After a roundabout way, we got to Siem Reap. I was so pleased to get off the bus, as much as I enjoyed a pleasant spooning session with Kate, I was so squashed. Basically laying in the aisle of the sleeping bus. Alice even grabbed my leg at one point because she thought I was a random person trying to get in her chair opposite. Opps! Early morning tuk tuk ride to the guesthouse, I think it was around 6am-ish. I was very irritable, with a face of thunder, best idea was for me to keep my mouth shut and get straight in my bunk bed. We woke up four hours or so later, feeling alot better. Once we had all showered and got ourselves sorted the next obvious thing on the agenda was, yes you guessed it, food! Liv had read up about a vegetarian cafe that helped people in the community and trained up young adults with skills they wouldn't normally learn so we headed there. We do like to eat in places like that, feel like our money is going towards something good. Anyway I was a tad disappointed with my salad but it was a nice place, cute shop selling trinkets; although the restaurant tables were in their garden area, meaning we couldn't escape the flies while we was eating. The girls wanted a walk after their dessert so we went to the local market. I didn't get a desert, trying to save pennies and improve my waistline but annoyingly that just meant I was still hungry... Alice and Laura enjoyed their first Cambodian market experience, Alice did exceptionally well haggling on prices. All shopped out, we found the famous 'Pub Street' and had a look at the bars we'd heard good things about. We enquired in a few travel shops about trips to Angkor Wat and the Floating Village, Liv brought out her haggling skills and got us a good deal on both trips. Kate and Alice went to the bus station to question the bus company about the camera situation, Alice's camera went missing on the last bus journey so she was trying to find out what happened, sadly they're were pretty unhelpful and didn't tell them any information about it. Liv, Laura and I headed to yet another market but the stalls were still being set up because it was a night market so we opted for a street massage. $1 for 20 minutes, back, shoulders, feet massage, and it was amazing. 66p for a massage, I could definitely justify spending that. Luckily Kate and Alice walked past just as we was finishing but we easily talked them into having one, they didn't regret it! Back to the night market we went, they were STILL setting up and it didn't make sense to walk around when it was only half ready, there was a bar shack in the middle of the market that had happy hour on cocktails so we each got one and played several games of cards, as per. Our stomachs were grumbling meaning time for dinner. We'd previously read about a restaurant that has a daily show of traditional Khmer dancing while you eat, sounded brilliant so we went and settled at a table near the stage. The dancing was really cool to see, and they gave a little introduction to the story before each performance so you could follow it. The costumes were so beautiful too, vibrant colours, sparkling away under the stage lights as the drumming band played traditional music on the side of the stage. We made our third attempt to visit the night market, this time with more success, we were all interested in different things meaning we got separated quite quickly. I bumped into Laura on the way round so we decided to go look for the girls but with a twist; we reenacted Tomb Raider in the market, gun fingers out, crouching to the ground, scurrying around shouting clear each time we went past a grid line of stalls. The locals probably thought we was loonies but we had fun. It took the last of my energy though, I went home after, I had emails and bits to catch up on but needed my iPad which was obviously at the hostel. Hate not having a phone!! The girls said they were only going out for one drink because we had to be up at 4am for our trip to Angkor Wat at sunrise.

Well, the next day I found out they didn't get in until after 3am, I'm not even sure they slept haha. Think they paid for it though, they couldn't keep their eyes open watching the sunrise over Angkor Wat. I went on a walk to get better pictures and escape the 100's of tourists that had gathered around the lake, it was really peaceful sitting there watching the amber sun break through the clouds. When I came back, our guide couldn't understand why they were all so tired haha we later explained they were hungover. I must take a minute to mention our tour guide, not only did he tell us everything about the 6 temples we visited but he told us everything about his life too. Very sweet man but more on him later. I wish I could tell you all the detailed information he gave us but there was alot to take in, so many facts and figures; but it was really interesting listening to the history of each temple ruins. He explained about the changes of religion that have been there. It started off as Buddhist temples then Hindu then back to Buddhist, strange to think that would happen. Mr tour guide took us through the stories of the engravings on the different temple walls, explaining how they changed depending on the religion. Such as, the Buddhas had been chipped off the walls when Hindu was in place and there was still headless Buddha statues dotted around the grounds. We also visited the famous temple that featured in Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones (hence the market reenactment of us pretending to be Lara Croft). That part did feel very touristy, especially where they had roped off photo areas because it was in well known scenes. Oh, but don't get me wrong, we still had a group posed picture, off course. We made a group decision to leave around 1pm because we were all tired and needed to sleep if we wanted to function at all later. Plus there was a power cut in Siem Reap so that meant no air con in anywhere that we wanted to go so only option was cold shower and lay on the big communal balcony. Dinner option tonight was a untraditional, Mexican meal, a group of Aussies we met at Angkor Wat recommended it, it was very tasty and we scoffed it down like animals because we hadn't eaten since 7am. After a few rounds of cards, we went to pub street for a visit to the renowned Angkor Wat bar. We asked Mr Tour Guide to come to meet us at 9pm for a drink, after he had finished his afternoon of studying; he's currently studying to be a lawyer because he said his country is corrupt. How amazing is he, 37 and he just changed his life around because he wants to make a difference in his country. We're glad he came, we wasn't sure if he would. We bought him a beer and taught him to play one of our favourite games - 'fives'. He only stayed for one because he had another tour at 4am the next morning, such a trooper. After we had a group photo, we said our goodbyes. The rest of the night involved, tug of war games between Angkor Wat bar and Temple bar in aid of the upcoming Khmer New Year, skipping competitions, lots of dancing and meeting new people.

