Well its been a while since I updated the blogsite, and so here goes...
Our bus trip to Siem Reap was interesting to start with. We left on Friday so we could spend our weekend there. The tour company we booked with piled us onto a minibus at 0700, and took us to a kind of bus stop. After seeing many people from our minibus get on a different bus to the one we booked we questioned one of the men there for our bus. We had been dropped in the wrong place and now had a race against time to get us to our real bus stop. We even had to pay some moto drivers to get us there. We were too late, and the next bus (an hour later) was fully booked! However since the whole thing was not our fault they decided to call the bus, stop it and take us on the back of motobikes (with our huge rucksacks) to the bus. Quite hair raising...
Apart from that the journey there was quite uneventful. At Siem Reap bus station we got a bit of hassel from some locals, but we got a tuk tuk to our guest house and settled in with HOT WATER and BBC news channel.
That night we decided to take sunset at the temple site, and got a tuk tuk driver to take us to get our tickets then to the mount behind Angkor Wat. We dutifully climbed up saw the most stunning sunset over the valley. Only downside were the other 10,000 people who shared it with us and the fact that we then had to climb back down the mountain in the dark...
Saturday and Sunday we spent exploring the temple sites - they were suitably amazing. I have many pictures of them, the best of which...
This is the two of us at the temple of Angkor Wat, by far the largest of the temples and the most impressive. I won't bore you with all the details of all the temples now, we both bought a guide to the temples and their history's so if you are interested then you can borrow the book!
This picture is of us after our ride up and down on an elephant. We had just visited the place where they are kept and we were nicely surprised. Their centre is run by an english man and he really makes sure they are well looked after.
Monday saw the bus to Phnom Penh, this time it took 3 hours longer due to a political rally being held on the roadside on the way between the two cities, so helpful(!) One long bus ride later we reached Phnom Penh, and we hailed a tuk tuk to return us to the same guest house we stayed in before. That night I called home for the first time since we arrived in asia - I wanted to surprise Mum as it was a special day for here, and we watched The Killing Fields all the way through, well worth a look if Cambodian history interests you - now for the faint hearted though.
Tuesday 12th February - a day that neither of us will forget. For starters it was my mums birthday. Happy Birthday Mum!
We had already booked a jeep safari to a local wildlife reserve, and we headed out on this trip at a respectful 1000. 6 people on the trip, two of which live on Earlham Road in Norwich. Small world! At the park we saw all kinds of endagered animals. The park specailised in taking in animals saved from poachers, from being peoples pets and from asias horror zoos. There was a deer in the park which is one of 15o left in the world. And unfortunately he isn't able to breed... There were all kinds of birds, sun bears and moon bears, pythons and crocodiles, tigers that were so laid back they actually enjoyed us taking pictures of them. And of course the elephants. There was one in particular called Lucky - saved from poachers as a baby and raised by a local who was her surrogate mum. We watched Lucky swim in the lake and then we got the chance to ride her bare back. I will never forget this. It was so amazing. The last thing we did before we left for Phnom Penh was feed the elephants. They had a baby at the park - he had lost his front left foot in a snare trap. He was adorable and hadn't learnt how to use his trunk properly. Then we learnt how to kiss an elephant and if you were lucky you got one in return. Basically an elephant will offer their trunk to you and you blow down it. If you get a blow in return then you have been kissed. I got many from all four of the elephants we met there.
Back to Phnom Penh for our last meal - we returned to 'Friends' restaurant to meet Stella and Peter for the last time. We even toasted Mum's birthday.
Our flight the next day was quite early and so we got a 0630 tuk tuk to the airport. We knew we were on the same flight as Stella and Peter - what we didn't expect was to meet them at the departures drop off point!
Flight was short and sweet, we left Stella and Peter to post goods home at the airport. We got on a shuttle bus into central Bangkok to find the tour centre for our bus/catermaran to the island. A tuk tuk ride later saw us there. Booked in and not due to leave for a few hours, we headed to the shopping mall for some essentials such as shampoo and shower gel. I also bought some shorts for $2. Billabong of course!
We took the river boat back to the tour company shop, soaked up the street atmophere with a beer for an hour or so, then on the bus for another epic journey. At least at the end of this journey we knew we had some time to relax. So after 9 hours on the bus, we spent 2 hours on a catermaran over the rough gulf of Thailand to Koh Tao. Worth the travel. Worth the horrid sea. Worth the lack of sleep.
And thats us up to date really; we arrived this morning and spent the day getting into a relaxed mood on this quite divers paradise. We have our own private beach at the resort we are at, so we swam in the sea more than once. We also have a pool, bar area with wide screen TV, internet cafe, spa and our bungalow is set back away from all this is a quite area so hopefully we can get some sleep at night!
I will update with some more pictures next time as KH doesnt have her memory card on her right now. I know this was a long one but I had to tell all this time. Watch this space for pictures...
Love to you all and keep sending me you responses! I love to hear from you all!
Izz Whizz :)x
PS this is how you give an elephant a kiss...
And this is Lucky the elephant. Isn't she just amazing!
And this is me taking a swim on the first day of our island stay, the water was like a bath.
Back in Bangkok, and KH has a new hairstyle... 
