The next day I went to the daily 9:00am hostel catch up. Here they give a bit of history about the area and then organise the groups that want to go see the Thong Na caves, these are accessed by boat that about about a 10 minute walk from the hostel. There are potentially two caves to go too and you join the group depending if you want to go to just the Phong Na cave or both, I chose to do both. We go in groups as you pay for the boat trip and it takes up to a dozen people, so the more people on the boat the less you pay for the trip.

These caves were impressive, but no where near the scale of Paradise Cave - however the boat trip was fun, the cave were different as Phong Nha you take a boat into it and then on return trip they drop you off half way and you walk your way out through an offshoot cave.

After getting back to town we all went for some lunch and then I went for a walk for about 45 minutes to a cafe run by the local man who found the cave which is officially the biggest cave in the world. Unfortunately there is a two year waiting list to get into that cave where you spend a week inside of it and cost US$3000. It was quite fun walking through the town, the cave have only been open to tourist for a few years and it seems to still be a novelty for the locals to say hello and all the kids come up and give you high fives.

Once back at the hostel I had some dinner and a few beers while I waited for the 9:30pm night bus to Hoi An, this would arrive there at about 6am. I have got good at sleeping on the sleeper buses and got a good nights sleep.

After some breakfast the tour guide turned up to collect the people for the day. We started of doing a historic drive showing where the trail to the south went through the mountains and observing scarring on the mountains from where the US bombed the area to try and stop supplies.

Our first cave was Paradise Cave, which was huge and impressive in it size. We had a 500m walk up a mountain to get to the entrance and on enter you walk straight into a huge area which would fit a jumbo inside. After walking through this you then turn off to the small passage of the cave and you get to walk about 1km into the cave. The whole place was very impressive and if it was a different time of the year you can do a guided tour 7km into the cave. If it was that time of the year I would definitely have done it.

After some lunch we moved onto the dark cave, this cave is no where near the size of the other cave, but has no built in lighting. From where you park and get ready the cave in on the other side of the rive, so you start off by getting in a life jacket and harness and then climb a three story tower. You then take a fun flying fox for a 200 meters to the bank on the other side of the river. From here you get in the water and swim to the entrance of the cave. Once inside the cave you remove your harness and life jacket and get lead into a small passage going off the main chamber. As you walk further into this passage the walls get wetter and the ground gets muddy.

After about a 5 minute walk you slide down a ledge and you are all of a sudden knew deep in mud and this is where the fun begins. You move and further through the tunnel until it opens up into a bigger room completely full of about 1 meter of mud. You quickly get completely covered in mud and discover if you lay down you actually float onto of the mud. After a bout 5 minutes of fun in the mud with the guide taking photos with his waterproof camera you find your way out again.

Then we had the choice of kayaking or swimming back to the other side, after getting back to the other side we then had a couple of goes of a smaller flying fox which you just dropped into the water at the end and then got changed and had a couple of end of day beers.

The rest of the night was just spent at the hostel having dinner, a few drinks and talking about the adventures of the day.

My trip from the Kong Lor Caves was a full day, the plan was to get from the caves to Luang Prabang. This require catching a 7:00 am bus from kong Lor to Vientiane which was a five hour journey. Once there I needed to organise a night bus to Luang Prabang, I met a couple of people on the bus who already had a hostel booked in Vientiane, so rather than sit out at the bus depot all day I went into town with them and organised my bus ticket through the hostel. This meant I would have a pickup from there to the bus allowing me to leave my bags there for the day and explore the town.

There is not a lot of interest for me there except for one thing, the city is famous for coffee and I finally had a really latte after weeks of drinking black coffee. It was great to sit down and drink it and enjoy a nice chicken wrap as well. After my coffee fix I wandered around the town and along the river. I then went back to the hostel for dinner and to wait for my bus pickup.

The bus trip was great, I convinced the driver that because of my foot I was better in the back row that had more leg room and since the bus was not full I ended with the three back beds all to myself.

I had a great sleep and ended up in Vientiane around 6:00am the following morning. After getting to my hostel and freshening up I decided it was time to wake up Alan and Sanne who I had left in Don Det and meeting up with again here. It was so great to see them again.

It was raining the day I arrived, so we did not get up to a lot that day, most of the spent eating and drinking and later in the night we had a crazy night in a local night club, we were the only westerners there and our dancing style was a lot different to them, there were a lot of cameras out and I would not be surprised if we end up on Laos Youtube some day.

The next day we went out and looked and the local waterfalls and then went back to eating and drinking. On our last day it was the big farewell day, so we planned a big day. I actually got up early and had a big walk around the town before meeting up with the guys for breakfast. When then walked up the mountain in the middle of the town to see the temple and take in the views.

