Nambodia or Vietcam? Either way here we come!

Yep we've finally decided it is back to East Asia for some more fun and high adventure. Plan is 6 weeks to explore some of Cambodia and Vietnam.
We leave in 4 weeks... yes that's FOUR weeks. As usual this time frame is causing a flurry of panicked research, barely controlled excitement and well just plain panic!

Thus far the plan is: fly Heathrow- Delhi Delhi-Bangkok arriving 8pmish on 5th July for a three night acclimatisation period before taking a 5.55 train from BKK to the Thai/Cambodian border. We then expect some hassle from scammers as we get over the border and hopefully safely of to Siem Reap (a town near to Angkor Wat) It sounds lovely there and we think 5 or 6 days of exploring and chilling will be fun. Then we will take a boat to Battambang and hang out for a few days before busing down to Phnom Pehn (Cam Capital) It all looks a bit murky fro then on but possibly we will make our way to HCMC (formerly Saigon) and to Da Lat and up the coast of Vietnam arriving in time for four days in Hanoi before flying back to BKK and spending the final two days chillaxing again before the flight to blighty.

Sounds easy!

As usual Pants is being ultra adventurous and reading everything and anything and making plans to trek jungles in search of tigers and pygmy Asian Rhinos (bless his great white hunter heart) Meanwhile Jo is in her usual lather of rabid dog paranoia, typhoid terrors, malarial madness and added to all these usual suspects she's already lived in fine imaginative detail how it will feel to be blown up by a land mine or worse, watch as Pants is similarly annihilated!! So between us we should as normal find a comfortable balance between thrilling adventure and boring safety.

The research is part of the fun and to that end Jo is reading "The Quiet American" whilst Simon has insisted on watching "Two Brothers" the dreadfully boring tale of two tigers separated at birth to experience various sad fortunes (starring some nice tigers and Mike from Neighbours)YAWN!! I suppose I do get it though as the only other films out there about Nambodia seem to revolve around genocide, war, death and madness- which is nice!

Looking forward to Angkor Wat, the people, the food and the travelly bits. As usual we'll keep the blog updated when poss and hopefully someone out there may read the updates and monitor our progress into the heart of darkness!!! (like a snail crawling on the edge of razor blade and all that jazz!!)

Meantime here is a nice picture of a bee on a flower which I took in Audrey's garden recently!

Wildlife Adventures in Scotland

It's been awhile since we posted - partly this is due to the extremely annoying dark ages technology we are forced to contend with at school. I have been unable to get access to my email account from the flat so cannot send promised photos to Judith at AX Inn. So sorry Judith if you happen by here I am trying to get a slot in the ICT dept calandar to rectify the issue and then the promised pictures will be on their way.
Meantimes the attached was taken at Milton Shore (it was drizzling quite hard so the image is blurry I'm afraid) All in all this year's trip to Applecross didn't disappoint in terms of food, walks, laughs and wildlife. We saw a whopping 5 otters which was an incredible bonus. One occasion we saw a mother and 2 cubs which was really special.
Not only that but we had our tent raided two nights in a row by a pine marten (unfortunately we didn't see him/her) but on the second night it took a red canvas bad with Henry the hoover logo on the side.. If anyone has found this ... please let us know.
It was a shame not to have caught up with Dave and Aidan but I guess with our bad planning and their house move it wasn't to be this time.