Don Khon

We stayed in Vietianne the Capital of Laos for a few days but there wasn't much to do.  It's a strange place, all currently being developed so it's a bit of a building site really.  From there we said good bye to Sam and Nicola and caught the sleeping bus to Pakse with the intention of staying 1 night then going to Cambodia.  The sleeping bus was amazing! It has actual little double beds to sleep on  (don't worry Mum they gave us clean pillows and blankets in plastic wrappers) it was like the Knight bus from Harry potter and we actually got some sleep.  When we arrived in Pakse it was a ghost town and having just come from Vietianne which was the same we decided then and there to get a bus to the 4000 islands on the Laos side of the Cambodian border.  Best snap decision we have ever made! The 4000 islands are islands in the Mekong river, we stayed on Don Khon which was really chilled out and beautiful.  We could see the Cambodian mountains from our balcony.  We stayed in a room on stilts on the river.  We got bikes the next day and went to see the waterfall which is the biggest by volume in Asia and over the bridge to Don Det the next island.  We chilled out for a couple of days and then caught a bus from there to Siam Reap.  It was the most horrendous journey ever, we were forgotten because the guys we booked the tickets with was stoned! Then we had to get a boat and a minibus to catch our coach which waited at the border for an hour and a half for us- as you can imagine we were very popular when we did finally get through the border crossing on to the bus!  The bus journey then took another 12 hours including a stop at a grotty service station where Tim ate nondescript meat and a bus change.  When we did finally get to Siam Reap we were taken to a guest house with 1 room and 3 beds for 4 people.  We were then taken to a hovel on the other side of town where we slept for about 4 hours then left! we are now staying in a lovely guesthouse.  Tim was really ill for 2 days after the offal incident and is just pulling through now thanks to the air con and cable TV here!  We're going to Angkor Wat for the next few days and then have decided to go to the beach at Sihanouk Ville for a couple of days before heading to Phnom Penh.