When will I run out of Simpson quotes to use as titles?

Right you've probably not heard of Broken Hill. I knew I hadn't until Ben suggested we go there. It's a small old mining town and is about as close to the centre of Australia as we have time to get to.

We spent the first day exploring the town. It's almost like something out of a Western. A lot of the old Victorian buildings remain, lining the streets. It's also one of those places where everyone knows pretty much everyone else so the tourists stand out more than normal. We also explored the south part of the town which was a little walk and Ben then insisted we walk the long way back for a reason I don't yet know.

The next day we decided to walk to the 'Living Desert'. It's about 8km from our hostel and as englishmen we joined the mad dogs out in the midday sun. Thankfully the ranger spotted us whilst we were walking and informed us of a shortcut to take a couple of kilometres off our trek. We see some wild kangaroos and walk around and view the sculptures and do another little walk.

There was a weird sense of isolation when walking back alongside the road and realising the only footprints in the sand are the ones you made when you were going in the other direction earlier in the day. The fact you can count on one hand the number of cars that go past just adds to this feeling.

By the time we get back we are knackered. A lot of walking in relentless heat whilst being mobbed by hundreds of flys (literally hundreds which all seemed obsessed with getting in your eyes and mouth). Despite being knackered we have to wait until 3:45am to catch our bus as we head to Melbourne. We hang around the hostel and listen to the aussie country boys complains about how busy Sydney is.... I'm not sure how they'd cope with London or New York.

It was an emergency from the International Drainage Commision

Another one of those days where we don't really do much but hang around waiting for trains. Our train is in the afternoon so we spend the morning at the Botanical gardens. Despite many signs warning us to keep an eye out for Brown snakes we see none.

Now Australian cities aren't very well connected to each other. You can get anywhere you want as long as you want to go to Sydney. So our trip to Broken Hill invovles a train from Canberra to Sydney (arriving in Sydney at 11pm), spend the night in Sydney, catch an early train to Dubbo (depart Sydney at 7am), then get on a coach to Broken Hill (arriving at 11pm).

When we arrive in Broken Hill we find the hostel (eventually). Sleep.

Mr Prime Minister! ... ANDY!

Today we had originally intended to head to Melbourne but because of the Australian F1 GP a change of plan was required! Instead, we head to Broken Hill before Melbourne instead of after and we have an extra day in Canberra.

Another slightly late start... they seem to becoming more common the morning after drinking for some reason. We head to the National Dinosaur Museum... oh it's shut on Friday. The tourist information leaflet that clearly states it is open every day is a an outright lie. So we head to the war memorial which is also a very impressive war museum.

The evening is spent drinking and playing pool and Ben loses his unbeaten record in Australia.

I'm taking this all the way to the Prime Minster!

The first thing to say about Canberra is there isn't much too it. It's by far the smallest capital we've seen. It's a town with a parliament essentially. Which makes the parliament seem like the sensible place to start. It looks impressive and from there you can see down to the old parliament and to the war memorial. We went around the inside but there is only so long you can stay interested in displays on the Australian political system.

The afternoon is spent at the National Museum which has a little section dedicated to Rolf Harris... amazing scenes! We had dinner at a place where you grill your own steak. I managed to cook mine to perfection which I was very happy with. Drinks are also consumed.

I see you've played knifey spooney before!

Today wasn't particular interesting to experience so will be less so to read about. I'll keep it brief.

Wake up feeling a bit worse for wear. Ben feels rather ill as we queue to check out. Crash out in some comfy chairs to recover. We need to do something so we go to Sydney Cricket Ground & Football Ground. Ben knows roughly where it is... get lost.... consider sneaking into Fox Studios... chicken out. Find the SCG, it seems going to an actual game of something is cheaper than any sort of tour. So we'll do that at some point instead. We found our way back much easier and grab a very tasty burger from 'Bugericious'. Just got to wait for our train to Canberra. I'm amazed by Australian trains as I have plenty of leg room making the prospect of a 4 and a half hour train journey more bearable. Arrive in Canberra.... find hostel... sleep.

