Siem Reap...and finally, only 4 years after trying to plan a trip (for those of you who remember my failure to get here last time I was in Thailand!), we made it to Angkor Wat.

I have to confess that, as impressive as the famous main bit Angkow Wat is, it wasn´t as impressive as I´d been expecting. Maybe that´s just a case of too many photos preceding the first viewing of it. We went for sunset - slightly misleading as they don´t let you watch sunset from the Wat because (and fair enough) they don´t want you climbing down in the dark. As I later discovered, climbing up and down is pretty precarious. Climbing up - like slightly easier rock climbing - pretty vertical, but at least the hand and footholds (i.e. steps) are fairly obvious. Climbing down...like abseiling. But without ropes.

Anyway, we spent the next day going ruond the complex in a tuktuk driven by the trusty Jack. We saw the Bayon and Angkor Thom among other temples, including 2 that I climbed up to (one up a hill, one just a long way to the top!) and the views out across the temples were AMAZING. And as for the Bayon (the one with the faces) - utterly unbelievable. We also went to the tree temple, where Tomb Raider was filmed. And yes, after we´d got over the beauty of it (ancient stone temples being taken back by the forest? You can´t beat it), we got into our Angelina Jolie-esque action shots. Much to our embarrassment when some American tourists found us posing amongst the stones...

Anyway, Angkor Wat and the temples were SO worth the wait. We didn´t spend as long as some people do, but it was good for us and I left feeling exactly as awed and satisfied as I´d hoped. I´m so glad we chose to take a tuktuk. We´d dithered about getting bikes of some sort but Jack told us that the bicycles and electric scooters are so popular that tuktuk drivers - many of whom are trying to pay their way through university - have no work, and all the money from the hiring of bikes goes to the Koreans who own it. As it was, we got taken to some fab temples, saw lots, had plenty of time to wander around them at leisure, got lots of information on the way and - in a small way - helped out a bloody nice bloke.

I now understand why people who come into Cambodia from Thailand, with Siem Reap as the first stop, find it hard to warm to. There´s a LOT more hassling here, and some of the not-so-adorable children selling bits and bobs can get quite threatening! There was the other night, when (after a few...!) Caroline suddenly found herself with a baby thrust upon her - and the poor thing´s brother wouldn´t take her back until she gave him a dollar! Eventually she got rid of her...

We spent one more day in Siem Reap, having a look at the (very smelly) market and admiring the sunset from our rooftop bar, and now it´s back to Bangkok. The 4 of us are staying with Young family friends Jess, Patrick and Maisie for the few days we´re there, and I´m quite looking forward to going back to Bangkok - not least because it means seeing them AND that I´m also going back to Richmond, albeit briefly!