When we reached Lake Manapouri, it was breath-taking, such clean and unspoilt landscapes hit you from all directions, I felt as though I could stay here forever;

On we travelled, and stopped off briefly in Te Anau  for the ATM, then carried on towards fiord land, passing such places as “mirror Lake”

then on to Milford sound,

after a good walk around and some late lunch, we headed off back along the same road, back towards Queenstown. Having driven around 400 miles this day, we decided to stop off in a place called Kingston for the night where we had yet another fantastic meal (cooked in the camp kitchen) and loads of wine and cheese to help us sleep, (purely medicinal of course). Visiting Queenstown is like going to Keswick, beautiful, but full of people, so a quick shop to boost the wine supplies (maybe we bought some food also, can’t remember) then called round by Arrowtown and into Wanaka, a special place for me as its where Andrea and I did skydiving around six years ago. After an hour walking round and reminiscing, it was time to hit the road again, this time we were heading towards the west coast of the Island, passing the glacier fields and ending up in a wonderful tiny village called Okarito, right on the beach front where the camp site was unmanned and had an “honesty box” for payment. we gathered some driftwood and got a fire going, warmed the wine, and sat and enjoyed another great meal cooked this time on the fire.

After a good sleep, it was travel time again, this time calling in at Hokitika for breakfast and a quick walk along the beach before another quick shop stop and then set off further up the coast. By the time we had reached Greymouth, it was raining, so the decision to carry on driving was made, but this time we headed inland as that was where the sun seemed to be, and what a good choice it was, within about 45 minutes we were bathed in sunshine again, and the scenery was every bit as good as it had been over the last few days. In the Buller gorge, we came upon the longest swing bridge in NZ, we crossed it and went for a wander around on the other side for an hour,

After the gorge, the road took us up towards St Arnauds and Lake Rotoroa where we sat on the pebbles and had lunch, such a wonderful peaceful place,

Every place we had visited, every lake, river and stream, were always crystal clear, and no sign of litter anywhere, it is definitely the cleanest place that I have been to on my travels, its a breath taking and beautiful country. A map consultation told us that we were not far from Blenheim again, where I had started this trip, so we headed off in that direction and called John and Patsy to let them know we were going to squat at theirs for a few days to recover from the 3,185 kilometre drive we had both endured. Over the next day or so, we visited some other local places, and spent time cooking for John and Patsy and generally catching up with our own laundry etc. On the 19th of March, we left Blenheim and headed off south towards Christchurch to return the hire car, we stopped off in Kaikoura to see the seals,

then off to a small place called Kaiapoi just north of Christchurch where we had a lovely evening meal in a restaurant as it was our last night together. The morning came too soon, we were at the car hire place by 9am, and caught a bus into the city to spend a few hours walking around the centre, looking at all the carnage that was left after last years earthquake, and seeing “container city”.

Finally, the time came when Nuria and I had to part company, we have been travelling together on and off for over three months and have become best of friends, she was heading off to the south of the island to take a part time job as an au pair for a month before leaving New Zealand and heading back towards Asia, I was heading back to Blenheim for a few days to do some work (horrible word) for some friends of Johns, then off to Auckland in the north island to spend time with my sister Clare. It was a very emotional and tearful parting, but we both know we will meet somewhere in the future, but just don’t know when.

My last days in the south island have been spent working and sorting and packing gear ready for my departure on Tuesday 27th, I will truly miss this place, but as usual, I have my next chapter of adventures to look forward to, so, will be back to fill your heads with inane drivel very soon.

Within 15 minutes Patsy arrived, it was lovely to see her again, so we had a cup of tea and a chat until John got back from work. These two have emigrated over here from Eastriggs and only been here since November 2011, but they have settled in a treat, both have local jobs (and I mean local, 3 minutes to get to work ) and Blenheim is a wonderful quiet town with amazing views of the mountains and surrounded by miles of vineyards.

John and Patsy’s house, nice.

