Cambodia and Thailand!

---

Bloody ell im now in Malaysia and have to try and remember what has happened up until now - this is really gunna test my memory haha! O well here goes might be a bit vague in parts teehee!

No idea what the date was, but we left Vietnam on what was meant to be a 6 hour journey! It actually turned into a 12 hour journey with at least 4 hours stood at a virtual standstill. Unknown to us our bus was queing to get on a ferry, apparently there is a lake we need to cross to get to Phnom Penh and it was a Cambodian public holiday so everyman and his dog was getting on this ferry.

We arrived late at night and a nice tuktuk man took us to a pleasant cheap hotel.

The next morning the same tuktuk man met us at our hotel to take us to the sights, all of which are fascinating but very emotional and somber. Cambodian history is not a nice one. Our first stop was the Killing Fields. We spent the first hour sheltered undercover waiting for the monsoon rain to slow or stop. While we were waiting we legged it across to the museum to read the history in the dark - as the electricity had cut out. Here we learnt of the atrocities that took place. I think it is probably the most horrific site that any one of us have ever visited. Once the rain slowed we then ventured round the field where a symbolic temple has been built showcasing thousands of skulls found in the field. they remain visual so that the history is not forgotten and future generations can learn from the past. Just behind the temple is the killing tree - too horrific for words! Thousands of babies were taken to this tree to be smashed against it to death! This was all part of the Pol Pot Regime which took over Cambodia in the late 70s! Most of us were not too familiar with the history of Cambodia before we arrived. It was a bit of a shock!

The tuktuk man then took us to the University that was taken over by Pol Pot and used as a torture prison before the people were taken to the Killing Fields. This was by far the most emotional part of the day and some of us found it to much and could not see it all. The rooms were left as they were found when the Vietnamese overthrew Pol Pot! The torture beds were still in the same position - nothing had been tidied up or cleaned and there was a picture on the wall of last person in each room found on the torture beds! There were also pictures taken of each person captured by Pol Pot for their records. Each picture is displayed, hundreds and thousands of images of these people brutally murdered, on display. It may have been the images but we all had a strange feeling as we looked on, like there souls were their with u!


The next morning we visited the Kings Palace before we got on another bus to Siem Reap!

Siem Reap is full of millions of ancient temples - we basically spend 2 days here looking at them all - pics will be on fb!

Even though the horrific history of Cambodia is so recent and has probably affected every person in some way, the Cambodians were some of the nicest people we have met.

Cambodia the tour of dome - on to THAILAND where its a little less heavy!

Once again a fairly short bus journey, this time from Siem Reap, turned into a mammoth trip. We eventually arrived in Bangkok around 6pm. We had a hostel booked by the river a little out of the centre. It was hidden down some dark alleys and as everything was flooded we had to walk on wooden planks raised above ground level. The hostel was clearly full of hippies and this is where we met "Boy" the first of many ladyboys. We had arrived just as a private party was about to get started. After some confusion about which rooms we were having and Boy giving us his phone to talk to someone about it, we found our rooms showered and had yummy Thai food. The party was now getting going and more and more people were arriving. However, this was the only night we could go out and really experience Bangkok so we wanted to go into the city, "Koh San road", to be precise. Liv and Laura had gone to bed. So the deadly combination of Nat and Jin got a taxi into the city! These are always the craziest nights. Taxi drops us at the bottom of the road, we are approached by guys straight away trying to get us to go to a ping pong show! So wanting to get the real feel of this mad city we get it into our heads that we will go to one later on in the night. For now it was time to try the famous buckets we had heard so much about. A small Market stall sitting outside drinking what is advertised as very very strong buckets, we drank and observed the madness around us! It was not long before we were joined by some crazy people. We now had a group of people and moved onto the next bar where we very nearly ruled the pool table wowing everyone with our drunken skills. The madness continued up to the top of the road where we eventually found a nightclub and danced the night away. Remembering that we wanted to visit either a ladyboy or pingpong show we left the club in search! After been taken to the other side of town we realised it was actually 4am and nothing was open doh! We then had a bit of trouble getting a taxi home. Our new friends were been discriminated against! So yep they got a piece of my Worcestered mind for this and it actually took us a while to find a taxi that would let us all in one taxi. When me and Nat got dropped back it was just getting light and we expected the party to still be going but not a person in sight. Turns out they were selling alcohol without a licence and doing drugs. The party was raided and everyone was arrested. Phew lucky for us we had a crazy night in Bangkok and not in a Thai prison!