That's not a knife that's a spoon

Wake up a bit later than intended... expected my legs to hurt more than this after yesterdays exploits. We had been tipped off by some Aussies on our travel that Manly is better than Bondi so we set off to check it out. It's a 30 minute ferry from Sydney Harbour to Manly Harbour and we head to the beach for the first part of a coastal walk. The waves seem pretty crazy and there are a lot of people attempting to surf. There only seemed to be one who was actually any good. We spent some time on the beach before continuing on the walk. This brings us to a smaller beach that is much more sheltered and much more suitable for swimming. The water is freezing. We continue on the walk... get a bit lost... end up with a nice view back across towards Sydney Harbour. Grab a curry for dinner. I've missed Indian curries.

We decide to go out for a drink and find a cheapish pub. One becomes two becomes three and so on. At 11pm a band comes on and plays covers of rock songs (and Katie Perry for some reason). Feel much drunker than we should... amble back to our hostel... check out at 10am.... urgh.

You call that a knife? This is a knife!

Our first venture into the Aussie bush. Today we went to Blue Mountain which is a world heritage sight and is a 2 hour train ride from Sydney. They day started at 6:30am... I'm still not a morning person.

We spent the day doing a couple of bush walks. Not particularly interesting to describe via the medium of text. The second walk started out at the 'Three Sisters' and involved going down the 'Giant Stairway' which is approximately 900 steps. My legs felt weak on the descent so I was not particularly looking forward to the ascent back up. Ben started talking about how he had to go back up as it felt like a challenge had been set. At this point I knew the railway back up wasn't going to happen. A 2.5k walk led us to the railway and another stairway to the top. We went to see how much train was.... $10... 'if it was $5 I'd be tempted' said Ben. This, I knew, was a lie, for competitive Ben had emerged and even if the train was free he'd want to go up the stairs. The climb was hard, at one point I heard the Indiana Jones theme music and thought perhaps I was going mad but we made it in the end and on the journey home I listened to Transatlantic and felt a little homesick for the first time.

Note: Ben is much more fun to play at Pool when he is losing.

R.I.P. Casio Watch – We Hardly Knew Ye

Casio Watch Feb '09 to Mar '09. Our time together was short but she served me well.

The day started a little later than usual. We are still catching up on lost sleeping hours is our excuse. Today we headed to Bondi Beach, we felt we couldn't go to Sydney and not check it out. I'm also worried that at the age of 24 I shouldn't be so excited at the prospect of double decker trains.

Bondi is pretty much as expected with lots of surfer shops, beach clothing, cafes and bars. We were a little late to do a walk we had planned so just chilled on the beach. I was informed in Vietnam by some Aussies that all you need to do to get on the TV is to get into difficulty in the sea at Bondi as the rescue crews are filmed as part of a reality show. However neither of us got in trouble in the sea which was a shame.

In hindsight wearing my watch into the sea may have not been the wisest move but it had coped previously with a bit of sea water but alas not this time. The watch had served me well as alarm and timekeeper. We grab some food from a place overlooking the beach and head home. We have an early start tomorrow.

Note: Thongs are not the same thing in Australia. The headline 'School children given free thongs for Australia Day' was not as creepy as it first appeared (thongs are flip flops).

Nine Hundred Dollarly Doos!?

Suddenly everything seems expensive having come from South East Asia. No more glasses of beer for 3000 Vietnamese Dong (about 20p).

We head towards the Royal Botanical Gardens which are near the Opera House. On the way we stroll through Hyde Park and then we spot the library has some exhibitions on. One of the exhibitions is an art prize called the 'Moran Prize'. It's a competition for Australian artists with portrait and open photography sections. Ben doesn't agree with the winners. My enjoyment is only spoilt by those people who are often found in art galleries who are desperately trying to sound as clever as possible whilst discussing the artwork. Back on the trail for the Royal Botanical Gardens we discover an art gallery. There is a lot of 18th and 19th Century paintings by various European and Australian artists. Then there was some modern stuff, including some modern aboriginal art which was very interesting. Now full of culture we finally explore the botanical gardens. A nice place to leisurely stroll around. We walk up to the Opera House and have a look around. We grab some food and have a few drinks but we are still quite tired so we go back to the hostel to play pool. I lose my unbeaten record in the 2 Guys 1 World pool series... a sad day.

