I had one more temple day in Siem Reap planned to go to Ko Ker and Ban Maelea. These temples are 130 and 80 kilometers away from the Anghor Wat complex so I needed to hire a car to get there. This was too expensive to do on my own, so I went out to search for some people to join me. Fabian, Sergio (both Italian) and Tony (German) wanted to go as well so we were able to split the costs of hiring a car + driver. Some people on the internet described these temples as more impressive than Anghor Wat and Bayon and there would be almost no tourists because it was unreachable by public transport or tuctuc.

We first went to Ko Ker. There were a lot of small temples that were not that interesting but the big temple was very impressive. It was very different from the other temples since it was a 35 meter, high pyramid shaped temple. It had a lot of vegetation on the side of it which really gave it an old and authentic look. We were lucky that we were able to climb the temple since the workers just finished building a, shaky, stairs to the top platform. Cambodia is much more flat than Thailand so we had a nice view.

Ban Maelea was a different story. You were allowed to climb on the temple and over the stones that blocked some paths throughout the temple so we nicknamed this the Indiana Jones temple. It was really cool being able to climb on top of the roof of a temple and have an overview a large area of the temple. This one was also overgrown with trees and roots.

We ended the day with a great night at a bar called Anghor What? (I know, brilliant name right). Was my first 'bucket' experience since I started travelling. That is basically a drink served in the size of a bucket, the name kind of gives if away but just to be sure that everybody understands :). The day after I would travel to Kep.

Kep is a village at the South coast of Cambodia and not well known for tourists. Tourists usually go to the more known beach spots like Sihanoukville and Kampot but I decided to go to Kep for some relaxation. The bus ride was 17 hours instead of the proclaimed 12 hours before departure but I was happy when I arrived. The bus was quite comfortable since it was a sleeper bus which means that it had (Asian sized) beds in it. It was better than regular seats so that was quite cool. I needed to change busses and get into a minivan with 16 other people including luggage. That was not cool but we survived.

I spent my days at Kep by waking up around 10, getting some breakfast at the local market and then ride the bike / walk for about 5 hours through the countryside, to a pepper farm, a national park and the coast line ofcourse. When I got back around 4, I relaxed at the hostel and went out for some food and sunset at the beach at 5. After that I took at shower and watched some movies on the tv (Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons).

On the 30th I travelled to Phnom Penh to celebrate New Years Eve with Keone whom I met during the voluntary work. He is a payed TEFL (teaching english in foreign languages) teacher and he is travelling in Cambodia during his Christmas break. We already met up on the 30th together with two friends from him whom he met in Siem Reap (Fiona and Daniella). Tonight we will celebrate NYE together so that's going to be awesome. Then it's only one day before I pick up Daan from the airport, looking forward to it!

I wish you all a happy and healthy 2014, take care and be safe with the fireworks and enjoy the company of your loved ones!