Around the World in 2 and 80 Days

Another day, another journey, another crappy Cambodian bus! With broken AC, no open windows and of course another breakdown. The bus was so hot and stifling that it was a relief to step off it into the midday heat to wait for it to be fixed. We spent our first day in Cambodia's capital, wandering round the streets and visiting the National museum and Royal Palace and were relieved to find that it was a couple of degrees cooler here i.e. in the mid 30s rather than nearly 40C. The second day we drove out to the outskirts of the city to visit the Killing Fields, the site of 129 mass graves of over 9000 victims of the Khmer Rouge. This is just one of many similar sites spread throughout Cambodia. The site gave a very ... read more

Our journey from 4000 Islands started with an early morning boat ride to the mainland followed by a bus trip to the Laos/Cambodian border. We had heard that this border crossing could be a little difficult as it was common for immigration officials to demand ”fees” for stamping your passport and for other administrative tasks that are just part of their day job. At the time it seemed very important to ensure that we didn’t pay a dollar more than the official fee. However, in retrospect the small amounts of cash they were demanding were so insignificant they were barely worth thinking about especially taking into account that most Cambodian government employees only earn between $1-2 a day! Besides, this turned out to be the least of our frustrations that day. After a smooth border crossing ... read more

We broke up our journey to Luang Prabang with an overnight stopover in Luang Namtha. Nothing much to report from there, other than that this was where we discovered the Laos baguette, perfectly crusty on the outside and soft in the middle bread, unlike the sweet stodgy stuff we’d had in Africa and India. God bless the French (influence)! Being a World Heritage site, Luang Prabang is a tad touristy, but also very picturesque and charming, with its pretty temples, cobblestone lanes and colonial architecture. It certainly worked its charm on us, as did its numerous bakeries tempting us with culinary delights, which we’d only seen in our dreams during our previous four and half months on the road. With bagels, cream cheese, seeded baguettes, real cheddar cheese, salami, mustard, muesli, and peanut butter cookies we ... read more

After all the ruins and temples we decided that a big dose of the great outdoors was just what the doctor ordered. Keen to avoid the crowds of tourists heading to Chiang Mai we decided to step off the well-trodden backpacker route, and head out to the village of Umphang, in the west of Thailand, very close to the Burmese border. The only obstacle was a long minibus journey, followed by4 hours in the back of a songthaew (a pickup truck with benches in the back) on the cliff hugging and travel sickness inducing “Sky Highway” – 164 km and 1,219 bends! We sat crammed in (Cel) and hanging off the back (Jonny) with a varied mix of people from different tribes and ethnicities – and no other tourists in sight. The majority were Burmese refugees, ... read more

We started our journey through north Thailand leaving Bangkok from its Southern Bus Terminal and were introduced to the concept of a bus hostess, prancing down the aisle in her high heels handing out water and biscuits. Something National Express is definitely lacking! Our first stop was Kanchanaburi, home to the Bridge over the River Kwai, no longer made of wood, and has actually been destroyed twice since first being constructed. We decided the best way to see and experience the rickety railway was to take the train from Kanchanaburi over the bridge, through some fantastic scenery and the cliff hugging bends to Namtok. At Namtok we visited the Hellfire Pass Museum, a memorial museum and walking trail dedicated to the 100,000 workers who died building the Thai-Burma “Death Railway”, under the Japanese occupation during the ... read more