I wake up its still dark, look at my watch 4.05am??? Time to get up! Fortunately the old body clock kicked in earlier than April's 3.45am alarm which didn't seem to work for some reason... No drama though we were easily in time for our driver Mr EE at 4.30am. It was a new experience passing through the streets of Siem Reap in the peaceful darkness of the early morning. We stopped off at the check point and had our pictures taken for the day ticket and paid the $20 entrance fee.

We got to the main site and statred walking along a pathway, in my somewhat state I was grateful for April to point out the edge of the walkway was actually a fall into the water filled moat! I cranked up the Petzl head torch... Through the entrance we were greeted by a man with incense sticks for the Buddha on placing he showed us that we had to give money. We did so but then realised after seeing this at every temple that we may have been stung.

Payments aside we were onto the main gathering site for people waiting for sunrise. We got our camera and tripod ready. The main pillars slowly appeared, this was big! Shots done we explored Angkor Wat. This was just one of many temples (it was a city of the Angkor powerhouse) all built around a 1000 years ago but only recently uncovered by a French botanist about a 100 years ago when he stumbled across them by accident entrenched by the deep jungle. Unfortunately most of the temples are more ruined than they should be due to shifts in religions from Buddhism to Hinduism and back and other wars over the years. Buddha's heads and arms typically have been mostly destroyed. Restoration work is happening on most temples some better than others. It almost seems a political battle between the countries as China, India, France and Japan all proudly state their efforts next to each. Having topped the day off with one of the temples used in Tomb Raider well overgrown by trees and their massive roots we headed back.

After a big day at the office we treated ourselves with the relatively high priced Cambodian BBQ at $15 between 2 of us. It was a great experience with each table having its own Khemer style BBQ which we cook with ourselves. The next thing was which meat. What a choice we had. In the end when in Cambodia why not try the Snake, Crocodile and Kangaroo! Glad we did they were actually quite nice along with our well cooked noodles, rice and veg. Plus the beer was cheaper than water. I had 2 glasses at 30p each. Good times.