We then all went for a massage which was a luxury for the trip, I then when and talk to some of the trekking companies based in the town. A lot of treks up north start from here and I wanted to talked to them in person and see what they have available. I am thinking of coming back here next year for a one week trek.

We then all met up again for some pre dinner drinks before going to one of the up market restaurants for a our final meal together.

The next morning we all got up early and went to the airport together, Alan and Sanne were heading to Bangkok for the final days of their holiday and I went to Hanoi. I decided the cost of the flight was worth having to miss a 30 bus trip.

Once I was settled into my hostel I went for a walk around the city and found a barber to get them to run clippers over my hair and beard, it was a lot easier than trying to shave it all off. I then started making plans on what I was going to do for the final part of my trip. I was running out of days and had a couple of places I really wanted to spend time. After finding out the bus schedules I decided to catch the night bus the following night to Phong Nha where there is a large UNESCO protected National Park with apparently some amazing caves to visit.

The next day I went on a walking tour around the city, I did not need to catch the bus until 6pm that night so it gave me the whole day to explore the city. The bus that night was really good and I managed to sleep nearly the entire way to Phong Nha getting there about 5:30am. When I had book my accommodation I had also booked a day trip to two of the caves. So I just had some breakfast and got to know guest of my new hostel while I waited for tour to start at 8:30.

I felt like a broken man after my hike over the mountain, I definately am not as fit as I thought and just because I given up smoking it does not automatically make you fitter. I will need to work a lot harder on this when I get home. However the climb was still very difficult, I just could of done it easier if I was fitter. Yesterday I was call it a trek, today it is called a climb as large amounts of it were steep enough to clasify them this way.

It turns out I needed to go through three valleys to get to the other side of the mountain, the first peak was the hardest, within minutes of starting the walk we started having climb of large rock on a very steep accent, none of this zig zagging up tough terrain, it is just the straightest rout possible. It was relentless and continued on for about an hour, of which 15 minutes was me resting just so I could keep going. After we reached the top of this we had a long rest and I contemplated if I could really handle 5 more hours if it keeps going this hard.

Once I was rested I felt a lot better and continued on, think I would have been too embarrassed to turn around anyway. The next three hours were a lot better, but still hard. It was more ungulating which made it a lot easier to keep up the pace. There was still some really steep stuff, but it was shorter and quick to recover. It was good making to each peak and look over the mountains.

The top of the mountain was very rocky and we spent most of the time continually having to watch where our next step would be. It got even harder towards the end when it was all covered with leaf and you had to make sure there was a rock and not a hole.

After the three hours of up and down climbing the guide finally indicated that it was all downhill to the end. This was hard as well as we were basically climbing down rock all the way and only took another hour and we were at our destination of the river at the other side. We both stripped off and jumped into the river to cool down and clean off all the dirt.

After a drinks break the stalls here we jumped in the boat to take the return trip. The cave is amazing and for most of the trip is it just done with head torches and there is no way to capture the size of it with a camera. It is 7.5km long and cruise through the cave just trying to take in how high the ceiling is, there is one bit where you can get out and walk through a section, this is lit up and is a great chance to take it all in. Unfortunately for me it was quite awkward in the boat and as soon as I stood up I cramped in both legs, the giant chamber was not the perfect place for the words that came out of my mouth, but once I could actually move I found it quite funny.

Once out of cave the rest of the day was just taking on fluids - water and beer. I had an early night as I need to catch the bus to Vientiane at 7am the next day. So after all the effort to get there it was really easy to get out of the place and get to another city.

My four sunsets Don Det at 4000 Thousand Islands was fantastic. There was not a lot to do there other than go for walks, ride a bike or just relax. My first day I walked around the Island anti-clockwise, on day two I walked around clockwise. We would just sit around relax, listen to music and on the last day had a movie day on my laptop. It is a very relaxed and simple Island, other then at the north tip and allow the North coast line the rest of the Island is still all farming. The people are really friendly and the very basic bungalows had really comfortable beds and mosquito nets.

Then three days ago my massive and exhausting journey to the Kong Lor Caves began. I caught a boat off the Island at 11am and then waited for the 12 o'clock bus. Every one caught the bus to Pakse and along the way a few of us had to change to a local bus going to Thakhek which is the first closest place to get a bus to Kong Lor Village. The bus was crazy, it went really slow and thought at one point we might actually get overtaken by a bicycle. We stopped multiple times to pick up people and cargo and finally made it to Thakhek at 11:30pm.

By the time I got to the guest house they one had double beds with an ensuite, I could not face looking for another place so splurge and spent $11.50 on the room. After the cold showers on Don Det it was so nice to have a nice warm shower, especially because it had a shower cubicle and I did not get the rest of the bathroom wet like you normally do.

