We have arrived

Hi guys

hope you are all well

We have just arrived in Vietnam (to a lot of rain) :o( so we now have the chance to write to you about our adventures in Cambodia

We spend about 2.5 weeks in Cambodia and started off in Siem Reap after a 29 hour bus journey from Koh Tao (Thailand)

On our first day we visited the temples in Angkor Wat.... an amazing sight with plenty of Buddhas to keep me happy throughout the trip!! It cost us only $12 for the both of us to be driven around them in a tuk-tuk - so a massive bargain! Visited the street best known as pub street and had a few drinks and some very nice Khmer cuisine.

We were approached by a number of homeless children on the street not wanting anything but food, one was literally hanging off of Lou's arm so we got them a meal in a street venue.

We then took a trip to the night market where we ended up purchasing some amazing artwork.... not quite sure where the giant one i have purchased is going to go as it is massive so have warned my mum that it might end up hanging in the conservatory. we then had a fish massage.... yep thats right i plucked up the courage... well i say that but my feet didnt really end up in the water that much... Lou on the other hand gave it a fair go but she didnt enjoy it too much either it tickles like crazy!!!! we then decided that we owed it to ourselves to have a foot and back massage to overcome the evil fish!

the next day we went to the floating village... it was such an amazing site to see... even before we got there, there were loads of people fishing in this brown water and living in shacks on the side of river bank where we found out that they have to move every year in the wet season up to the mountain as the river rises so high....
When we reached the floating villages we were amazed to see that there were hundreds of boats and it really was like an actual village with people keeping ducks in cages on the boats and everything. After we were out of the main part of the village i drove the little wooden boat for a short time which was fun. We were then taken to a floating shop where we purchased some books, pencils and noodles before we arrived at the floating orphanage. The children looked so happy to see us... we walked around and got to see where they ate, had their lessons and played. We found out that most of the children lost their parents when they were fishing out on the river in rough weather... needless to say we left there with tears in our eyes.... we didnt want to leave and Lou has decided she is definately adopting a Cambodian orphan!

Once we returned from the floating village we had something to eat and we were approached by a number children on the street and people with missing limbs from the genocide, trying to sell anything from bracelets to book to postcards, it hit us then just what we were to expect to see in our time in cambodia. We were feeling a little emotional from the first part of our day and decided to destress and have a full body Khmer massage and a pedicure all for $18!

After spending a few days in Siem Reap we headed down to the capital city - Phnom Penh! We spent a few hours putting up our photos again - very annoying how slow the internet is out here! Whilst walking around Lou had a great idea that when we get home we could sponser someone less fortunate to have a tuk-tuk and be able to make some money for themselves and their family! for the first time on our trip so far we saw some rain which was a nice change - NOT haha. There were a lot of children running around without any shoes on selling bracelets so we purchased a few from them - you just cant say no!
We attempted to get a little bit cultural and visit the Royal Palace but we couldn't go in because we wernt wearing long sleaves - and there is no way that we were going to be doing that in Cambodia temperatures!!

The next day we went the Killing Fields....for those of you that dont know much about the Killing Fields this is where they killed a number a large number of the millions murdered during the Khmer Rouge war/genocide was taking place. It is hard for us to go in to detail about exactly what we saw and felt and we havent got any pictures there as it just didnt seem right. to put it simply as you walk in you are confronted with a monument building which is filled with over 800 skulls, other bones and clothing. We then walked around and read signs that told us what used to be there.... i.e. holding areas and weapon sheds.... we then walked around the site where the mass graves were, which tells you what was found in each grave and the tree where they hit babies and childrens skulls against.... it was horrific!
there was also a museum there which gave more information about the genocide. I dont think either of us have ever seen anything more horrific in our lives.... i dont think we even spoke to eachother properly for a very long time after visiting there! The people of Cambodia are quite possibly the nicest people we have ever met and you have to open your heart to them so much when you see what they have been through and overcome as best they can!

