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Thought it was about time for another blog update. Sat on the side of the road at the moment...been waiting for a "bus" for over two hours!! Eek, well that's Cambodia for you! We have just returned from five days on an island we stayed on four years ago on our last trip! The same family were still running the guesthouse and we were really happy about that.
> The island had no roads or cars, only bamboo huts and electricity between the hours of 7-10pm ish!! It was great. The sea was nice and warm, and perfect for swimming. Unfortunately there wasn't any snorkeling, but there was much sunbathing and reading books to be done. One night we had grilled fish and chips!! It was bloody brilliant. the area is famous for it's good salt and pepper so we were also feasting on the condiments too! There were loads of dogs on the island too. so we took much pleasure in making friends with them and adopting"a couple while we were there, an old one with a goatee who I called Henry, and another one, they slept on our porch and went crazy anytime anyone came near it, which was a good burglar alarm but unfortunate that it tends to go off at 3am in the morning without a reset button!
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> Previous to the island we were in a little town called Kampot also on the coast. This was where me and Craig celebrated our 8th year together! Good times. We had a very sport and beer filled day what with watching the rugby world cup final (although the last 10 mins was disrupted by a thunderstorm!) and then watching man u vs man city. Got quite drunk on cheap beers and cocktails!
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> We spent a few days in a place called Chi Pat which is right next to the Cardoman mountains and forest. We mountain biked to a waterfall and after plucking up the courage jumped off a small cliff into the water, a nice refreshing break from the mud, heat and leaches! We did a trek the following day hoping to spot monkeys and possibly gibbons but the closest we got was seeing their poo, which was enthusiastically pointed out by our guide. I think maybe the mopeds driving past us scared off the animals, you can't escape the mopeds even in the jungle!
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> After the island we needed to go to the capital for a few days as it's where most of the buses go to and from. Next we are heading to the north and going to cover a large section of a trail which follows the Mekong.
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> The main way to travel in Asia is on a bike be it push or motor everyone's on a bike! We have seen 3 kids on one push bike which was far too big for them! Also the other day we saw 4 adults and 1 child on the same moped! Something which has changed since we were last here is the introduction of a law directing people to wear a helmet, however only the driver has to wear one! Can only be a good thing though as I think road accidents account for a large percentage of deaths in Asia.
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> Much to Craig's happiness English football is VERY popular over here and almost all games are shown on TV. A really popular game over here too is volley ball and you will quite often see in a village a pitch with half a dozen men playing.
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> The local beer here is good, with the two main ones being Anchor and Angkor beers. a pint usually costing between $1 and $1.50. it's tasty... no ales unfortunately.
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> Last night we ate street food. Craig had a bunbow, which is a small steamed bun which is has a sweet dough with either a sweet or savory center, filling and very tasty. There was also fresh and fried spring rolls and a yummy sweet spicy sauce with carrots in it.
> we also had a section of bamboo which had sticky rice, seeds and nuts inside it.
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> The weather at the moment is consistently about 30 degrees and most nights there is a thunderstorm, which usually brings the temperature down enough to let you sleep. Trying hard to appreciate the heat as I know Birmingham has average temperatures of about 14 degrees at the moment!
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> Costs are fairly cheap over here. Our money isn't lasting as long as on our previous trip due to raised prices and a weakened pound. but we are still managing to get by on around £20 a day though.
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> Cambodia in a large nut shell:
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> The country is largely flat and twice the size of England. the people are lovely and have suffered a great deal in last years but this is only really felt really when you see recent land mine victims. Areas of fields still have unexploded bombs, so going for a pee in an empty field when your desperate is a big no no. There is an unusually large amount of children and very few elderly people, due in part to war and Pol Pot.
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> On the sides of roads you will see street sellers, a welcome sight on a 7 hour bus ride. Typically selling sticky rice wrapped in a banana leaf and if your lucky it will have a mushy banana within! All kinds of fruit, everything on a stick; meat, veg and other stuff i can't even describe. Duck fetus is another delicacy but a half developed duck in an egg with wings, beak and all doesn't look particularly appertising so haven't tried that yet! Petrol stations are basically a street stall selling a litre of petrol from an old coke bottle!
Cambodians like to watch the TV in big rooms all together, which is quite funny to see when your walking by, as there are no cinemas and TVs / electricity is expensive.
> On a bus now from the capital Phnom Phen to a place called Kratie. All the houses are either concrete or bamboo and usually on stilts. This is the first section of flooding that we have seen yet on the trip. Thailand and Bangkok has been all over the news but Cambodia and Laos have also received heavy flooding. There is just field after field flooded. Luckily all roads are raised and the land is very flat so there's a lot of water but spread over a large area so it's not all that deep, or (for us) concerning.
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Just finishing off the blog now, well done for getting to the end if you persevered with it!
There is a cat on my computer attacking the "mouse" at the moment, scared me half to death when it jumped up from nowhere. so I think its time to go.
Until next time..... :)
- comments
mumbies is that it? thought you were doing a big one! xx
kamrun tell us more... come on your living the adventure for us. P.s- we're started the shoe boxes, wish us luck. Xx
me ok, this should have been the stupid blog update from a month ago but this crappy blog site only showed 3 lines. new one to come soon. x