Angkor Wat

We are now in Siem Reap in Cambodia after an interesting journey from the Thai border, where we got accosted by 8 corrupt border police trying to intimidate us into overpaying for our visa!

We love it here, it's very chilled the temples are amazing,amazing, amazing! The kids love it because the guest house has; a wii, an extensive DVD library, pool table and of course a friendly dog (who frequently rides in a tuk tuk and on a dirt bike) and a three legged cat named tripod. Bob and me are pretty happy with the $1 beer and the real cheese sandwiches!

Temples, temples and more temples!

Temples are the best place for playing hide and seek

Halloween in Siem Reap - the locals were quite intrigued by all the 'barangs' (foreigners) running around town with halloween costumes on. Osk and Stash definitely not impressed with the lack of sweets.

Yum....local delicacies include: fried grasshoppers, snakes and boiled frogs.

Location:Siem Reap

Greetings from Cambodia

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BANG COCK

Sunday 24th,Full moon...

Leaving Barry and Vivienne in their land of nod at 6.10 in the morning,we hauled ourselves to the gates of Coconut Paradise where we were picked up by minibus and taken to the main coach terminal on Samui, where some 30 knackered minutes later we boarded our luxury coach to begin the fourteen hour journey to Bangkok.  Gotta say, Stash and Oskar are amazing,not one tiny protest.  Only a couple of elders seemed to whine and grunt at this point, one bald, one of bust.
In Bangkok we basically took the first thing we were taken to, a windowless box, not even a badly tuned telly to veg out over, but clean and tidy and at that point we really didn't care too much."guests not allow bring visitors unless Thai lady"...oh,alright.
Grabbed a quick bite in a cafe a few doors along and that was that.

In the morning we were served breakfast by a longhaired ladyboy wearing red tigereye contact lenses.  Elizabeth thought he was beautiful.  Actually, so did I.
Then we visited a Buddhist temple where Stash and Osk lit some candles in memory of our beloved cats,Blokker and Oskar.  A boat trip took us in the direction of the Skytrain monorail which in turn lead us to Siam square, centre of all hip, place to eat pizza, decorate those crocs and attempt a visit to do some modern art (closed Monday).

We visited the house of Jim Thompson who was instrumental in reintroducing Thai silk to the rest of the world.  He went off to Malaysia one day in his sixties and may have been eaten by a tiger because he never ever came back.He did leave behind a bloody stupidly huge house which was for he alone, though he did give the gardener and maid a couple of sheds in the grounds.  His silks appeared in the film,"The King and I".  We were shown around various collections of ornaments, crockery, paintings and buddhas, a potty shaped like a cat for lads and a frog for the girlies.After this we took a tuk tuk all the way back to the lovely Ko San road, picked up and applied some more deet and Christ have you not got anything better to do than read this fucking shit?

Tune in next time for the first installment of Into Cambodia via eight bent border policemen...

Location:S.E.Asia

Catwoman

Vivienne Dalton runs the cat re homing programme for the RSPCA from her home in Newport pagnell.  Covering the whole of the North Bucks area and often taking in as many as 40 stray and unwanted cats at a time, she relies on the help of volunteers to assist with the feeding, cleaning, trapping and various other tasks essential to keep things running.
I first met Vivienne in 1994  - having joined Cardiacs, winter '93 and finding myself with a fair bit of spare time on my hands I began working alongside Vivienne and for that first wonderful year it was pretty much full time.  I fostered many, many cats and kittens in that period from '94 to '99 when I moved to the smoke.

So there we were, Liz, me and the kids, Vivienne and her husband Barry, post Gin and Tonics, having dinner on the beach at a restaurant a walk away from their glorious pad in Samui - bizzare!
We were only able to stay 2 nights, thanks to a very short Thai visa, but we managed to drink a few more of those G&T's, talking old times next to the infinity pool overlooking the sea.

The house is something else - surrounded by towering majestic palm trees. The Beckhams have one just along the beach.
Saw buffalo being taken for their daily walk along the beach.

 Next stop Bangkok!

Samui bus ride by Nastassja

Right, I am on a bus to Samui it's exactly 12:00 and my mum just told me we will be there at 5:30 at the least but it should be around 6:00. We are going to stay at a friends holiday house. Sorry if you have never been to samui like me I should tell you it's in thailand, my dad said the place we stay at will be lovely I think it will be too.

This monkey at Phi Phi island was 3years old he was so cute and kept grabbing on to me he didn't want to go.
So sweet.

