Turquoise sea, Khmer food and 32 pence a pint

So we're finally in Sihanoukville, easily our favourite stop so far! Every day we are enjoying a blue sky, white beaches and a turquoise sea. And of course spicy Khmer food (I needed assistance of nearly two litres of water when eating a Khmer SALAD the other night) and the local beer Angkor which is as cheap as 32 pence a pint. London prices are going to get hard to get used to again...

Sihanoukville

Just like paradise. We've been unable to update the blog for the last couple of days due to failing Internet connection.. Seems like it's working again now though.. Sihanoukville is an amazing place, could stay here for a very long time! Starting to get pretty annoyed with the beach merchants trying to sell bracelets, fruit, sunglasses etc already though, well might be a minor problem.. We'll try a proper update tomorrow:) xx

From Suvarnabhumi airport

Dear all,

Just about to leave Bangkok for one night in Phom Penh before moving on to Sihanoukville on the coast. If anybody is interested in a glimpse of the Sihanoukville beaches have a look here,  but we will surely post our own photos soon!

Grand palace and swimming pool

Drinks in Silom

Bangkok baby

First day in Bangkok done, a truly amazing experience! Even though the jetlag has been messing with us all day (making it completely impossible for us to calculate 90-25..) we still managed to get up at 8.00am and started the day with taking the ferry along the river to china town. It was a very crowded experience- tiny streets and thousands of streets stands selling everything from spices and peanuts to miniature dragons, chinese dresses and very sugary ice coffee. We soon gave up beeing pushed around with all the Chinese and took the ferry a bit further up the river, to koh san road. After just a few minutes we found ourselves in a little tuk-tuk with Mr Mihan, a little man that we apparently had managed to rent for a few hours (paying £0,50 btw). He drow us around in his little tuk-tuk and showed us "the big buddah"- a huge golden buddah statue and "the lucky buddah" - a temple that is normally closed but was open today due to the celebration of the kings birthday, double luck! After our little spiritual tour we went for super expensive seafood, very bad choice, but hey- we're on holiday!! In the afternoon we felt our backs deserved an aroma oil massage (after carrying our massive backpacks through 30 degrees the day before), do I even have to mention how amazing that massage was? Now, Margaritas on Silom rd!

In Bangkok after mental rape by El Al Airlines

We are finally in Bangkok after what might have been the most stressful event in our lives so far. Somehow Mia and I got listed as high risk passengers by the El Al Airlines ground crew at Heathrow airport. We didn't quite understand what that meant at first but after being taken into a separate room to answer questions about everything and nothing ("What are your flatmates names?", "Why did you choose to fly with El Al?" and "Where is your UK visa?") and informed that we were not allowed to bring our hand luggage onboard the plane (instead we had to put it into plastic bags) we had a rough idea.

We thought everything would be fine once we had passed the security control and were taken by surprise when we found it was there everything actually started in El Al airlines special gate checks. We are talking full body checks (they actually checked my hair for hidden items!), samples taken from our clothes, skin and every single item we brought with us (in our plastic bags...). After a while Mia was taken onboard the flight (a member of staff actually led her all the way to her seat) while I had to wait without knowing anything. After nearly two hours waiting I was told I was not allowed to bring any electronic devices, but instead had to send them back to my UK address. Just great news when you're about to spend two months travelling! After a hysterical fit and some shouting they were "kind" enough to put it in my backpack that was already checked in so during the next fifteen hours of flying I could do nothing but hope they actually put it in the right bag.

All this happened while Mia saw the plane get more and more packed, at one point the captain actually told the passengers the plane was soon ready for take off. As one of the last passengers at the gate check I was finally allowed to board the plane, this in the style of a very upset catwalk though the already full plane. I can't really say that we had that "We're on our way!"-feeling at take off. Maybe needless to say but DO NOT fly with El Al Airlines, even if they gave us a story to tell the grandchildren.