So……. The next day we decided to go and discover the temples of Angkor. Same picked us up early and we started with Angkor Thom. The crowds flock early to avoid the heat so it was pretty busy when we got there. The temples are about 16km outside Siem Reap and as much of Siem Reap has been built in the last 3 years it was good to get out and see a bit of the ancient city. So …. a bit of history for you….The Khmer or Angkor Civilization came into existence during the period from 802 to 1431 A.D. and stretched as far as the modern Thailand-Burma Border in the West and Wat Phou of Laos in the North during its peak. Angkor Wat literally means "City of Temple" and Angkor Thom "The Magnificent City". The Thai army seized Angkor in 1431. It is unclear if Angkor was completely abandoned at this time due to the Thai's onslaught and the people fled to take up residence in the south or, if some people stayed. It is known that a Khmer king later attempted to restore one of the temples without success and the city of Angkor was finally completely abandoned sometime later, but the definite year and the exact reasons are not known. Anyhoo the West did not know anything about the existence of the Khmer Civilization until a French botanist Henri Mouhot published his finding of this lost empire in 1861 (one year after he rediscovered the Angkor). He was stunned by the magnificence of Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom which were hidden in the jungle. His announcement aroused the interest of the Westerners and subsequently attracted many explorers, historians and archaeologists to further explore and study the lost Khmer Civilization.

The temples are a pretty awesome sight and rightly or wrongly you are free to climb all over them. Many of the steps are worn which makes for a pretty hairy ascent and an even scarier descent, but with us both bum shuffling our way up and down them we managed to get ourselves round. Same picked us up a couple of hours later and took us to Angkor Wat. We decided to go for lunch as the rain arrived at Angkor Wat at the same time as we did. So mid afternoon we went and explored Angkor Wat which was beautiful.

After hours of walking we decided to head back to the hotel and Anna went for a reflexology massage and drifted off and was in a world of her own when they decided to let fireworks off outside the hotel. It was 6.24pm and the Khmer New Year had arrived with a bang!!! We asked why New Year was a 6.24pm and we were told it was because it was just what they had been told on the news. It appears that they don't question much out here… they just do as they are told. We went out that night for a meal and watched some traditional Khmer dancing in a nearby restaurant.

So the next day was an early start with us getting up at 4.30am as Same had suggested that we watch sun rise over Angkor Wat. It had sounded like a good idea but was a struggle after a few hours sleep and the beer and wine from the night before. Anyway we made it down to the temple for sunrise and got some pretty cool photos. After that Same took us to Ta Phrom which was a few kilometers away. The ruins are so old nature has taken over and trees are pushing their way out the top of the temples and along the walls. It was here that they filmed Tomb Raider so I put on my hotpants and ran over the ruins like Lara Croft. Rik disappeared and went exploring Indiana Jones stylee. Anna got chatting to a lady from England. She was in her eighties and was away for a few weeks traveling. She had made her way to Cambodia via Syria, Jordan Afghanistan and India so she took the prize for the most intrepid explorer we had met. She told stories of how she had been held up in a hotel in Afghanistan for 3 days as violent demonstrations took place outside. She said that her children had said she was to phone home every other day or they would call the police!! We headed back to meet Same and he dropped us back at the hotel for a lazy day by the pool.

Spent most of the day swimming, relaxing and reading. As you would expect nothing exciting …… until some poor old Frenchman started choking and shouting from the pool. Anna couldn't see him but saw the look of panic on everyone's face. She proudly watched as her ex lifeguard, trained first aider, Baywatch, boyfriend lay faced down on the grass fast asleep, giving out big ZZZZzzz's just a few feet away. Everyone ran out from different directions towards the pool and Anna ran across the lawn to wake Rik up who had just started to stir. Anyway thankfully all was ok, the man was pulled out the pool by two mafia type looking guys with chest wigs, tight Speedos and gold medallions. The Frenchman said he was ok and went back to his sun bed to recover. Anna actually thinks he may have seen Rik showing off his synchronized swimming moves earlier on and may have tried to copy him. Even Rik came up choking and had a sore head for an hour after demonstrating his underwater handsprings!

The next day we had a short walk around Siem Reap and then got a flight to Bangkok. We almost missed the flight as we had a can of Beer Lao to shotgun before we went through security. We couldn't take through in our hand luggage and this stuff is too good to throw away. From Bangkok we took a connecting flight to Phuket where we were met by Morna and Scott. It was so lovely to see two friendly faces at the airport waiting for us……