Floating village of Kompang Pluk

We took a day to go out of Siem Reap to see this floating village. About 3200 people live in this village, there are around 170 villages on the lake. We saw quite a few on our 7 hour boat trip from Battambang to Siem Reap as well. Wow, interesting to see, very basic living, toilets straight into the river, which is also the bathing, washing water. No electricity. Inside open fires for cooking, even when 32 degrees like today. Lots of firewood collecting. The houses need to be that high because in the rainy season the Tonle Sap lake & rivers rise heaps, like 8 metres. Quite incredible really, the odd little eating place along the way for the tourists. Trevor had lunch but I decided they probably washed the veges in the river too so I passed... Kids swimming, babies sitting at the top of stairs, no gate to keep them in. Everyone obviously has a little boat, just to visit the neighbor. Hammocks everywhere. That is one thing the Cambodian people have sorted, hammocks are everywhere with people in them! Great for the afternoon siesta.

Battambang and bats

Our day out in Battambang, photos of day.We hired a tuk tuk and driver for the whole day, they are very good at getting us to do that here! Cambodia appears to be run by transport cartels and kickbacks & you just have to go with the flow. We are grabbed at a bus station, whizzed away to see the hotel of their choice and then that ride is free if you take them for the whole next day! But usually it is a win win, costs about $15 for the day. Our driver was Nat and he had a grin on his face all day, according to his friends he hadn't had work for a week... They usually sleep the night in their tuk tuk outside the hotel. First off, leisurely breakfast of fruit salad, yogurt, baguette, omlettes and coffee at a lovely cafe, then away in our tuk tuk to the bamboo train, this is how the locals got by when the roads fell apart and trains weren't working during the Khmer rouge days. When other bamboo trains come the other way both stop, one gets lifted off to let the other one past. It stopped at a village and we were shown around a brick making factory by some delightful local children, talked into buying a cold drink and another scarf & relieved of a few more $$! That took a couple of hours.Then onto some old ruins, kids walking beside us with fans as we climbed the steps, wanting a few more $, saw some big fruit bats, stopped to buy some 'pink' fruit, nice, a bit like a melon. Then to a little eating place for late lunch about 30 km away, another mate of the driver. We walked up to a temple, the highest hill around. It is also another killing field with lots more skulls and bones in the memorial inside the cave. Had an interesting chat with a monk, very friendly and well educated, also after a donation for his school... After we walked down we waited near a bat cave. Around sunset every night millions of little bats come out to feed. An amazing sight, just swarming out for over 2 hours, black streams in the sky. I asked our driver where they went and he replied, laughing heartily, they go to the night club!! Half hour drive back to the Royal hotel, $15 for deluxe suite, cable tv, aircon, WiFi etc and most importantly a comfy bed. Clean folded laundry returned. Time for a beer and spring rolls at the roof top restaurant watching the monsoon rain pelt down. A good day out. Boat to Siem Reap next.

Sabaai dii Laos, Johm riab sua Cambodia

We loved our last few days in Laos, relaxing, the most eventful moment was when Trevor tripped over a snake and it slithered over his foot and off across the road into the grass. It was quite big too, made for an anxious half hour walk in our jandals back to our room at dusk! Cambodia lived up to it's reputation at border crossings, though I think it was a Laos problem. The VIP bus that we all had tickets for was nearly full when it arrived so the 25 or so extras including us were taken in another bus to the border. All formalities were taken care of then the VIP bus left and we were told a Cambodian bus would be there in 30 minutes... That stretched to 3 plus  hours, there is nowhere to go, the nearest town being miles away.  Then we were told the bus had broken down... More people arrived at the border, eventually 2 12 seater minivans showed up from Laos and everyone including all the bags piled in. We had 18 in ours and more in the other, noone was staying behind!! They took us to Stung Treng, the nearest town. Lucky for us we only had tickets to there. Some of the others had paid to go to the big cities, another 8-12 hours, they were all put on an old local bus, goodness knows if they got there or not. We wandered the town, a young guy asked us if we wanted to visit his hospitality school so we did. It provides opportunities for poor rural young people to train at this centre, it has rooms and a restaurant. They could speak English pretty well and the 5 guys we met were great to chat with.Their exit exam was coming up so we were given the royal treatment when we 'dined' as they made sure they got everything right. Fresh spring rolls, rice, whole fish, it was great. Cambodia is also very poor but maybe not as poor as Laos. Very flat country, lots of rice fields not particularly scenic so far. We left early next day on a bus all the way to Phnom Penh, about 9 hrs. Visited the Tuol Sleng (genocide) museum, (the actual prison) and Choeung Ek, one of the killing fields and now a memorial. Similar feelings to visiting a concentration camp. The disbelief these things happen and that people can do this to their own people. In the rainy season (now) the dirt keeps getting washed away and we could see more bones and clothing near the surface. There is also a big memorial which houses (10 stories high) skulls and bones and clothing. About 20% of the population, about 3 million people were murdered over 3 years. Morbidly sobering places.The people here are very friendly, a lot speak English, but they all seem to regard tourists as walking banks and device lots of strategies to take your money! Everything for tourists is charged in US $ and at the ATM you get $US as well. Bizarre. Quite a lot of beggars in the cities, we saw none in Laos. But also more evidence of wealth with some nice houses, though the majority are still shacks on stilts and new cars among the motorbikes and tuk tuks. Signs warning of mine fields and UXO, a reminder of the Vietnam war when the US dropped millions of bombs on the Ho Chi Min trail. NZ ders don't have too much to complain about!

4000 Islands

We have had 4 hard days of travel but finally made it to Si Phan Don, otherwise known as 4000 islands, (though I think 2000 of them are under water at present.) Lao transport works as long as you are in no hurry to be anywhere. The timetable is flexible, the arrival times vary considerably, you may be on a bus, a tuk-tuk or as in the photo where we r changing from the tuk-tuk, a sorngtaaou, that's a truck with hard seats in the back, we did about 150 km in those one day, 3 different ones that link smaller routes. In one it was bucketing down with rain, we were soaked. From Vientiane we went to the kong lo cave, just amazing. Photo of small entrance way across the river. Once inside in a small motorised long boat it goes for 7.5km. Enormous inside and awesome stalactites and stalacmites, some photos included but was quite dark inside so may not be the best. It goes right through to another village. They bring coffee through the cave on boats in the season. The water was really high, much higher and we would not have been able to go through. A bit scary hooning through a cave in the dark with one guy at the front shining a torch and driver at the back. Our young driver made a couple of mistakes which kept me on high alert hoping I wasn't going to be floating down a fast flowing river in the dark! The places on the way down here were very uninspiring and not very nice places to stay so we kept traveling each day. All the seats were full in one bus and sacks of rice all down the aisle, then they put small stools on top of the sacks and people sat on them. Hot and tiring and you can't get out, food is sold through the windows. Crickets, chicken, rice, eggs... But now we are relaxing for 4-5 days, reading books and laying in a hammock, time out. These islands are between Laos & Cambodia on the Mekong. Boats cannot come up river to here because there are 5 wide waterfalls blocking the way. We are on the island of Don Khon in a lovely bungalow on the water edge. We cycled round and checked out 2 waterfalls, other parts of the island are very primitive. Very cheap in Laos, we can get our washing done for 10000 kip ( $1.50) One day I withdrew 3 million kip from the ATM about $450, takes ages to get through that. Cambodia next, when we can face another bus...