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Okay... hello... new blogger taking over. I thought it was only fair that Ben gets a break. So we had planned to get the bus to Bangkok airport but while we were waiting a taxi driver pulled up and offered to take us for the same price as the bus... Deal! Next the usual airport malarky. Now I know everyone will have been worrying about how I've been getting my film fix. Luckily British Airways has had some decent films on their long haul flights which makes the nine hour flight to Sydney go by a little quicker (so far I've watched Vicky Christina Barcelona, Control, Burn After Reading, Doubt, Changeling and Happy-Go-Lucky over the course of the two long haul flights). So you can all rest easy.

We arrive in Sydney at 6am (our body clock is on 2am) and I didn't manage to sleep on the plane. Australian immigration is easily the craziest we've been through so far. A questionnaire, sniffer dogs, random questionings whilst waiting for our bags and all our bags are x-rayed again... maybe it's the beard. A train from the airport to the city. Oh my! Double decker trains! Amazing scenes. Arrive at the hostel at 7am but can't check in until 2pm, but we can dump our bags.

Walk to the harbour, that'll be good. Starting to feel tired. The Opera House! The Sydney Harbour bridge! Walk across the bridge, take some photos... bad headache... feeling tired. Find a tourist information centre. The biggest iMax in the world and they are showing Watchmen! That'll be something to do later. Walk to Darling Harbour. Blackadder quotes a plenty. Explore the harbour. So tired... maritime museum has free exhibitions. Captain Cook. The Dutch. Mass immigration. If I was more awake I might learn something.

Check in at hostel. Informed by two guys in our room we won't get much sleep as it's a party room... great. Go to see Watchmen at the iMax. Hope I don't fall to sleep. Can feel myself dozing, but wait this is pretty entertaining... urge to sleep fading. Get some fish and chips on the harbour. Head back to hostel. Turns out guys we met in our room earlier don't actually stay in our room. About 10 people come and go. Try to stay up as long as possible. Crash out. Sleep through till morning.

Last day in Asia, Bangkok Thailand

We had an early start because we wanted to get to the MBK (a massive department store) which we were told by Tom and Min was worth visiting and sold mango stick rice. So we got the train and then walked in the direction of the MBK but when we were nearly there we were stopped by the police.................. the tourist police!!!!!

Basically they are there to help tourists, like a moving tourist information centre but when it says police you kinda think they there are there to arrest tourists. He told us the MBK didn't open till about 11 although you could go in and explore the centre around 10 which still gave us half an hour. Therefore we visited the national stadium but unfortunately no sign of the Thai football manager, the man, the legend Peter Reid.

The MBK was a weird place it had a whole floor dedicated to food with large indoor markets amongst the department stores. We eventually found a store selling the mango stick rice and it is probably the sweetest thing I've had for a little while and I would say that only sugar has more sugar. It gave me the extra energy needed for the day but later cost me sleep on the plane to Sydney, well that what I like to believe anyway. We then had to leave as our flight was late afternoon and we had to get through the Bangkok traffic , we actually ended up getting a taxi for the same price as the bus after a little bit of haggling and a few hours later we left on a jet plane Australia bound.

Well that's it from Asia and myself hope you've enjoyed the blog so far even though some of it has been a long time coming, and other bit hard to read (mainly down to late night blogging). Ollie will be taking the reins in Oz giving me much needed time off, it's a hard life!

Adios till New Zealand or when Ollie gets bored.

Nothing's The Same Once You've Been To Nam! - Hanoi Vietnam

Previously in the adventures of Ben and Ollie, After nearly being led into a brothel, a near death experience with a rogue elephant, facing the life threatening task of crossing the road in Ho-Chi-Minh city, braving the evil flip-flops of Hoi An, and now in the adventures of Ben and Ollie..........

We would only be spending a couple of days in Hanoi sandwiched in-between them was a trip to Halong Bay. When the taxi dropped us off in the evening in Hanoi it dropped us by a small dark alley and we were like “errrrrr....... Is this the right place”. Our taxi driver assured us that our hostel was just a little bit further up. We started walking up hoping we wouldn't get jumped and then we found it, and the place was actually okay even though it was called the Victory Queen and we had to share a double bed the first night, Ollie tried to hide his excitement.