A load of minutes like this cool!

A few days after that we went to this monkey temple where there was this temple where monkeys were out side, loads came inside though and they were not tamed or behind bars, any way we went inside this temple and there was this fortune teller where you put in a coin and it spins round these numbers and the number it lands on is your fortune mine was 16 so I tore of paper 16 and it said..............
No.16
What this number forecasts is great, you'll always be
Power full , lucky , happy and healthy. The fortune
You wish is likely to come true, The spouse you're
expecting will add to your prosperity. If you are ill,
you'll get completely well, Nothing is bad, all is fine
like a bright shining moon.

Well we are here now. staying in a lovely hotel we are about to get breakfast. The seats on the bus was comfier then these beds though.
See you soon time feels like the trips almost over.

Love Nastassja xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Location:In the middle of nowhere

Thai boxing - by Oskar

This is me doing press ups before I started my Thai boxing match.

This is me and my friend Len before we went in the ring, he is 8 and lives in Germany, he speaks very good English.

There were loads and loads of people watching us. It felt kinda scary, we only did a little bit of real fighting. I am blue and Len is red, we had a real referee and a real coach in the corner who fed me water and he dripped it into my mouth.

This is us at the end, everybody clapped and cheered at us.

Mum and Dad got me a fanta before we did the boxing, then I got a free coke for doing the boxing!

These are some real kick boxers, like us!

We played pool after the match.

Location:Kho Phi Phi

Bin Laden village, Bond island and buckets of alcohol

Ko Tapu at Phang Nga Bay,now known as James Bond island thanks to Roger Moore and the Bond team who filmed The Man with the Golden gun here in 1974.This was the mushroom shaped rock that opened up to reveal Scaramanga's weapon of choice.

Monday, Stash and Osk made friends with a couple of really lovely lads from Frankfurt at the pool where we'd been staying,swapped and talked DS stuff a lot and then somehow we ended up with their parents and the whole lot of us going out and getting hammered.We ate together and then went to check out some Thai boxing, picking up a bucket of I don't know what with four straws sticking out of it.Liz,Her new partner in crime Anna and the kids had gone ahead and when Klaus the dad and I got to the ring,we both looked up to see our sons in there in all the boxing gear about to have a match.
Naturally we were both horrified by the situation and all we could do was drink from the bucket together and pretend it wasn't happening.

It all ended very well,which meant Tuesday began very badly.
Lounged around by the pool,got our stuff trolleyed to the pier, kissed goodbye to lots of cats and kittens and air conditioning for a while and rode the boat from Phi Phi, lovely Phi Phi back to Krabi.
Early start yesterday as we were picked up by minibus and taken on what they call the James Bond tour,stopping off to pick up more lovely people on the way, 17 of us in all.A nurse from Walsall,an Australian policewoman, some girls who were students in Bangkok,a couple of geezers from London who'd come over last week for a wedding that didn't happen,some German boys and a lovely lady who took us round everything and was just wonderful.

I got the feeling that only myself and one other guy on our trip had actually seen the bloody film,that was certainly the only reason I was so ecstatic to be there,the island where Roger had defeated Scaramanga all those years ago...

Then back to the boat,a long tail boat and a short journey to some canoes.


We were taken round the island and into some caves for about 40 minutes, stopping off for a swim and more photo opportunity.

Priceless.



Then it was on to Koh Panny, a floating Muslim village which the locals,not I,call Bin Laden Village.We were all given lunch and then went and took a peek at what goes on there.We went around the classrooms of the school there which has a playground overlooking a view like no other,ahead of this,a cemetery where stones mark out the spots where families rejoin each other when they pass on...and cats and cats
and ducks and ducks.

Next stop was a trip to a cave with a giant Buddah lying on his side, actually, I thought this place had a massive Bond villains lair vibe to it, actually nothing to do with any Bond film at all.Lots of monkeys outside which Oskar was a little wary of but he's back on that horse now.A short drive to a beautiful waterfall for a swim and it was all over.  The end.  Goodbye nice nurse lady from Walsall.  Farewell man from London who once had a record shop  .Bye students.  Bye lovely tour guide hostess person...thanks Roger Moore!

Location:Thailand

TERIMA KASIH

Leaving our little hotel and the red lights and pretty ladies of Singapore,we took a luxurious bus(we were fed and watered and the kids were more than chuffed with the onboard entertainment) to Kuala Lumpy.  Here we spent a couple of nights, our base a windowless room with aircon and a tv which switched channels as and when the girl on reception changed hers.  The kids found another cat to sit with. Cats are big out here, cats rule!

