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Soo-a s'day from Cambodia!
Sorry it's been a while since our last update, we've not had great internet connection. Since our last email we spent a few days in Vientiane, the capital city of Laos, but there wasn't very much to do there. We travelled down to south Laos on the overnight sleeper bus which was a great experience! There were no seats, just bunkbeds on either side of the aisle, but typically ours was the smallest one. Nicky couldn't lie straight, he either had his head hitting the back board or his legs scrunched up. To be honest though, it was hard to get any sleep given the speed the bus was going (very fast) and more than a few potholes.
We went to a place called Tad Lo, to see some waterfalls but it turned out to be a bit disappointing because the most spectacular waterfall is dry because it's the dry season and also a dam that's been built. We also had a not very pleasant day being poorly in our bamboo hut with a dirty shared bathroom. We did see some more elephants though and
a few nice small waterfalls.
Once we'd recovered we travelled to furthest south point in Laos, called Si Phan Don, or the 4000 Islands. We'd read loads of good things about the islands and had quite high expectations so we were a bit disapppointed not to have found paradise but a fairly average backpacker place with lots of shabby bars and restaurants. The is accommodation is very basic there, but thought we'd found somewhere reasonable until we discovered the rat poo.. The manager looked very confused when he complained and asked to move rooms. Clearly it's the norm! So we checked the next day and stay at the most expensive place on the island and had an enjoyable last day in Laos.
We crossed the border through the most corrupt controls we've encountered. Each person wanted a dollar for stamping our passports, filling in a form etc. We finally made it to Kratie in the North of Cambodia and spent 2 days there. It's a pretty small town, all centered around the market but the main draw was to see the endangered freshwater Irrawaddy dolphins that live in the river there. We went out in a boat in the afternoon and were surprised to be the only boat on the river and to get much closer to the dolpins than we thought we would. They came to within about 12 feet of our boat and we saw loads of them. It was a special and relaxing time. That evening, the friend that we went to see the dolphins with invited us to join a her and a few other tourists and some locals at a meal that evening. The locals took us to an out of the way locals restaurant where we ate an amazing Vietnamese style meal.
We left Kratie to travel to Siem Reap, which is where we are now. We'll tell you more about Siem Reap in the next email because we don't want to bore you too much!
Here's the links from our last 2 batches of pictures that we've uploaded:
Vang Vieng, tubing and Vientiane:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=375095&id=840245275&l=898feaa9ac
Tad Lo and Si Phan Don:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=386870&id=746595533&l=7e73cf2b30
The weather is still very hot and we're still having lots of adventures and fun. We can't believe that we're one month into this part of our travels already! We hope that you're well and look forward to hearing your news.
Much love,
Clare & Nicky
xxxx
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