I write this sat by a pool in our current hostel. It isn’t amazing but the sound of running water is pleasant, and the room is adequate, but more on that in a minute… Tuesday 2nd November I awoke early to the clackety clack of the train moving over the track. Clackety clack, clackety clack, clackety clack……. The first light of pre-dawn was starting to inch in through the woefully thin curtains in our little sleeper car. I didn’t dare look at the watch but knew it must have been early as the breakfast guy hadn’t come around (at least I hadn’t heard him) and he told us the night before that it would be at about 6am that breakfast was served. I guessed it was somewhere in the hour leading up to that though. I ... read more

After our late return from the cinema , by the time we got to bed it was gone 2 am, we both awoke at a late hour ( I think Lou was still in the form of a Pumpkin from her late night ). We managed to descend and have our buffet breakfast which was already getting a bit boring as it is the same everyday. We had a couple of tasks to achieve today, our first being to send some items home. Having set out with bags under 15kgs each, our recent flight into the country showed us we had put on weight in the bag department. We collected together the items, some of which we had been carrying since we attempted a similar feat in Siem Reap, and headed off to the nearby Post ... read more

The Pink View I arrived in Cambodia with no pre-conceptions and left glad for that. I suspect that Vietnam suffered in my eyes, for being the focus of months of anticipation whilst we packed our lives in the UK away. In the hours spent on buses (far fewer than in Vietnam) I wondered how I might choose to sum up this country. What I wanted to say was this: “Cambodia is beautiful”. A wise (he would say old) man with a twinkle in his eye once said to me something like this of a place a lot closer to home: “ Yes it is, but don‘t tell everyone, then they will all want to come here”. That is what I also want to say about Cambodia. Cambodia has a simplicity which is absent in Vietnam. It ... read more

Having spent yesterday spectacularly achieving nothing, we resolved that we would carpe diem today. Unfortunately, when it comes to arising from slumber, my resolve is never particularly bullet proof. In truth, it’s somewhat woolly. Whilst travelling, we have discovered that one becomes subject to an ongoing internal battle between “I am free to do what I want when I want including doing nothing” and “ this is a once in a lifetime opportunity and I really shouldn’t waste it seeing the same four walls of my hotel room hour after hour”. That battle results in days spent luxuriating in moving no more than 100m from the hotel and others spent trying to cram in as much as humanly possible. Having now spent two months on the road, we are starting to feel slightly less guilty about ... read more

So...(just for Dad) The last two days have, by recent standards, been jam packed with activity. They have also seen us say our goodbyes to Scott and Sara. We are hoping that we will meet up again somewhere on our travels but, for now, our travelling contingent has reverted to we two. 19 October 2010 If you know me, at all, you know that I am not a good at mornings. You may also recall that I have spent the last week or so under the weather. Why then would I agree to get up and out of my bed at 4.30am to head in to a pitch black Cambodian night? 12 hours sleep the night before? Nearly, but not quite. Day break and sunrise at Angkor Wat, that's what. We had been indoctrinated in to ... read more