Right, I realize it's been a while since I've last posted, and I do apologise, I will attempt to do some catching up now.

But first, I would just like to express my utmost hatred for not only PC's, but Cambodian PC's, which seem to have - in the space of a fortnight - burnt my amazing Angkor photos weirdly onto CD, not allowed me to insert said CD into any cd drive, apart from one openable only by a toothpick, and seemingly destroyed/not recognised the CD's after insertion.
Which means that I have now lost 50% of my Cambodia photos, including the ones I wanted most, from Angkor.

Note to internet cafe owners of the world - BUY A BLOODY MAC! [As exampled by Pete ;) ]

With that rant out the way...


We have now been in Cambodia for 3 weeks now, and there is a noticeable difference between here and Thailand. For as start, as soon as we crossed the border, it was obvious that Cambodia was visibly poorer (despite the casinos the have sprung up on the border town being as gambling is illegal in Thailand).
Given Cambodia's history, even up until recent times, it was amazing to see that the people are still so openly happy and friendly. They speak better English that most of the Thais, which is pretty dedicated seeing as they have to pay for private lessons out of school.
Some of the taxi/tuk-tuk drivers are pretty perverted it has to be said, I've had my parts openly stared at many a time now, although whatever dodgy remarks are made, they are thankfully made in Khmer, so we don't get what they mean. (Although sometimes gestures are enough). This was an annoyance at first, although now we've learnt to ignore it the same way you ignore builders back home.
One amusing thing about the Cambodian people is that they wear pyjamas. In the daytime. Ness and I haven't quite figured the reason for this yet. We think it boils down to two factors:-

1. They don't know that they are pyjamas, and instead think them to be a great fashion invention of matching top and bottoms

2. They realise that they are nightwear, but being as it's too hot (for us Westerners at least) to actually wear them at night, they wear them in the daytime so as to get some use out of them


We could perhaps ask someone the reason for wearing pyjamas, but I don't much fancy explaining the actual function of pyjamas to them if they didn't previously know. It's far nicer to leave it as a mystery I think.

Thinking of amusing Cambodian things, there is also an unhealthy addiction to Karaoke here. And absolutely rubbish, cheesiest of the cheese Cambodian songs kareoke. Ness and I have been forced to watch quite a bit of the stuff (it comes in poorly shot music videos) during bus journeys, although you soon learn to block the Godawful noise out. One thing I did learn about Cambodian music (and videos) is that the theme 90% of the time is :- Guy pisses off Girl, Guy gets persuaded by friends to grovel to Girl, Girl does or does not choose to forgive Guy (slight variation in the videos with that part).
Ness is sat next to me now, and has reckoned that it is closer to 100% of videos with this theme.
Either way, it is a high percentage of bloody annoying madness.

I was going to write about some of the places we have been in this post, but as mentioned before, PC's in Cambodia are ABSOLUTE BASTARDS, and I can't be bothered to sit here for another 10 minutes whilst the rest of my sentence turns up on the screen, I waited 30 seconds for a full stop a minute ago, and I'm afraid that was the end of my tether.

When I find a normal computer and more patience/sanity, I will finish about the places we've been to.