After getting to bed at 1:00am I set the alarm for 6:00am, got myself packed again and then headed to 7:30. Being another local bus it stopped many times to pick up people and one point a whole load of coal. We finally go to the town 90 minutes from Kong Lor at 11:30am. We then wait until 12:30 for the bus (just a flat tray with benches on each side of the back) to Kong Lor Village. Once here I just took the first place I looked at which is a private room with ensuite (but no separate shower cubicle so need to wipe down toilet after shower) for $5.75. I then walked down to the caves to have a look around and try and find out about a hike I had heard about that I could do the next day.

I booked a hostel in Siem Reaps on a recommendation from some people I met in Saigon and did not even read the information about the place, I just check to see if they had a room and booked it. When I arrived I found out that had a age limit of 33, I had only heard of hostels in Budapest that had age limits on them due to the amount of noise and partying that goes on and even then it 40. So I was not very happy being two days away from New Years in a town that was nearly full with no where to stay. The staff were actually quite good and did some checking around for me and then got a Tuk Tuk driver to take me around a few of them and check them out. I found one that could take me for the first two days, but not New Year. I found a guest house straight across from them who could take me for the following two days. So I went with that plan and as it turns out it all worked out for the best, I end up meeting a couple of people who I am now travelling with and we are having a great time. The other good thing is that I had a private room to go back to when I was ready to go to sleep on New Years.

So my first day of templing I did the Big circuit which takes in some of the smaller famous temples. I decided to do this so I would not be underwhelmed by them after seeing the bigger ones.

The next day I did the small circuit which takes in Angkor Wat the largest temple in the world, Banyon and the Tomb Raider Temple which if famous as it was used as a set for the movie. It still has huge trees growing over it as it is believed it will destroy the temple if they are removed. Most of the other temples were like this as well when they were rediscovered, but were able to be removed. It is hard to believe that when these temples were built there was no jungle and over the last 1000 years they have taken it all over. It just shows the power of nature.

I was pretty stuffed after two bigs days of discovering the temples and was not expecting a big night for New Years. I ran into Sanne, one of the people I am now traveling with and she was catching up with a other friends and going to a quieter bar which was away from Pub Street (That is the real name of the street) which was absolutely packed. So we found a nice pub near all the action but quiet enough we could still talk. Alan the guy we are traveling with also came along and we had a great night out together and were pretty happy by the end of the night that we were starting out trip to Laos together.

The pub we were in had a Kareoke machine and we all ended up having multiple goes at singing songs really badly. We then went to night club for a little while and went back home at around 4am in the morning. So much for an early night so I can go watch the sunrise that day.

I ended having a really good sleep in and never ended up going back out to the temples. I had planned to hire a Tuk Tuk for the day and explore some of the more obscure temples, but there was nothing specific I wanted to see and had alreay covered the important ones. I think you could easily spend a few days just doing your own thing outside of the main route and maybe one day I will go back and do it.

The next day we were all up early to catch out bus to 4000 Islands, the bus company taking us did a great job explaining exactly what would happen, what "tea money" we needed to pay above the actual visa fees and how the buses worked as we had to switch buses at the border. It turned out to be all very easy as we were using an obscure border crossing and none of the big scam that happen on the border occur there. Our group were the only ones crossing the border, so there was no cofusion at all about what was going on. The "tea money" involves paying a couple of dollars to each person who puts a stamp in our passport, this happened on the Cambodian and Laos side of the border and was on top of the $30 for the actually visa.

We finally made to 4000 Islands around 4:30pm and starting walking down Sunset Boulevard looking for a place that had three bungalows on the water. Took us about 30 minutes for find one that had a room for each of us on the water and we were settled in just in time to sit in the bar with a beer and watch the sunset.

So my last day at Kampot is not go quite to plan. I ended up doing nothing the day, I was feeling a bit odd - but not quite sick. This lasted most of the day and night, I felt very lethargic and had no energy. I still went out with the group for dinner which were amazing pork ribs, but I could hardly each. There was quite a big party going on at the guest house, but I could not get into it and just had an early night.

The next morning I woke up early as I had to catch the bus back to Phnom Penh, as soon as I took my tablet I was sick so I decided to take taking the tablets which can have very bad side effects. By the next day I was feeling normal again.

The bus trip back to Phnom Penh was on a minibus and was back at the hostel within four hours of leaving, I had a pretty quite night and woke up the next day to go to the S21 prison where people were held before being taken to the killing fields. This really did bring the whole thing home, seeing the photos of all the people the last 13 people who found dead at the prison still chained the beds where they were torture. It is always hard to see this kind of thing, but I think it is an important part of travelling to fully grasp what happens in other countries.

I then went for another walk around the city and prepared for another early night as I had to get up early to catch the boat to Siem Reap at 7am.

