27/2/02

Still feel rough but can keep food down. Went to the Killing Fields & S21 prison, very gruesome, didn't feel like taking any pictures. We got our passports back from the Vietnamese embassy OK then went to the National Museum. There's lots of pieces, from Angkor and other sites, but most seem to be marked unknown origin and period, I think they need to do some more work studying them. We have booked the bus to Saigon, we leave at 6:15am.

25/2/02

Went to the Royal Palace, it's not as good as the Thai version. Saw the Silver Pagoda, lots of jewels & gold, I wonder where they all came from? Went to FCC (Foreign Correspondent's Club) for dinner, very nice.

23/2/02

Early start again. Let the guide choose where to take us which was good from the sightseeing point of view but bad for the wallet ($45 instead of $30). Started with a 30km drive through the East Baray (reservoir) to Banteay Srei, one of the 1st temples built by the Khmer here. It is small but well restored & very detailed, virtually every stone has been carved. Next we stopped on the way back in a little village & saw how they made palm sugar, brought some, it's very sweet, a bit like fudge. Next we went to Banteay Kdei & Sras Srong. Lunched then Preah Khan, Neak Pean, East Mabon & back to Banteay Kdei for sunset. We got charged more than we thought because we went to Banteay Srei but the $15 extra we were going to give them as a tip so it all worked out the same. Ate at the restaurant next to the hotel & booked the boat tickets to Phnom Penh.

21/2/02

Found another hotel, the Freedom where we got dropped was too expensive ($30) so we moved to Vimen Thmei ($20), still a bit steep but they all seem to be. It's nice but a bit noisy a night until 1ish. We are now near the old market which is an excellent place to base ourselves, right where everything is. Restaurants are really nice, lots of french & European food as well as Khmer. We have sorted out a guided tour of Angkor starting tomorrow.

19/2/02 6:11 PM

Went to Phanom Rung National park today. It's a long old trek, 2 1/2 hours on a bus to a stop in the middle of no where called Ban Ta-Ko then a fun 12km motorbike taxi ride to the ruins. They're not as big as I though and we went round in about 2 hours, even stopped for some lunch. They are well put back together, best we've seen so far but probably not worth the 5 hours of travelling. We are going for a pizza tonight as a treat before we head off for Cambodia tomorrow.

17/2/02 10:30 PM

We have moved on to Nakon Ratchasima, we appear to be the only foreigners here! It's a bit daunting, I didn't want to be this much of an explorer just yet, oh well, it'll be OK. We're staying in the Chumpol Hotel on the recommendation of the Tuk-Tuk driver. We can't find any travel agents to book our trips with, we will have to go to the TAT office in the morning. Ate out in a Thai restaurant, had to speak some Thai as they didn't speak much English and they got my order wrong.

15/2/02 11:58 PM

We are now in Ayutthaya. Got up OK & got our passports so we are all visa'd up, which is good because we checked & our Thai visas run out in 7 days, we will have to rush around a bit. We are in the Chantra guesthouse, it's over the road from the Ayutthaya guest house which we tried first. It is new, family run & they are obviously very keen to get people in, we got a discount as soon as we asked to see a room, it's 400b & quiet & secure, I hope. Rented a moped off the old lady in reception and we have been to 2 of the Wat's already, Ratchaburana & Mahathat. They are next to each other & built in the Khmer style like Angkor. They are mainly ruins, but it gives us an idea of what we can expect. We are going to see another 8-10 tomorrow and the museum so that should kill our brains completely. Went to find a restaurant from the LP this evening but most seem to be shut, must be something to do with the lunar new year.

12/2/02 10:55 PM

Went to Wat Tham Sua, it's next to Wat Tham Noi which we wanted to go to. Very impressive, spectacular even, they have a really big Buddha, bigger than than the one on Samui I think. We went to Wat Ban Tham after that, it's in the side of a hill and you have to climb a huge a amount of steps to get to it. The last part is through the middle of a dragon and leads to some caves. The main cave was huge and contains yet another large Buddha, the main attraction however, was a little peice of the cave wall shaped a bit like a woman from a local legend. Outside the main cave are some iron steps, which we climbed. These lead out onto the hillside, but only after a lot of climbing and a spiral staircase through a cave full of bats. The view from the top was very good. In the afternoon we went to the JEATH war museum, it wasn't as good as the one by the bridge. I've tried to use the Internet for the last 3 days but the cafe over the road is closed and the others are all full of kids.

10/02/02 8:06 PM

Hired a moped and went to see the bridge over the river Kwai, the one from the film. Everyone walks over it although it's really not as safe as it looks. The boats don't mess around when they go up and down the river, they have full on car engines on them, I want one. After we went to the war museum and art gallery, it's a bit different, lots more paintings. Went to Wat Tham Khaopoon last, they have a large cave system which was good. Got a bit hot at the bottom and kept getting dizzy looking up at the ceiling. Couldn't go too deep into a few of the caves as we kept getting buzzed by bats.

9/02/02 11:19 PM

Travelled from Bangkok to Kanchanaburi in 3rd class on the train, there were no other classes. it was wooden benches, still it was no less comfy than a Thameslink train! Was dehydrated again by the time we got here even though I drank two bottles of water, think it must be the heat and all the dust that comes in through the open windows. We are staying in the VL guesthouse, very much like a hotel but only 350bhat/night for aircon room with hot shower, it's a nice place. Tomorrow we will visit the Bridge on the River Kwai.

8/2/02 11:38 PM

Met a guy called Al on the bus to Surat Thani, he's doing the same thing as us only for a shorter time. He likes his luxuries too. Train back to Bangkok, slumming it in 2nd class, woke up at 5am. Couldn't get back to sleep, lots of people moving around and selling stuff @ every stop. Stayed in Nith Charon Hotel, not a proper hotel just a lodge. We have a very basic room, sure it used to be the kitchen, bathroom was good, although only cold water.

