Ok, finally left beautiful Laos, a quick bus trip to the border crossing, shell out a few dollars to each person that speaks to you ( the border guards ) and jump on the bus to Kratie, a small town on the Mekong, famous for the Irrawaddy freshwater dolphins that live around here.Nice town, not a lot else there, but quiet, and with fantastic sunsets over the river. We stayed here three nights, mainly to chill out after long bus journeys, but also because the guesthouse sold Australian red wine for four quid a bottle !  Most of our time was spent washing and drying  clothes, walking along the river bank, catching up with people via the (extremely slow ) internet and searching for and booking flights to Malaysia and Australia, so it looks like I’m here in Cambodia until the 26th November when I will fly to Kuala Lumpur.

Sunset over the Mekong in Kratie.

Now that’s what I call a canoe !

Next place we moved onto is a place called Kampong Cham, about three hours further down the river, we arrived around lunch time, so after a quick bite, we went wandering around the town and market place, then because it was so bloody hot, we went back to the room for a half hour power snooze. I woke up hearing a thunder storm, so went onto the balcony to observe, then the rain came ! one minute it was fine and dry, then within fifteen minutes the place was nearly flooded ! but it didn’t seem to bother the locals much, they just carried on as normal.

The kids just played around as though nothing had happened, they are obviously used to this,

there was also an expensive river cruise boat moored up, but when the rain came, you should have seen the rich folk return from their shopping trips in a bloody hurry. I stood and watched the storm for a good hour, watching the roads slowly disappear under a few inches of water, while the young girls and boys were having a great time riding their motorbikes through the deepest parts to see how much of a bow wave they could make. As it tuned dark, the cruise ship untied its mooring string and headed off up river somewhere,

We didn’t walk far that night, roads still six inches deep in water, so we ate at a riverside French place as it was only ten meters away from our place, ( far enough to get soaked though ).

In the morning I went to a mobile phone shop to get a sim card that could access the internet, as its always handy for looking up accommodation, eating places, bus stations etc. The young girls in there were a great help to an old bloke who is losing his grip on technology, they got me hooked up to the net in no time, I bought a sim card for $2 then topped it up with another $5, then when I was leaving, they gave me key rings and a baseball hat, those must have gone with their profit for the day ! After we had breakfast, we bought our bus tickets to go to Siem Reap and waited half an hour for the bus to come. Once on board I made friends with a little boy of three years old and his big sister who was eight, all of the seven hours of the journey I spent my time fixing the little lads gun so he could shoot everyone, and singing “the wheels on the bus go round and round” for them and teaching the girls English ( well, my version of it ). We eventually arrived in Siem Reap around seven pm, got into the town centre, found a good guest house ( bloody expensive here, £2.75 each per night ) showered  and hit the city lights for great food and wine.