boat runs and selling tourist souvenirs apparently they were not happy at first but were now really happy as they had tv sets and dvd players! We didn’t really buy this info, Greg had already told us about the amount of corruption goes on and how so many farmers have been given nothing by the government. We got further upstream and found out that the boat was to be pulled up stream by the many rowers as this was the ancient tradition of the area for fishing and things. I have never felt so uncomfortable in my life as all of the tourists stayed in the boat while the many rowers hauled and pulled a boat full of about 20 tourists still in orange life jackets upstream - I dunno it all kind of felt wrong, I would have so much preferred to have got out and been shown how to pull the boat and had ago but no you just had to sit there knowing that these people were now having to pull boats full of tourists around to make there living instead of farming there beautiful land - commercialisation and tourist over

development at it worst.

We got back to the boat feeling like we didn’t belong there and whiled away the time, until dinner and the evening entertainment.

Sophie’s birthday, my beautiful niece was 5 today and I was feeling homesick and wishing I could teleport back to see her. But today was a visit to an ancient pagoda on an area on land which would soon become an island. Again the touristy nature of the place kind of spoiled it, I don’t really think its right to have tacky touristy markets in ancient temples, Rob quoted the bible at one point, as he said it reminded him of the passage where Jesus came back to (whoops I don’t know my bible and he’s not here to ask!) somewhere and got so angry at the exploitation that had happened while he was away that he smashed the place