Fri 3rd Nov 2006

Left our lovely Sunday guesthouse in Phnom Penh to head to Siem Reap and Angkor Wat. Got the VIP bus and were given free pain-au-chocolate and dodgy sausage/cheese roll. Slept like babies as usual on moving vehicles.

Arrived at Siem Reap to be mauled by the local tuk-tuk/guesthouse men. They had to be beaten off us with sticks by the guards. Thankfully our wonderful Gech had booked us in to a hostel already so when we saw Jen's name on a sign amongst the crowd we fought our way through to the safety of Jasmine lodge's tuk-tuk. Cathryn almost lost a limb when giving away our unwanted sausage/cheese rolls to the children at the bus stop.

Treated ourselves to what we thought was going to be an amazing restaurant - the Lonely Planet said that Mick Jagger had been a recent guest. Nice restaurant, not so amazing food. So we moved on to buy one get one free cocktails - white russians!

In our slight drunkeness we didn't realise there was a queue for the pool tables and jumped straight on. Two blokes then "politely" offered to play doubles. Which we later realised meant we had taken their table. They thought we were hustlers after Jen's pool shark antics in the first game. But then the alcohol took over and we lost the vision, admitting defeat at 2-1.

Sat 4th Nov 2006

Started our 3-day Angkor Wat adventure with our slightly dodgy tuk-tuk driver Mr.Sniely. We were attacked everywhere we went by kids selling everything for $1 and women screaming "lady, lady. you buy cold drink, pineapple, or scarf". Note: bring ear plugs tomorrow!

Ran through Ta Prohm Angelina Jolie/Tomb Raider style flipping off the walls as we went. The Japanese package tourists were so impressed!

At lunch we didn't go to where Mr.Sniely would have got his commission but instead followed the $1 kids - they said everything on the menu was $1!!! We met a Geordie ice-cream van man who had just set up his business at Angkor Wat - random!

Templed out, we ended the day watching sunset at Angkor Wat and Jen had her photo taken by some monks. Yet again raising suspicion about the innocence of the monks!

Sun 5th Nov 2006

Up at 4.30am to see sunrise at Angkor Wat. Would have been a special and romantic moment for us both had the Japanese tourist coaches not turned up 10 minutes after we got our spot.

Saw more temples for the morning and reached our limit by midday, so went to the landmine museum. Were given a tour of the museum by an 18-year old landmine victim called Poi who told us his story also.

Before our much needed afternoon siesta, we visited the butterfly garden. There were as many dead ones as live ones so was almost like a butterfly cemetry.

Returned to our usual haunt of Temple Bar for more 2 for 1 cocktails. Jen had turned deaf at this point, so Cathryn chatted away to a random man from Grand Canaria before getting tips from an Aussie on what to do for her birthday.

Mon 6th Nov 2006

Tried to do some dodgy dealing with a local taxi man to get a cheaper price than what our tuk-tuk was charging. The men from our hostel got wind of this and questioned why. We explained that Mr.Sniely was wanting to charge us more than what we thought he should - we were right, so the hostel men arranged for us to only pay $30 for Mr.Sniely to take us to the back of beyond to see two temples miles away from Siem Reap :o)

Jen and Cathryn amazed themselves with their skillful sleeping today. We both slept on the back of the tuk-tuk on the bumpiest dirtiest track imagineable. Mr.Sniely was working so hard we had to stop in the middle of nowhere to let his engine cool down. Played with some random local kids whilst we waited.

Arrived at Beng Melea and were met by two "guides". We couldn't understand why we needed a guide. But then we realised that this wasn't an extension of Angkor Wat and that they were there to guide us through the 1000 year old rubble that was obviously not safe for climbing on. Tourism and health and safety is not what it is in England!

Returned to Siem Reap and treated ourselves to a curry. We justified it on the basis that we hadn't eaten since breakfast and it was the only thing Cathryn was going to be able to taste after somehow picking up a cold in the heat of Cambodia.

Yes you guessed it... the night returned to Temple and more cocktails. We thought we would try and budget ourselves and buy a bucket of coke and whiskey... we were soon back on the much tastier white russians. Had planned on an easy night as were we up at 6.30am the next morning for our local bus for local people. Around 2am we decided that we would attempt to be "hard-core" and try staying up all night. This decision was mainly influenced by alcohol and a group of just as drunk English men we met (we had saved them from the prostitutes). Said Englishmen were called Dan, Doug, Paul and Mike.

Under the influence of alcohol we were back on the pool table playing doubles. One of the lads doubled up with what we all presumed was a lady-boy prostitute for a laugh. Me and Jen both lost to the skills of the prostitute and Doug. Not that we were bitter - we got the free drinks in the end anyway.

Admitted defeat and returned home at 4.30 for an hour's sleep before catching our bus to Phnom Penh.