Who's that guy? The one on the cycle?

Mekong river life

Saigon - a hot, exotic and pulsating city. Experience has shown when in a cultural capital famed for its cuisine, markets and museums, there is only one option – waterpark. So we paid our £3 admission and enjoyed the best waterslides we’ve had the pleasure of embarrassing ourselves on – and we’ve done a lot of waterparks.

Remembering why we went travelling, we came to our senses and headed off to the Mekong delta, losing ourselves for two days in little water channels, floating markets and some great home cooking in our bungalow on stilts over the river. This leg was also notable for an update on the most precarious load seen on a moped… us. Every expense had been spared on our tour itinerary, so to get to our bungalow we jumped on the back of two whiney mopeds with full 20kg rucksacks and careered across a motorway and then down a rutted track, clinging to the driver for dear life.

Next up was Pho Quoc – a largely undeveloped island paradise claimed by both Cambodia and Vietnam. For now it remains in the hands of Vietnam, so they can take the blame for the weather; it hammered down for three days. We eventually got out and about on a motorbike, and spent two fantastic days exploring the island and skidding about on tiny tracks in the forest in knee deep mud – at least it went up to C’s knees, it was important for J to stay dry on the bike. There were some marvellous little restaurants on the beach, perfect for margaritas and a moonlit stroll along the sand – very Mills and Boon.

Off the beaten track in Pho Quoc

The Ryder caravan stops for no-one, so it was time to say goodnight Vietnam and good morning Cambodia. We caught the ‘fast boat’ along the mighty Mekong river to Phnom Penh, a fabulous way to travel, passing little villages and locals bathing and washing their cattle in the river, most of them keen to wave and shout hello. At the boat dock the frenzied tuk-tuk scrum to get the Ryder contract was fierce, perhaps a reflection of the economic realities in Cambodia. We went with our failsafe method and chose the one with the nicest smile; a good move as it turned out, we hired him for two days and he was a great city guide. C had a bit of a crush on him by the end, and J is not above admitting a little bit of man-love for the thoroughly charming October.

October - the tuk-tuk driver with the irrestible smile

We stayed in a great little guest house in Phnom Penh (You Kinh house) which is operated as a charitable organisation where profits go towards the running of the attached school for disadvantaged Cambodian children.

Cambodia is slowly recovering from the years of Khmer Rouge rule, but a visit to killing fields and genocide museum provided a sobering and chilling reminder of what this country has been through in our lifetimes.

Our last stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, to gaze in awe upon the mighty Angkor temples. The temples are stunning, not least for the sheer number of them – imagine Giza with 50 intricately carved pyramids and you have an idea of the scale of these temples. Everyone has heard of Angkor Wat, but there are many other equally impressive temples dotted about the area, including our personal favourite, Ta Prohm, which lay undiscovered for hundreds of years and has been partly reclaimed by the surrounding jungle.

We both, unexpectedly, fell in love with Cambodia, largely due to the people we met, which is just as well as we ended up spending an extra night due to a flight cancellation. Flight cancellations usually result in frustration and anger on the part of the passenger, but we found it difficult to get worked up while reclining in five star luxury, all courtesy of Vietnam Airlines. However, while six-course lunches and dinners are all well and good, too much of the high life dulls the edges so it is back to the austerity budget for now.

Temples at Angkor

Twenty four hours later than planned, we arrived last night in Luang Prabang, a beautiful atmospheric town in northern Laos surrounded by mountainous jungle on all sides.

Highlight: Getting off the beaten track (albeit largely by accident, our map was beyond hopeless and the island was completely devoid of road signs) in Pho Quoc. We were told by a helpful French resident that we were the first tourists seen on that part of island, a fact confirmed by the locals all curious to come out of their homes to shout hello and give us a wave.

Lowlight: three days of rain in our island paradise tested our patience, particularly when the stock of books in the hotel consisted solely of travel guides and Scandinavian-language detective stories.

Monkey count: two troops of Macaques outside the temples in Siem Reap, the first since Brazil. In fact we were so excited to get the monkey count up and running again that we missed the magical moment of the sun rising over Angkor Wat, despite getting up at 4.15am to see it.

In other news: our chopstick skills have improved exponentially, but our haggling skills have flat-lined. It is hard to motivate yourself to haggle when everything is such a bargain and you end up negotiating whether to pay 80p or £1 for something that at home would set you back a day’s wages.