Next day we went to check out the sights.Lots of shopping centres, lots and lots of money, money, money...

...we visited the National Mosque where we peeled off our crocs and were handed mauve robes to wear. Once in place we were able to enter the main hall.

How I love a good mosque.  No chanting this time though.  Last time we got that was a week ago. God, was that real? 4am last Monday as we prepared to leave our hotel in Java to make for Singapore, that final call for prayer, this time with many voices, sounded like a bunch of witches sacrificing a baby.  I mean it was scary.  In contrast, one morning in Labuan Bajo, dunno what happened but instead of the chanting, Justin Bieber came over the shrieking towers... ZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz...

Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz....



... Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

...later we went up the Kuala Lumpar telecommunications tower, a mighty tall erect thing it is,with rotating helmet, a restaurant which we didn't make it into.  Every couple of minutes there were people parachuting from way up here to the ground below.

You could see just about every shopping centre, skyscrapers with swimming pools on the roof, mosques galore and yet vast strokes of green and forestry alongside.It is some view.It is some tower.
On the ground was an animal freakshow with two headed turtle and hairless mouse being star attractions.  In their tiny cages and tanks a stark contrast to the beauty laid on by Singapore zoo.  As we boarded the free shuttle out of there, a young American supported by his buddy came hobbling on.  They had done the parachute jump the day before and had jumped together, but on opening they had become tangled.  As they hurtled towards the ground, death imminent, a tree luckily saved them both.  One smashed his knee up, the other had a facial reshape courtesy of the lucky tree.  As they relived the moment with us they high fived each other,"totally rad dude!"
Yesterday we embarked on a thirteen hour journey on a sleeper train. Currently hurtling to our deaths in a white knuckle suicide coach trip to Krabe, Thailand.  See you on the other side then...

To be continued

Location:Top bunk

Hello Thailand! - by Liz

It is 10pm and we are on our way to Thailand - Hooray! v exciting, I realised it was 17 years ago that Danny, me and a little 2 yr old Khogan were last here. That makes me feel very old!!
Check out Khogan's dodgy Thai haircut! Talking of which I think Bob forgot to mention that in Indonesia Oskar was given a Mohawk? we didn't ask for it (it doesn't really notice when it's flat).

So goodbye Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia and thanks for some fab times:

Batik class in Indonesia - Stash was a natural, me and Osk were not nearly so neat or patient!

Petrol stations look like this:

Fun by the food stalls:

I loved Indonesia, it is an amazing beautiful place and I am sorry we did not have time to go to Borneo or Sumatra to see the Orangutans (although the ones at Singapore Zoo were amazing), but I will not miss the constant feeling of are being skanked: 4hr waits for buses to leave, paying for 4 seats and only getting 3, being massively overcharged for absolutely everything by absolutely everyone! And I will definitely not miss the 4am call to prayer: .... No, I do not think praying is better than sleep!

Location:Sleeper train from Malaysia to Thailand

The Zoo by stash

Stash and Osk, Henna hand, Henna arm, Little India market, Singapore.  Awesome artist and Beyonce got her henna done there with that artist too!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

"Osk"said. Then we went to the zoo which was awesome."

stash"said. It was wicked we had so much fun passing all the animals. They were cute but not tamed and could probably rip your head off ha ha. That's actually not funny
Because a baby was attacked by a monkey who then dropped out of a tree which caused the baby to die

."Osk"said. I am missing all you fuzzy idiots sorry didn't meen that bit but I do miss you."stash"said. Oh shut up Oskar I am talking not you. Eny way the zoo was really cool and I learn't and saw some amazing things we had such a good time we felt..........oopse not mention to say that yet it was really intresting then at about 2:00 pm we noticed it was time for elephant riding and me osk and my dad road on a real elephant!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Cool right hey I know someone who's ridden an elephant Emma has yea, Emma it's bumpy isn't it.

"osk"said. I don't want to do this blog it's stupid!!!!!! "stash"said. Yp thankyou for your time osk did not mean that. There was an amazing water park here have a look

This is by a park where you could pull a boat from one side to another it was just for fun and not a contest funnily enough no one else was there like a swing with no riders.

Nastassja and oskar xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
See you lot very soon we are running out of money bye

Location:Singapore