Phnom Penh

young monk's with a Camera taking photo's of each other posing in front of a large Canon

the central Gardens in the centre of the Museum Phnom Penh

Eddie & Hank eat your heart out, zoom in and look at the price

Taken from the FCC Restaurant, an example of french architecture in Phnom Penh. Many of these buildings have been renovated and are magnificient, but this one as character.

Robert on the river bank at the beginning of the Mekong River - pagoda in background.

After Battambang Phnon Penh was a lovely treat. So clean in comparison and we dont feel like aliens here. There are other tourists......

We've met lots of people here and learnt from their experiences, even a couple from Adelaide.... The hotel Trasak Pa Em turned out to be very nice, once the tuk tuk driver found it that is. It's a new hotel just renovated and hard to find. We are on the 4th floor with a balcony and breakfast thrown in at a great restaurant which is part of the complex.

Visited the Russian markets and the National Museum and spent happy hour at the FCC Restaurant each evening to enjoy the half price drinks. Only one day here so not a lot of time.

Mekong Delta Tour to Vietnam

The night of Day 2 of the tour was in Can Tho and the accommodation was a wonderful improvement. We upgraded to aircon and the bed didn't have broken coils in it. Yippeeee!!!!! We both like Can Tho. It was much cleaner and the people very friendly. The vietnamese who are learning english just love to talk to you and they are so lovely.


hundreds of ducks in pen on land and river - they get the best of both worlds!!!


Locals on the Mekong river


Our boat on the Mekong - took us from Cambodia to the Vietnam border then we took another boat to do the Vietnam part.


Photo taken on way to Vietnam Border along the Mekong.

One of the boat drivers - he was about 9 years of age.

We have arrived at Chau Doc and are staying at a backpackers - Vinh Phuoc Hotel. It's very basic. We are having a drink right now at a posh restaurant overlooking the Mekong. Our hotel is about $10 a night and this one starts at $100 for the basic room.

The border crossing went very smoothly, quite boring in fact.

We leave Phnom Penh tomorrow morning (Monday 5 April) to do a Mekong Delta tour which starts with a bus/boat trip to Chau Doc. A night at Chau Doc and then we spend a day touring ending at Can Tho where we spend the night. Day 3 on tour and we arrive at Ho Chi Minh on Wednesday 7 April.

Battambang Cambodia

We leave for Phnon Penh tomorrow on the bus - the VIP one this time. We will be staying at the Trasak Pac-Em Hotel.

We are staying the Siem Hout Hotel in Battambang. Battambang is very different to Siem Reap. Poverty is very evident. It is not a tourist town but we are glad we have visited. We went out at 8pm last night to get something to eat and there wasn't much to choose from so came back to the Hotel Restaurant which proved to be a good choice.

We arrived here from Siem Reap on the bus. We were the only tourists on board and had the best seats at the front. We love it when people who are learning english come and speak to us. It's great. They are a wonderful people.

This photo is a staircase that can be seen from our room in the hotel.


Robert and Patricia on the Bamboo Train. Hey this was fun. It's used by the locals to transport produce between villages. They make good income from giving tourists a ride, 14 km to the next village and back. It was an interesting experience. When you meet a train coming the other way, one has to dismount and allow the other one to pass. We only had to do this one. The second photo shows it being put back together. This would not win any awards in Australia for OHSW protocol but it was fun.

We were told today that the bamboo train is to be terminated. An Australian company if rebuilding the railway line after they have cleared the land mines....... Eechhhh - glad we didn't see any of those.



We visited this Rice Paper making business in a local village.

The street where our hotel is located.

We went to a temple just out of Battambang but realised we were just templed out. And it wasn't a patch on Angkor temples.

Cambodia - Siem Reap - Week 4

Photos from Ankgor Temples


The Cultural show at an orphanage in Siem Reap. A very rewarding experience!!

The journey by bus from Kanchanapuri to Cambodia was an interesting exercise. The bus service was horrific. The bus left us in the middle of a busy road in Bangkok in early morning traffic and pointed towards a Police Station that we couldn’t see from that point and said the bus would pick us up there. We had traffic going both sides of us and managed to get across the road safely. It was obviously too much effort to take us to the pick up point.

The demonstrations by the reds was still going on but it didn't affect us too much except they said the traffic was much slower than normal. Made for interesting sight seeing.

Then we got to witness corruption on both sides (Thailand and Cambodia) at the border crossing. The visa scam at the border (taking us to another location) and the ATMs at the border where we were told to take money out in Thai baht and convert it to Reil the Cambodia currency. When we arrived in Siem Reap everything was priced in US dollar.

We arrived, to the most disgusting hotel in Siem Reap you could imagine. We arranged accommodation at another hotel and they picked us up by tuk tuk at 10am the next morning. We slept in the bed but didn’t shower until we reached our new hotel. Anyway enough negatives. But we did feel pretty silly for being taken for a ride and not researching enough before we travelled.

From here on the fun started. The new Hotel Ta Som is excellent, the staff very friendly and helpful and they have gone out of their way to please. $15 US for aircon and hot water and a clean room, serviced daily.

We visited the Angkor temples over 3 days and they are just so beautiful and amazing and awe inspiring. We had a tuk tuk driver and a guide for both days and it was fantastic. Very hot. Day 1, 3 we checked out all the local attractions, Day 2, 4 and 5 the temples.