In the rest of our time in Phnom Penh we also had reflexology done at a blind massage place - Lou was in agony, had a boatride at sunset down the Mekong river, ate at a restaurant that helps the comunity and street kids get into catering and Lou purchased their cookbook.

Our last stop in Cambodia was Shionokville (cant remember how you spell it) and we stayed on Serindipity beach...
We moved guesthouse again here as we were again confronted with a mouse on the bed - oops! We had a number of bracelets made for us on the beach by some super cute kids!!!! - i mean loads actually! there is a constant flow of people asking you if you want a bracelet, massage, pedicure, leg threading or fruit all day long.
We went to the Cambodian version of a full moon party... after getting on the longest boat ever we ended up at a deserted island... after waiting ages for the power to work we then discovered that the beach was infested with cockroaches.... needless to say as much as we had a good time - this was too much to handle - they were everywhere! We spent lots of time on the beach, went of a really nice boat trip, had some great nights out in JJ's playground and met lots of really nice people from England, Sweden and Denmark and some great super cheap $3 bbq's on the beach... we also made friends with some cambodias in a restaurant and got some recipes which was great.... we were super sad to leave

well that about sums up Cambodia!

lots of love from us both!! x x x

Hey biatches

Hope your all doing splendidly well!

Thought it was about time to send another blog as it's been a while!

So after the full moon we were both well and truly ready to leave, 5 days if non stop drinking took it's toll on us! We were both looking forward to getting to koh Tao as everyone we spike to said how nice it was and we were ready for some relaxation, I was planning on doing my diving there aswell

We got the boat over which didn't take too long and found our accommodation which was a hostel right in the middle of everything. We got there late afternoon n spent the next 4 hours watching the trapeze which was directly outside, it was run by and English women who was so nice n reminded us of certain lovely Lorraine Howard (emmas mum for those that don't know) we both really wanted to have a go so booked up for the next day! That night we ended up in the aus bar which had live music, was a sick night! Vicrap managed to start talking to the most drunk person in the pub, he got her up dancing, bought us loads of drinks, then passed out in the mens toilets where he was then carried out n left on the bench outside for everyone to take the piss out of him, I felt really bad but there was no moving him! Paha! We ended up in lotus bar that's right on the beach which is sick, plays good music but gets ramo!

When we got back we had the delightful suprise of two people sexing in the bunk below, I found it well funny but had abit of a sleepless night, the girl who was the culprit was quick to leave early in the morning!!!

Once she had gone me n vicrap were the only girls left in the 8 peeps dorm, so that was fun trying to get ready!! The dudes were really nice though!

Next day dave and Lee arrived (the dudes we met in Bangkok) and they had the pleasure of watching me n vicrap TRY and trapeze, it's so much friggin harder than it looks! Vicrap done 2 swings but had a fear of jumping of the blank, it was well high up, I'm a stubborn bitch n really wanted to try n do the trick so I managed 4 swings.....the result of this was not doing the trick, splitting my hands, ripping my armpit and cutting my foot!!

That night we all got pretty smashed, Chang taps that's bought over to our table and one too many buckets!! As we left the bar I realised that my flip flops were no longer outside (my bootiful havianas that I feckin love) I was going mad, looking at everyone slags foot to see who had taken them....pahaha! Save had one of his stolen but managed to find it at lotus bar which was well weird! He tool the right piss out of me cos I was so angry! Lee had his nicked aswell but took a pair of havianas that were sat outside so he was quite pleased!

The next day was vicraps birthday, she had the pleasure of waking up to me singing happy birthday to her! One of the dudes in our room also wished her a happy birthday n we both wondered how the feck he knew, we found out that in our drunken state the night before we had got back to the hostel, thought we were the first two home, stripped off to get ready for bed, and I aparantley was singing happy birthday to her then, what we didn't know was that one of the dudes had got home before us and heard and most probably saw everything!!! From then on everytime I walked into the room or outside where they were sitting they would all start singing happy birthday!