The next day we had another walking tour which didn't cost a great deal as it revolved around walking a fair distance around Hanoi city centre, at least we would earn our meals that way. The streets in Hanoi definitely had more of an old Western feel, most likely this was down to the French. Our walk started at the lake in the middle of the city which already made it more picturesque than Saigon (Ho-Chi-Minh). From the lake we made our way through the narrow streets to the market which was surprisingly large. Here we saw a fish try to jump out of it's tank but it seemed to have second thoughts in mid-air about suicide and just landed back in it's tank. We then got a little lost after veering off the track looking for food so we missed out on seeing a street full of toy shops that day. When finally returning to the track we visited a cathedral although we couldn't go in because it opened at stupid o'clock in the morning and for a couple of hours in the evening. We then got a bite to eat before a stop of at the Fanny's in Hanoi to get some more of that tasty ice-cream. After our break guess where we went next, I bet you can.

Yes that's right a museum, the revolutionary museum of Hanoi to be exactly. Even though we have already seen a lot of museums we still got kicked out before we got all the way round, what can I say we just just like to get our monies worth.

Walk The Plank - Halong Bay, Vietnam

We took an early morning bus from Hanoi to Halong which took about 3 hours. During which, Ollie spotted two guys and a buffalo on a motorbike. I unfortunately missed this but saw something similar on the way back.

On arrival in Halong we proceeded to our boat, there were so many tourist boats it was like encountering the Spanish armada but maybe just a little less threatening with cannons replaced by sun loungers. When we eventually set sail (a couple of Americans typically holding us up) we had lunch which was a little odd cause we sat at tables with strangers sharing food. I suppose this is nice in a way cause you are forced into conversing. I have to admit the weather wasn't amazing it was very much like a British summer say about 22 C and overcast. This wasn't ideal as the views of the islands in Halong Bay were slightly limited due to the mist, having said that you could still see quite some distance very clearly. I can see why is it a natural wonder of the world that's for sure, there are just so many little islands and with that cover it makes the ocean seem more like a lake, so incredibly calm.

We had a couple of activities planned for the day. The first was visiting a cave which gave some spectacular views over the islands below. The cave itself was also quite impressive it reminded me of the cavern that the fellowship have to go through in Lord of the Rings, mainly because of its natural features combined with the man made steps. After, we got back on the boat to go kayaking. It is worth mentioning that there were many other boats all doing the same sort of tour so whenever we had to moor, the boats would pretty much just push each other out of the way to create space, like boat bumper cars............'bumper boats'. Kayaking was great fun me and Ollie were in the same kayak and after a few seconds to get our coordination we were pros. We headed in the opposite direction to most circling round a rock before heading back in the other direction at some pace (we were learnding now). We overtook an Aussie couple before heading back via a small cave which was too tight to turn so we ended up reversing. Our last stop of the day was a small island setup to be a swimming area. It was quite late now and not really too warm so no-one besides myself even paddled in the water. The area also had a view point which involved climbing a few steps (shame that the weather wasn't amazing it would have been a good spot to see the sunset, oh well you can't have it all your own way).

In the evening we were separated for dinner. Ollie was on a table with four Aussies about the same age as our parents (basically old) and a Swiss guy, and I was seated with an English couple, a Chinese couple and a Portuguese girl (interesting mix). We had our dinner then sat around talking to the people at our tables for a little while before I joined Ollie with the Aussies, who probably kept a couple of families for a little while on all the booze they purchased.

The following morning we woke up thankfully before the boat blew it's horn. We then changed boat to head back to the harbour to get some lunch on LAND!! While making our final tour around the islands guess what???????

It started to rain a reminder of England which we quite enjoyed, while most other people went and hide inside.


Return of the Hanoi – Hanoi, Vietnam

After our trip to Halong we had till about 6pm to view the city for the final time, well at least for another 4 and a bit months. We took it pretty easy but we wanted to go to a street cafe and get the local food, we headed back to the cathedral and found the one particular cafe that smelt awesome when we were on the walking tour. We were clueless what was on the menu but luckily for us the owner was an expert in languages and recognised the international sign for hungry. She pointed at a number of different items in front of her and held up a 20,000 Dong note (less than £1). I have to say this was one of our best meals in Vietnam making us wish that we when to more cafe place for food but on the other hand it was a good way to finish Nam.

