Arriving at Siem Reap after the border shenanigans, Jade and I most glad to be at our guesthouse to put that 15hr trip behind us and catch up on some valuable sleep! Once up and ready we were off to venture around the village of Siem Reap. The village is rather quaint and the locals are beaming with smiles as we walk by. The town is situated along a river, and is bustling with many tourists all of whom are all here to see Angkor Wat!

One thing that stands out in Siem Reap is how poor the people are, at every opportunity the people are vying so desperately for your trade in their small shops, They sell everything from herbs, spices, coffee and all kinds of herbal teas, Not to mention the amount of garments Jade has been looking at!

So we retire back to the guesthouse to get washed and hide away from the inland heat. No sea breeze here unfortunately! Jade and I make our way back into the village at night. This is where Siem Reap really comes alive, one road which was empty is now lined with make shift restaurant's in an old school playground! The pub street is filled with revellers I'm guessing that all these people have been visiting Angkor Wat. We enjoy the rest of the evening by having some food and taking a stroll down by the riverside. We have an early night for the 4 o clock start to see Angkor Wat for sunrise , which we both really cannot wait for!

Angkor Wat, meaning city temple, is the world's largest religious building, we both are so eager to see it, so much so we arise at 4am! we were meant to be getting picked up at 5 o'clock from our guest house from a previous Tuk Tuk driver we had the previous day but he was a no show. Jade and I very anxious as we do not want to miss sun rise so we hail a driver on the roadside and are now making track in the early hours to Angkor Wat. It is pitch black and our driver drops us of at the entrance, we cannot see a thing and are just following the hordes of people here to see this spectacular sight. As we reach another entrance we make a prayer for good luck to Buddha before entering the main sight of Angkor Wat itself. With the sun now rising you can make out the silhouette of the towers of Angkor Wat, The sky filled with hues of dark purple and blues and its mirror image in the lake just in front of us... It is probably one of the most spectacular sights we have ever seen in our life's! There are many tourists here too to see this magnificent feat of architecture. The sun has now risen and already we can start to feel the heat. We have a quick breakfast of coffee and omelettes before our exploration of the temple.

We walk around the side of the site as the grand entrance is under renovation (not that we even noticed until now!). With the peaked towers towering above us as we walk inside the huge perimeter walls of this gargantuan temple, we make our way past a scavenging monkey. You can really feel how much effort it took to make such a building, the intricate carvings telling many different stories in almost every stone, Virtually all of its surfaces, columns, lintels even roofs are carved, we are both in awe. There are hall ways to as far as the eye can see, each leading to a grand opening and huge pavilions which are open to the elements. You can really see how huge the towers are that are above you, it must have taken them ages to build this? -One modern engineer estimated it would take 300 years to complete Angkor Wat today. Yet the monument was begun soon after Suryavarman came to the throne and was finished shortly after his death, no more than 40 years! How they built it is beyond us! We both have a sit down as we wait for the upper gallery to open, there is a huge queue forming already and it is only half past 7. Jade starts to notice that a lot of people are covering their legs and arms up, we had read previously that there was no need to cover up as it is not a working temple, but we are proved wrong. So I make my way up these steep set of stairs leading to the top as Jade looks on up at me with a disgruntled look on her face (she was wearing shorts). It is much of the same, a grand opening leading down to the same pavilions which are below, many Buddha statues are dotted around, many seem to be beheaded... I do not know the reason of this, other than maybe the Khmer Rouge had beheaded them during Kampots evil regime?? Well as I reach the end in front of me I have an amazing panoramic view of the lake, moat and other temples that surround the grounds. It is breath-taking. I take many photos as Jade is not with me. I make my way back down eager to show Jade the photos- she loves them. We slowly make our way back to our tuk tuk driver and on to the next string of temples.

They are all mind-blowing. The hard work of the past generations of Cambodians continues to pay off as thousands of westerners and eastern tourists alike fill the broken stone walls of each temple. Angkor Thom, surrounded by parks and jewelled elephants could easily keep you captivated for a whole afternoon, Jade and I however are keen to move on after taking the obligatory pictures; it is only 10am and it is already HOT!

Ta Keo, or "the one that almost killed me" is the only Hindu temple in the area and we think that you can notice a difference. It looks more angular rather than the curvatures of Angkor. I decided that it would be a good idea to take a picture at the top (Jade being the photographer, and not a brilliant one at that!). The steps leading to the highest "window" were ridiculously steep, with only a few centimetres of stone to place your toes, all the way to the 22 metre high summit. I don't know how I managed to get both up, and more astonishingly, down, without breaking a bone or 2. Especially as according to Jade, I can't walk along an empty pavement without stubbing my toe or slipping on something (my super-glue-fixed new flip flops with attest to this).

After a quick delicious snack of pineapple and sour mango (my new favourite treat), we walked beneath the tall trees of the surrounding forest towards Ta Prohm. The music of the blind and disabled survivors of Pol Pot's brutal regime fill our ears, how I wish we had the money to offer them. Ta prohm is the one I have been most excited to see; whistle-stopping through the others so that we had enough camera battery to make sure we had some photos of where Lara Croft/ Angelina Jolie had filmed the Tomb Raider film! It is slowly being restored but, because it was abandoned for centuries, nature began to take hold and the trees and roots of the silk-cotton trees now make the temple seem even more enchanting.

It is not even midday yet but we are exhausted, and as always feeling hungry! On the way home, we ask our driver to drop us at the "Lucky Mall" in an attempt to find some cheap snack (seemingly imossible up up until now). Unfortunately Lucky's seems even more expensive than other places we've been and so we just treat ourselves to a cake and water whilst still bubbling about how amazing our day has been!