The first night here we all went out for a lovely meal and chatted about their lives here, and they both seem very happy. After a quick walk around the town and a beer in another place, we headed back home to bed as I was quite worn out with all the travelling. Sunday morning arrived and we decided to go out for a drive and for them to show me some of the landscape around here, and I wasn’t disappointed, it is stunning  to say the least !

The local vineyards and mountains.

A local “shoe fence” nearby.

Pelorus bridge (where they have shot the scene for “The Hobbit” where they come down the river in barrels)

We covered around 200km this day, visiting places I had never been to before (was in Blenheim 6 years ago)  and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Over the next few days I filled my time with gardening, car washing, cooking, wandering around this lovely town, and even did a quick hill climb up the “Wither mountains”, on reaching the top I decided to run all the way down ! where on earth that decision came from I will never know, but I regretted it for two days as I was in agony !!!   On the morning of 10th of March I grabbed a quick flight on a small plane back down to Christchurch;

to meet my “travel buddy” Nuria, the young Spanish girl, as we had arranged to spend about 10 days travelling round the south island. We met at the airport, as she had just flown in from Melbourne an hour earlier, jumped on the shuttle bus to the car hire company and collected our Hyundai getz (little car) and headed out of the city via a camping shop and a supermarket where we picked up a few needed things (wine, cooking pan, red wine, sleeping mat and some wine).

  Our first stop that evening was a small town called Twizel, I had been here on my earlier trip and remembered the campsite being good, so we put up the massive tent I had brought from Oz;

and then we went for a walk around the lake next to the site,

as night came, we decided it was time to eat, drink and be merry, so off we went into the kitchen dining area of the site (New Zealand is one of the best places in the world for camping, everything is provided on the sites, cookers, BBQ’s, pans, dishes etc. etc.) where we demolished large amounts of Brie cheese, crackers and of course, wine. Here we met a couple from Montana, who were over here for ten weeks, bought an old camper van, and were touring the island, so we had a wonderful evening with them and also an old guy from Hawaii, who comes here every year for three months just to fish ! He brought some fresh smoked rainbow trout that he had caught a few days before, so we all dived in and consumed the whole lot !

Next morning we decamped and headed south east, following the coast as much as possible, and came across loads of amazing sights, here’s one of them, some bald bloke hatching from his space egg !!!    (actually, its one of the Moeraki boulders).

All along this rugged coast was stunning, (as is most of New Zealand) but as the weather as starting to change to rain, we carried on down to Dunedin, the second largest city in the south island, and also the furthest city in the world from London (11,870 miles), we headed out  of the city to a small village called Portobello where we stayed for the evening. The following morning,(Nuria’s Birthday) in brilliant sunshine, we explored the area, finding some jewels such as Baldwin street, the steepest street in the world (which of course I had to drive up, being the kid I am)

The beautiful railway station,

and the general gorgeous scenery that surrounds this area, ( would be here forever putting photo’s on), so, after lunch time, we started off further south towards Invercargill, and arrived at the camp site just in time to shop for something special for tea. Nuria wanted steak, so steak it was. Back at the site we cooked up a birthday feast, followed by wine and chocolate and good crack with other campers. I had heard that city was home to the famous Indian motorbike that Anthony Hopkins was in a film “The worlds fastest Indian”, so in the morning we found the hardware shop in town which houses this (and many other) wonderful motorbike,

We then made our way out of Invercargill, and headed towards Milford sounds, but this leg of the trip is in the next thrilling instalment (bet you cant wait eh !)

