Hello dear friends, okay im a bit behind with my journal entries so I'm actually writing this in Veitnam. It suddenly occurred to me that I havnt really given many people an update since Australia so most of you probably think im in New Zealand right now. As it happened my plans changed slightly. I only lasted 10 days in Australia in the end, the high prices and drunk idiots were getting me down. I didnt have to bad a time in Cairns, got to do some snorkling in the Great Barrier reef which is not at all overrated - its GREAT! Aslo had a nice time at the hostel, I met up with my cousin and i was befriended by lots of Danish people who fed me pasta and gave me beer (only the finest Danish export of course.) But it was v nice to be back in Bangkok at the end, especialy since I randomly met up with some people from my 6th form at the airport, the sceond time that had happened in totally different parts of Oz. Its freaky, maybe they were stalking me. Anyway we have a tight time scale, not particularly helped by the fact we spent 5 days in Bangkok buying ridiculously cheap clothes. So anyway, we eventualy got our act together to go to Cambodia, we were a bit put off by the stories of the border crossing particulalry 'the scam bus' which overcharges you then drives you down a longer and bumpier road so you arrive later in Siem Reap tired and confused and hopefuly agree to stay at the hotel they recomend. In the end the crossing wasnt too bad, we were a bit overcharged for our visa but we didnt care CAMBODIA WAS IN SIGHT! to avoid the bus we decided to get a taxi and were persuaded by a Canadian in a stupid straw hat that he could get us a better deal with a local. while he was gone the taxi drivers kept telling us 'lady, you will get shot' but we ignored them assuming they were w***ers. the canadian finally came back with a taxi for five dollars cheaper which didnt quite seem worth the weight but by that point it was the principle of the thing! we were a bit worried when the taxi driver hustled us into his taxi saying 'quickly quickly' but were even more worried when he took a huge backroad detour to avoid the taxi stand. he then drove like a maniac for four hours down the terrible road stopping only for more red bull and to throw water over his head and made us duck down whenever we passed a police station. to say the least we were quite relieved when we got to our hotel particularly when we saw it had aircon and telly, ahh luxury. we even got to watch half of big until there was a power cut and the whole hotel plunged into darkness. as it happened it was a pretty good introduction to the madness of cambodia, its a dusty and crazy place with an athmospheric lighting storm every night which is useful during the daily blackouts. we spent the next few days wandering around ankor wat which is a brilliant yet frustrating place. we remarked many times on the annoyance of the hordes of tourists completely ignoring the fact that we are infact tourists. also the touristy type stalls that surround each temple got annoying particularly when playing dodge the child selling bamboo flutes. its hard to say no when a child is pulling and your sleeve and looking up at you pleadingly but youd be surprised how quickly you become hardened to it. however the temples were spectacular but we particularly enjoyed the quieter temples on the outskirts that managed to avoid the onslaught of japanese tour groups. on day 3 i started feeling a bit strange and the next day i had a fever and was aching all over, we worked out i must have caught dengue fever. i had to spend a few days in bed which didnt help the schedule that much and by day 6 i was desperate to get back to civilisation. So anyway see vietnam for a more recent update..........