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Published: November 2nd 2006
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Hey guys...appologies for the fact its taken so long to get this updated, we have finally found pc's with CD drives so we can now upload the photos. In Sihanoukville at the mo - enjoying the beach!! Still a few days behind on the log but will be up to date by the end of the week!! Happy reading! x
We ended up staying an extra day in Pakse. Got speaking to an (Arman) Austrian & (Matthew) American guy who were going to see the 3 waterfalls near by. I'm always up for a waterfall so we decided to stay & cut the cost of a tuk tuk between the 4 of us. It also saved us from having to get the public bus down to 4000 Islands, had heard some bad stories so didn't really fancy it so we booked ourself onto the minibus for $6 which was leaving the next day.(As it was we passed the 6:30am public bus broken down at the side of the road and we left at 9am). Our day out at the waterfalls was cool, all a bit waterfalled out by the end but it was nice to be out of the town
as there really isn't anything to do in Pakse. Our Tuk tuk got a flat so we had a 40min wait baking in the sun until someone came with a spare, worked out well though as we all got transferred to an air conditioned espace type vehicle so that was our transport for the day.
Arrived at 4000 Islands.......It was great! We stayed on Don Det, Mr Sidaes bungalows on Sunrise Blvd for $2 a night. Didn't really do much on our first day apart from finding a nice hut that we could call home for a few days, drank a few beers & had something to eat in one of the restaurants over looking the Mekong. Had a little walk around, for dinner our evening entertainment was watching 3 young monks trying to catch their monkey so they could take it back to the Wat. The monkey was loving it!!! Monks had no chance. It was then back to our hammocks & look at the stars or read by candle light (No electricity on the island). 2nd day we were up at 5am, everything comes alive at that time so you have very little choice, cocks are doing the
Tad Yueang Waterfall
Yet another waterfall!?? whole cock a doodle do thing....boats going past on the Mekong. It was great though, lying in the hammock watching the sunrise, we then hired bikes for the day. We rode over to Don Khon (Island which is connected to Don Det by a railway bridge. The only line the French ever laid) Cycled to the largest waterfall by volume in S.E Asia (Khone Phapheng) & to the beach Ban Hang. It was nice to have a few hours cycling around. Met the famous cake guy from WA who I've read about on other peoples blogs. His cakes & baguettes were all dead tasty & freshly baked! He delivers them each day by bike around the bungalows.
Our last day again was spent doing very little, lazing around on the hammocks reading etc.. Went to the other side to see sunset over a couple of beers.
I was sad when we had to leave, we could have easily stayed there for at least another few days.
Woke up early as usual for the sunrise then it was time to head off for our next country. Cambodia!
We had heard/read bad things about the whole border crossing but it was absolutely
fine, we got a boat from Don Det to the mainland where a mini bus took us to the Lao/Cambodia border & then a 5hr trip to Kratie for $19 each.
Stayed the first night in Cambodia in a place called Kratie nothing at all to do there but we needed to break up the journey and get off the bus as the drivers constant blowing of the horn and the kareoke drive you nuts after a while.
We left Kratie at 7.45am the next morning and headed by public bus for Phnom Penh our first major city for a while, we arrived at 2pm ish and found a guesthouse right in town by the central market and away from the backpackers area, its a great location and $12USD for a room with sat tv and aircon...... Luxury.
Its a really cool city and after Lao we expected it to be more full on and hectic but its fine.
Went to the lake for sunset, a really cool place in the backpackers area.
That evening we went out for dinner with our travel buddies to Sharkies which had great food but was full of sex tourists.
Does anyone actually
Don Det - 4000 Islands
Sunrise from our hammocks.... travel Asia to see the sights???
Ended up getting on it as we've been pretty good and havent been out much. A few cocktails at the lake while watching sunset went down well, bought a bottle of vodka at Sharkies then left there and found another bar closer to our guesthouse and got another bottle needless to say we were slightly hungover the next day.
Spent the day doing the Phnom Penh tourist circuit, hired a Tuk tuk and five of us went first to a shooting range then to the killing fields and S-21.
I loved the shooting range, you get given a menu with whats available to shoot apart from the usual weapons like the AK47, M16 and tommy gun, for $200USD you can fire a bazzoka or if thats to expensive for you for $50USD chuck a grenade CRAZY if i had the money i think i would have done it all.
Dem and i chose the AK 47, 25 bullets each for $30USD each. I went first, its hard to describe what its like, when its on semi auto its ok but on fully automatic its mad, Dem took a video so I'll show you all
Khone Phapheng Waterfall
Largest in South East Asia later. Dem didnt really like it, its quite hot in the range and the gun kicks quite hard so after 10 shots she gave it to me .........result!
Went to the Killing Fields next not much to say about them, I've brought a couple of books to read about what had happened here 30 years ago and its disgusting, they estimate between 2-3 million people were murdered, they killed all the educated people like doctors, teachers anyone that could speak another language & anyone with glasses, its hard to get to grips with considering it didnt happen that long ago.
After the killing fields we went to Tuol Sleng S-21 which is an old school that they turned into a prison.
It wasnt really a prison it was more like the place they took you to torture you into confessing for whatever before they killed you, out of the 8000 people that went there only 8 survived.
It was a pretty depressing afternoon.
Went to the sunset bar for dinner again. We've seen so many sunsets and sunrises since we've been away.
Tomorrow we head to Siem Reap for a couple of days then to Sihanoukville for some beachtime,more to
come soon.
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Heather
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Hi From Wellington
Hi Guys. Loving the photos and diary. Nana and Grandad are getting copies printed off by Dad and find them amazing. Maddison turned 6 on Saturday and had a great party. Not long til you arrive and I have brought you tickets to her Jazz Xmas Production the night after your return - hope you can make it???????? Take care and see you in a month. Love the Bruces at no 9 xxx