     As your all well aware, I have been at my sisters in Tasmania since mid December, and what a fantastic  time I’ve had here, spending some real quality time with Susan (sis) and her family, its probably the best place to be in Australia. Its renowned for its beauty, culture, food and wine, wildlife and pristine air quality, what more could you ask for ! There are so many choices to hand in what ever your interests are, again, the people are very laid back, happy (mainly because of the alcohol consumption) and very amicable. I have been lucky (again) to have met some of these great people, who have taken me in to their lives  and shown me nothing but friendliness, courtesy and hospitality, absolutely amazing !! I have been taken to one of the most outstanding and eclectic museums called “Mona” by a very good friend (Teresa) , its diversity and quirkiness is something that really needs to be seen as its just so different, Teresa has also shown me some of the best little eating places in Hobart, along with the most wonderful little state cinema you could ever imagine, which  shows not only the blockbuster movies, but the “off the wall” ones which I found fascinating,  so a big “THANK YOU” has to go to her and her kids, another friendship for life. Some of the other people I have been privileged to meet have taken me trekking in the Tasmanian wilderness, which is virtually on your doorstep here, and is a sight worth seeing as its so clean, quiet, beautiful and breath-taking, and covers a massive portion of the Tasmanian island. But alas, all good things must come to a (temporary) end as I will be departing this haven for lands anew next week, I’m off to New Zealand for six weeks to travel both the south and north islands and visit old friends and of course my other sister and brother in law in Auckland (seems like a theme is developing here, my sisters moving as far away from me as possible !!!  ) After which, I will return to Tasmania for some time, and then decide what I am to do with the rest of my life ……  at this moment, I am more than happy to spend as much time over here as possible as I love it.

Fortesque bay.

My friend Teresa.

Her kids, Liam and Olivia.

Tasmanian wilderness.

Since leaving Taz on the 28th of February, I came to Melbourne for a few days to spend some time with a good friend whom I met in India (Billy), she has now moved back to Melbourne and is staying with her brother and family, and I was invited to stay with them in their house on the edge of  the Dandenong mountain range south east of Melbourne. We have been walking in the local rain forest,

We then went to the “William Ricketts sanctuary” this guy was a clay sculptor who spent a lot of his time with the Aboriginal people, and has this amazing outdoor gallery of his work;

We had a wonderful day, then returned to the house where we had tea, a few glasses of wine, then retired to bed. The next day we visited her brothers cafe for lunch, which was beautiful but I wasn’t allowed to pay for, well not with money, I was asked to come back to the house and do a couple of DIY jobs instead !!!!

Tomorrow I am going to spend the day in Melbourne centre before heading to the airport to catch my flight to Christchurch in New Zealand. Its been six years since I was there, and it will be very interesting to see the devastation  caused by the earthquakes to this beautiful city.

Ok, that’s it for now, but I promise more to come in the near future from the “land of the long white cloud”.

      So I arrived in Perth, western Australia on Saturday 3rd of December at around 5.30 am after a very comfortable flight with Air Asia from Kuala Lumpur, the landing was a bit on the windy side (actually had to abort the 1st landing 30m from the ground as the winds were pitching the plane around so much that the pilot couldn’t get it straight), but after circling the airport again, we landed smoothly on the tarmac. We made our way to the arrivals area to sort out our on going travel plans and to buy yet another sim card.  Within an hour my old friend John Casey (from my checkpoint days) and his lovely family had arrived to pick me up and take me back to their house, this was the time I had to say goodbye to my dear friend Nuria, the lovely Spanish girl who I have been travelling with over the last two months, We both cried, as we had no idea when we would see each other again, a very sad moment, although we have vowed to meet up again somewhere in the world as and when we can. My good friends John, Margaret, Rebekah and Naomi made me feel so welcome in their house, over the next few days we spent time talking, eating, drinking and generally catching up with each other, they took me places and continually spoilt me, it was great !!!

       While I was here I had to plan how I was going to get across to Melbourne then on to Tasmania, so the good old internet was put into action and after a while I found the ideal thing, its relocating vehicles for hire companies ! they issue a new list every day, you get in contact with them, pay a small holding fee, then turn up at their offices when you are supposed to, and get your vehicle, simple !  I was lucky, I got myself a two berth camper van for $5 per day instead of the normal price of $120.00, bargain plus they gave me $250 towards fuel costs !!!!  So my transport problems were sorted, threw my rucksack into the back and headed off on my 3600km solo drive across southern Australia.

