Whew... One whole week with no email available! Do you realize how long that is to be out of touch with the rest of the world? Well, I'm finally in a city that has decent (aka not too expensive) internet cafes. So, for those of you following where I am, I made it from Savannakhet, Laos all the way to Phnom Penh, Cambodia in the past week.

Savannakhet was an ok city to hang out in - Stuart and I found the sketchiest guesthouse to stay in and had some fun throwing things from our balcony down to the kids living in the store across the street. After awhile, of course, we walked down there and ended up helping them with their English homework. I think that whole city just wanted to practice their English on us - combined I think we spent hours and hours talking to various people who came up to us "Can I practice my English?" But it was fun to meet some locals and get an inside view on life in Savannakhet.

From Savannakhet we moved down to Pakse - mostly just as a stopover on the way to Si Phan Don. But I actually really liked that city and would have liked to spend some time there. But the visa wasn't going to let that fit in. But we did have a semi-adventure there! We both got something from Tham Lot Kong Lo - red itchy bumps that started where our pants/shorts ended and on our forearms (t-shirts). Now, these bumps weren't spreading but they itched like hell! So in Pakse we broke down and went to a doctor to at least get some relief. After a lot of pantomiming (no, they didn't itch more in the rain; no, we weren't feeling sick; no, they weren't spreading; yes, they itched unbearably) we got some little white pills in a small bag. Now, getting little white pills in a small bag is a bit scary so we asked what we were getting. Vitamin B! Guess all we had was a vitamin deficiency. Or at least getting more vitamin B would cure all ails. We also got these pills that she (the doctor) called Arelax but there's no such drug so who knows what they really are. Supposedly they stop the itch. But anyway - a few days of more vitamin B and the bumps are gone! Life is so much nicer when you're not going crazy itching.

Si Phan Don (we went to Don Det) was amazing - just a place to chill out for a few days. Unfortunately I only had one day but I still loved it. We stayed in these bungalows along the river (cheap - only $1 per night!) and they had hammocks hanging out in front of the bungalow. So relaxing to just sit out there at night with your anti-mozzie candles for light (no electricity). Wish I could've spent more time there as well. Oh - the Si Phan Don means 4 Thousand Islands in Lao. It's a grouping of thousands of little islands in the Mekong river between Laos and Cambodia. Don Det is just one of those islands, most of which disappear during the wet season.

So after a day on Don Det I left Stuart and headed down to the Cambodian border. Not so much fun - had to pay a $5 "fine" for letting my passport get wet. Not my fault that Laos uses really crappy ink for it's stamps - all the ink ran! But they let me out of the country and I proceeded to sit on the border with a French couple and an Isreali couple. Now, we could've crossed over - all it would've taken was agreeing to pay $8 a head to get in the boat to Stung Treng, Cambodia (about an hour ride). But they wouldn't go for it - they wanted to pay only $7. I was getting really angry with them after about 2 hours of waiting and finally convinced them to agree to $8. At which time another guy came down to the border - after we had already paid unfortunately - so I would've been able to get in a boat with him except I had already paid. Oh well. Such is life. On the Cambodian side of the river I again had to pay a $5 fine cause they couldn't tell when I had entered Laos. Idiots. I actually even got a receipt for both of these fines so maybe it was a real deal - not a bribe. Anyway, got to Stung Treng eventually and again had to deal with the French arrogance. Eventually me and Olly (the guy who came 5 min too late) just got fed up with them and abandoned them in Stung Treng.

As we were wandering around Stung Treng (and what a metropolis it is) we talked to some monks which was fun. I'd gotten used to seeing the monks not really doing anything because in Laos it's sort of a holiday for the monks. But in Cambodia they were hard at work at their studies. Fun to talk to them though. Then we wandered around some more and ended up on the Mekong drinking sugar cane juice (very yummy). A couple guys who work at a hotel across from where we had parked ourselves came out to talk (aka practice their English). But we had fun chatting for a couple hours until after sunset. Sunset on the Mekong really is a beautiful thing to watch! Seems like I've done it at every city I've stopped at that's on the Mekong... After sunset we asked for a good place to grab some true Khmer food - so the guys took us to the market and showed us what we should be eating. Had a yummy dinner of various dishes, rice, and pickles. And some beer and weak ice tea of course. I was surprised though - Khmer food is really very bland. No real use of chilies like in Laos or Thailand. I'm hooked on chilies now... what will I do? :)

Next morning both me and Olly left Stung Treng for Kratie (pronounced Krachy). Boat ride was again fairly boring. Ended up going to sit on the roof of the boat as that was more interesting than sitting inside in aircon watching a bad Chinese movie. Got to Kratie in one piece, found a guesthouse, and immediately ran into Hop - a friend of Jame (one of the guys in Stung Treng). Jame had told us where to look for Hop so maybe it wasn't quite so fate-like. After we got settled in to our guesthouse and had some lunch Hop took me and Olly out to see the sights. Olly on the back of Hops motobike and me on the back of Hop's friend's motobike. So we went to the dolphin pond (really just a deeper section of the Mekong) and went out on a boat to view the Irrawaddy dolphins. Man, these dolphins look strange! They don't have any noses! After about an hour of just watching them come up for air which can be kinda boring, we went to a couple temples on a hill overlooking Kratie. Since we were there around 5 pm, the monks we had been talking too invited us to join them in a prayer session. Wow - that'd never happened before! The chanting they were doing was really beautiful to hear. We also saw some nuns! Not many of them around...

Next morning Olly headed to Siem Reap and I headed for Kompong Cham. Another boat ride down the Mekong. Kompong Cham is a bigger city than Kratie or Stung Treng but really nothing much to see. Met an English guy on the balcony of my guesthouse - he lives in Cambodia half the year with his wife and the other half of the year lives in London to earn money. Again - he was ok to hang around with until he got drunk (and stoned). Then the American abuse started... I'm getting so sick of being held responsible for what the American government did to SE Asia during the Vietnam war.

The next morning I avoided the English guy and went on another motobike ride to the sights surrounding Kompong Cham - the temple built in the 1300s with a newer temple built around it - the Khmer Rouge had destroyed the older temple. Also saw a couple temples built on hills facing eachother. With a killing field in between them - again the Khmer Rouge. It's amazing to see the scars left by the Khmer Rouge - some statues from the old temple had been brought to the killing field and used to sharpen the knives they used to kill people. Really powerful actually. I have a feeling I'm in for a lot more as I walk around Phnom Penh and the surrounding areas.

So that brings me to Phnom Penh where I am now - really now just walking around the city and orientating myself. Hopefully I'll be here for a few days so I can relax and be done with the constant moving. Found a really nice guesthouse (courtesy Stuart who lived in Phnom Penh for 6 weeks) and I'm happy here. Can't believe I only have a couple weeks left before heading back to the States!