From Sihanoukville to Koh Rong Sanloem
The end of our time in Angkor inevitably arrived, and with it, an emotional goodbye to our two fine men, to Alberto and to Bumper/Dad: we had had such an unforgettable time together, immersed in the power of travel. To be apart again was so terribly unfair. BUT, it was time once again for girl […]
Battambang and the circus
From here it was to Battambang. An interminable and non-descriptive journey if truth be told, but finally salvation arrived in the shape of the Sanctuary hotel, just outside the centre. A funny place: ostensibly perfect, a nice pool, decent size rooms, bamboo shaded seating area… but it was missing something we never quite put our […]
Into Phnom Penh
The only complaint we had about wonderful, chaotic, romantic, shabby yet sophisticated Phnom Penh was not having enough time to explore it. Two days hardly gave us time to scratch the surface of its history, temples, museums, and restaurants. Gently chaotic, we meandered happily through the streets past the palace and national Museum, along the […]
Rice farming in Laos: plentiful water buffalo poo
Our final stop before making our way to Cambodia, now into our last month of travel, was a hugely enjoyable visit to a rice farm cooperative, known as Living Farm, about 15 minutes outside Luang Prabang. Originally just a small organic farm enterprise, it now supports seven families who live on the farm, employing agriculture […]
Luang Prabang: love at first sight
A city of 80,000 that retains a good deal of French colonial past in its patisseries and buildings, Luang Prabang is a place you can fall in love with. The pace is slow, lingering perfection, bikes and tuk tuks, fruit shakes, pancakes, and noodle soups from the street food stalls. Lao people are surely the […]
The mighty Mekong to Luang Prabang
Dawn broke and we took a 90 minute drive down towards the Thai-Laos border at Chiang Kong. Paperwork, taxes, and some more taxes later we were officially in Laos, Land of a Thousand Elephants. A further short bus ride after customs, along with the to be expected extortionate tourist tax and visa, and we were […]
Our Bamboo nest with the hill-tribes in the mountains of Chiang Rai, and our ‘death walk’
The next stop after a brief night layover in Manila was a 4am flight to Chiang Rai via Bangkok. This was a defining moment: we had asked for wake up calls for both rooms in our Remington airport hotel. The two of us still getting dressed, at 3am walk in, hiking boots and backpacks in […]
Paradise found in El Nido
Next stage beckoned: after our relatively monastic life at camp, we were family reunited once again and ready to travel north to see the marvels of El Nido. Poor Alberto was so jet lagged he could hardly keep his eyes open, but our typically insane driver made sure he was as uncomfortable as possible, careering […]
Angkor – still a heaven on earth
Alberto and I had last been in Angkor 12 years previous, and fell in love with every corner. It was a magical place of smiling people, deserted temples that apart from Angkor Wat itself, were not hugely visited by the hordes. We spent hours sitting alone staring, in my case, or drawing, in his, at […]