The view from afar

Now that I'm back in the original Queen's land, I've fixed the camera (no doubt temporarily), so finally here's a glimpse of what the other Queensland looks like. Hot, green, sandy, and full of things that can hurt you is probably the best way to describe it.

Mission to Burma

Purely to renew our Thai visas for free rather than pay extortionate fees to extend them, we travelled from Ranong in Thailand across the Pagyan River to Kawthoung in Myanmar (and back again), all in the space of a few hours. This is what it looked like.

The largest preindustrialised city in the world

Mayans eat your heart out (and they probably would), because Angkor Wat and the surrounding temples are awesome. This place is seriously MASSIVE. And they let you climb all over them - health and safety guidelines don't get a look in. We spent a day and a half visiting (what our knowledgeable tuk-tuk driver informed us were) the best ones, but you could probably spend a week here and still not see them all (if you could stand the heat that is).

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That's Cambodia, Captain

As you're all extremely clever and worldly people I don't need to go into detail with you the recent instances of Cambodia appearing in the news. The most noteworthy is that regarding Comrade Duch, the ex-Khmer Rouge member in charge of S-21 (the school-turned-torture-prison from 1975-79 at Tuol Sleng in Phnom Penh) who is currently on trial for crimes against humanity. It's only taken 30 years for the UN to put the trial in place, and he's probably the only KR member that will ever face trial, but I supose it's better than nothing. Tuol Sleng itself is particularly grim, with the cells left almost exactly as they were found (minus the bodies) when the Vietnamese liberated the city in January 1979, and a photograph of said scene now hanging on each cell wall. The sticker above was from the tuk-tuk we took out to the Killing Fields of Choeng Ek, where all those tortured at S-21 were taken to before being battered to death and buried where they fell. Pretty dark. A commemorative stupa stands at the centre, filled with the skulls of the victims. If you ever visit Phnom Penh, it's probably best not to do Tuol Sleng and Choeng Ek in the same day, unless you want to end up feeling particularly low.



The rest of Cambodia however was a lot more upbeat. Elephants and dolphins, palaces and hill-tribe villages, very bad roads and stuck-in-the-mud buses - it was probably the most varied country in the region, and for me one of the most enjoyable so far.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=243641&id=606200496&l=fe42ad6bdf

And the Temples of Angkor will require another entry here on another day.

Mall-asia

Here are our photos from Malaysia fondly known as Mall-asia as they have so many shopping malls or shopping centres there! They are a welcome relief from the heat as they are lovely and air-conditioned. If only we had some money to go shopping with...

Here are some more pics of Malaysia, of the island Pangkor with lots of monkeys and Kuala Lumpur or KL as it's called. Loved KL, the Petronas Twin Towers are awesome, really inspiring and they have an amazing shopping centre at the bottom with a Marks and Spencers!! And all the designer labels so it was pure window shopping there!!

And finally here are some more pics of the Grand Prix.

Hope you enjoy them and they have kept you busy for half and hour or so!
Love
Nic x (certified open water diver as of today!)

Found Nemo

Back in Australia when the camera problems began we visited the Whitsunday Islands off the coast of Queensland. They're pretty damn beautiful, and home to the purest sand on earth (Officially. 98% silica, something to do with the wind and waves smoothing the grains down over time). So I bought a little disposable one to take on the three day sailing trip and finally got around to getting it processed now. We also bought an underwater one for that trip and our day out on the Great Barrier Reef which Doug partially funded, so heres the pictures from that too. I can't tell which underwater ones are from snorkelling on the Reef and which are from the Whitsundays, but in any case I suppose it doesn't really matter, as they're all underwater, and I doubt the fish care.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=242119&id=606200496&l=d7af0d3551

What's going on, Mekong?

As promised (I do keep them) here's some pictures from a recent three day trip we went on from Ho Chi Minh City in Vietnam to Phnom Penh in Cambodia. The trip started well, but then thanks to the muppets at the totally lame tour company T.M Brothers and Co, went very downhill on the afternoon of day 2 (thinking about it makes me angry so I'll stop right there). Take nothing away from the people and places we visited though because they were lovely.

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