Sihanoukville

We left Siem Reap and headed to the coast via Phnom Penh which is the capital of Cambodia.  We stayed here for one night and got the bus down to Sihanoukville which has a number of beaches on the Gulf of Thailand.  After a long old bus journey we finally arrived and after much bartering got a ride to Otres Beach which was apparently not so crazy built up and fairly quiet we set off for Otres.

Siem Reap

On first impression Siem Reap feels much like an Indian city.  The rickshaws and the beeping and the smells all felt like I could be in an Cambodian/Indian city. We found a big clean room with a TV for $5 a night which I was happy with.   There was still building work going on but it was fine because it seems every guesthouse we stay in has some form of building work going on...

Kratie

We eventually arrived in Kratie which was alright.  I couldn't really say much about it.  We were there only for a couple of days.

Don Det

Don Det is just one of the islands that are dotted about in the middle of the Mekong river.  You bus it to a certain point and then get on a tiny boat.

Vang Vieng

After much procrastination we decided to head south to Vang Vieng which has a reputation as the party capital of Laos.  I wanted to go just to see what it was all about and also because I'd heard that there  was a lot of beauty that was overshadowed by its unfortunate reputation.

Minibus of doom!

Luang Prabang

Our journey into Laos started with a sad farewell to Chiang Mai and a bus ride to Chaing Rai which is somewhere that we would have gone had it not been for our overstay drama.  From there we boarded a local bus to the border town which is where we would cross the river into Laos.  The bus journey kind of reminded me of our Indian bus rides in rickety old tin cans that may or may not get you there. Apart from a eccentric American who kept trying to smoke on the bus and rain leaking onto me it all went swimmingly.

Chiang Mai

The bus from Sukhothai to Chiang Mai took about 5hrs and was great as we were lucky enough to get a seat. We were set upon immediately by taxi drivers, songthaews, tour guides.  We managed to get in a crowded songthaew which is a converted pickup truck type affair which dropped us off nowhere near our guesthouse as we had been led to believe.  Thankfully the centre of Chiang Mai isn't too big so we managed to trek and find the Mojito House Guesthouse which was to be our abode for the night.