Heartwarming smiles...

Our next stop was Cambodia - so close to Thailand in distance, yet so far away in developmental terms. While the hardened Thais have consumed modernisation at a rapid pace - with some positive effects (cheap and accessible) and some negative consequences (vast coastal areas overrun by rampantly developed, unsympathetically designed construction) - Cambodia remains in recovery mode.

The more you travel, the more you question the role of development. A total paradox: so many times you look at the limitations of a developing nation (lack of clean water, intermittent electrical supply, poorly constructed or non-existent road network, poor housing, sporadic and often dangerous transportation), marvel at the ingenuity of people as they get through their everyday lives and ultimately aspire to all those ailments being remedied. Yet upon reaching this utopia, your heart sinks at the anti-climactic realisation that the end result may just be a totally homogenous world - where everything looks the same, feels the same and works the same. Perhaps it is the broken, the malfunctioning, the oddities and the all too temporary solutions that define the essence and character of a nation. We felt that Japan was an example of a country that has lost a big part of its national identity in favour of over-zealous over-consumption, modernistion and americanisation. The end result: a population that seems overworked, regimented and rarely satisfied. For now, Cambodia is a million miles away from Japan. The first thing that hits you about this beautiful country is its fragility. Its naivety. The second is the sick feeling you get when you realise that people purposely target this vulnerability for their own means, their own pleasures: corruption is rife, drugs are openly sold and children are physically and sexually exploited. With a life expectancy of 55 and an average annual income of under 300 pounds, hope for these children seems at times so futile. Like when you see a half-naked infant screaming on the filthy pavement (helpless like a beetle on its back) not a guardian in sight; or when a toddler in tatty, dirty threads raises their hand to you and in a lifeless drone simply says "money?"; or when you see a young girl sat at a cafe-bar table with a middle-aged western man with grey hair (they all look the same - that same preying stance) with that all too familiar glassy-eyed look (where the eyes speak of an internal prison, a childhood lost) something I had seen so many times before in my African travels.

But all said and done, you do feel hope for Cambodia. Because despite what it has been through, their tragic recent past (in the 70s, aided by American bombing over the Cambodia-Vietnam border, Pol Pot's brutal Khmer Rouge took control and subsequently tortured and massacred over one fifth of the entire population - anyone of intellect or who could be accused of being an 'enemy' was callously slaughtered) and despite the fact that those who committed the attrocities and those who remain victims, live side by side, this is a nation of remarkably resilient and optimistic people. The warmest, friendliest welcome we have ever received and the broadest of heart-warming smiles at every corner.

So...what did we see and do in Cambodia?

We explored ancient, crumbling majestic temples, constructed over 1000 years ago. The Angkor complex is as awe-inspiring as the travel brochures would have you believe. We even saw some fantastically cheeky monkeys swinging on the branches of the kapok trees that surround and encroach upon these wonderful ruins ...(our aim is to see monkeys in every country we visit!). We took long, bumpy,meandering tuk tuk rides deep into the Cambodian countryside along the border with Vietnam - like the most beautiful film you have ever seen, or the most amazing series of paintings brought to life - a beautifully real collection of countryside vignettes: young children cyling out of school gates on adult bikes - teetering precariously but joyfully exclaiming "hello!" as you amble past; the toothless granny at the side of the road with a forrest of logs strapped to her back, stopping in her tracks to acknowledge you - with the gentlest of head movements but the warmest of connections; or the young calf that stopped to suckle his mother in the middle of a busy country road - oblivious to all around him. He had what mattered: food, security and a loving mother.

We also explored the capital - a crazy, densely populated, poor city with some good bars, foodstalls (the fish amok curry is mouthwatering) and excellent displays of their recent history (the visits to the Killing Fields and the S21 torture prison are something we will never forget. Yet it continues to happen: Zimbabwe, DRC. History repeating). B also particularly enjoyed the theatre of bargaining at the local markets - everyone's an aspiring stage actor there - feigned gestures, over-dramatic sighs and telling smiles. He was scarily good at it.

We took in the beautiful coastal town of Sihanoukville (imagine the beaches of Thailand, just less developed and more laid back), soaking up the sun and getting very boozy on S's 32nd birthday with some lunatic Aussie girls; strolled around the old colonial town of Kampot (buildings of faded decadence lining the tidal river); and visited the 60s French seaside resort of Kep - a great place to eat crab. You order it, they walk into the sea, grab it and cook it. Now that's what we call 'from source to plate'!

It was indeed an emotional, thought-provoking, amazing thirteen days in Cambodia. We didn't take many photos ('yipee!' we hear you cry) - Cambodia seems a place of privately shared memories. Memories we will never forget.