Feb '0817
“Express” because our time is limited: a flight from Bangkok to Yangon (Myanmar) is waiting for us on the 23rd.
In Phnom Penh, we visited the National Museum, the Royal Palace and enjoyed the nice buzz of the Cambodian capital. Then, despite being Cambodia express, we used the slowest train in the world (and some bus ride too!) to reach Battambang, a city of not too much interest. After that we finally reached Siem Reap, where during 3 days we visited the wonders of the Angkor archaeological site. The area is huge and by bike we only covered a very small part of it: the temples of Bayon, Baphoun and Angkor Wat were some of the highlights.
Feb '0815
Most tourists think Cambodia doesn’t have a train network. Which isn’t completely true as there are some tracks and there are even some trains circulating on it. But it is true, that it cannot be considered a serious mean of transport for visiting Cambodia. Although… We read the opinions of different guidebooks and this was what they said: “Taking a train in Cambodia is for hardcore travellers or very poor ones…” or in another one “Seriously considering taking a train in Cambodia is only for masochistic travellers…” Ok, fair enough! 
Now we aren’t poor (or at least not very poor), neither masochistic. It’s just pure curiosity that makes we want to judge with our own eyes! And for this time it wasn’t different… So off we went on a train from Phnom Penh to Battambang. Or at least, that was the initial plan…
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Feb '0811
Now people have been very friendly all over Laos, always smiling despite a simple and often poor life, and they always seem to be in for a joke with (or especially about!) some falang. But it seemed that the more south we came, the friendlier the people got (yes even more friendly!). We don’t know why, but we have some theories…
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Feb '0806
Since we left Vientiane, we have been following the slow pace of the mighty Mekong, visiting the Laos cities of Savannakhet and Champasak (and the nearby Wat Phu Khmer temple), pausing in Si Phan Don (meaning 4000 islands). The last one was a nice place to relax a bit and enjoy the nature, before moving on to Cambodia.
We crossed the border yesterday and after 2 days of travelling by bus we are now in Phnom Penh, capital of the Khmers. Our first impressions are that it ressembles Thailand and Laos a lot for modern temple architecture, but if we scratch a bit we feel that something new is awaiting us. The food looks similar to the Thai and Vietnamese one, but different. The people look similar to the Lao ones, but they talk a different language. You know: same, same, but different 
Feb '0806
Somehow it seems that Laos just isn’t going to be the “happy bus experience country” for us. Pretty frustrating especially because we keep on meeting travellers that tell us “how easy and good it is to travel by bus here” and how little problems they have. We just seem to attract them from a distance of 150 km. Our last experiences made us almost happy to leave Laos soon (but not really because we like this country of great natural beauty and very friendly people). Below we speak about 2 of those “epic” journeys we had the “luck” to be part of…
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Jan '0829
It is almost 6 months that we are on the road now. Six months in which we had to adapt to new environments continuously, put up with many unforeseen “surprises” and learn how to handle unknown and new situations. Therefore this trip has not only given us many nice, touching and, without doubt, life-changing experiences, making this trip enjoyable and refreshing, but it also offered us some severe cases of “self-testing” in which we needed to cope and adapt in a never-ending manner. For this last reason, it was time we took a small brake and have some rest. And an “eco-lodge” at about 50 km from Vientiane seemed to be just the right place for this.
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Jan '0827
The funny thing about Laos, is that you can quite strongly feel the influence of the French in the past. In Vientiane for example (the capital) street names are “Rue Something” (and more remarkably: there ARE street names, which is a thing rather absent in other parts of Laos), and for breakfast you can have a “chocolat chaud avec croissant et baguette” (a hot chocolate with a croissant and a baguette) that actually taste better than at a lot of bakeries in France.
But the French influence can especially be felt in the use of language: quite a big part of the population still speaks French (better than English) and especially older people can speak quite a good deal of it. The influence of the old European administration can moreover still be felt at public places (like the post office) and on official papers which are always at least written in Lao and French. The French at those places is however a grammatically correct one, almost a little bit astray from the one we can find when we talk to people on the street which is in general very touching.In general they speak slow and make some minor mistakes that add some local colour to the language.
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Jan '0825
We are now in Vientiane after more than 2 weeks of travelling through Laos. We started in Houay Xai at the border with Thailand, headed north to Luang Namtha, before returning to the warmer latitude of Luang Phabang, the Plain of Jars and now Vientiane, the capital city.
Travelling through Laos is not easy. After 18 days here, 7 full days were “lost” getting from one place to another. But it is rewarding. Just outside the beaten tracks (and it is relatively easy to leave them), the Lao people and culture seem untouched.
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