Vicrap got a little emotional in the morning when opening her cards as she got the amazing news that she will be god mum to amys little bubba, I even got tearful when I read the letter!

That day we spent the day on the beach with dave n Lee! Me n vicrap were aching so frigid much from the trapeze (this went on for a week, how unfit are we!!!) that we decided to get a massage on the beach which I treated vicrap too for her birthday.....it was the worst friggin one wev had, they were so rough and where we were aching it was do' painful, Lee was the only one who had a Thai massage and he seemed to really enjoy his the lucky git! So after suffering in silence for an hour we decided on a pedicure, where we had another bloody massage!!! We were in so much pain but it was feckin hilarious, especially for the boys!

That night we went to theist amazing restaurant for fondue, was sooo good, but expensive aswell although well worth it! We then went back to the Aussie bar and I embarrassed vicrap but getting the two dudes who do the live music to sing happy birthday to her!

We spent the rest if the time chilling out in the day and getting boozy at night, we watched the rugby and the football at the weekend which was wicked, all of us seemed to have the lurky n vicrap bought some pills which ended up making her super sleepy so went home on one of the nights, I stayed with the boys and completely out drunk them, the wosses wanted to go home after the biggest sambucca shot iv ever done, as usual I don't know when to stop n wanted to stay out, we went back to the hotel and piss everyone off staying in our dorm which was rather funny!

On one of the days we got a boat over to another island that was gorgeous, save managed to get vicrap snorkelling for kore than 5 mins which I was very pleased about, me n vicrap then went snorkling, but wasn't in there for long as vicrap started screaming that a fish was trying to bite her, I cracked up laughing n nearly drowned so we went back!

The boys left us on the Monday and we had another night there, stated there 10 friggin nights it started to feel like home, it was nice not to have to travel about for a bit, we had done so much in the space that we had been there that we wanted to stay somewhere for a little longer, didn't quite think it would be 10 nights though....paha!

So then we had the 29 hour journey to look forward to from koh Tao to Cambodia, it was a feckin nightmare.....but il leave that to vicrap to tell you in the next blog

Hope your all dandy n not missing us too much can't believe how bloody quickly is going, been out here for 5 weeks already!

Miss you n love you

Peace and love from Cambodia

xxxxxx

Hey dudes....

Right so the last time we updated you, we were in Ko Lanta... really nice little island, very quiet and the people are really nice.. it is more of a muslim based island and a much quieter nightlife...

After our first day being put in the mozzi filled hut we decided that we couldnt stay in there cos even the mozzi net was full of them so we moved to another place for the night... and ended up with a mouse in the room... you cant win either way! haha... then the next night we ended up back in the old accomodation (but a better non mozzi filled bungalow) and and our first encounter with a big cockroach in the bathroom - Lou was brave enough to squish it... i am now carrying around a can of roach killer which is great but also choaks humans we have discovered....

Ko Lanta also helped me to overcome my fear of fish...we went on a longboat tour of some islands and Lou managed to get me in the water on the last snorkel - was pretty amazing until the fear came back and enough was enough and i had to get out.... but lou also swam through a pitch black cave to a secluded little beach area which looked amazing - but there was no way i was that brave!!

We also had an amazing dinner on like a jetty thing looking over the beach sitting on mats ans little tables - was ever so romantic! they also do the most amazing massages there... i went for aroma therapy whereas Lou had the Aloe Vera (for the burn)... was amazing - on the beach, next to the sound of the sea - so cliche but brilliant!

