Hi everyone! Well, we travelled to Siem Reap via boat from Battambang. Siem Reap was actually such a nice surprise! I had been lead to believe that it was rubbish and touristy but it was actually really smart and clean and upmarket! (So, I obviously fitted in). On our first day, we arrived at about 2pm but didn't really have enough time to see Angkor, so we just went to a pub and played pool for a few hours (honestly, my skills are seriously improving, but so is my ego...I stupidly bet Colin that if I won the last game, he had to buy me dinner and vice versa... curry was on me.) Our curry was delightful but we were really tired after our 3 days in a row of getting up at 6am (ba humbug), so we just went to bed. The following morning, the alarm went off at 4am. Oh the joys. Our wee tuk tuk driver for the day met us and took us to see Angkor at sunrise. It was absolutely stunning. What a place.. It was quite busy with tourists outside, but when you got inside the place was completely empty. We wandered around for a few hours barely seeing a soul. Since it was the stupid time of 6am, we whipped our books out and sat in the tower windows admiring the view and the silence (which is extremely uncommon out here!). Obviously the main Wat is the most famous and most incredible, but Angkor is spread out over miles, with temples dotted all over the place. So, we found our lovely driver man and hopped back on the tuk tuk to go and see Bayon, the next most famous temple. By this time it was about 8am and the Japanese tourists were out in force, all with their matching hats, taking pictures of ANYTHING. However, it was hard not to be impressed by Bayon, as every wall has a huge big face of the Buddha which gives you a heart attack the first time you notice it. It was amazing, but we couldn't really spend as much time pottering around here because of all the tourists, so we swiftly moved on and got a munch. Next he dropped us off at a random temple, which in comparison to the rest was just rubbish! Normally, we would have travelled for hours to see something so beautiful, but in comparison to the rest it looked distinctly average! However, there was nobody there and it was nice and shady so we sat for hours and I got lots of my book read, without being pestered every 5 minutes. Next was Ta Prohm, which was the temple that Tomb Raider was set in. It has been completely attacked by the jungle and really is falling to pieces. Trees have grown right under, through and round the bricks, so it does really look like more of a film set than anything else. It's so so gorgeous and we spent hours just wandering around thinking we looked as cool as Indiana Jones. Which we did, ofcourse. It was about 4pm by this time and we were completely exhausted, so we saw one last temple (which I don't know the name of) before heading back to our guesthouse for a nap. (I was feeling rubbish and full of the cold). At night we went cheap and got delightful food for 50p, and then went to a free cello concert (get stuck in Ian!) performed by a Swiss doctor who has set up 4 hospitals in Cambodia funded 80% by private sponsors, who also plays the cello very well! He's a very clever man-he gets all the backpackers in by saying that it's a free concert, but actually spends 50 minutes of the hour talking about the health system and trying to get donations. It was really interesting, but of course Colin had something to say about it! We've had many a debate, I can tell you. The following day, we tried really hard to get up and go to Angkor but my cold was in full swing and 4 days of getting up at or before 6am had finally taken its toll, so instead we lay in bed all day watching Naked Gun. Classic. The next day we arsed around a bit and finally got to Angkor for lunchtime. We went into Angkor Wat and ate lunch that we had brought with us while watching the monsoon. I fell asleep for a while and Colin read. It was deeelightful. We met a guy who runs a local school and talked to him for hours. Legend. Then, we went on our tuk tuk and visited a Ta Som, a wee temple out of the main area which was lovely, and then to another temple to watch the sunset. Next day we got a bus back to Phnom Pehn and spent the night phoning Austrailia because Colin had left $450 worth of travelers cheques under the mattress in Siem Reap.... What a moron. It's all sorted now though and it only cost him $50! Bus to Saigon tomorrow xxx