Im catching up with the news online just now, it seems like it was a very bad earthquake …. but I never felt it and I was awake at that time as well. Although it said in an article I’m reading that it was felt as far north as Bangkok …. Oh well. It was funny cos I was swithering whether to go down to Krabi and Phuket with the boys last night, they are heading to the area devastated by the Tsunami last time …. the South Western coast facing the Andaman Sea, so they might have possibly felt the earthquake. And I think a lot of tourists were evacuated after the earthquake, although I think people quickly realised there wasn’t going to be another tsunami.

Koh Tao is on the South Eastern coast, facing the South China Sea and wasn’t affected by the tsunami at all. Everything is just running there as usual. They have an awareness about these things now and everyone is evacuated if they suspect a Tsunami.

Ive made it safely (although not without stress) into Thailand and I’m now on the Island of Ko Chang! Its totally different from Laos and Cambodia, more developed with lots of cars and trucks and still lots of motorbikes and they all drive on the left hand side! The food is excellent and the people are REALLY friendly. You just don’t get the hassle that I did in Laos and Cambodia.

I left yesterday morning from Sihanoukville and got on the boat to Koh Kong (still on the Cambodian side) and that was a fairly uncomfortable 4 hours. At first I sat on top of the boat due to some advice I was given, but it was so hot and uncomfortable and the live chickens tied up next to me were starting to escape that after 2 hours I went downstairs with everyone else and had to squish between two people and the seat in front of me and I couldn’t move for the rest of the journey.

When we got to Ko Kong it was absolutely pouring (you never get drizzle or showers here) and as soon as I stepped off the boat I was assaulted by the rain and many moto taxi drivers, one grabbing my bags, one pulling my arms in different directions all shouting “Thai Border Thai Border!” I managed to take a few steps forward then found myself (and my bags) on a truck with various other travellers from the boat but they packed about 20 of us in and it was quite a squish. I asked the driver how much it was and he was just shouting “Same Same", so we all thought it would be a dollar. Turns out when we got there he had tripled the price and many people just walked away refusing to pay while he is saying he is going to just take us all back if we don’t pay. When we got to the border in the end, me and a few others gave him a couple dollars each because I couldn’t just give him nothing, even if he was trying to overcharge us.

They had put our bags on a cart which many people weren’t happy about and we all starting taking our bags out of the cart (they were going to charge us for taking our bags 20m) and mine was at the bottom and I couldn’t get it out and I kept slipping and the Cambodians just watched. When I did get it out, I slipped again and dropped all my bags in the mud and puddles and they all thought that was hilarious. I was not happy with that at all, after all the friendliness I had experienced over the last 16 days this was the impression I was left with as I crossed the border. On the other side there were happy smiling Thai officials doing anything to help us. It was such a relief.

After that I got a mini bus along with a few other people to the first main town in Thailand, Trat. As soon aswe stepped off the mini bus there was a smiling woman asking if we wanted to look at her guesthouse, with free transport there …. couldn’t believe our luck. We got driven for free in a car (a real car!) to this guesthouse where everyone else from my mini bus went as well and they all got free transport too. It was pretty shabby but it had a hot shower and was really cheap.

This morning I got a Tuk Tuk to the port and took a boat over to Koh Chang, where I got another Tuk Tuk (along with a French couple and a really friendly retired Canadian couple who gave me some advice on places to stay in Bangkok) To Kai Bai beach. Though I had to wait for ages to get another taxi to take me to Lonely Beach. By that point I was so hot and bothered I just stayed at the first place I came to, they are all pretty much the same, wooden shacks with a bed and a mosquito net and THATS IT. Though I can get a fan for an extra $2. Might get that tomorrow.

Im really looking forward to coming home. It will be weird being in a car …. let alone driving one! There’s hardly any here in SE Asia (maybe more in Thailand, I don’t know) And motorbike is the transport of choice. Tuk Tuk in Thailand and Laos. If you want to go anywhere you have to get a motorbike and quite a lot of people I’ve met who have never ridden one just hire them out for themselves.

Just changed my boat ticket to Thailand, going tomorrow. Two friends left Sihanoukville today, everyone seems to be moving on now, so it seems like a good time to go and have a change of scenery. Ailish is swithering about whether to go to Vietnam, China or India! Just have to be careful what I eat before tomorrow.