There was two of us from the hostel that were catching the boat to Siem Reap and the driver to pick us up was late and we got there with a minute before the boat was leaving. Everyone on the boat starts on the roof to take in all the views and water front villages on the way through. I was not prepared to be in the sun all day, so thought I would go in and check out the seating and that is when it ocurred to me that they depend on people staying on the roof all day as there were only about half the number of seats to people. It must be a nightmare if it starts raining.

It was a great smooth trip with great views of the local villages and fisherman, but suffice to say by the time I dot to Siem Reap I was very burnt. I recovered well, but am starting to peel now but it is still brown.

I had a great Christmas Day in Cambodia. I got up early and had a nice big breakfast in preparation for my ride to Bokor Hill.

It was quite a long ride taking about 90 minutes with about an hour of weird the amount of development happening in a national park. There is a load of Chinese money being spent and they have built a massive hotel and casino and by the looks of it hundreds of people will be able to stay there. Apparently the end result will wipe out most of the top of the hill where they are building.

We finally got to our main destination which is an abandoned hotel, it as been derelict since the 60's, but now looks like they are trying to restore it a little. It is still pretty cool to walk through. We then went to the abandoned church which is nearby.

After that we drove off to the "secret waterfall" which is not really a secret and isn't that big. It is cool because the water disappears into the rockes and then comes out as a waterfall further down. I think it would be more impressive in the wet season when there was more water flowing.

I then did the big drive back to the guest house for Xmas lunch which was a big BBQ of fish and chicken and loads of salad. We then just did the normal Xmas activities, sat around drank beer and played cards.

Today I am off the see the "secret lake" which is also not a secret and then check out some of the peppers farms around here. That is table pepper which apparently Cambodia is famous for and is exported all over the world and used in some of the best restaurants in the world. Who knew there was so many different peppers.

The final decision for tomorrow is to go back to Phnom Penh a day early to do the markets and the S21 prison museum.

The bus trip from HCMC to Phnom Penh was a very long trip, we leave at midnight which is so we are basically at the front of the queue at the border for the 6am opening. We are arrived at around 3am and just slept on the bus until the border opened. Getting through was pretty straight forward and we were quickly on our way again.

We had a river crossing we need to make on a barge (a bridge is being built at the moment), when we got off the other side we got stuck and had to stuff around for about 30 minutes before we could get moving again. We finally made to Phnom Penh about 3pm that day. I found a really nice hostel there that had only opened a few weeks earlier, very social place with a pooll out the front.

I met two Kiwis on the bus who came with me to the hostel. They were going out to the shooting range, so I went along to watched. The were going all out with a bazooka and M60 machine gun. The guy taking us out asked if they wanted to blow up LPG takes which they jumped out. We stopped off and they bought one each and then we were on our way out to the mountains where you have to go to shoot the bigger stuff.

The noise was unbelievable and after they spent an hour shooting stuff and spending $1000 we headed back to town.

A group of us then went out for some "happy" pizza which apparently very popular all over Cambodia, but it was a lot happier than anyone expected and it was a real adventure getting home. Luckily one of the people has not had one and that helped all of us get home.

The next day we went out to the Killing Fields which is a pretty depressing place to walk around, I still need to go to the S21 Jail which is now a museum. This is where people were held before being taking out to the killing fields. Apparently is has even more impact than the fields. I will be going there when I go back through to get to Siem Reap.

My last day in Phnom Penh and I just went down to check out the palace and walk around the city center. I packed early and had a quiet night as I had to get up at 6am to be picked up for the bus to Kampot. The bus company picked me up and then went to pick up some other poeple, but he seemed to get it wrong what hotel he had to go to and after about 30 minutes of extra driving we finally got to the bus station and the guy there just point to a bus two blocks down the road and said Kampot. So we jumped back in the van and chased after it. Luckily being peak hour we had caught within 5 blocks.

After an hour of driving people started to smell smoke and burning, so we pulled over to be informed by one of the english speaking Cambodians on the bus that it could not go any further and they were sending another bus. 90 minutes later the bus finally turned up and we were on out way again.

I finally got here around 3pm with a four hour bus trip being seven hours. It was well worth the trip though as the place I am staying is great, it is about a 15 minute walk into town, but it is right on the river and am writing this in the bar/restaurant with a nice cool breeze looking over the river.

We had a power outage last night, so we spent half the night sitting around candles at the bar and it was really peacful. The internet has not been working since I got here, so I am about to head into town to find some free wifi. I am here for three more nights, today I am just checking out the town. For Xmas moring I am going out of ride to the Bokor National Park, I am breaking my rule about never driving a motor bike in these coutries because it is the only way I can get out there. It is pretty quiet out here so it should be safe especially since most of what I am doing will be off road.

I have a day after here that I still haven't decided what I am going to do, I was going to go further down the coast to sihanoukville, but can't decide if I am going there or not.