We arrived in Siem Reap a few hours early, when we got off the bus there was a bloke from our hostel with our names on a piece of paper - we felt really important!! The man that picked us up was to become our tuk tuk driver, we arranged to meet him later to go and see the sunset at Phnom Bakheng. We decided to go out for a pizza for lunch at a place called Happy Herbs Pizza - it was really tasty but not too much effect was noticed, I don't know how they can manage to get away with it though!

We met our driver, Kim at 4.30pm and went to go and buy our tickets to visit the temples of Angkor the following day. We decided to just buy a one day ticket for the temples as we are not really experts and felt that any more would just be too much!The ticket which costs $20 contains your photo which I think is a really good idea, it also lets you go and see the sunset at Phnom Bakheng where you can see Angkor Wat in the jungle about a mile and a half away!

The road to the car park at the bottom of the hill goes past the east gate of Angkor Wat - the first glimpse took our breath away - it is huge! Phnom Bakheng a Hindu temple built in the 9th-10th century and is the only temple we visited on a hill - wearing flip-flops and having sweaty feet made the climb difficult! Climbing up the temple mountain style complex on top is a relatively tricky task in itself - the steps are really high and extremely narrow! Reaffirming how small the world is we bumped into Silas and Dee, who were on our Mekong Delta trip!

The Temples of Angkor were built by the Khmer Empire between the 9th and 12th Century.The Empire was huge covering Cambodia and much of Vietnam, Laos and Thailand.The temple ruins are the remnants of the Angkorian capitals and represent the pinnacle of ancient Khmer architecture, art and civilisation.At is height the age of Angkor was a time when the capital area contained more than a million people, London at this time was a small town of only 50,000 inhabitants!During this time the Khmer Kings constructed vast waterworks and grand temples to show their dominance and wealth they held within the area.

After the 15th Century the capital moved from Angkor although the temples remained active but their functions have changes over the years.Angkor was visited several times by Western explorers and Missionaries but it was Henri Mouhit who is believed to have rediscovered Angkor in 1860.

The next morning we were up early, Kim picked us up at 5:15am, we were at Angkor by 5.30am ready to see sunrise. We were very lucky there was a beautiful red sunrise, turning the clouds pink.We stayed until the colours died off and based on advice from Silas and Dee we first headed for Ta Phrom to beat the crowds.

Ta Phrom is a Buddhist temple built in the 13th century and dedicated to Jayavarman VII's mother. It was empty at 6am so we pretty much had the place to ourselves, we wandered about for at least an hour and only saw a handful of other people. Inside this temple you feel like a real explorer, the jungle has taken over and many of the buildings and walls have collapsed, trees are growing everywhere and there are some huge ones growing right in the middle of some of the buildings, the roots have an amazing destructive power. Ta Phrom was used to film one of the Tomb Raider films, it is so crazy, a land of fantasy it is difficult to believe your eyes at times.

The complex is huge and Ta Phrom used to control over 3000 villages, the villages and other buildings were made of wood and have long since rotted away.The Temples are made of stone as only gods were important enough to reside in buildings made of stone. As you walk around the outside area of the complex you can imagine all the small villages that would have been, it is covered in dense jungle now.

We then stopped off at Ta Keo - a temple-mountain dedicated to the Hindu god Shiva. It is 55m tall and the climb is pretty rewarding. There is very little stone carving here indicating construction was stopped relatively early in the decoration stage. Due to the lack of carvings it is considered to be a boring temple but we thought it was beautiful, an amazing feat to build.

Preah Khan (Sacred Sword) another huge temple complex north of Angkor Thom was our next stop. It was built in the 12th century when the religion was Buddhist, its original purpose was a Buddhist Monastery home to over 1000 monks. it was dedicated to Jayavarman VII's father. Within the complex there are many corridors and passages to explore.Apparently it used to be in a state like Ta Phrom but was partly restored to give a representation of what Ta Phrom would have looked like, the two temples are very similar in size and would have been similar in design too.

Many of the Buddha carvings around Preah Khan have been carved over or cut out, this happened when there was a resurgence in Hinduism at a later time. The complex also contains a building with large cylindrical columns - one of the only examples of round columns meaning that it may well have been built during a later period.

We then got dropped off in Angkor Thom, which means Big Angkor. Angkor Thom is a massive 3km square walled and moated royal city, it was also the last capital of the Angkorian Empire. It was built in the 12-13th centuries. It was built around existing temples with more being added inside it later on. The outer wall contains a temple at each corner as well as 5 gates, each gate is crowned with 4 giant faces.

