So, I left New Zealand and the cold behind me and pitched back up into the madness of Bangkok. It didn't take long for me to remember why I loved Thailand so much the first time, oh how I'd missed that food!!! During my 3rd meal in my third different restaurant in the space of 3 hours I worked out my rough plan of attack for the next 3 weeks. I decided I would't hang around in Bangkok so that I could spend as much time a possible in Cambodia so after a pit-stop in Bangkok I took the bus over the Cambodian border to Siem Reap. On arriving in the city the bus didn't stop but instead continued on for a few miles and dropped us off in the middle of nowhere in the pitch black where a convoy of tuk-tuk's were waiting to drive us back to the centre which we'd just drove through. While most people were really angry by this blaitant scam I was actually quite happy - I hadn't been scammed since leaving Asia to head to Australia and would have been disappointed if at least someone hadn't tried to pull a fast one! Plus, the major blow of having to fork out 7p for a ride back into town helped everyone bond and ended up getting a hotel with Ana and Claus, an Austrain and German who'd been on the bus.

We got up at a seriously ungodly hour in order to head to the temples of Angkor in time for the sunrise. Due to the heat and my laziness I opted not to hire a bike with Ana and Claus but instead hired a tuk tuk and a driver for the day. I'd reada lot of guides and spoken to a lot of people who'd already been but I was still not prepared for just how awesome the temples were. I decided not to beat around the bush and head straight for the daddy of them all, Angkor Wat. It's incredible to think just how old it actually is. It's the largest religious structure on the planet and undoubtedly one of the most impressive. I wandered around pretending I was Indiana Jones for a while before having the awkward task of waking up my driver who was sound asleep on the back seat. Angkor Thom was next on the hit list and it wasn't a let down after Angkor Wat and then Ta Phrom and Ta Som which was a bit more secluded, surrounded by jungle which over the centuries had grown through the temple itself in a very impressive way. The fact that it was a bit more private meant I could do the whole Indiana Jones thing without the staring, especially since my driver was snoozing again.

We drove around some of the smaller temples until it started to get dark and was dropped off on Pub Street (which does exactly what it says on the tin.) I'd arranged to meet Ana and Claus for dinner and some traditional Cambodian dancing which was very confusing. from what I could make out, Cambodian dancing involves a girl standing around on 1 leg while some dude dressed as a dragon prances around behind her with a dagger before, for some unbeknown reason, they both transform into peacocks and start boogying on down. After partying the night away and exploring the city the next day it was time to head Siem Reap which had been absolutely awesome so caught the boat to head to Cambodia's 2nd city, Battambang.

James.