Party Politics and Pyjamas

Well, my idea of an island paradise at the South of Laos turned out to be not quite what I expected! Laos is a landlocked country (no beach) but there is a place right at the bottom of it called the 'Four Thousand Islands" which is basically a load of islands on the Mekong River. So I had the idea in my head of relaxing on a hammock on the beach, cocktail in hand, a fancy bungalow with all the mod-cons....errr no! Quite the opposite. Turns out the island has only been accepting tourists for like, 5 years and everything was soooo basic! The best accommodation we could find was a wooden bungalow with a cold shower and a squat toilet - not quite the luxury a girl needs! The island only has electricity from 6 - 11pm so after that unless you had a torch you were basically stuck, the entire island was pitch black... scary! We did, however, have a fantastic time there. We met up with a guy (Alan) we'd originally met months ago in Goa, we'd flukely met up again in Luang Prabang and now we bumped into him again!! He was travelling with two Finnish guys and we all had a really fun few days together. The island was really going back to basics. It was a beautiful place, the tourist's bungalows are actually in the midst of the local's houses so it was great to hear and watch them going about their business every day (unlike most tourist resorts where the hotels are set up miles away from any local villages!) Me and Jon went on a five hour walk on our first day there and explored the island. We walked to a waterfall which was the most impressive one I've seen. Huge volumes of water cascading over these enormous jagged rocks and flowing down into a green pool. It was so powerful and amazing - and this is the dry season! We also found a secluded beach on the banks of the river, surrounded by huge rocks you would never know it was there. Clean, white sand and greeny emerald water - it was paradise! The island has a few bars with hammocks in which were perfect for sipping on a beer and watching the world go by. We also had the bright idea of hiring out two traditional Lao canoes to paddle around the island in. We'd seen the local kids doing it and it looked easy enough. How wrong were we!! No sooner had me, Jon and Alan got in ours it started wobbling furiously, the bars overlooking the river were filled with onlookers pointing and laughing at us. No matter how hard we tried to stay upright, more water kept pouring in the sides until finally our canoe capsized and sank taking us with it, much to the amusement of the onlooking crowds - how embarrassing!! The river current was so strong and was pulling the canoe and the oars downstream, we all had to swim frantically (me in my skirt and frilly top... grrr!) after everything to salvage it. Thankfully we managed to get it all onto the bank with the help of the Finnish guys and we dragged ourselves out, soaking wet and covered in river slime - yuk!
After three funny days on the island, we reluctantly had to leave. The island didn't even have a bank let alone an ATM and we were running out of money so we had to cross the border to Cambodia pretty sharpish. We done by minivan in about five hours. This was the most crazy border crossing ever! It consisted of us basically driving through a forest on a severely bumpy road, paying a Cambodian policeman a few dollars to get past the border, then we were in Cambodia!

So far in Cambodia I have noticed two things. Firstly, there are political parties EVERYWHERE. I mean, every village has at least three different party headquarters, there are signs up everywhere with party slogans, pictures of politicians etc. You kind of get the feeling that all is not totally happy here with the way the country is run. I done a bit of research on it and it seems that even now the country has a lot of corruption in it. The guy who currently runs it seems to be a bit of a dictator, anyone who goes against what he says is liable to be arrested. His closest political rival is living in exile outside the country after contesting the country's current state of affairs! It seems that even now after years of civil war and tragedy, things still aren't totally democratic here.

The other thing is that all the women here wear pyjamas!! Not just to bed but actually outside during the day and at work, it's quite normal to go into a shop to buy a drink and the woman serving you will be wearing a pair of flowery linen PJ's. It's quite surreal. I'm temped to go outside in my own sleeping attire and see how it goes down! Anyway we have been in Cambodia a few days now. We spent two days in Kratie where we hired bikes out and saw some dolphins (from far off anyway). We caught another bus to Siem Reap which took 10 hours!!! including being dumped in the middle of nowhere on our own for an hour or so until another bus came and picked us up.

Today we saw the famous Ankor Wat, which I would love to explain to you more but I don't know enough about it. I think some monks built it in the 11th century or something :o$ Anyway it's an amazing building and we got up at 5.30am this morning to watch the sunrise The weather here is still very, very hot. You cant actually do anything from the hours of 12 until 3pm, it actually hurts our skin being in the sun lol. Soon I will be on a proper beach sipping cocktails and away from all these towns...not long now...!!