      My first stop was the supermarket to stock up on food, water and the most important, wine ! so with the fridge stocked, cupboards filled with pasta and tins, 5 gallons of water, I hit the road, and what a road it was, seemingly its one of the great journeys of Australia, crossing what is called “the nullabor”, a vast piece of virtually uninhabited land between the west and the east.

My home for the next week or so.

The trip was another amazing experience, after the first day of getting used to driving again ( I have not been behind the wheel of a car for 5 months), passing through the odd small township, I eventually reached the start of the nullabor, over the next four days I drove for sometimes 12 hours, stopping only for scrubland toilet breaks and to fill up with fuel at extremely remote garages. The road at times was just  one long, long straight, one of them being 90 miles long !!

Some of the warning signs were a tad different to the ones I was used to back in England !

The scenery along the way was constantly changing, going from the typical “outback” type red sand and scrub, to virtual desert, to forest, and then to coastal scenes, quite a wonderful display of nature.

Wave rock.

2nd largest granite outcrop in Australia after Ayers rock !

Me on the top !!

All along the journey there were plenty of places to stop and admire,  One day I ended up in the Flinders mountain range, followed a small track for miles, and ended up at a very desolate spot with no one around, so decided to spend the night, and watch the sunset followed by the eclipse.

Next morning I headed to Adelaide then made my way south to the “great ocean road” and spent 2 days exploring this magnificent coastline;

What a beautiful coast ! every five minutes you felt you had to stop and take photo’s (which I did) and wonder at the scale of this place, I ended up staying over night in a sea front town called Apollo Bay, it was dark when I got there, so a quick bite to eat and to bed. The next day seen me travel along more coast roads all the way to Melbourne.

On arrival in Melbourne, I got rid of the hire vehicle and walked across the road to the airport where I booked on the next flight to Hobart in Tasmania, rang my sister and told her I would be there in the next couple of hours, so had a sit in the departure lounge for an hour, and then boarded the plane for the 70 minute flight. It was lovely to see my sister again, its been 6 years since I last seen her and her family, so I’ve spent the last three weeks catching up with their lives, meeting old friends and of course living the Tasmanian way of life (eating and drinking lots). Will probably be here till the end of February, so maybe wont be so much to blog about, but I will endeavour to fill it with some sort of crap !!

Later, it was time to eat, go back to my hostel, shower and pack again as I was leaving Cambodia the next morning and needed to get up at silly o clock to get to the airport. So at 5.45am I got up, sorted stuff I had forgotten about, and checked out of the hostel, my taxi was waiting for me, so off we went to catch my flight to Kuala Lumpur. The flight was only two hours, so no sooner had you got up in the air, had a quick snooze, you were on your way back down again !

Getting into K.L. was easy considering the airport is about 60km away, you just jumped on a non-stop train and within 28 minutes, you were in the main transport hub of the city, so once there, it was just a case of finding somewhere to stay. The first place was a nice hotel (thought I would treat myself for a couple of nights ) and at £20 per night, I decided two nights was enough extravagance ! I moved onto “Pods Backpackers hostel” after that, and at £7 per night, was more to my budget. I spent the next three or four days meandering all around K.L. exploring the transport system, the shopping malls and even a local pub (that was an experience).

The hostel was an amazing place to meet people, being in a twelve bed dorm isnt the place to be if your a loner ! I met a young australian guy who has given me tips on visiting Melbourne, and even offered me his house to stay in when I get to visit his city, which might be early next year, depending when I leave Tasmania.

On the fifth day in K.L. my dear friend and travel pal Nuria arrived and booked into the same hostel, It was great to see her again even though we had only been apart for about a week , so the next couple of days were spent showing her around the city and its parks, eating good Indian food and of course sharing the odd bottle of wine. On the second of December, we again had to pack and make ready for the next leg of our travels, I had persuaded Nuria to go to Australia seen as she was so close, so we both boarded the night flight to Perth for the next adventure.

The following morning we headed up to the lake to see the “floating villages”. On the way we caught a glimpse of the local transport system;

If you look closely, you will see five people on this bike !! all wearing the compulsory safety gear of course !

