My apologies for again managing to get so far behind, though because Victoria has been ill with food poisoning, we haven't really done much since arriving in Thailand, making my job in catching up much easier.

 

Mekong Delta

 

The first part of the tour took us to a series of villages quite clearly solely aimed at getting tourist money, though I still enjoyed this, particularly with my first introductions to coconut candy and banana whiskey (though the latter is no JW Black). It even included going through water paths surrounded by reeds which was pretty cool (just like you expect Nam to be), and prompted me to adopt a rice-paddy hat to blend in. Unfortunately, at the end of the first day, we were required to leave our really nice air con coach and pile onto the back seats of one with only open windows to get to Chau Doc along with the other tourists who had also evidently chosen the wrong tour option. An over-long journey brought us to our destination, accompanied by a girl who complained excessively about everything (and forced other people to move so she could sit next to, rather than behind, her companion).

 

The next day we left by slow boat to head towards the Cambodian border, stopping at another tourist-centred village and some fish farms which didn't have too pleasant a smell. After lunch we transferred to a slightly faster boat to be taken to cambodia club-med customs, which was the nicest place I have ever had my passport checked. On the boat, I kept amused by showing my immaturity with the Cambodian kids pictured on our Photobucket, though this originally started to prevent Victoria losing her patience with them because of their lack of respect for her privacy.

 

Phnom Penh

 

At the end of our boat ride (and me entertaining the kids), we were taken by bus to Phnom Penh. As Vicki has said, Cambodia is actually more expensive than Vietnam (particularly when the hotel you are staying in tries to charge you more than the agreed price for the room, though I held firm), and seems to have relegated its own currency (Riel) to a mere subdivision of the dollar. That said, it was far easier to travel through than we anticipated, which was quite fortunate as we didn't end up spending too long there.

 

In Phnom Penh we first went to the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda, the main highlight of which was the monkey playing in the water near the scale-model of the palace (unfortunately he didn't get onto the model and go all King-Kong with it), and of me forgetting to collect Vicki's camera from the safety-deposit box and having to run back (though a combination of the heat and my limited fitness made it virtually a brisk walk) before the sight closed.

 

The following day we again took advantage of the more lax firearm laws in South-East Asia to fire more guns (this time pistols) and discover that I would be more dangerous if I threw the gun, rather than shot it. After this (again choosing the order of using the weapons before reflecting on their actual use) we visited the sites concerning Cambodia's tragic recent past, which obviously had quite an impact.

 

To Angkor Wat

 

Quickly, a word of warning that we went to Angkor via a place called Battambang, which is apparently Cambodia's 2nd city but actually seemed smaller than Upminster, and which complicated our journey to Angkor Wat (we had to pay $15 for an 8-hour boat ride which was prolonged by the low water-level causing us to get stuck repeatedly - though it provided some nice scenery of Tonle Sap).

 

Well, we arrived in Siem Reap via an incredibly bumby Tuk-Tuk ride and found that it is a far more developed (touristy) place than Battambang, and even included a bar playing Jimmy Eat World for Victoria to get excited over. After buying our 3-day pass, we followed the herd to watch our "free" sunset at the highest temple, which required a pretty arduous climb to reach it (which I naturally thoroughly enjoyed). The next 3 days were spent cycling to various temples, which led to me being thoroughly exhausted (and, I am ashamed to say, absolutely obliterated by Victoria for pace on the second day, though she must have had something as she was destroying absolutely everyone) and getting a good level of sunburn on both of my hands.

 

Each of the temples impressed me to various degrees, and provided plenty of picture opportunities. I must say though that I was a little disappointed by the fact that the temples weren't quite in such a jungle-covered state as I had imagined, with the Angkor "Park" far more developed than I had anticipated, including roads between the main temples. Naturally, because I don't have a great deal of knowledge on the subject, temple-fatigue arrived by the second day, leaving me more interested in the ice drinks available than the actual sites by the third and final day. That means I'll probably wait until they install some kind of cable car or monorail before I'll go back again.

 

Well, our time in Cambodia was brought to an end by our bus to the border, where we were deposited to make our own way across into Thailand, which I will inform you about next time.

 

Mark