The people we met and the things we learnt in Cambodia really touched my heart. In particular I’ll never forget our visit to the spectacular Angkor Wat or how it felt to walk through the Killing Fields, haunted by the thousands of people who died there. I found visiting Cambodia a deeply emotional experience and despite the scars of poverty and genocide my lasting memories of the country are of the peace, kindness and resilience of the Khmer people.
11 June, 2014 /
Kratie is a small town perched on the banks of the Mekong River about seven hours north of Phnom Penh (10 hours if your bus breaks down); this was our last stop in Cambodia before we headed back into Laos. There’s a sprinkling of guesthouses and restaurants in Kratie, although the food isn’t anywhere near as good as in the other Cambodian towns we visited and there’s also a market complete with pyjama-clad women selling their various wares. What we were really in town for though was the chance to spot some rare Irrawaddy river dolphins.
07 June, 2014 /
What will it be like to return to the place our adventure began, all those months ago? I vividly remember sitting in the departure lounge at Heathrow in March last year after saying our goodbyes, unable to comprehend that our new life of travel was about to begin. Back then we had no idea what was in store for us, we couldn’t have imagined that we’d end up volunteering in a disaster zone; that we’d sleep out in the jungles of Borneo, get homesick in Indonesia, learn to ride a scooter or end up spending nearly a third of our trip in Thailand. So on Thursday when we say goodbye to this adventure and board a plane back to England, I will do so hoping the next phase of our lives will be as unpredictable, intense and incredible as these past fifteen months have been.
03 June, 2014 /

Battambang ended up being one of those places we couldn’t seem to leave. At first glance, the town doesn’t have much to offer save for a ride on the famous bamboo train, but we had some of our most memorable Cambodian experiences venturing out into the surrounding countryside and catching a breath-taking circus performance. I felt we really caught a glimpse of ‘true’ Cambodia during our stay in Battambang.

17 May, 2014 /
Sometimes the part of travel I love the most is just the movement. It’s getting up in the morning, packing our bags and boarding a bus to a brand new, unknown destination with no idea what’s in store for us. This particular morning in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, I was bunged-up with a cold and my head pounded as I climbed aboard the bus to the tiny, riverside town of Kampot.
14 May, 2014 /
Baby John-William was safely tucked inside his mother’s womb when the typhoon that killed his father hit their home in Tacloban six months ago. The day before the storm, locals say that the skies had been beautiful and clear; despite warnings to evacuate it seemed inconceivable that far out at sea the most powerful typhoon ever to hit land was brewing. In the early hours of the 8th November, Typhoon Haiyan - or Yolanda as she’s known to Filipinos - cut a deadly path towards the small island of Leyte and the house by the sea where John-William’s family were sleeping.
10 May, 2014 /
This first phase of our adventure is hurtling towards closure at an alarming speed. Our trip back to the UK in June signals an end to this initial 15 months of travel and with that end looms the knowledge that we need to start working in the autumn. What lies ahead is a scary, uncertain path – the only thing we know for sure is that on the 21st August we will board a plane back to Hanoi, Vietnam.
08 May, 2014 /
It is the faces that haunt me; the faces in the rows of black and white photographs hung throughout S21 prison. Almost all the people in those pictures, whether young or old, male or female, were tortured and starved in the prison before being sent to the killing fields to be executed. I was horribly mesmerised by those faces and their expressions; while some people wore their terror so visibly, others looked merely stunned, or angry and defiant - many were simply blank and devoid of emotion. I am haunted by the thought of what happened to those people; did they know when those pictures were taken that they’d been sentenced to death?
05 May, 2014 /
With a final, gurgling burst of smoke, our bus gave up its battle for survival and collapsed by the side of the road. As the engine cut off, the air-con died and the heat immediately began to thicken. If we didn’t get off now we’d be cooked. Huffing and puffing,  I filed out into the harsh glare of sunlight onto a barren, dusty stretch of road to wait for a replacement bus. This was the second day in a row that we’d experienced a breakdown and I was well and truly fed up. What happened next, however, unexpectedly turned my mood around and reminded me of just why I love Cambodia.
02 May, 2014 /
We ended our travels in 2013 with a one-month trip to Vietnam. Our journey started in the north of the country, where we discovered our favourite Asian city, Hanoi. During our week-long stay there we spent day after day in museums, palaces and temples and took an overnight boat trip in the beautiful-yet-crowded Halong Bay. We then headed south on the train to Hué to see ancient tombs and the old Citadel, continuing on from there to Hoi An, a UNESCO World Heritage City which wasn't quite as nice as Laos’ Luang Prabang.
29 April, 2014 /