After 10 and 1/2 hours on a bus we arrived in Siem Reap, or should I say the bus station outside and had to get a tuk tuk into the city. Sarah got her way and we ended up staying in an air-conditioned room, which after the bus ride was like paradise.

Our first full day in Siem Reap started slowly as we had a lie in, but once it started it turned into quite a hectic day. I got some fisherman shorts (as they are known) which amused Sarah greatly as at the start of our trip she told me that I would get some and I claimed (heroically) that I wouldn't. We also arranged a few things like bus rides and travellers cheques. That evening we went to a restaurant and I ordered snake and can in all honesty say that I won't be trying it again. It wasn't horrible but was incredibly tough and chewy.

Our next stop was Angkor What? bar where we both got a bucket of booze (an actual bucket!!) so that I could get a T-shirt. Sarah said a bucket of Gin and Tonic was too much in the end!

The next day was something that I have been looking forward to since we first decided to come away, The Angkor temples. We started early and our first stop was the Angkor Wat (the most famous temple) which was quite impressive, but we found out wasn't the most impressive (for me anyway as Sarah has seen it before). The next stop was the Angkor Thom and the Bayon temple which was great to see as there are faces carved into the stone. It was incredible to see. There were a few other monuments near there but they were over shadowed by the Bayon temple. Our next stop was the Ta Prohm temple which is where the Tomb Raider movie was filmed and the trees are growing on the walls and round the buildings. It is unbelievably stunning and lived up to all expectations. We saw a few other temples which were also amazing to see, the highlight of which was Ta Keo in which I climbed the steps to the top. They were so steep and the steps so narrow that it took a real effort. Sareah waited at the bottom and by the time I reached her I was drenched with sweat and absolutely knackered. I would recommend the Angkor temples to everybody and I think that it would leave everybody awestruck, especially by the scale of it (it is over an area of more than 200 kilometres).

We took a bus ride the next day to a place called Kompang Cham (?) which is nearly half way back to Phnom Penh, but because of the Tonle Sap lake we had to go south to get north to the Laos border. Once off the bus we were inundated with tuk tuk and motorbike drivers offering us lifts (as usual). We found out that we could get a taxi all the way to Stung Treng (which is the nearest town to the Laos border) which is over 350 kilometres away. This was the strangest taxi ride of my life as there were 9 people in one car. There was 5 of us on the back seat, two on the front passager seat and two people in the drivers seat!! The driver was sat pretty much on the gear stick, leaning around a passenger to drive! This journey was made even worse (although we both thoroughly enjoyed it) by the fact that the driver was doing at least 70mph on dirt tracks, throwing us around alot.

I have to say that I have really enjoyed Cambodia as it is as beautiful as anywhere else we have been but the people are friendlier and they just seem happier to see you. This is after they have been through even more than it's neighbours with the persecution of the Khymer Rouge after being dragged into the Vietnam war by the Americans (they tried to be neutral but the Americans still bombed them). I would definately recommend Casmbodia over Vietnam.