read more

Slept in. Again. Highly irksome habit of mine that. However, by dint of some super driving on Dad's part, I made it to the airport with the requisite 3hrs to spare. Hurrah! Shame then that KLM's staff hadn't been quite so diligent in their efforts to get there. One hour (and one stupidly expensive coffee) later and I was able to drop off my luggage. Small problem arose when the machine took my ticket at face value and refused to print a label from Edinburgh to KL, seems even the machine thought my ticket was a farce. Fortunately there is a manual override and I am hopefull that despite all efforts to the contrary my luggage will be there to greet me at KL. There have been some big changes at Edinburgh airport, not least of ... read more