Hello Cambodia

Here we are in Cambodia, in a small Mekong town called Kratie. We arrived from Laos a couple of days ago, after a long hot dusty ride over the border. Met a couple of very friendly but corrupt officials who were after money for all sorts of ingenious things - exit stamp, money please; temperature check for health reasons, money please; entrance stamp, money please. Luckily we were almost completely out of funds (Mike's rather blase confidence that there would be bank facilities at the border having proven unfounded) and were thus genuinely unable to pay most of these.

Our initial impressions of Cambodia are very favourable - it is perhaps very slightly greener than southern Laos, but still parched. The people are very friendly and continue to take a great interest in the children.  The landscape through which we cycled at first was very remote with rather frightening land mine signs placed frequently along the road to deter you from heading into the bush, but the towns are lively, with great markets and more to look at than in Laos.

We are spending a few days exploring the Mekong and then heading for Phnom Penh to meet Mum and Dad. All are very excited!