pete tree

We left Phnom Penh and travelled west to the city of Siem Reap. In the past Siem Reap was a sleepy little town that no one rarely cared to much about then suddenly one day the world woke up realised the largest religious building in the world was 14 kilometres away and now Siem Reap attracts over four million visitors a year. The reason all these people come to Siem Reap is to visit the temples of Angkor and specifically Angkor Wat which is the largest religious building in the world and was built in the 12th century by the Khmer empire. The temples of Angkor are such a source of pride to Cambodians that Angkor Wat adorns the national flag and Angkor beer is regarded as the best in Cambodia. We arranged ourselves a tuk-tuk ... read more

Saigon is the former capital of Vietnam and the city where the French based their colonial activities when the colonised Vietnam. When Vietnam was split into North and South it is where the Americans and their lackeys (if you believe propaganda) were based. After the North took the South they renamed the Ho Chi Min City after the former North Vietnamese leader. However the name never really caught on and anyone who isn't in the communist party still calls it Saigon. We had been told that Saigon was crazy and chaotic and that we would be in for a big shock. However after visiting Hanoi and dodging motorbikes for days Saigon seemed positively serene. It could have just been our experience but the fact that most people arrive to Vietnam in Saigon probably means that ... read more

Hue and Hoi An What a horrible experience a night bus in Vietnam is! It is not that the chairs are to short or that the bus is incredibly cold that keeps you awake all night. Its the fact that Swiss cheese has less potholes than the average Vietnamese highway (I use the word Highway in the loose sense of the word), combined with the crazy driving skills of our bus driver and everyone else on the road. Its hard to sleep when you get thrown off your seat every ten minutes! So after 13 hours of this we arrived in Hue to a downpour. And did it rain! We were stuck in our hotel room for the first whole day of our stay there, which was not actually that bad as we had had no ... read more

Vang Vieng and Vientiane We had heard about Vang Vieng back in Australia as this place where you can sit in a tube and go down a river whilst people give you drinks. It has definitely become an essential stopping point along the backpackers route through Laos. We were excited to get there all we had to do was get from Luang Prabang to Vang Vieng. We decided to book an early bus from Luang Prabang because we wanted to arrive into Vang Vieng at a normal time so that our search for accommodation will be a little easier. The trip was to take 6 to 9 hours however for us it took closer to 12- 13 hours. This was because the bus in front of us broke down as something was wrong with its tire. ... read more

After a few non eventful stops on the way to the border we have now left Thailand and entered into Laos. Our first night in Laos was spent in a small border town by the Mekong river where we immediately felt an overwhelming desire to leave. Eventually we reached our destination of Luang Nam Tha. We had heard that Luang Nam Tha offered a lot of good trekking and kayaking tours so we were keen to give it a go. We at first investigated kayaking tours but found out that they were booked out by a private group for the next few days and that the tour was not what we had imagined anyway. We also found that the treks were not quite what we had expected. So we decided just to go on a one ... read more