Thailand (again) Laos and Cambodia

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Well as we changed our destination from New Zealand to Asia again, I have to say decision well made.
We flew back into Thailand and got back to Bangkok, we then took an overnight train to Chang Mai (after an ordeal trying to get a ticket)

We went up from there to Chang rai before crossing the border into Laos. We took a slow boat down the Mekong stopping off in a tiny riverside village with electricity generators that turn off at 10 pm.
We met great people on our slow boat that we bumped into most stops from there on.
We went to Luann Prabang in the north of Laos for a few days before going to Vien Vieng for a few days of swimming and tubing in the river Meekong, in the most beautiful scenery I've seen in a while.
In particular when it rains the mist that covers the mountains is truly beautiful, and best seen whilst floating down the river in a ring.

We went from there to the capital of Laos Vientiane. It was quite a nice place and we celebrated Sharlene's birthday there, and even found night club to go to (which is tricky in Laos because everything shuts at 11 because of a noise curfew).
We even made it to a water park which was fun until they turned the water off in the middle of the day...crazy Laos folk!

From there we went to a place called 4000 islands. This is a group of islands in a 14 km wide stretch of the Mekong. We went to a place called Don Khong first and discovered how lovely the Loas people were. we went on a cycle around the island and I honestly thing every single person ran out and said Hi (sawadee) to us especially all the kids, I think we waved more than we cycled.

The next day we went to Don Det a smaller island in the group, which only has electricity for 4 hrs at night. It was so lovely and chilled, on our first day we took a sunset trip. The second day we spent in hammocks watching the river and later the rain coming down outside.

We left there and went on a very long bus journey to Cambodia. It took ages and we got dropped all over the pace and even got a flat tyre. We made it eventually to the capital city Phnom Penh at 10pm after leaving Dom Det at 8.30 am.

We're still in the capital now and had a nice day yesterday in the Markets. Today was one of the most depressing of the trip in some ways. We went to see the prison where thousands of Khmer people were murdered in the 70s under Pol Pot's regime, from there we went to the killing fields where we saw mass graves (some with up to 400 people). It was all pretty heavy stuff. we dropped off in a market to buy loads of fruit before going to an orphanage where all the children are HIV orphans. It was a strange experience.

It was lovely being with all the kids and they were so sweet and well mannered. we sat around playing with them asking questions about the orphanage. They were so sweet and very interested in our camera in particular. One boy took it for a walk and I now have about 30 pictures of teddy bears, tyres and the ground....I think they're so cute I don't even want to delete them!
It was kind of sad too though because you could see the kids were sick themselves with the disease, so I have to say it has been sad as well as brilliant visiting them.

We're heading to Siem reap tomorrow to see the temples of Ankor...I cant wait!!!
Hopefully we'll be up early enough to see them at sunrise.
Just a week of traveling left and back to reality, eek!

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