We walked around for the last time time taking a final look at Vietnam and we finally saw the dog meat section (apparently bad luck to eat in the first half of the month), should have got some but we were full from our quality meal earlier. We did managed to find the street full of toys that we missed on the walking tour and some how end up back at the lake even though we were sure we were heading away from it. We saw fresh beer advertised for 3000 Dong so we had to have some of that before we left.

So... sad times. That it is for Vietnam leaving me with one thing to say “Nothing's the same once you've been to Nam!”

Chillin' out maxin' relaxin' all cool - Hoi An, Vietnam

We spent three days more in Hoi An, we spent our time in the old town and at the beach. The first day was spent in the old town since we already visited the beach briefly the day before. It was the first we saw of the narrow streets common in many old Western towns. We got a pass which allowed us to visit a few attractions in town and we managed to sneak into a couple more free. After we visited the majority of the attractions we headed back out of town and in the direction of the river which led us in a loop back into town and through a market, this was where the evil flip-flops struck again. This time it was personal. I was walking along the river when the flip-flops made me slip in the mud only for me to recover my balance but this only led to further pain as I fell very awkwardly grazing most of my toes and knee, this one hurt a little!!! We then stopped at the next cafe for a much needed drink and of course a wash down of the injuries and recovery time. After that we visited the famous Japanese bridge and spent the rest of the afternoon wondering the street before going back for a late afternoon swim in the hotel pool.

The following day we spend down the beach, this was a generally chilled out day and also our first and only full day on an Asian beach. It was warm day but a comfortable temperature for us Brits to sit in the sun reading a book with the odd visit to the sea. After some lunch we continued to chill at the beach waving off the constant Vietnam women trying to sell us various items before the 3km trek back to the hotel.

Our last day in Hoi An we sorted out payment for the room and transport to Hanoi. We decided to fly to Hanoi as it was near enough the same price as the train which would have taken 15 hours and arrived at 4am!!! The flight was in the evening giving us the day, in which we headed to town to have a look around the shops and for me to finally buy some postcards in which some awesome haggling skills were used (me sticking to a price and not moving). After that small victory we got a big lunch, we had six courses for only £4 and the quality of the food was second to none. After a last look around town we headed back to the hotel and waited for the taxi and eventually our plane (it was delayed by about an hour, our first delay of the trip hopefully we won't get any longer than this).

Evil Flip-Flops!!!! - Hoi An, Vietnam

After waking up a few times in the night I finally got up, well sat up since we were still on the train, at about 8am. Amazingly didn't sleep too badly considering it was on a train in a small cabin. What is more amazing was that we still had another 4 hours till we arrived in Da Nang, but time past pretty swiftly with the help of reading and music.

On arrival we got a taxi from Da Nang to Hoi An since it was about 30 km, the roads seemed empty in comparison to what we had seen on roads in Asia so far and we also saw the sea in Asia for the first time on our journey. When we arrived we decided to walk the 3km to the nearest beach most people got a bike (motor or pedal) but we decided we didn't want to spend the money when we could walk it. This was the day where the evil flip-flops would first strike. They made me slip on a curb and graze my knee, I just got up and continued walking as if nothing had happened although it stung like hell. The beach was pretty empty and we had a little paddle and rest before heading back via a cafe to get some cold drinks.

Go Chi Minh - Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam

Today we followed a guided walk which began at a large roundabout with a monument at its centre which was opposite the central Market.

Crossing the road in Ho Chi Minh was a small victory every single time, you kind of have to step out and play dodge the motorbike.

The city didn't have to many street sellers but it turned out they were just in the market, every single stall tried to sell us shorts, t-shirts, anything really, it doesn't seem to easy to browse in Asia generally. Next stop was the otherwise of the roundabout (pulls shirt collar) we made it eventually and started heading in the direction of the art museum which happened to be closed on a Monday, we later found out. Next up was the street market followed by fannys, we found the street market easy enough but we were really struggling to find fannys, okay fannys is an ice cream parlour that the walk recommended :D

Just as it looked like we wouldn't find it we found the road it was meant to be on and there it was, we were very happy. The next stop was the revolutionary museum showing the city through the ages, it also had a couple having their wedding photos taken. The war museum followed via the cathedral which gave us a lot of info on the Vietnam war as well as tanks, planes and guns and that was just the cathedral. We were running way behind schedule now so decided to walk to the Saigon river and grab a drink. The time problem was fine cause we had booked a night train to Da Nang the next day so we had plenty of time to check out the remaining attractions then.

