Vietnam April 09 the last leg.......

Andrew at Bangkok airport waiting to go back to the UK, looking very pensive.

The traffic in Vietnam is mental! a billion mopeds!

Vietnam.... wish we could have stayed longer.
The people are lovely, countryside breathtaking and food to die for! crispy duck we love you x
Noodle soup on every corner, and the world's cheapest beer, what more can you say! lol
To Ho Chi Minh City Saigon , the south of Vietnam, we went but wish we could have gone up to the north...... oh well we will just have to go back there one day!

Cambodia March 09

Just crossed over the border into Cambodia, waiting for a bus (we did alot of that!)

There is no in-between in Cambodia, either things are five star luxury or it is pure poverty at its greatest!

The sunsets were some of the best colours I have ever seen.

One of the Temples of Angkor

All of the signs of Buddhism inside the temples were destroyed.

Cambodian housing in the villages is very simple but beautiful I thought - better than the filth and dirt in the cities.

Deforestation is a major problem all over Asia! We do so much to try and save the environment and they are doing this with out blinking an eye as they know no different! it was shocking the scale in which they are doing this!

Me and Andrew on the top of a roof top restaurant just enjoying a cold beer and watching the sun set. I think we could run classes on how to do that!

After leaving the 4,000 Islands and crossing over into Cambodia on the Dong Cra Law border crossing we made our way on yet another very long and very tedious bus journey to Siem Reap but had to stay over night in Kompong Cham as it was such a long distance and the roads are so bad and the buses are so old! we were covered in red dust by the time we got there as "air con" also translates into "wide open windows"! lol

We travelled through such poor areas of Cambodia, and poverty is not the word, on the buses by the time we got to Siem Reap we did not quite believe how posh and clean some of the areas are.

"The rich are getting richer and the poorer are getting poorer" could be the phrase for Cambodia, corruption does not even begin to come close to what we saw.

We did Angkor Wat, the world's biggest religious site (aka Lara Croft Temples old ruins taken back by the jungle)AMAZING! then moved onto the capital Phnom Penh again dirty, disgusting, dangerous areas and turn your head and you have immaculate gardens and hotels and brand new cars.

Cambodia is such a beautiful place geographically but we did not feel safe there and the people we came into contact with either wanted to rob or scam us in some way. Therefore we decided to move onto to Vietnam.................

Laos March 09 the next chapter....

Me looking very worried - can you see the fear?

One of the amazing sunsets over the Mekong outside our room.

This is the road system on Don Khon (4,000 Islands - Si Phan Don).

Don Khon

You can see the French influence in this derelict building in the grounds of the local school.

French Music festival on the night we arrived in Vietianne, amazing; live music, french cheese, bread and red wine - we were in heaven!

Typical housing on the hill side villages

One of the hefferlumps we rode on down the river and into the forest, it was so peaceful.

Our accommodation in Laos!!

4,000 Islands - This is the area where the rare Irrawaddy dolphins inhabit - but we did not spot any.

Andrew searching for the dolphins, the eternal explorer!

After we crossed over in to Laos in Huay Xai ( a tiny border town which consisted of one main street, a few guest houses which were holes lol and about 3 places to eat), we discovered that there were 2 options to get to our next destination Luang Prabang by water; either a two day slow boat (which looked like it had seen better days) or a 6 hour speedboat ride down the Mekong! guess which one we decided on! I started to get a little worried when they handed out massive crash helmets and life jackets for the smallest boat you have ever seen! lol

Uncomfortable does not even begin to describe that journey , it made the 12 hour bus journeys seem like a heavenly walk in the park on an extremely sunny but not too hot day!lol

Imagine sitting on a plank of wood with ZERO leg room, travelling along quite strong currents, choppy water at about 70 miles an hour! It was like hitting concrete at that speed, numb bum ?

We did get to stop off half way though in Pak Beng, another VERY small town built up over the years simply from tourism, people stopping off or staying overnight. After the commercialism, conveniences and luxuries of Thailand only a day or so ago, this was the biggest wake up call to a new and drastically different country anyone could ever have!

Especially not even proper toilets, just holes in the floating houses floors which drop straight into the river - the very same river we were getting sprayed with on the boat and people wash, brush teeth and fish in! nice!

We survived to tell the tale and will certainly never forget that experience!

Opening performances aside, Laos was probably one of the most beautiful places I have ever been!

The people are wonderfully friendly, happy, welcoming even more so than Thailand they would do anything to try and accommodate you.

We then made our way to the capital Vientiane, the most laid back capital in the world lol.

When we arrived there in the evening and there was a music festival on , we could have been in France! Cheeses, breads, wines and music and lots of french people! it was amazing!

We then moved onto the south of Laos, the 4,000 Islands!!!!!!!!!!!! WOW!

Apartments on stilts on the river(bottom of the Mekong where it fans out into all of these tiny Islands, some of which are inhabited), no electricity (only some guest houses have a generator so you get a light bulb and a fan from 6pm till 10pm! luxury!lol no roads, no cars, just pathways and mopeds, no fridges just ice boxes everywhere with daily deliveries from the man on the river with a boat full of blocks of ice! crazy to even comprehend but simply beautiful and relaxing and amazing!

Absolutely loved Laos!

Next installment Cambodia...........................

Thailand the last chapter before crossing into Laos

Yummy!

Sea Horses!!!

This was the very last part of our travels through Thailand and the last few photos before we crossed over into Laos.

After we had travelled the south of Thailand we came back up through Bangkok, on to Chiang Mai then Chiang Rai and then crossed over at the top of the Mekong river between Chiang Kong and Huay Xai (Laos)......