We started by looking at the Terrace of the Leper King which was built at the same time as Angkor Thom it contains tall double terraced walls with beautiful stone engraving on them depicting Buddhas and various other things. Next to this it the Terrace of the Elephants a massive two and a half meter tall, 300m long terrace wall adorned with carved elephants and sculptures of elephants with 3 heads. This was also built during the same time as Angkor Thom, it sits very centrally in front of the Baphuon, Phimeanakas and the Royal Palace area. It was really impressive.The Terraces were used by the Khmer to welcome back their soldiers from battle, who would come through the Victory Gate (only if they won though!)

Phimeanakas is a big sandstone and laterite pyramid, it was built in the 10th century under the Hindu religion and is the highest scaleable building inside Angkor Thom. It is located inside the ancient Royal Palace compound and it served as the king's temple. Legend has it that the golden tower was inhabited by a serpent, which would transform into a woman. The kings of Angkor were required to make love to the serpent every night or disaster would befall him or the kingdom.By this time it was getting hot so we didn't climb up to the top!

We didn't sped much time exploring Baphuon as it is going under extensive restoration, so most of it was closed to the public and the restorations somehow ruin the effect anyway! It is a huge temple mountain within Angkor Thom that as been continually restored since the early 1900's.In the front of the temple lies all the stones, numbered to be replaced at some point, kind of like a massive jigsaw puzzle.We don't think they will ever manage to restore it fully and the gardens with all the stones gave a sad impression like graves for all the parts of the temple that will never again be fully restored.

Our favourite temple just above Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom, was the amazing Bayon.A huge temple adorned with 37 standing towers each covered with four massive stone faces pointing to the cardinal points. These faces are unbelievable and are believed to represent either Buddha or Jayavarman, but most are believed to be a mix of the two.Bayon was Jayavarman VII's state temple and in many ways represents the pinnacle of his massive building campaign.It wastruly beautiful building and the size of the faces was incredible.Also amazing were the bas-reliefs which surrounded the lower levels of the temple and contained scenes from historical battles and daily life.The intricacy of these carvings is unbelievable.Also the size of the building with all the little corridors and levels made it very easy to get lost within the temple!

It was now 11.30am and we had been on the go for a solid 6 hours.It was also starting to get really hot, although we were lucky as there was a slight breeze which kept the day just about bearable, we finally discovered a use for the magi-cool Catherine gave us before we came away!We rested for an hour for lunch and after 3 iced coffees (for me) and a bit of lunch (for Sarah) we felt refreshed and ready to hit Angkor Wat.

We were going to be at Angkor Wat at the hottest part of the day 12pm, but this is also the quietest time as most people are having lunch in Siem Reap so we decided to brave it!We have been lucky not to have to face too many crowds during the day, apparently in peak season there are four times as many people here, that would just be annoying and ruin the atmosphere.

Angkor Wat is breathtaking!The largest religious building in the world it is a massive 3 tiered period crowned by 5 large intricate towers rising 65m from ground level.Angkor Wat was built in the 12th century by Suryavarman and served as his state temple.Unfortunately the top tier was closed when while we were there, although being 1km square there was more than enough to see!After climbing up as high as we were allowed we dropped back down to look at the bas-reliefs and carvings that cover the lower level walls.Some of these were even more impressive than the ones in Bayon and extensive restoration work is ongoing to ensure they remain.It is crazy to think these were made just using hand tools all those years ago, as is the same for the temples, although elephants were used to move the heavier blocks.

On our way out we had one last look at Angkor Wat in the reflective pools, a slight breeze meant we couldn't get the perfect picture but pretty close!One last thing that really impressed us was the size of the moat around Angkor Wat.It makes the moats around European castles look like small streams!!Another remarkable feat of engineering!

We then decided to call it a day at 3.00pm.10 hours was more than enough for us!We had a truly memorable day, it was difficult to take everything in and one of those moments when you have to pinch yourself to believe that you are standing in front of one of the most amazing man made wonders of the world!It will be interesting to see if it can continue to stand the test of time and what effects all the restorations will have.

We finished the day by putting on our Sunday best to go and meet Silas and Dee who are staying in the FCC (Foreign Correspondents Club).They are here on their honeymoon and are staying in some beautiful places.They treated us to the most gorgeous dinner (thanks guys!) it was a real treat and a great way to end the day.Tonight we return the favour by taking them out for a pizza!!

Cambodia has been and gone very quickly but what a fantastic country, from the horrors of the Khmer Rouge to the unbelievable feats of architecture, we will be sad to leave. Next stop a beach in Thailand for a week of R&R and the last chance for Sarah to top up her tan before we come home!

Hope I have not bored you too much!

Love A&S xxx