The next day as planned we took our time to get ready as our train was booked for 7pm. When we finally got bored of watching TV in the room we set out to find the history museum, this was a fair walk from our hotel, a lot further than it seemed the other day. I can't say it was the most interesting museum because it wasn't but it was definatley worth a visit.

We didn't really have enough time to visit anywhere else so we decided to walk back in the direction of our hostel to get some food and drinks before the longest train journey of our lives. On our way back we walked through a park (well bit of green anyway) and sat down on a bench, it was hot and we were thirsty. When a couple of vietnamese students came over, we thought they are probably trying to sell us something cause everytime people engage you in conversation they are normally trying / doing that. It turned out that they were just interested to know a bit about England and wanted help with their English pronunciation. One of them was called Yu and I nearly made THE JOKE but didn't think he would understand. It made us happy that there were people who didn't care about selling us stuff and just wanted to talk.

We then went to get some food as we had planned then picked our bags up and got a taxi to the train station. Eventually we found out that our train was in front of us it was just waiting. After having our ticket checked throughly we proceed to our cabin which was for four people, we were hoping to have it to ourselves that wasn't to be, oh well. The worst thing about the train journey was the annoying music that was playing, this was due to every track skipping but did they turn it off..... NO!!!

Good morning Vietnam - Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam

Just passed the border and all passport control sucks although at least this one sucked with air con. Oh, if you didn't know the Vietnamese eat anything and since passing the boarder I've already seen about 3 motorbikes with dogs in cages.

We still had a few more hours on the bus! It wasn't really good morning Vietnam got to Ho Chi Minh (Saigon) late afternoon and was surprised to see zero tuk-tuks, how I wish there were tuk-tuks (funny that) as we had to get a taxi to our hotel. Travel days, at the moment, you have probably figured out doesn't really involve us doing much when we get to our destination. Although to be fair most attractions have been shut by the time we arrive.

Oh Cruel World – Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Being in the capital we thought we had to see The Killing Fields and the genocide museum.

Completely off topic now but one thing about the cambodian people that makes me slightly angry is their disregard for the state of their own streets. I just saw a car open it's window and chuck rubbish on the floor thing is everyone seems to do it!

I wasn't to sure what to expect when visiting The Killing Field but it just depressed the hell out of me it is crazy to think that this was only in the 1970s and the people responsible only paid for their crimes a couple of years ago (if they hadn't died already). We both felt bad taking photos so only have a couple. The memorial tower contained all the bones including skulls recovered from the graves in that Killing Field, it was quite eerie .

Now for something uplifting,..... Oh wait we visited the genocide museum, (hangs head again). This was a former school whose classrooms were turned into cells and it provided us with a massive history lesson on what exactly happened during the Khmer Rouge, weird thing is it all started with a guy named Pal Pot who studied in France and joined the French Communist Party, so I blame the French, and of course the Americans :D

After this we ended up going for a walk and got some beers followed by some food and more beers to get over this interesting but generally depressing day.

On the road again, just can't wait to get on the road again - Phnom Penh, Cambodia

Another long bus journey, yay! I was just chilling having finished the catcher in the rye (cheers Chris, anyone else I would recommend it). Watching some I think Chinese guy sitting in front of me nodding off and sacking his head off the window, it made me laugh (man I'm nearly as bad as Pete). When we finally made it we were mobbed by Cambodians trying to get us to pay for their tuk-tuk service, we had no idea what had hit us and ended up at the Okay guest house as we had heard of this one before (it was actually as the name says OK). We then had a wonder (which Ollie told me not to say to tuk-tuk drivers as it just confuses them, I hadn't really given it much thought but i guess he is right) to the river and then along it where we surprisingly stopped for a beverage and some free pool. After we looked around for local food which we found quite cheap and more importantly tasty and then "walked" back.