The next stop was Krabi town.... after a nightmare bus journey for 3 hours with seats not conneted to the bus we made it there in one piece! We went on a brilliant day trip to a temple... went on a treck around some woods to see a massive old tree and some cave that were pretty surreal given the location...saw some monkeys and monks... then we moved on to some hot springs... was very surreal, in the middle of some woods and it was like a little stream and rocks that were filling up with this water so that you could sit in it - but it was hotter than bath water! We then moved on to a national park which had an emerald pool and blue pool in it. You could swim in the emerald pool which was amazing and completely clear, and the blue pool was almost as bright as a blue highlighter!

we went to the night market in Krabi to eat both nights, it was amazing... the food was so cheap as well. We had 2 huge plates of chicken satay, 2 main dishes and 2 drinks and it came to about 3 GBP!! we also found a brilliant roof top bar on top of a hostel which we spent the rest of our time in drinkin Chang - good times

It was then time to move on to Koh Phengan... they tell you 5.5 hours to get there on a bus and boat... but what they really mean is about 8.5 after you have swapped onto 3 different buses... suprisingly out here though you just dont seem to be as bothered about how long things take - not like getting the train to work for example!

when we arrived we thought that we would be staying in a bit of a dive as we had only paid about 6 pounds each a night for our bungalow over the full moon period, however it was really nice, and so hot that a cold shower didnt even matter....

We headed straight the coral bungalows pool party - which is the busiest place to be if you arent on th beach at night, all i can compare it to is what would would probably expect to see if you went to spring break!.... we had some drinks and then headed down to check out the beach... was like party central... stall after stall of Thai people selling buckets of Samsong and coke - good times - although they are pretty lethal as we soon found out!

We had been planing to get our tattoos done out here sowe booked in to have those done with bamboo...painful but worth it - we love them!!

we pretty much spent the next few days doing this, drinking and meeting different groups of people everynight... all really nice and a great laugh

When full moon time came we did this again just on a whole different epic level.... could not believe where all there people came from... was unreal! you can imagine what went down!!

the next day was a complete write off... we spent it asleep and then sitting in a restaurant for about 8 hours watching films until we built up the energy to walk back home to bed again!

We are now in Koh Tao - loving it here already... spent most of yesterday watching a trapeze school, which we have decided today we are goin to take our first class in... we also went to a great Ozzie bar with a band and then chilled in a beach bar afterwards....

We will write to you again soon and let you know how we got on in our Trapeze lesson

Hope you are all ok back home!

Much love x x x x

Hola slag bags!

Hope your all doing well and havent missed us too much the past week or so!

Right where to start, 1st night in Bangkok was filled with booze, we aquired the taste of the thai beer called Chang which goes down a treat!! We met a couple from dudes from Oxford although I keep getting confused and telling everyone they are from Cambridge....oooops! We spent our night at our hostel just gettin g to know the peeps who were staying there. Our hostel was really nice, we soon learnt that we were not as close to the Koh San Road as we first thought, think we were in the more expensive part as that was what most peeps were telling us!

Our second day there we slept for AGES, think the journey and booze took it out of us! We eventually got up and took a stroll round the markets, wanted to buy SO much but had to remind ourselves it was only our real 1st full day and that we weould have to lug everything around for the rest of our trip, wev got a return from Bangkok so have decided to spend another night there just so we can shop until we drop!

Once we were back at our hostel we met with the dudes from Oxford and two other peeps we had met and all went for dinner with eachother, had the most amazing meal but i could have eaten a whole lot me, vicrap and i were looking at eachother like wheres the rest of it, haha! We know know that we dont need that much food and have only been eating once a day! We then went to the Baiyoke buliding which has 84 floors which you can go up too and look over the whole of Bangkok at night which was pretty amazing!!....we didnt make it up to the 84th floor as you had to pay, so the 83rd had to do for us We then headed to the Koh San Road which reminded me of a better version of any of the holiday strips we have been too, had a few drinks then but had to leave as we had to be up early for the floating market

Next day was the floating market and it was so cool, vicrap was a little scared of the boat we had to get into, and I didnt help when I told her that a crocodile was going to come down the river at any moment! She soon got over her fear! After the flaoting market we were taken to an Elephant riding place but decided not to do it as we want to do it in Chang Mai. We then went to a wood carving centre which was mind blowing, what these people were making was mental, wev got some pics so you will know what I mean when we put them up!

