Phenom Phen....

help!i'm stuck in phenom phen! i keep saying... "yeah, we'll leave tomorrow" and then someone comes up with a killer idea like... "oooh, let's all go to the pub!" and it's all over!

having an awesome, awesome, awesome time :)

love you guys,
simone x

Cambodia...

Ahh after an action packed, glorious month the Laos government has wised up and chucked Andre and I out of their poor defenceless country.Though they clearly didn't think this whole thing too carefully as that means that Shinead, Yee-Man and Niall have been left unchaperoned down in the four thousand islands! Oh god, those poor little islands...

Ok, so i guess i have some gaps to fill. I've been a bit off the radar lately because...well...we've been living remote. After a few days in big town Vientene we decided to head down to the Bolaven Plataeu.We did not realise that was going to neccesitate travelling on buses for hours and hours (and hours and hours... etc!). Anyway, we ended up at this little one horse town called Tat Lo which is in fact just a series of guesthouses built onto the banks of a river at the base of a waterfall. It was just lovely. The locals were really friendly and kind to us and it was a lovely place to chill out and just swing in a hammock for awhile. So, although we would have loved to stick around longer concious of our tight time frame we headed down to the islands.

The islands were a huge trip actually. No power connected, it is only generated for a couple of hours each night. And after no sleep the first night (due to some serious freaking out about the rat crawling around our hut rafters) we decided that maybe fishing would be a pretty zen thing to do. Only of course we were taken fishing in the most uncomprehendably stupidplace ever with nothing but some string tied to a stick... remind me again what i paid my $5 for? But anyway, we all made the best of the situation, swam, ate our picnic (a dry bread roll that was older than me and a banana that made the bread roll look like a spring chicken!) andhad a bitofa boat ride around the islands. but i guess it was the company that made the whole experience so much fun.

Andre and I left the girls for the first time in a month this morning. We're nowheading around Cambodia (but i'll get to that momentarily) but the girls havealready been here so they'reheading back to thailand to do some mediation and then get shinaed a flight back to ireland. Yee-man will continue on with us through the thai islands, malaysia and indonesia.although that whole schedule is looking a little shaky as we seem to have simply lost two weeks of time. not quite sure how that happened! but we will endevour! we're spending about two weeks in Cambodia, which sounds like a dream after Laos. Roads that are smooth; cool, clean, cheap accomodation and street food that doesn't put the fear of god into me. Not that i didn't adore Laos and want to cry as we were leaving!

So right now we're in a town in Cambodia called Kratie. There are apparently a whole bunch of dolphins hanging around near here so we'regoing to go check that tomorrow before heading to Phomn Phen (allegedly because i want to see S-21, a museum about the Pol Potregieme and the Khmer Rouge...but actually i hear they do fantastic cake by the lake there!But shh... don't tell anyone!) then Angkor Wat and after that..well...we'll let you know for sure when we're sure!

ok, i'd better go... there are no words for how expensive this internet access is!! keep emailing though guys... i miss you stacks and can't wait to see you at home soon :)

simone xxx

Buddah Park, Vientene, Laos...

Got heaps of money to splash around? Why NOT build an enormous park filled with images of Hindu and Buddist characters and charge admittion to any sucker willing to catch the bus an hour out of town to visit? Actually, it was a smashing day, we had so much fun taking stupid photos with things. A huge laugh. Thought I'd share a couple with you... and of course it was highly sacreligious to climb all over these things, we prefer (in the immortal words of homor j. simpson) the term "sacrelicious"... I particularlly like the photo of the hell mouth, which is an actual physical mouth!




Awww, who would suspect these two girls of trouble? Especially in the company of a giant reclining buddah!









Me and the overview of Buddah Park. Taken from the top of the giant call that is supposed to represent the underworld. it's where you go after you enter the hell mouth. very odd!

Entering the hell mouth at buddah park...

Anyway, I'm heading off in a few days to the south of Laos. Only about ten days left on our visa before we have to head to Cambodia, so we're going to make the most of it by visiting some coffee country and the islands down south.

Love you guys,

Simone xxx

Photos from Laos...

Yee-man in a jar at... suprise, suprise... the plain of jars!











At the waterfalls near Luang Prabang; from left to right: Me, Andre, George, Hannah, Dee and Yee-man. This is about ten seconds before Yee-man face planted into the lagoon!






Me at a waterfall... boring huh?












Two gorgeous girls in traditional dress sitting on the temple steps.







Monks ae a common place sight in this part of the world. Some of them are really devout and wouldn't consider even looking at a woman. some are really casual and easy going. You can certainly always tell the ones who are just doing their mandatoy monk time... because they chat you up, or as happened to andre... tell you a dirty joke!

vang vieng...

had the BEST day yesteday!!! went down the mekong river in a tractor inner tyre, drank buckets of thai rum (literally, it comes in a bucket, is mixed with this cheap asian version of red bull, some coke and a dash of lime), oodles of lao beer and hung out with a cool quebequean named william. he saved poor yee-man from floating away down the river to an imminent death more times than i can count. it was awesome. the others contented themselves with jumping of as many ridiculously high rope swings as they could find. as i am a big sook with heights (and basically anything that involves chucking yourself off of a functional object) i contented myself to chatting to every person who would even look at me. as a result we now know lots of smashing people in vang vieng.

vang vieng is a little touristy but after the backwaters of phonsavan it is a welcome change. we went up to phonsavan to see the plain of jars... supposedly mystic and beautiful and remote... sure, they'e nice... but i don't like to throw the term over rated around. but seriously, when the shoe fits! to be fair, i did know it was going to be fairly awful, i was just going to take some photos.... which by the way i got and were fantastic. what i did NOT know was that i was going to get violently ill up on the plain of jars and have to wander into a mine field to do so. but hey, scary as hell, but i'm still here to tell the story!

in othe news, william and i wandered into a lao party last night and had such a great time! we wee quickly befriended by these local people who kept plying us with beer (like i hadn't aleady had enough tubing!!) and getting us to do this traditional laos cicle dance, which somehow denegrates into laos pop and jumping around half way through! still, a good time had by all.

anyway, i'd better keep it brief, but let it suffice to say that i am going to hit one of the friends bars (there are about six restuants who play nothing but friends all the time. andre and i got stuck there for eight hous the other day!!) and i'm going to convince myself that i'm not really as sickly and hung over as i think i am. it's just a phase, i'll grow out of it!

oh yeah, so after this? we're going kayaking fo a day o two i think, and then heading to the vientene (the capital) to have a look around and to get our cambodian visa. that is... if we ever make it out of vang vieng!

love you guys, miss you soooooo much. please write and tell me all you filthy gossip and lies, i love it. also a HUGE congrats to my bother michael and his fiance lesley who are expecting an addition to their lovely family in august. hooray! did i mention i am now insufferably clucky? well, more so than usual! congrats again...

love,
simone xxx