Next was the local timber lorries;

We were then accosted by a Vietnamese woman who insisted on us using her boat to see the sights, so for £4.50 we were treated to an hour of meandering by female hand powered canoe, through this fascinating world of a lifestyle which can only be described as “serene”.

We bought some fresh mangoes from the street market on our way back to the guesthouse, and coupled with some peanuts and biscuits, had a  very late lunch. Later, we were sat at the guest house when about six Aussie guys rolled up on motorbikes, so I sat with them and chatted “bikes” as us boys do, they had been all over Vietnam and Cambodia. We were up early the next day to catch a bus to Phnom Penh, but they were all full, so after brunch, we at last got a bus to take us the two hour ride to the capital. We were hoping to catch an onward bus to Kep when we got there and we were so lucky, we stepped off one bus, went to another bus company along the road, and were told to get straight onto the bus in front of us. After three hours we arrived in Kep on the south coast, booked into digs and walked along the coast road for about two miles during the sunset to find a wonderful restaurant on the beach front where I ate fresh crab with pepper corns.

The next morning,we packed and headed for the small port in Kep where we boarded a “Hammond’s pond” boat to take us the half hour crossing to Koh Tonsay (Rabbit ) Island, where we decided to go to have a rest from all the travelling. As we approached, we both knew we would probably spend more than the two days we had previously planned, it looked so peaceful;

On arrival, we checked in to a wonderful little bamboo hut and, started what was to be, a week of sheer bliss ! The island was so quiet, especially first thing in the morning and after four in the afternoon, as between those hours, there would be a few other people coming over to spend a few hours there, then return back to the mainland. My days were spent getting up around 5.30 to watch the sunrise, chill out for an hour or two, have fresh fruit for breakfast, swim, read, have a light lunch of fresh seafood, swim some more, walk around the island, walk up the hills of the island, spend time with the local kids on the beach, laying in the sun for an hour or so, then watching amazing sunsets before having dinner around 7pm (more fresh seafood) and a couple of beers and chatting to other travellers until around 10pm. You only have electricity between the hours of around 6pm and 9.30pm, this is provided by a diesel generator in a shed back from the beach, and when its turned off, the whole island is plunged into total darkness and uncanny silence, it is beautiful. Laying out on a hammock watching the stars put in another hour or two, then its off to kip for it all to start over again the next morning.

Nhari, one of the beautiful children we were so lucky to spend time with.

The remains of a Khmer Rouge gun tower at the top of the island.

One of the young village lads collecting coconuts !

Eventually, the day came when we had to say goodbye to the island and its people, and head of back to reality.

We headed to a town called Kampot for the next evening, a short bus ride followed by a trip to the bank to get “beer money” out, then found a guest house, food, beer then eventually sleep. The memories of “rabbit Island” will stay with me for a while I think.

The following morning we decided to attend a cookery class, to learn how to make some of this wonderful tasty local food, so at 10am we showed up and were joined by 4 other girls, an Italian, 2 Germans and an Ozzie girl who also wanted to learn, so, first thing was to choose what you wanted to make, then a trip round the local market to buy your ingredients, then back to class where you were given an apron and a hat and then we were ready to start.

I made fresh spring rolls with prawns followed by prawn “Amok”, a traditional Khmer dish, it was a very interesting course lasting four hours, but the best bit was sitting at your table with everyone else and eating all the food we had made (with a large beer ). Of course, after all that eating, it was time for a siesta. Later on we decided to be up early in the morning to go and see Angkor Wat.

5.30am, (silly o clock)we arose, got our act together and strode off in search of transport to get us the 8km to Angkor Wat, within about 15 minutes, we came upon the ideal thing, pushbikes ! ( nice baskets )

So after handing over our $1 for the hire fee for the day, we set off down the long road to our first destination, and also getting caught in a quick downpour ( which is quiet fun as its warm ). It costs $20 for a one day pass to see the temples around Siem Reap, but to be honest, I only wanted to see two of them, one of the things about travelling south east Asia is that there are temples everywhere. We arrived at Angkor Wat as the sun was rising, and seen this amazing place firstly shrouded in a fine mist and then gradually getting basked in the sun.