The next day we allowed ourselves a little lay in until 10am, the girls packed up to check out the hostel, I was staying an extra night because I'm travelling to Laos at 5am the next day for a 25 hour bus journey to the capital Vientiane to meet my best buddy Soozieeee, the babe is flying out to visit me for a week, a big impulse decision on her part but I'm so glad she decided to. Scarabs on tour in Asia! I am so excited to see her, missed her so much. Sorry, I'm trailing off again. We spent the late morning tuk tuk'ing around grabbing brunch, doing odd jobs. Alice and Laura found a nearby hotel with a pool that they could use for some last minute sun bathing. Kate, Liv and I had to spent a couple of hours planning India, it's only just hit us how close it is. This time in two weeks, we will be in the thick of India, gulp, we are not prepared for this, although we do feel a bit better now we have a rough plan sketched out. That afternoon we had booked to go on a tour of the Floating Village, we was due to be picked up by 4pm but by 4.30pm, still no pick up. We ended up being tuk tuk'ed the whole way because we had missed the bus. 10km in a tuk tuk, ouch sore bum! Just as we arrived, it dawned on me. We're about to spend the next two hours in an Asian boat, crap. How can I have not realised before now, double crap! I sat there grasping onto the seat in front, whimpering like a little girl every time we rocked or if another boat came to close. We did brush up against a boat at one point though, in my defence! The floating village was an eye opener (in parts), seeing how people survived and lived their day to day life on the biggest lake in Asia that was home to 3 million people. We was visiting in the dry season so the lake wasn't so deep, only a metre deep I think the guide said, apparently during the wet season they have to drive the houses closer to the main land with their little boats. Imagine the work and effort that goes into that as each season changes. Again I'm astonished with the initiative people have here, other homes were built on stilts that can also rise when the wet season is here, the photos will explain better! At first we didn't see any other boats doing the same tour as us so it felt like a private tour. The only touristy bit of the trip was when we went to visit the actual floating market, they said it would be nice of us to buy some food for the locals, we said we have sweets for the children but he insisted they needed real food, when we enquired about the food he said a bag of rice was $35... Straight away we was put off because it felt like a scam. We polite-fully declined and said we would pass on our sweets if we saw any kids. After deciding it wasn't a good idea to even go into the market, we stayed on the boat and went to the next stop. A crocodile farm, very bizarre and obviously just for the tourists, Russians especially. As we approached the floating 'farm' if you want to call it that, there was a young girl floating in, what looked like, a washing up bowl, once we were closer we could see that she had a snake around her neck, shouting "photo one dollar, photo one dollar". There was three children doing the same thing throughout that area, we gave them some sweets and they just kept saying "one more one more" as they were pocketing the candies. The crocodile farm was odd, it consisted of a high viewpoint of the lake, a market inside (selling croc bags and boots to russians) and crocodile pits. I thought the crocs were fake at first because they didn't move and just looked plastic but we stood there until a few of them had a shuffle around. I don't think I'd ever been that close to a crocodile before. The trip was meant to include a sunset too but it was way to cloudy so we headed back to the main land. Secretly, much to my happiness, it meant we didn't have to do all the journey back in the pitch black, only the last 10 minutes or so. I got some good photos of the boat headlights coming up the river. We tuk tuk'ed back into Siem Reap for some dinner before the girls were leaving that night for Phnom Penh. After walking around for 45 minutes, trying to find a decent restaurant with a good menu, reasonably priced food and space for four people, we finally settled. Just as our food was arriving, we had yet another power cut in Siem Reap, it suddenly went pitch black followed by a few shrieks in the crowds of people around. The girls grabbed their phones, put on the torches and I put my bag on my lap, not taking any chances. It took a while for the waitresses to bring over candles but finally we had a romantic candle lite dinner for 5. After about 40 minutes the power was back up so we decided to squeeze in a last drink before we had to head back to the hostel. I had to leg it to a cash point in case the power went again, I was panicking at dinner because I didn't have any cash for the border crossing into Laos the next day. Managed to get money out but decided not to drink to save money. About 20 minutes after I sat down, the power went again but luckily the cut wasn't as long this time so the girls still managed to charge their electrical bits for their night bus. The time was upon us for me to wave off the girls, I'll miss having Alice and Laura around, sad saying goodbye. My little Alice and our funny conversations and impressions. The lovely Laura, so pleased she came and I got to meet her, she's a great girl, especially when it comes to Lara Croft impressions! I'm meeting Liv and Kate in Laos in a few days because I'm going ahead to meet my Soozikins.

Siem Reap was a cool city, wish we could've had more time there. Overall I absolutely loved Cambodia, it ranked really high on my travelling list. I would 100% come back here again, once I've see the rest of the world that is...

8th country done, onto Laos.