Back by Popular Demand...

Especially for those of you who liked the bugs and beasts (Ellie), here are a few more of the creatures we have encountered. We found the strange looking insect below sharing a swimming pool with us. We fished it out because we thought we should rescue it from drowning, and then found that it was some sort of water dweller - the long tail is not a stinger but a breathing tube. We have no idea what it is, but it was huge (when you blow up the picture, that's about how big it was).

In case you think it looks a bit like a scorpion, here's what an actual Cambodian scorpion really looks like. This picture isn't one of ours; it was taken by a friend who's working up the Mekong in Kratie. We were planning to go and visit her soon but now we're not so sure...

Especially for Kate, here's a cutesy little Cambodian wasp. The preview is about full size and it spent quite some time apparently wanting to be our friend and coming back every time we shooed it off. We actually don't get very many wasps at all but we do get some fantastic bees: they're about twice the size of a big bumble bee and are a lovely deep shiny blue colour. They never seem to stop long enough for us to get a good picture, but if we do take one we'll add it to the blog (there's probably going to be at least one more beastarium before we're done).

Just kidding, Kate, it wasn't really that big. It was actually only about two thirds of the size you see above.

Moving from 6 legs to 4, there are lizards everywhere. We have quite a few geckos that live in and around the house and we love them because they're cute but especially because their favourite food is mosquitos. They seem not to mind us most of the time, although one did object to being waken up one morning when Sarah popped some bread into the toaster where it was sleeping. I'm not sure who was more surprised, though: the gecko at having a slice of bread dropped on its head or Sarah at seeing a lizard suddenly fly out of her breakfast. We have now got into the habit of checking the toaster every time before we use it - not something we particularly had to do back in the UK. They tend to grow up to about 6 to 8 inches long (although the one in the toaster was a baby, only a couple of inches long). Here's one of our little mozzie-munching friends, hanging on upside-down on the ceiling of our balcony.



The rather bigger creature below is a Tokay gecko that used to come out at night at the small hotel we were staying at in Siem Reap. He was about 2 feet long and rather striking.

The big problem with Tokays is their somewhat irritating habit of letting other geckos know how big and strong they are. They do this by shouting "geck-o, geck-o, geck-o" at the tops of their voices, which are surprisingly loud. Unfortunately, they're nocturnal, so they do this in the middle of the night from the wall above your bed.

The lizard below was rather less chunky but also probably about 2 feet long. However, in this case, most of it was made up by what we hope you'll agree was a pretty amazing tail.

The next lizard was just the most striking bronze colour - just exactly the colour that Sarah has been trying to get some shoes made in. Not out of lizard skin, obviously (although we didn't see this lizard again, so I shall be keeping a good eye on the bottom of the wardrobe).

Next, here's a few more butterflies, because we're moving our eyes gradually upwards now...

This one was on the earth.

This one was on the grass - spot the small dragonfly next to it. We get lots of dragonflies here, sometimes dozens and dozens all in the same small area, and some are simply huge. No good photos yet, though; they're just too quick

This rather lovely swallowtail was on a bush.

And this beauty was resting in the lower branches of a tree.

And now we're in the trees, let's see what else we can find... Ah yes, another gargantuan orb web spider. Please bear in mind that this picture was taken from about 30 feet below it. How many European spiders can you even see from that far away?

And while we're up here, there are even bigger things. What looks like black fruit hanging from the trees below are actually fruit bats. They've got a wingspan of about 4 feet and when they fly they look like something out of a Hammer horror movie.

OK, so back down to the ground again and something that looks normal. The toads here look just like toads in the UK. They are bigger, though (of course).

And the frogs look nothing like the ones we used to get in our pond. What's more, they can also climb up walls.

But we love the frogs and toads because they also eat mosquitos. As does the lady below, when she just wants a small snack. She was walking across the floor of a village house we were visiting on Tonle Sap lake, so Perry started taking pictures. She wasn't amused by the attention and reared up ready to strike. Since she was about 8 inches long, Perry moved his fingers away fairly rapidly.

And while we're back on bugs, take a look at the extraordinary length of the front legs of this spider.

She had spun her web over a fish pond but her targets were flies, not fish. Just as well, as she was only an inch or two long and the fish here can get quite large. The Mekong has two of the biggest freshwater fish in the world, the Mekong Giant Catfish and the Giant Freshwater Stingray (click on the links for pictures from National Geographic). Both grow to over ten feet long. In Cambodia, there are also tigers (although not many any more), leopards, wild elephants, bears, and freshwater dolphins. When we get the photos, we'll show you. If we survive.

More soon. In the meantime, please don't forget the need to keep supporting VSO through our Justgiving page at www.justgiving.com/jagoteers. They need the money to keep up the payments on our medical insurance.