My First Holiday...........

Off to the North West I go with some fellow intrepid travellers, the idea was to 'do' the train from Phnom Penh to Battambang ( 18 hour journey on a freight train !) but were thwarted at the first hurdle (not running until 2013 so an unlikely achievement......but we did manage to travel for an hour on a bamboo train when we finally got to Battamabang on a bus...reminded of a rather hilarious journey I took when I was last in France....) . Battambang is a very pleasant province near the border with Thailand, its got quite a Parisienne feel to it....river almost made me feel like I was walking along the Seine , coupled with lots of french colonial architecture just added to the overall french feeling about it....visited some Ankorian temples and wats and even had my feet nibbled by a pool full of fish !

After 4 days I was pondering whether to take the boat to Siem Reap as planned as people were telling me it would take 14 hours ! I stuck to my guns and glad I did and it only took 9 hours! Some hairy moments when we got stuck on sandbanks (the river is very low at the moment ) but we made it without having to jump into the water and push! Passed lots of lovely scenery including some floating villages and arrived in Siem Reap (where Ankor Wat is but thats for another time, this was about the boat journey) to find that I'd arrived in what I can only describe as the Costa Del Sol of Cambodia !!

I started my journey home at 5.30am and arrived at 7.30pm but it could have taken 24 hours, it was only having Gideon halt the bus at the half way point that ensured I got home in one day......like they say, its all about knowing the right people !! happy days.....

He's come out !!

It's got to be one of the highlights so far......Tum has come out of the monkhood!! (not sure if that's quite the right term!) It was an incredible celebration of somebody who I admire a great deal. He lost all his family under the Khmer Rouge and became a monk and has been working for the poorest people in North East Cambodia. He set up an NGO which aims to empower people affected by HIV/AIDS amongst other things and feels that he will achieve more by coming out......here are the photos from the celebration and I must say it was an absolute honour to have been there