Cambodia & Laos

It was at this period of time of decided to continue my travels to the Koh Mak, Koh Chang, Trat and into Cambodia for a couple of weeks. It was here I learnt one important rule when travelling. Don’t always depend on visa cards to cover your travel costs. I had travelled to , the capital Phenom Phen Cambodia where I visited the famous Ankor Wat and lot’s more temples in Siam Reap where I eventually landed on the border of Laos in a guest house. I was unable to pay my guest house bill and ended up in a full scale argument about how I should pay as they didn’t except visa cards and I’d ran out of cash until I could get to a money changer kiosk. After a full scale argument that almost blew out of all proportion with a coach driver several policemen, the guest house manager and myself all in a circle in the middle of the road waiting for a fight. This was something that will never leave my mind when I dropped my bag thinking they were going to start on me. This craziness would have seen me in hospital. The guest house manager was able to trust me travelling back into Phenom Phen , only if I left my expensive digital camera with him at the guest house. I agreed to this compromise and returned to the city in a free taxi with six other travellers sat in the car. I was sat in between the gear stick and the front seat passenger and the driver. The whole journey took half the time the bus had taken on the way there and in some ways really freaked me out with worry. We travelled along a new route which was a recently completed new road, so you can imagine how fast the journey took with no other means other than getting all six people back into the city as fast as possible. We arrived at the city; I changed some money from my visa, booked into a guest house for the evening and slept. The morning after I did the tourist thing around the temples and finally returned to pay the guest house manager up on the Laos border. My camera was returned and apologised for the inconvenience.

The journey into Laos was amazing as I managed to get off the tourist track and walked along the Mekong River in search of a boat. I managed to find a local barge and hitched a lift into a small village where I was able to continue in a four wheel drive vehicle laid on at the port of entry. The Mekong is amazing experience meeting the locals on the boat. I remember the one old man having a whole set of gold teeth. I didn’t ask him where I he obtained the gold but I remember reading gold was once a major mineral resource of Cambodia. I laughed at the forty eight inch television at the back of the boat and wondered where it was heading.

Laos was a wonderful experience although there wasn’t much to see until reaching Veng Vienne, a small town in the foothills of the Laos Mountains. There was a beautiful river flowing through the town where travellers partied and swam throughout the day with loud music and plenty of beer flowing. I spent Christmas in Laos which was incredible sat by the fire in a bar listening to Christmas songs throughout the night. The guest house was clean cheap and had lots of facilities such as television, pool table and a bar. The manager was a young British guy who had decided to stay on for a few years to work there. On Christmas day I purchased a Christmas meal ticket for around ten dollars and had a great party with lots of other travellers. I was now coming towards the end of my trip which took back through Thailand to Bangkok and eventually home to the United Kingdom.