I wonder where they are now....?

STATS: Day count=192; theft count=0; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=4; Chris’ photo count=1760; Emma’s photo count=70; touch-typing char/min=234 (still still trying!); Poi skills mastered since last post: None Who remembers the ancient arcade game of Frogger? Imagine we are the frog and you’ll get an idea of what it is like crossing the roads in Phnom Penh. Except that here the traffic comes from any direction regardless of where you are on the road. Luckily we are now old hands at this, which means  we stride confidently into lethal traffic belying an inward fear and hope of survival. Fiona was luckily spared the one example of road rage that we have encountered on the anarchic roads (one rule: size wins) so far, when our tuk-tuk driver made a rude gesture at another road user who forced him (and therefore us) to go off-road to avoid a head-on collision. She left for home a few days ago. Before leaving, though, she (was) volunteered to add a contribution to the blog, ...

STATS: Day count=180; theft count=0; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=4; Chris’ photo count=1600; Emma’s photo count=62; touch-typing char/min=234 (still trying!); Poi skills mastered since last post: None The border crossing from Thailand into Cambodia was fairly unproblematic. We had been warned beforehand that there was a ‘medical check’ that they had just started doing and that the doctor there charged 20 baht per person to do this. This check consisted of an electronic thermometer being pointed at our forehead. That’s it. Oh and the filling in of a form. We suspected the 20 baht ‘fee’ was a bit of a scam, so we politely asked for a receipt for before we paid. Nothing pushy (after all, we were at a border and didn’t want to be refused entry!) but neither of us are comfortable with bribes and corruption (however small the amount). The ‘doctor’ backed down pretty much straight away – wasn’t worth his effort arguing so we just moved on to the next part of the process. This ...

STATS: Day count=169; theft count=0; rip-off count=1; tourist screw-up count=4; Chris’ photo count=1540; Emma’s photo count=60; touch-typing char/min=234; Poi skills mastered since last post: None Many people like us go travelling in order to see and experience ‘the real culture’ of faraway lands. When people wear their traditional costumes we all get very excited and some of us snap away with our cameras to record the show. However in our experience on this trip, and in business beforehand, the young people of most of the countries we visit want to be like people in the West. Companies selling tanning products in Britain sell skin whitening products over here. Hairstyles and clothing styles are the same. Music is similar. Television, ease of travelling, and now the internet seems to be globalising everything and traditional cultures seem to be disappearing. Is this a good thing, or just a natural progression? Or is this simply the American empire, rising before an inevitable fall on...