6/2/02 8:47 PM

S forgot to add that we were lost in Phuket town's one way system for quite a while, we saw a lot of the town, most of it wasn't worth the effort.

4/02/02 5:10 PM

Our air-conditioned bus was not what I expected! The day started OK, the rollercoaster taxi ride from Haad Rin to Thong Sala was fun, boat was uneventful as was transfer to Surat Thani. When we got there however we were carted around in a pickup truck, first to the tour companies "office" then to the bus station, the second ride we had to sit in the back, don't know why. The bus was a rickety old thing that the locals use, the air-con was a couple of rows of fans in the ceiling. The back of the bus, where we were, was loaded with crates of fish. This would have been OK as they were ice boxes and sealed but as soon as we left the conductor opened them all and was happily stealing bagfull's of prawns for all his mates at the hundreds of stops we made. The driver was a loony, I guess he felt safe driving through twisting mountain roads at that speed but I didn't. We were sat just behind the rear axle, it sounded like a world war 2 dive bomber engine from a naff b movie it was screaming so much, it didn't smell like it was going to take much more, or that might just have been the brakes melting. It took 8 hours to get here, I was very ill by that time, very dehydrated and starving. I did get chatting to an American girl on the bus who gave us some useful info on Cambodia. We are now staying in Ao Karon at Seaview bungalows, they are the second lot we looked at again, the first was too expensive. It is very nice, proper loo, hot shower, big room all for 500b/night.

2/2/02 6:45 PM

Hired a moped to see the island, it worked on Samui so don't see why it shouldn't here. LP says roads are not as good, that is an understatement, there are hardly any roads, they are all dirt tracks on steep hills with rain eroded gullies down the middle, some of them are 3ft deep! I'd wanted to hire a motocross bike as they seemed to have a lot of them in the shop but S wasn't keen as I've never ridden one. That was a mistake, a moped with skinny road tires and a 90cc engine is no match for this island. We nearly crashed on several occasions, S had to get off a walk quite a lot because the bike refused to go up some of the hills with two people on it. We still managed to get up to the Than Sadet water falls, they were OK, long rather than high, a good place to scramble over rocks and boulders, it reminded me of Devon a bit. We drove to the capital, Thong Sala, next and had some lunch, we had wanted to go to one of the beaches near the falls but couldn't get down one of the roads. After lunch drove up the middle to Chalok Lum, it's a fishing village on the north of the island but they've started to put some bungalow resorts in. It's very quiet, excellent beach and clear sea, hardly any people at all.

28/2/02

Caught the bus to Vietnam. Picked up at 6:30am, Cambodian bus took us to the border. It was really bumpy as the roads are not good. Aub cut his head on the ceiling of the bus, the driver and conductor rushed to give him first aid, they even found him another seat with more headroom. Arrived at border about 2:30pm, took ages to go through. We eventually got the bus to Saigon about 4:30pm, it took two hours. Felt so ill by the time we got here, dehydrated, headache etc.

26/2/02

Cancelled our plans today as Aub was not well, poor thing!

24/2/02

Picked up at 5:30am to get the boat to Phnom Penh. Took about 5 hours, nice scenery. Found a hotel, Indochine, the room is quite small but is in a good spot close to the river.

22/2/02

Visited Angkor today, really impressive. Angkor Wat is enormous. Really good day out, finished by a very nice meal. Had a few beers, absolutely exhausted, asleep by 9pm.

20/2/02

Left Korat to head for Cambodia. Caught the buses OK to get to the border. Got hassled as soon as we go there and ended paying to get to Siem Reap by pick-up. Got ripped off as we had to change vehicles and the first driver kept the money. Ended up paying more for a room than we wanted to just to get out of the truck.

18/2/02 9:30 PM

First we went to the TAT office and found out everything we wanted to know, feel a little better now. Caught the bus to Phimai. Visited Phimai Historical park (ancient city) which is the site of Phasat Hin Phimai and the museum. We even met some tourists on the way home, it was a good day out.

16/2/02 7:30 PM

Visited Wat Phra Si Sanphet (ancient palace), Wat Lokayasutharam, Phra Mongkonbophit, and the Chao Sam Phraya national museum. We had planned to visit them by moped but the was a problem with the bike, instead we hired push bikes it was really enjoyable.

14/2/02 9:30 PM

Back in Bangkok. Visited the Grand Palace, beautiful buildings and lots of Buddhas.

11/2/02 11:18 PM

Visited the Erawan waterfalls. Really impressive. Took and hour and a half on the moped, it was a little numbing on the bottom. Altogether there are seven waterfalls to visit. Took about an hour or so to get to the seventh one but it was worth while as they were more impressive. The ride home was hard going as it is a straight road virtually all the way back and very windy.

6/2/02 8:15 PM

Hired a moped today as it had been worth while before. Went to Phuket town. Asked in the tourist office what was worth visiting. Not a lot was the mans reply. The waterfalls the locals don't bother to visit as for the marine centre. He asked if we had been to an aquarium before, we said yes and he said don't bother with this one it's small. So we headed back to Karon Beach and had a swim.

3/2/02 6:53 PM

Sunbathed. Aub sat with me for about an hour, he looks a little pink!

1/2/02 9:18 PM

We left Chewang beach and headed for the island of Koh Pha-Ngan. Caught the ferry from Big Buddha beach which took us to Haad Rin, which is where we wanted to stay. We found a bungalow on the second attempt, the first was horrible. Very basic and small, but it will do. We watched a bad copy of Planet of the Apes, it stopped every now and then but it was OK