Dropping Angkor? (yeah i know its bad, i can't think of anything else) - Siem Reap, Cambodia

We visited more temples round Angkor Wat mainly around the north and west with there being a couple of kilometres between each temple. Boy, were we glad to have a tuk-tuk. All the temples were like something out of Indiana Jones (Aubri i believe you might just have appreciated this more than most) this was echoed by some yank that we briefly met later in the day. I was interested to know why all the heads of the statues were missing, Ollie had a couple of theories. The first being the statues had a design flaw in the neck. I can't actual remember the other, mine was Henry VIII had visited. Turnout I was wrong and they were cut off to sell to collectors, shame I thought my theory was sound. After visiting lots of temples in the north and west we ended up back at Angkor Thom as we felt we didn't quite do it justice yesterday and we also had some time to kill before heading to the mountain temple to see the sunset. We planned to meet our tuk-tuk driver at a restaurant, when we finally got to it we were asked if we would like a cold drink or something to eat, they would always run out at the tourists trying to sell something, we said no and she said "Are you looking for your driver, Mr Rosa.... He's asleep, I'll just get him." he was a very sleepy man we had to wake him up a couple of times before, we then made our way up to the mountain temple. We got a good view of Angkor Wat from the very top amongst other attractive scenery. We had to wait a little while for the sunset but it was a good end to the day.

Oh.... I forgot to mention the actual steps up to the top well they we very steep, narrow and quite tricky to climb up (mum I really don't think you would have made it). So coming down was fun after the sun had set but we made it down eventually. All the temples were impressive but they all lacked something..... A giant slide down would make climbing up all those stairs so much better.

Angkor what? - Siem Reap, Cambodia

The name was inspired by a t-shirt we saw for a night bar in I assume Siem Reap. Today we went to visit the modern wonder of the world Angkor Wat the area itself was massive, a bit of history reckoned that it was the first city with 1 million people (I'm not so sure about that but it gives you an idea of the size of the place). The first place we visited was the Angkor Wat itself, when we got off the tuk-tuk we knew we were in for a battle today, we were surrounded by locals asking if
wanted to buy things from them (kids as young as about 6 at times, it can be hard to say you aren't going to buy stuff from them as they are just nice). I have no idea how this place is not a wonder of the world the architecture and sheer size is captivating. We spend quite a while here destroying our camera battery life as we went. It was well worth the ridiculous bus journey to get to here and the slight expense to get in. It is also worth mentioning that there seemed to be a lot of wedding photos being taken here I mean who wouldn't want their photo taken there. On the way back to the tuk-tuk we again got mobbed by locals, resistance seemed futile as a local put a book in my hand and
wouldn't take it back despite we saying I really didn't want it. I managed to hold strong even though in the end after trying to sell it to me for $20 she offered it to me for $8. One of us mentioning no
names bought the same book for $15. We were then taken to an area known as Angkor Thom where we had a 2 hour trek round the temples starting with a temple called the Bayen. They were all pretty impressive, you kinda have to check out the photos but you really just have to go, I think I could get a job with the Cambodian tourist board. The walking almost killed us as we were in the heat of the day so we were very glad to finally sit down at a restaurant and recharge. We explored more temples after this including my favourite excluding Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, it was the temple used in tomb raider. It was a little walk into the wilderness a little bit of information from the book told us it was being left generally in the condition it was found. The thing I like most about it was that it was very open and the trees were as much a part of the structure as the stones themselves.

It was a shame later cause it clouded over as we were sitting by a large lake reflecting on the day. It would have been a good place to see the sunset. We got back on the tuk-tuk and headed back for a much needed shower!

The Wheels On The Bus – Bangkok, Thailand to Siem Reap, Cambodia

It was another earlish start we had a long bus journey about 12 hours, there isn't too much you can tell people about a bus journey. On first impressions Cambodia seems very flat, accepts the us dollar pretty much anywhere and being on a bus for 12 hours sucks!

Out Of The Movies- Somewhere between Kanchanaburi and Bangkok, Thailand

So today was our last in the jungle before heading back to the chaos of Bangkok. To start the day we saw our residence on the river Kwai for the last time before visiting a national park, Erawan falls. It took a little while to get there and on first impressions it didn't look too interesting and it had a lot to live up to given yesterdays activities. But what a place! This was definitely the best waterfall I have seen there were seven levels to scale and we made it our quest to make it to the seventh.

