Geo: 3.12433, 101.684After a dramatic thunderstorm last night we started with a tropical downpour this morning. However warm rain coming straight down isn't too much of a drama when armed with a good umbrella.Today was Hop On Hop Off bus day. For 45Rm or NZD15 you can ride the bus all day, so we got to Central Market, Little India ( samosas for breakfast) the president's palace, the theatre and the gardens with the amazing butterfly aviary (or whatever the word is for a collection of butterflies). They were almost as good as the ones at Dunedin Museum! The trip up to viewing platform on the Towers got the thumbs down,. It was expensive by local measures and you only got about halfway up, times had to be booked in advance so it all got too ... read more

Geo: 3.12433, 101.684Well, Siem Reap certainly knows how to party. Pub Street was absolutely jammed packed but we found a corner to hole up in and see in the New Year. When we retuned this morning, there were no party goers to be seen but the clean up crews had everything well under control.We did a quick tour of the tourist markets looking for teatowels, t-shirts and other such stuff before heading to the airport by Tuktuk. Cambodia has been fantastic, the people are wonderful and the history, both recent and ancient, is fascinating for both good and bad reasons.We arrived in KL city at about 7pm and checked into our hotel right across the road from the famous Petronos Towers. And even better, we got room upgrades. I am feeling almost agoraphobic in this huge ... read more

Geo: 13.4256, 103.86Well, today was temple day. We set off bright and early, stopped at the ticket centre to get our identity cards made - a very efficient process - and then off to Ta Prohm, Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom, all built on the 12th century. The main building material is sandstone and it is surprising how much detail remains on the carvings. The temples are all a mix of Buddhist and Hindu influence, and were in various states of repair. There has been various efforts to rebuild over recent years and the trend now is to use existing material wherever possible and, if concrete is used for structural support, not to try and make it look 'original'. The stories and carvings associated with each on are quite complex, often 'educational' for the people of ... read more

Geo: 12.4924, 106.025Started with pancakes for breakfast at 7am and then on the bus to the Laos border on the Sen River. We hopped on the local boats and headed up river which is very wide and quite swift.It is coming into the winter dry season here and you can easily see how high the river was in full monsoon, about 10 metres above 'normal'. There are a lot of islands and trees in the river. The tops of some of the trees are bent. downstream, as if they were in a strong wind. Others have their roots exposed and they look like long hair blowing back from the tree. One of the highlights was seeing a rare freshwater dolphin. There are only four in this area so we were very lucky. However photos would not ... read more

Geo: 11.5588, 104.917Christmas Day seemed a distant concept this morning despite the Christmas tree in the foyer of the hotel. We were out bright and early for a bike ride on some of the islands in the Meekong River.. It was a lot of fun and luckily the roads were far less busy than on the mainland. However we did need to look out for cows.One of the highlights was a stop at a silk factory where we saw silk worms and had the whole process through to weaving explained. Needless to say I do like my new scarf. There was never any doubt, it was just how much I was going to buy. The locals were again very friendly and all the kids calling out hello and wanting to high 5 us.After lunch, a complete ... read more