I’m seriously thinking about doing my PADI diving course in Thailand at Ko Tao.

I haven’t made it yet to Thailand, Fi and I bought boat tickets three days ago for the 17th and we were due to leave the next morning, but an hour before we were due to leave I got quite ill with sickness and diarrhoea and couldn’t get out of the toilet for more than 5 mins! Last thing I felt like was a 5 hour boat trip! The girl who owned the place and her grandmother looked after me …. they treated us all like family really lovely. I stopped being sick a couple of hours after Fi left and stayed in bed for the day and by the evening I was much better and I’m absolutely fine now.

The day after Fi left, I moved to a different part of Sihanouville with an Irish girl (called Ailish!) where we are staying in a much nicer place for $2 each and we even have our own bathroom! No more bucket baths for me! Last time I had one I felt something tickle my feet and I looked down and there were loads of fat black worms whizzing over my feet, urgh! They were so fast! And although we are paying for accommodation here it works out cheaper altogether because food is loads cheaper here. And we’re still 5 mins walk from the beach.

I get on really well with Ailish she’s been travelling on her own for ages and says I’ll have no problems in Thailand on my own, its so developed its more like going on holiday to Europe. We watched City Of God last night on this huge screen outside where there was like a seating area made of straw with cushions and and little tables and it was nicer than a real cinema. The film was amazing. I really recommend it if you haven’t seen it.

Im still in Phnom Penh, we visited the S-21 detention centre museum and the killing fields just outside the city today. Very, very harrowing stuff, it’s so hard to try and understand how people can do that to their own people. And the effects of the Pol Pot regime are still very apparent in the stories of the people we meet in everyday life. Our motorbike rider today lost his brother and grandmother under the regime.

I sent some things home today so I have more space to buy more lovely things! We went to the Russian market yesterday and I bought a skirt, trousers, three tops and 6 CD’s for less than 20 pounds! Got a little bit burnt today as I forgot my suncream but it’s not too bad. I feel all scabby and I think we have bed bugs as I got eaten alive last night and my legs are covered in bites, despite having the mosquito net up. I have one on my toe that has gone all white and purple. I got a picture of a monkey climbing across some electricity cables right in the middle of the city … hilarious. It’s absolutely boiling here. Haven’t slept a lot the last couple of nights due to bites and the intolerable heat.

Tomorrow we are leaving for the coast, our last stop in Cambodia before Thailand. Bus leaves at 7.30am tomorrow. Yippee! Still have to pack as well.

There are hundreds of old Wats and Temples in Angkor and we only saw about six in 7 hours and didn’t really know much about them. Got some nice pictures ‘though and went to see the sun set on a hill (along with hundreds of other tourists as this pretty spot was no secret) the day before.

Last night we ate again with a Canadian girl we met on the plane (who is teaching in Taiwan) and her motorbike rider who took her round Angkor. He was so sweet and we chatted to him about what it was like to be a monk (he said he only lasted 2 months because he was too hungry, as monks don’t eat after 12 noon), what it was like living in Cambodia etc. and he was really interesting.

Everyone has motorbikes here (as in Laos) even 12 year old kids!

Today was one of the most eye opening days I’ve had the whole 6 months. In the morning we went to The Landmine Museum, set up by a local deminer. As you may know, Cambodia is riddled with unexploded mines from various wars over the last century and as a result of the ruthless Khmer Rouge regime of the last 50 years. Aki Ra, the deminer who set up the museum (he had to build the building it was in and this itself took years for him to save up the money), wasn’t there today but there are lots of foreign traveller volunteers who help out at the museum, giving brief tours to tourists and teaching the children English (there are also several children landmine victims who live there as their parents can’t afford to look after them or they are orphans and they all have horrific stories, as well as Aki Ra) An American girl gave us a tour of the museum which consisted of all the different mines that Aki Ra had defused and descriptions of the damage they can do.

The kids were all happy chatty and outgoing, despite their missing limbs. There was even a volunteer from England who had also lost a leg from a motorbike accident in England giving tours. I think if I go back when I’m older I would like to volunteer there for a little while. It’s really hard to describe what it was like being there, I was just about in tears when I read some of the children’s stories (I’ve got a little booklet with them all in it) but then its so uplifting to see how happy they were, and all the work that Aki Ra has done (Incidentally as a child, he was forced to work for the Khmer Rouge as he was an orphan and he himself planted many landmines, brainwashed by the Khmer Rouge by fear and poverty).

