Trapped in Cambodia....

...but have finally escaped! Yes, yes, currently in the lovely confides of Laos (or Loase, as the Americans say) for the second day, after far too long in Cambodia.

Why is this? Due to the fact my passport was happily sitting on the desk of some bureaucratic crazed civil servant at the Chinese Embassy, it took nearly a full month to obtain a visa for China. Great. After all that, didn't even end up with a 3 month business visa, nor a 3 month tourist visa, but simply a 30 tourist visa. AGH! But, what little shenanigans did we get up to whilst waiting for the vehicle by which I can be internationally mobile...

Sihanoukville

Yes, the pink and glitter party was a stormer - as was my hangover. Basically, a crew of 11 of us managed to stagnate 11 days away in Snooky, punctuated with drunken nights, a couple of 'day trips out' and watching lots of DVDs. Very cultural, don't you think? Hannah, Rachel, Beth (3 girlies from Manchester), Georgie and Arran (a cute - engaged - couple from Norwich), Charlie and Michelle (an odd but lovely couple from London), Freddie and Sam (lovely boys from London) and Charlie (cap wearing chappie, also from London), and of course, Chloe and I, became the Monkey Republic 'Massive'. Oh yes, when there was noise in the bar - we were there. We managed to pick the choppiest day on the ocean to organise our 'group outting' to a little island off Snooky, 'Bamboo island.' The first 10 minutes were great, but as the boat rocked us all nearly overboard, and indeed, Chloe actually nearly went in, but unfortunately didn't and only obtained a stinker of a bruise on her arse, we realised that maybe it wasn't the best idea. Especially when the bottle of gin was handed round with the misnomer, 'its only water....'.

Another lovely day out was to the waterfall...we all munched on our pack lunch of sandwiches and crisps (very English), then minced around like little nymphs with flower garlands on our heads and soaked in the ambiance of the gushing waterfalls, despite being nearly washed away by the water flow!! EEK! A little bit of a Full Moon party went down at the 'legendary' Sessions, a shed on the beach but played good music, and we stormed 'Hannah's Castle' and had a lovely time singing 'Rule Brittania' from the top at the minions below (allegedly, I do not personally recall). A wickedly hairy game of 'Ring of Fire' well and truly killed us off another night, but it was all finished off in true Monkey style with another themed party - "Seaside". My god, there were many an amazing costume...from Jelly Fish (Georgie), Shark (Arran), Palm tree (Chloe) and of course, and incredible feat of engineering, car paint spray and fluffy bobbles (sea urchins...), and shells, I was a ship wreak!!! And that's not the only type of wreak I was by the end of the night...there was copious amounts of shaving foam and acrylic paint...on faces, feet, clothes, hair,..and somewhat more artistically, on the guy's guitar that he wanted accessorising! Hurrah! Think I may have ended up talking to a Buddha statue at the end of the night though....maybe I'll get to Nirvana yet.

THEN WE LEFT!! My goodness, it was the worst bus journey back to Phnom Pehn in our lives, still clad in our pyjamas, thank god we didn't look in the mirror. ROUGH. And since my camera was stolen in Snooky, a new one was in order, so a nice Nikon is now by my side. So, I mooched around Phnom Pehn to recapture some piccies, then hit the road to Battambang, a town in the North-East of Cambodia for the weekend, whilst Chloe and the girles made their way to Laos (I, of course, didn't have my passport. Hmm).

Battambang

Arrived to torrential rainfall, so looked truly trainspotter in my pink anorak and glasses. Get settled into a nice little guest house and then went off to explore the town...and found the most scrumptious cafe that sold the sweetest, warm, sticky Cinnamon swirl, ever, YUM. Awoke bright and early at 6am on Sunday morning, the day of Cambodian elections. Zipped through the countryside on the back of a moto, through the villages around Battambang, and it was great to see so many locals turn out to vote. Clambered up a giant hill to reach Phnom Sampeau, a temple crowning one of the only mountains in the area. It was converted into a torture chamber during the Khmer Rouge's reign, with people being pushed down into a cave, creating another mass grave of innocent people. Then up many, many stairs to Wat Banan, a temple known as 'mini - Angkor ', which was nice to get some pictures of, and gave amazing views of the surrounding lush green plains and rice paddies below. On the way back to town, my guide managed to give me a sneaky lesson on how to drive a motorbike...with gears!! It was brilliant, cruising through the villages, honking my little horn so the cows know I'm scooting past. Good driver apparently! Hurrah! New hobby...??? Then the afternoon was whiled away pottering around Battambang, exploring the local Wats and chattering away to the monk that live inside - mainly composed of English classes and punctuation correction!

Monday - travelling mission day. Back to Phnom Pehn at 6am...arrive at 1pm and am, at the DHL office collecting my passport, and at Vietnam Airlines by 1.30pm...booked at flight to Vientiane, Laos, and on the plane at 3.30pm. Laos at 5pm. Done. Next.

Oh wait - Vientiane appears to be completely full and I wander around in the rain for over an hour trying to find a bed. Soggy. Lovely. Met a nice chap from Haiti, who now lives in Jamaica, but it all got a bit surreal when he began to tell me he loved me, wanted to be his woman, oh no, wait, his wifey, and that we were destined to be together. Yeah. Right.

Next day, went to the biggest attraction in Vientiane with a couple of girls I met on my flash-packer flight to Laos, Pha That Luang, a large, golden temple. Lovely. Then hopped on the bus to Vang Viane to catch up with the ladies for tubing times...BRING IT ON!!!