An absolute must to see if your ever anywhere near, it is so big, and the whole thing is surrounded by the biggest moat i have ever seen ! We headed on down a straight road to see the next temple, Angkor Thom, this one was in a worse state of repair, but it was equally as mind blowing, we spent a good couple of hours or so wandering around this one,

Now, templed out yet again, we rode back to town, I dropped my bike off as soon as I could ( now I know why I prefer motorbikes )and headed back. The next few days were spent just messing about, using the rooftop gym at the hostel, eating, drinking and walking but eventually craving the peace and quiet again, so booked a bus journey to a place called Battambang.

The morning of the 11-11-11, we joined a bus load of people who were also heading for Battambang, and after around five hours, we arrived in what is supposed to be the second largest populated place in Cambodia, to me it was smaller than Carlisle ! But  an nice place nonetheless. We found a nice hotel for about £6.40 a night (£3.20 each).

We had a walk around before dark, then decided it was time to eat, we chose an upstairs restaurant as there was a street wedding going on below, so while we enjoyed our food, we also watched the wedding reception/karaoke/line dancing sort of thing that seemed to be the norm at a local wedding.

Next day we spent most of the day walking around the parks, wats etc. and  then in the afternoon we decided to take a tuk tuk to the “killing caves” a reminder of the horrendous atrocities inflicted by the Khmer rouge. These caves were used by the Khmer rouge to get rid of over 10,000 people, men, women and children, by throwing them, blindfolded and bound, through a hole in the top of the caves, into the bottom, some 30 metres below to die a slow death.

It was quite a harrowing experience, there were cages full of skulls and bones from some of the remains found,

There were other cages which held the remains of children and some of their clothes, but I couldn’t bring myself to photograph these.

After this visit, we descended back down the mountain to witness a wonderful sight just as it was getting dark, thousands upon thousands of bats started emerging from a cave hole in the side of the mountain, it was like a long black ribbon swirling around above you then heading off in the direction of the lake to drink and feed on mosquitoes’ we stood gobsmacked for a while until it was too dark to see anymore, then jumped into our tuk tuk to head off back to town for supper.

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.

All for the ridiculous price of £3.10 each per night !!!

As we had been on the road for a while, we thought that we deserved a nice lunch, so sat in a restaurant overlooking the river, we tucked into a nice light meal of rice and something ! it doesn’t really matter what the something is, as it is always good.

Its pretty obvious as to what happens now, yep, you guessed it, we had a siesta ! and when we awoke, it was getting on in the afternoon, so showered, togged up etc. we headed out for a walk through the village to work up another appetite. We ate another meal around 8pm, then headed off out of the village to find a dark place in which to enjoy ourselves.  You are all wrong ! what we went for was a place to sit and watch the stars, in fact we ended up lying in the road ( told you it was a quiet place ) for about half an hour, and enjoyed the peace and quiet and the amazing “sky TV”.

Off back to the room to have an early night as we wanted to be up early to catch the sunrise. What a sunrise it turned out to be, 5.45 am came round and this is what we witnessed;

Well, what better way to start a day ! after sitting on our balcony sharing this moment, we sat and talked for a couple of hours then decided it was time for breakfast, after that, we headed for the local bank to change what “Kip” we had left into dollars to make the transition into Cambodia a bit easier. A bloody long walked followed, and we found ourselves meeting loads of the locals, seeing folk hard at work and feeling the sun getting hotter by the minute.

We spent a little while organising our transport to Cambodia, doing last minute clothes washing in the sink, and sorting backpacks, before having our lunch and siesta. Awake around 4pm, it was then time to do our physical stuff for the day, so Nuria went off jogging for half an hour while I sorted photo’s on my laptop. Another long walk before our evening meal was called for, then food and wine were the agenda for the rest of the night.

