We made our way East from Siem Reap to Kratie, this took a monotonous 12 hours by various buses all of which broke down at some point. We eventually arrived in the dark, never a favourite for any traveller, but were kindly greeted by a man and his tuk tuk and a sign for the guesthouse we had earmarked to head too. So off we went and ended up at YouHong Guesthouse $5 for a double en-suite, not bad hey!!!! There isn’t much else to say about our time here, there really was nothing to do here. We had a potter along the banks of the Mekong, had a few beers and chatted to fellow travellers. We could have took a trip to see the rare Irrawaddy dolphins but the bus journey the day before had ... read more

After a good few days in Phnom Penh we headed North West to Battambang, Cambodia’s second largest city. It took about 6 hours on the bus and we were pleased to arrive in time to have a go on the Bamboo train that day, meaning we could head straight to Siem Reap the following day. We stayed in the Royal Hotel at $6 for a double en-suite it was a steal. We dumped our bags, had a beer ($1 for a small can) before jumping into our tuk tuk to ride the Bamboo Train. For those who don’t know what one of these are we shall tell you: Each train known in Khmer as a norry, consists of a 3m long wood frame, covered lengthwise with slats made of bamboo, these rest on two barbell-like bogies, ... read more

We set off on our overnight adventures in the Cardamom Mountains with our guide ‘Frank’ and his mate Al. They run trips into the jungle to see a waterfall. On arranging our trip ‘Frank’ suggest that we go off piste as there were some other tracks that he wants to try so the sense of adventure and the image of the Tarzan show’s of my youth take over and we agree. The days starts early at 6am and we clamber into this old rickety jeep which looks like a good bump on the road and the whole thing will fall apart and take off. We are driving for about 30 mins when we veer off the road and begin on the jungle track. 10 - 15 minutes down the track and we see red signs instructing ... read more

We arrived at Sihanouville mid-afternoon and checked into Mick & Craig’s Sanctuary Guesthouse for the price of $7 US per night for double room with en-suite bathroom. After a swift freshen up we headed down the beach in search of the Koh Ru bar after a tip off from H & Gower about a stunning island where they stayed a few years back. On arrival on the beach we discover that there is actually no beach, just lines of sandbags and bars - the sandbag were protecting the bars. To walk along the front you had to waive in and out of every bar, dodging cries of “you want beer, happy hour”. The problem was T did want beer and at $0.50 US a glass it was hard to keep on walking, but G was on ... read more

Our last stop in Vietnam was Phu Quoc Island. Phu Quoc is a tropical island surrounding by white beach’s and turquoise water and is a great way to while away a few days incidentally, the Vietnamese government is planning to make the island a massive tourist destination, they are building an international airport on the island so that tourists can fly in and out of Phu Quoc without having to go on to the mainland, there is even talk of foreigners not needing a visa to visit Phu Quoc at all and having spoken to an English chap when we were there who owns a guesthouse and bar on the island in very uncharacteristic of Vietnam the local government officials don’t take backhanders unlike everywhere else in the country - so it looks like the government ... read more