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James and Katie's travels
Hello all you beautiful people!
Firstly we really must apologise for keeping you guys out of all the fun and frolics of the last month of our wicked adventure!! And what a month it has been...
The last time we wrote we were still in Thailand, about to embark on our bus journey to Cambodia. This bus journey turned out to be a journey from hell: although it only cost 3 quid to get from Bangkok to Siem Reip we weren't prepared for the cramped, dilapidated, cockroach infested conditions! Nor were we bargaining on being ripped off at the border or the pot hole ridden road or the extra 5 hours of journey time added just to push us over the edge... So this we tell ourselves is what we should expect from Cambodian culture!! Lets just say its been a rollercoaster ride but its been a ride worth taking!!
So with sore arses and bruised egos we arrived in Siem Reip where we were bombarded with hoardes of limbless beggers, starving children, annoying tuk tuk drivers and guesthouse managers all gagging to make some money from us. This reception was really daunting but the town itself only served as a gateway to the awesome temple ruins of Angkor Wat. We were absolutely dumbstruck by how amazing these temples were; a real testiment to Cambodian culture. Its easy to see why the people here are so quick to cash in on such a fantastic tourist attraction; since the recent Khmer Rogue regime has left so many people starving, limbless, homeless and without family. It was so difficult not to give handout to everyone with a sob story, so instead we gave food, donated blood at the children's hospital and bought books from the children. Because giving handouts will create a deeper culture of dependancy; and there are far too many beggers as there is!!
But beyond this sadness we found a weird and wonderful country. Cycling around the temples we fed heaps of monkeys, saw people taking big ole pigs to market on the back of their motorbikes, declined the offer of sampling fried spiders and cockroaches (a local delicacy apparently!!) and splashed around with the local river children!
But our trip was to get weirdier and wilder! From Siem Reip we travelled to the backwards little riverside town of Kratie where we saw the Cambodian river dolphins. Here we our guide (so-called Mr. Lucky), wanted to take us to Karoke. 'Wicked' we thought, until it turned out that their idea of karoke is to pay for a box room with a tv and video for just me and James, and with no alcohol involved!! Can you imagine karoke in England minus the alcohol, audience and laughs!!
So from this rather strange little town we organised a pick-up truck to take us to what promised to be SE Asia's very own 'Wales' (minus the sheep!). We drove for 5 hours balanced on top of stinking, spiky durian fruit, holding on for dear life all the way, showered with rain and mud! On the way we passed a huge grizzily bear; and if the landmine warnings weren't enough to keep you straying from the path then he certainly was!! But it was well worth the journey, the countryside really was as beautiful as Wales and the waterfalls were breathtaking!
Saying that though, we had to do it all again on the pick-up to the capital, Phnom Penn. Here we braved the mental traffic on bikes (easier after a few beers we found!) and toured around, visiting the harrowing genocide museum, squeezing in some shopping and sampling the great food stalls.
And after spending 2 months lazing on the beautiful beaches of Thailand by this time we had had enough of the hectic travelling around so we made a B-line to Cambodia's beaches. Where we found ourselves a wonderful family who put us up for free in their beachside shacks! Our original plan of 3 nights on this beach turned out to be 2 weeks but we couldn't drag ourselves away from the free accomodation, the free BBQ's, the endless happy hours and the wicked people we met! Another thing keeping us there was the start of the World Cup; there is nothing like lying in a hammock on the beach, watching England scoring some goals...!
And so now we find ourselves in Vietnam and we absolutely love it!! We've only been here a few days and already there is so much to tell! The people are beautiful, the food is amazing, everything so far has been the highlight of our trip so far!!!
But I've bored you all enough for one sitting...!!
Loads of love and kisses, Katie xxx
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