Pause.... I am currently sitting under a tree at a railway station writing this as we are waiting for more people to get on the bus. OoOoOo I see Ollie trying to take a picture of me from the platform about 50 metres away.

Back after a short intermission..... We walked down a small road at the start which didn't fill us with awe then we saw a few small waterfalls this was tier 1 shortly followed by a sign to tier 2 and another telling us to beware of fierce monkeys. There was a pretty nice area there with a big waterfall and nice lake for swimming, there were a lot of people already there and we thought we should reach the top before going for a swim so that we could check out each bit. What a move that turned out to be as tier 4 had rocks that could be used as a waterslide! Yes a waterslide! Anyway onward and upward first still had to make it to tier 7 (about 1800 metres from the start) the further we went the more the path began to disappear so by the sixth tier it was a case of scrambling up rocks and across the waterfall itself (quite amazed we didn't fall). Having reached the seventh tier or what we believe to be the seventh tier, we were tired and very hot and were very pleased to see that the water there was crystal clear (we climbed a little further but couldn't see a good route higher). After a little swim with the fish that decided to try to eat us we started our descent to find the water slide. It turned out we only had enough time to swim in tier 4, a big shout out to tier 3 hopefully one day I'll be back. When trying to climb to the top of the slide I fell over, closely followed
by Ollie in near enough the same place. The slide was so worth it although I managed to fall over a couple more times. We only had about twenty minutes to get back but ended up stopping at tier 2 as they were filming something which we found out later might be someone from CSI: New York.

Ps. Still don't understand this jet lag haven't had any problems with time change so far.

Elephants, tigers and rafting – Kanchanaburi, Thailand

A very interesting day started early to bath with elephants. The Aussies, Irish and a couple more English guys joined us, we happened to get the biggest elephant, fantastic! It was great fun the elephant walked around in the river trying it's best to knock us off, felt like a rodeo. Although the elephant wasn't listening to the trainer at times we didn't think too much of this....

After some breakfast back at the boat we went bamboo rafting which involved a very short boat trip to the rafts followed by a tow upstream before being released to float down the river, which after a little peer pressure I jumped in and floated down the Kwai for a while. Straight after we went to ride elephants, see where this heading yet? We happened to get the last elephant surprisingly the same one we had down the river. The elephant seemed to think it was a race and went at quite a pace which was slightly uncomfortable, then when we got past a couple of elephants ahead of us it went a little rogue. It kinda went off track a little and what best can be described as attack a tree causing both me and Ollie to think that we were going to be thrown off. Luckly this didn't happen and although our elephant overtook all the others by about halfway it seemed to calm down a little (we both were glad we got back intact). After that ordeal we had lunch back at the boat before heading to the tiger temple, yay! As you can tell I wasn't really interested in seeing tigers. First thing we happened to do we read the leaflet that was given to us which I first read the sentence "are your tigers drugged" which I thought was a little odd but the answer below said something along the lines of they are tame and it is too hot in the day. Anyway, the first place we reached was the tiger
cannon where we were greeted by a guy who informed us that someone could take photos with our camera for free while we are guided round a few tigers we could pet. I have to explain that we were guided round by people holding our hands. Luckily for me I got a hot Thai girl, Ollie on the other hand didn't but said later "that it was the most action he has had for a while" (well at least since the massage). The tigers themselves were doing what most animals in that heat do, lie down looking like their dead (we felt like copying them a lot) but it was an awesome experience check the photos! Next up we stumbled across the tiger waterfall which happened to have 4 tiger cubs this was even
better plus when we were there the weren't many people so we got to stroke them for a little while. The funniest moment of the day also happened here as this Japanese lady had a long skirt with yellow elephants on (we were told not to wear yellow, orange or red). She walked close by a cub when it was quite active it had a claw at her skirt and the bit it and didn't let go until one of the staff made it, even funnier was the fact that she was really stupid and walked by it again with the cub clawing at it again and a little later when they were walking the cubs somewhere else she nearly got caught again.