After that we went to a Vietnamese floating village (we persuaded the tuk tuk driver to take us there for another $2 meaning we had our driver for the whole day for $6!). It was pretty amazing, it was literally a whole village floating on water. The driver told us they have rich people, poor people, a school, police station, shops, all floating. They used their boats to get from one place to the next. He lives on his boat and has done for the last five years. A little boy floated up to us in what looked like a huge metal mixing bowl, and that was his boat. It was really fascinating.

So far I’m very impressed with Cambodia, the people are just so lovely. And I love learning about their history (same with Laos and China) and hearing their own personal stories.

We just arrived in Pakse (Southern Laos) after an eleven and a half hour bus trip from Vientiane. In the end, I kayaked from Vang Vieng to Vientiane and Fi took the bus. It was quite fun ‘though everyone else was in groups or couples. I made friends with a group of Swedish travellers, same age as me on their gap years also. I somehow got the short straw of being the only person who hadn’t kayaked before … on a single kayak, the rest on doubles. It took ages to get the hang of it and, by the time I did, my arms were knackered! After about 2 hours we reached some rapids and had to get out of the boat so the guide could give us instructions on how to go down them …. except I was a mile behind everyone so I missed the explanation and, apart from that, couldn’t understand what he was saying! Although I heard someone say that 80% of the time the boat capsizes when going down the rapids. Fantastic. Not to mention it was the coldest day I’ve seen yet in Laos and had a constantly wet bum.

Anyway, as soon as one of the guides offered a place down the rapids on his kayak I was right in there (not getting the short straw again) and so we went down it together. Although it didn’t capsize, I almost fell out of the boat but managed to grip on. But lots of other people’s boats capsized and it looked like fun in the end! Then the guides cooked us a lovely barbeque lunch on the rocks, fried rice, chicken and veg kebabs and not forgetting the French bread sticks!

The bus journey today was alright apart from the fact that we (in particular me) got harassed (which is unusual for Laos) by the male bus attendant. It’s more like going on an aeroplane than a bus in Laos ….. but a really bog standard one…lol. You have to change your ticket when you get to the bus station to get another one with your seat number. They hand out water and handle all your baggage, and they also have bus attendants … they had 3 on the bus we were on today!

Anyway, this one guy helped us onto the bus and smiled at us and, as you do, I smiled back. Big mistake. After that he would walk along to our seats, whenever he could, flash me a big grin (its automatic to smile back) and then he would come and sit on the seat opposite me and peer over my shoulder when I was reading a book, or wanted to listen to my ipod …. He tried to buy it off me for $150 dollars … don’t think so mate! His friend (the other bus attendant) spoke a little English that went along the lines …. he is … he .. is interested in you. So Fi quickly shoved one of her plain silver rings on my wedding finger and made me flash it about to make it look like I was married (although he knew I was 18). Later when more people left the bus I sprawled out on the seat behind to try and get a bit of sleep and rest my head against the window. Along comes Noy, that’s his name, squishes on the seat next to me where there was no room and just sits there grinning. Then he leans over me and flicks the button to put my seat back while I insist .. “No No I’m fine!” with frantic hand signals, so he gets up and gets his pillow and tries to put it under my head, all the while I’m telling him I don’t want it. He never meant any harm by any of it and was quite sweet but Fi and I just wanted to be left alone to sleep!

We managed to get really nice accommodation here in Pakse, a big spacious room, with a TV (and English speaking channels!) towels and our own toilet and shower! For $6. So it works out about one pound fifty each for the night!

We have just had dinner at a street cafe and while we were sitting there (the wind was so strong it knocked Fi’s BIG bottle of beer Laos almost all over the people sitting behind us) we saw a motorbike crash, I turned round and just saw a pile of motorbikes and a baby was on the ground screaming with a woman with her arms around it who had tried to cushion its fall. I think the baby was okay but the woman had a broken arm. None of them had helmets or anything on. We can actually hire motorbikes out for the day…. think we might pass on it though.

Off to Cambodia the day after tomorrow … Ankor Wat sounds stunning, can’t wait.