The next day Rich arrived so we moved closer to the centre to make life easier. Laura and myself got a tuk tuk to the palace with the mahoisive budda! It was pretty amazing. While liv went off to meet rich we found a really cool reggae bar down an alley! It turns out the whole of Asia love mr Marley and reggae bars are everywhere, nice!

The next day we get a mega early bus and boat to koh Tao! Rich was in luck as up until now all our transport has been more than basic, but this bus was lush!

Arriving on koh tao was like arriving in paradise. This is it! We eventually found an amazing beach hut right on the beach for £4 a night. Our time on the island was spent mostly on the beach. For myself and Laura we also did a yoga class most mornings which was amazing to stretch out a bit. Nat and myself were the first to hire some mopeds and go exploring the island. We discovered the most amazing remote beaches and some
Awesome coral to do some snorkelling. We also managed to get some off roading in - not really suitable for mopeds but fun all the same! We mostly chillaxed on the night time preparing ourselves for the full
Moon party - but we did have one big night out! Back in Bangkok ladyboy shows were pretty expensive but here on the island it was free, joy! After some hesitation we managed to get liv and rich to join us once we had tactically plied them with a bucket lol. The ladyboy show was amazing, eager we got there early bagsying front row seats. These men just looked amazing, like sexy hot ladies, there was only one weird one that looked vaguely like a man. This caused rich a lot if confusion not really understanding how he could find men so attractive - genius! Laura Nat and myself really got into the show and virtually rugby tackled them to the ground when we were offered the opportunity get up on stage and take part in the show. They took us back stage and dressed us in some hideous dresses, took us on stage and danced with us - hilarious! We loved it and the crowd loved us haha well maybe not!

After the show we ventured down to a beach bar where we danced the night away!

After 5 relaxing nights - the most we had spent in one place so far, we got the boat to koh panghnan. Again we found a beach hut even closer to the beach. We also had the most awesome beach bar were we could chillax either on beanbags or hammocks watching the sun set.

Koh Panghnan was cool - the full moon party was mental. Nat and myself popped over to Koh Samui for the day where we met Mandy and then it was straight back to Panghnan for the fullness of the moon! Here we drank buckets and danced until 9am - erm actually i think maybe until 10.30 as we had a bit of a party on our beach also! We spent the next day in full recovery bobing in the sea, a speciality of Nat's. Once we were fully recovered (the next day) we all hired some mopeds and headed for the north of the island where there was some excellent wakeboarding! Rich, Mandy and myself got about 2 hours on the boat - it was awesome. Rich and Mandy were excellent way better than the other muppets when they had a go lol. I learnt some new tricks yipeee. Also went back after lunch for another set haha, killing myself with some amazing wipeouts hehe!

The next day we dropped the mopeds back at 6.30am and got the boat and bus to Koh PiPi. Here we spent 3 nights. It mostly rained so we did not get to the beach. However we found yet again another cool Reggae bar that had a Mui Thai Boxing ring. It was awesome and brutal. Mandy and myself also went to the local stadium where we got a lesson - hoooiiiyaaaa! From PiPi we headed to Krabi where Mandy, Rich and now Liv would fly home. After Mandy left it was time to recover from all the alcohol, if not after a last night together with cocktails.

Our final day all together, Laura headed back up north for some hippy action, Liv and Rich back to the ditch for some central heating and myself and Nat to Malaysia where everyone is super cool lol.

---