Future plans - We leave on Thursday 1 April for Battamburg for 2 nights and then Phon Phen for 2 nights and then on to Vietnam (no more border crossing dilemmas hopefully as we have arranged our visa in advance!!!) Hotel in Battamburg not confirmed yet.

Week 3 - Koh Phangan and River Kwai

We caught the train from Surat Thani to Bangkok and then a bus to Kanchanapuri. Left Koh Phangan at 11.30 am on Monday and arrived Kanchanapuri on Tuesday at 11am, so 24 hours travelling. The sleeper bunks on the train were the only 2 left and so we were not together, but in the same carriage. We thought we would have airconditioning but no, fresh air was it and fans to circulate it. But the upper bunks of course had no air flow so it was very hot. We both had a very disturbed sleep. Patricia woke dreaming that there was an earthquake and the building was shaking which was very understandable.The train we caught was the slow one. It kept stopping all night to let the express trains through. We have learnt that you cannot book a train at the last minute.

We arrived at Sam’s Rafthouse - a rafthouse on the River Kwai. We are right on the water with a balcony over the river. It’s lovely. When a boat goes by it feels just like we are on a boat.

Today Wednesday - Robert’s birthday - we went on a tour which included the Erawan Waterfalls which had seven levels and it was superb. It had those little fish that nibble you but some of them weren’t so little. We were so hot that we didn’t care. Patricia managed to slip on a rock and fall in the water shoes and all. Good way to cool down. The other highlights of the day were riding an elephant on land and the river, bamboo rafting down the River Kwai, the Krasae Cave with a golden buddha and the wooden viaduct built by WW2 prisoners. We then went on the Death Railway and saw the Bridge over the River Kwai. It was very sobering to be there imagining the suffering that happened there in the past.

Robert at the Bridge over the River Kwai

Taken from the Death Railway Train. Monks sitting in the jungle. We were told that Buddhists believe there are still souls who haven't passed over.

Us on the elephant

Erawan Waterfall

On Friday we leave Kanchanapuri on a mini bus back to Bangkok and then straight over the border to Siem Reap in Cambodia. We have an airconditioned bus booked for the trip. The bad bit is we are picked up at our hotel at 5.15am. Hmmm!!!!

We are staying at the Ta Som Guest House Seim Reap which is budget but comes with very good reviews and the staff are very friendly and helpful.

Week Two

Koh Tao and Koh Phangan - Beautiful Islands

Have booked the train back to Bangkok on Monday 22 March with a sleeper travelling at night. We have booked into Sam's Guesthouse in Kanchanaburi, about 100kms from Bangkok. The accommodation is on the River Kwai near the bridge. Not sure how long we will stay at the moment.

Some sights from around Koh Phangan and the bike we rented to see it.

the scooter - brand new one. It made the hills with both of us on it. We went to Haad Rin Nai beach which is very hilly and beautiful. Didn't have a chance to take any photos as we were on a time limit. Had to get the bike back.

Fishing is a very busy industry here. At night the sea is alight with fishing boats and their very bright lights.

Along the coast

Breakfast at the Bayview Resort - Robert in the distance

Arrived in Koh Phangan on Wednesday 17th March and have stayed 4 nights so far at the Haadyao Bayview Resort. This time not a bungalow on the beach but an airconditioned unit. Missing the bungalow but next time maybe.

Hired a motor bike to travel around Koh Tao - for 1 day. Photos below:

Sunset from bar, sitting in bean bags on the beach

Laneway on the other side of the island to where we were staying, Had dinner at seafood restaurant. This lane went for about 2 km with so many restaurants to chose from.








Beautiful view from a mountain top

DAY 9 - SUNDAY

Travel to Turtle Island - Koh Tao

We have decided to move on. Tremain, Ked, Pat & Koy will travel north to Chang Mai and trek the jungles that we might do later. Patricia and I will travel south and island hop.

Waiting for the ferry to take us to Koh Tao after a night sleeping on the bus.

That afternoon Patricia and I set off for Bangkok by taxi to the train station. Unfortunately all the trains were full so we had to settle for an airconditioned coach, which left at 9pm and arrived at Chunpon at 5am.

We waited until 7am at the jetty for the first boat to the island of Koh Tao (turtle island). The trip took 2.5 hrs by fast speed boat. The harbour was beautiful with huts surrounding the rocky coast. There were people everywhere and many taxi ‘s, (some ones ) a ute that you sat in the back on bench seats.

We had a drink first and then set off for the other side of the island. Tremain had given us some directions of where he had spent some time.

Here is the cement walk which goes over the sea to access the bungalows.

It is very isolated. We are in a hut on the beach. It has a fan that is very slow. The first fan kept stopping so they replaced it, the shower toilet is basic but functionable. The bed is hard and lumpy but we slept well. There are holes in the floor boards but no fridge. The views are great.

To get to this place you reach the other side of the island, you either walk through other resorts or find this little path, turn right and walk to the end, then walk over a long white concrete path in the ocean through a restaurant. There you take your shoes off which is normal, then on the other side you walk through. The huts are right on the beach. A wonderful hide away. The ocean is crystal clear.

We had breakfast and dinner on the first day at a restaurant that is on the ocean. You just look down at the hundreds of fish swimming around. The water is so clear that the fish can see you throw your toast to them before it reaches the water!