I have to summarise Laos, mainly because it has been my favourite place so far in my travels, so her goes;

Best thing was meeting Nuria, the 25 year old girl from Barcelona, she has been fantastic company, and someone who I felt totally at ease with, being able to to talk way into the night about “life” and everything else, we have shared twin bedded rooms, double bed rooms and never once felt awkward with each other. I am sure we will continue our friendship for a long time, and I wish her all the happiness she deserves.

The people of Laos are some of the nicest,most laid back and friendliest of folk that I have ever met.

The scenery is breath-taking, so many places to go trekking into the wilderness and enjoy life in its purest form.

There is a strange and wonderful sense of “energy” in some of the places we visited.

The transport system is certainly one of the craziest I have come across, no trains, just buses and pick ups !

In such a large country, there is only five million people, so as soon as you leave the towns, it is so peaceful and quiet.

It is certainly a place I would recommend to visit, as long as you have a desire to “ go on an adventure “.

It is so bloody cheap to eat, drink, sleep and travel. We reckon you can live here for around less than £5 a day, including accommodation, food and a couple of beers.

The next morning (2nd Nov. ) we left Laos, first by boat from the Island of Don Khong, then by mini bus to the cambodian border. Here we walked from hut to hut where officials sat and stamped paperwork ( as long as you give them $1) and eventually we passed into yet another country, we boarded the bus to take us to a small place called Kratie.

  Egg on a stick anyone ?

By the time we reached Pakse it was pitch black, we went looking for digs, but the one recommended was full,  but a kind lad told us that his brother had a guest house down the road, so off we trotted and found it, and what a lovely place it was, really clean room,beautiful white linen and a spotless bathroom with hot shower and a western crapper ! We got showered and went out for something to eat, a few beers then bo bo time. In the morning we went to visit the local market ( I find these places fascinating ) and had a good look round.

racks of air dried fish !

At the market I decided I should wear what all the locals wear and buy a pair of flip flops ( which I have renamed foot fucks ! as I have big blisters between my toes now ). We spent ages there, watching people buy the strangest cuts of meat ( intestines, pigs heads, live frogs, brains etc. Eventually we returned to our palace of luxury to have our siesta, then later ventured out for an Indian meal followed by a lot of red wine ( yes we found a shop that sold the boxes of wine : ) and some roasted almonds.

    Saturday  morning we decided to catch a local bus to go to Tat Lo, but we needed a lift to the southern bus station and so we flagged down this contraption;

Maybe not the most road worthy machine  !

no front bakes !!

And not a single electric component working !

The bus ride was smooth and only took a couple of hours till we were told we had arrived. The walk to the guest house was about a mile and a half, and on checking in to our bamboo hut yet again,

we headed off to see the sights, and what sights they were;

This was when we decided to play silly buggers and swim in the water above the waterfalls, hoping that we didn’t get washed downstream !

After spending most of the afternoon lazing around and playing in the river like kids ( what a hard life I am having ) we strolled back to our hut to sit in the shade for a while and catch up with writing blogs etc. ready for when I got a chance to get onto the internet, ( its surprising how long this takes ) then we wandered over the bridge again to a lovely restaurant overlooking the falls to have our evening meal, on the way, we saw all the local women having their daily wash in the river at dusk.

In such a wonderful setting, we were the only two people there !

After a lovely meal, we set off back over the bridge in the black dark, these bridges are not your normal bridges, they are wooden, and quite a lot of the pieces of timber have rotted and fallen away, so it was slow going to make sure you didn’t disappear into the fast flowing waters below !

The last of the boxed wine was calling our names when we arrived back, so we sat and talked and supped the lot !

Sunday morning was just as sunny and hot as every other day has been in Laos, after a late breakfast of Lao coffee and a sardine baguette, and saying goodbye to a lovely puppy,

we headed to the bus stop to catch whichever bus came first. We sat for a couple of hours watching the local world go by,

the bus arrived and it took us back to Pakse where we quickly headed for our nice clean guesthouse, and were given the same room as before, so with free wifi I am able to send this load of tripe to you daft buggers who read it !!