Bellagio

29th May 2010 A morning of packing was followed by an afternoon movie and general hanging around in Starbucks. Although we were able to leave our big bags at the hotel, we still had to carry our hand luggage with us and had decided a few days ago that it would just be best to be in one place for a while. The cinema seemed like a good option :). However, we had underestimated how busy it would be and failed to get tickets for anything besides the Prince of Persia, which was predictable but good. ...

25th May 2010 We woke to a blue sky day today, so decided to return to the Zoological and Botanical Gardens that we had passed through the other day. On the way we walked past one of the ferry terminals on Hong Kong Island, offering a great view across to Kowloon. Arriving at the Zoological and Botanical Gardens we started again in the primates sections which we had passed through quickly before. It really is quite sad seeing these animals in such small cages, especially compared to Singapore Zoo. The chimpanzees in particular just don’t seem to have much space, and there is no natural greenery of any sort in their cage, just some metal framework for them to cling to. We passed by some other smaller primates - again these had no planting of any sort in their cage, and not a great deal of space. The animals just all look so sad. ...

13th May 2010 We had booked our tuk-tuk driver from the other day to pick us up again at 10am this morning, and true to his word he was outside waiting for us. Our first stop today was the Tuol Sleng Musuem, also know as S-21. In 1975 Tuol Svay Prey High School was taken over by Pol Pot’s security forces and turned into a prison known as Security Prison 21. This soon became the largest centre of detention and torture in the country. Between 1975 and 1978 more than 17,000 people held at S-21 were taken to the killing fields of Choeng Ek, which we had visited yesterday. ...

September 21st We left Barstow and joined the I-15, which takes you straight up to Las Vegas, some 160 miles north. After 60 miles or so, you reach Baker where we left the freeway and took a circular detour into the Mojave National Preserve. This puts you onto dead straight roads which run as far as the eye can see, before disappearing in the heat shimmer. ...