Babs’ travels -The Peking to Paris Rally and other driving adventures.

Can there be a better way to start the day than cycling alongside the Mekong? Well, maybe yesterday trumped it as I was sitting on an elephant meandering through pristine jungle in Laos. I am in Luang Prabang for a few days, with Lori, as I needed to renew my visa for Cambodia and had to leave the country. Good excuse eh? I have wanted to visit Laos for years, ever since I was at the Golden Triangle many years ago and looked across the Mekong at, what was then, a forbidden country. Luang Prabang has UNESCO World Heritage status and is a total delight. It is situated at the confluence of the Mekong and the Nam River and is surrounded by forest covered, spectacular peaks - a welcome change after flat Cambodia. When the plane was making it's descent it was hard to imagine there was going to be anywhere flat enough to land. LP is a beguiling place of gentle, smiling people, stunning old houses, many beautifully restored, marvellous scenery and the most somnambulant atmosphere

 just

Knar School is in a village 28 kms from Siem Reap.  Not many miles, but a world away in terms of the living conditions of most people.  It is a deeply impoverished area where there was still fighting up until about ten years ago. Many tourists pass through the village on their way to Banteay Srei, a beautiful Temple complex.  Most will just be aware of a picturesque journey through the rice fields dotted with the majestic sugar palms that are so characteristic of this country.  The houses that you see from the road can look pretty; simple wooden stilt house in lush greenery with the usual chickens everywhere and some cows and water buffalo.  But, as with so much here, scratch the surface and all is not what it seems. For the majority here life is a desperate struggle to get through each day with enough to eat.  Some have their own wells, many do not. the health care access is severely limited, unless you can get into Siem Reap.  Many adults and most children have never made that 28km

A snowbound Heathrow and  catching flu almost scuppered our plans but, we managed to arrive in Cambodia, as scheduled, on Christmas Eve.  Henry, who was leaving London before us was not so lucky as his flight was cancelled.  We managed to get him on another one which meant that he spent Christmas Day at Schiphol before continuing to Bangkok in the evening.  Poor Henry.  He had Christmas lunch at Burger King whereas we had ours at a noodle shack in, very remote,  Koh Ker having cooked a lunch for the kids at the school. They, of course, had no idea about Christmas, but we enjoyed it. Instead of over indulging ourselves on too much food we indulged those in much greater need. I had told Adrian about how much the kids eat when a special lunch is sponsored but, even so, he was shocked. Chopping cabbages and carrots and onions and slicing beef for over 200  hungry children can be a very jolly affair in an outside 'kitchen' with most of the extended Ly family and a few other volunte