When we got back to the hostel we saw our Oxford dudes again so went out for dinner and watched the football with them, oh dear Arsenal and oh dear Man U, I cant talk as the following night we lost to Liverpool!! We decided that as this was our last night we had to go to the ping pong show! How much to a regret that, didnt see know no ping pongs and got ripped off majorly, they were threatening us with the thai mafia so vicrap managed to get the money down a tad and we legged it out of there! All 4 of us were so pissed off that we decided to drown our sorrows, this time with buckets of sam sung.....oh dear we were ruined!

Following day we flew to Phuket were I nearly passed out on the plane, I think the hangover didnt help my travel sickness! Dont really have much to say about Phuket, other than full of tourists, dirty old men that are looking for young thai girls and boys!!! First night we found a pub that was owned by a welsh man so got chatting to him and watched the Chelsea game, I made the mistake of saying I was a Chelsea fan so wasnt fun when we lost!

Next day we took a wonder and went to the beach, but once we saw stuff once we didnt need to see it again! That night we went down the Bang Lar Road, which again remined us of a normal holiday strip! Met two dudes from Hull so spent most of the night with them, watching ladyboys and went to some club! But we had had enough of Phuket and was happy leave!

We got a boat over to Phi Phi, went to sleep in a shit hole and woke up to stunning beaches! Had a sick bungalow up in the hills with the most amazing view, and we had a swimming pool which was an extra bonus! We spent the following day on the beach were we got burnt to smithereens! I'm talking 3rd degree burns, I can barely walk and everywhere is so sore! Got some magic cream that iv got to put on 3 times a day, was so expensive though!! Our skin has taken a battering what with our bites and sunburn, iv taken loads of photos of both so you can see how bad it is! We went to the beach both nights we were there, fire shows, huge skipping ropes, limbo, people dancing like nutters and very lethal buckets!! Met loads of peeps whilst sitting there, including two swedes who were the most racist and sexist two people we have ever met!!

Found a gorgeous little bar called sunflower where we got free wifi, was chilled out, massive hammocks everywhere and boats as chairs! We loved it!

Last day in Phi Phi we couldnt do much cos our sunburn was so bad, we had a boat trip booked that was going to take us to other little islands and we could go snorkling and things but we couldnt go cos we had to stay out of the sun but wev decided to stop there on our way to Malaysia so will be able to get to do that then! The little markets there are amazing though, again wanted to do lots of shopping, found a little shop which reminded us of a little all saints but much better! Again we can do our shopping when we stop there again!

We are now in Ko Lanta, got a boat over this morning, really cool little island with a hippy feel, not as built up as other places and not as many tourists! There was a little cock up with our beach hut, so we have to stay in a mosquito infested one for tonight then into our normal one for tomorrow, they seem to love me and Vicrap so we have to cover up! Although not sure there is much of our skin left to bite and I'm hoping they dont like burnt skin cos I would be sorted if that was the case!

Here for 3 nights then off to Koh Phangan for the full moon where wer meeting up with the peeps we met in Bangkok so looking forward to that!

Nehoot must dash, we hope your all OK

Love ya muchos!

Peace and love from Lanta :-)

xxxxxxxxx

Yo yo yo

Just a quick blog to let you know that we arrived here in on piece... after driving around the dark back streets of Bangkok for an hour whilst trying to locate our hostel...

Met a few people last night an got drinking some Chang and Sam Sung so we are already in the traveller mind set... although we are going to get a flight to Phuket tomorrow cos the thought of another 14 hour journey so soon was just too much to handle!

Had a wader around today... founsome interesting people and sights.... an off to the ping pong show tonight along with the Ko San Road so all is good!!

oh an out of curiosity out of all the handy hints that you gave us did no one think to tell us we would get bitten to smitherines in Bangkok? literall covered in them!!

Anyway will update you when we hav done more! x x