We'd heard hideous tales of the border crossing between Thailand and Cambodia at a place called Poipet. Tales of scams aplenty and disfigured beggers. luckily the trip was fairly painless with just a few agressive chaps on the cambodian side who were trying to steal us from our taxi-man. "im from the government" one chap said "and if you want happy holiday don't go with him, he try and sell you animal". Turns out that all scammers are "from the government" and all you need to join is a crudely made, laminated name-tag and sun faded baseball cap. Our taxi-man was fine and we arrived in Siem Reap in just over 2 hours. Our guest house was a gem compared to the last s*** hole we had stayed at in Thailand. The slightly sinister Swiss chap who owned it had been there for years and gave us the low down on the temples and the best route via our free bikes that came with the room. That night we chilled and the next day took a bike ride through the town. The roads here are MENTAL with no real right of way except the biggest vehicle steams through and everyone else gets out of the way. Add to this the potholes, dirt
and dust and its pretty hectic in 30 degree heat. Anyway, we survived and ate that night at a bar that played reggae and Eric Clapton on a loop. It was such a relief from the voice synthed dance/R&B rubbish that passed as western music which we had been subjected to so far. Food of note in cambodia is Lok-Lak a sort of beef in gravy affair, Amok which is a coconut curry and the chips which are tempura battered before frying and are some of the best Ive had + it replenishes the salt that you have sweated out throughout the day. Double genius.

The next day we got up at 4, had breakfast and cycled off to the temples of Angkor. On the way we saw a colony of fruitbats overhead which made me feel like Shortround in Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom. We got to the first temple and carried our bikes up to the external wall and cycled along the deserted path. Sunrise here was beautiful ,hazy and silent only briefly disturbed by a monkey the size of a dog falling from the trees and legging it across the path.I could waffle on for hours about how AWESOME the temples were, how beautiful, how monumental in size, but the photos will let you see that for yourself. They were built from about 1300 years ago and the biggest, most well known one called Angkor Wat took 30 years to build.
How they did it I dont know as every millimetre of it was detailed with the most intricate of carvings and were truly massive in scale.Temples buried in the jungle and off the beaten path were void of tourists and there was a constant white noise of insects and beasts that made you feel like the only person to have ever been there, truly an experience we will never forget, particularly the mammoth bike ride that saw us cover 29 miles in the searing heat - knackering!

Kate got a bit poorly the next day from something she ate or drank so we had an extra 2 days in Siem Reap. Before we left we had something called "Dr Fish" which is basically a little pond with some fish from Turkey in that you put your feet in and they all munch away at the dead skin cells and bits of dirt. Kate and I both agreed that we need Dr Fish in our lives when we get back as it was really nice and our feet felt amazing afterwards. I see a business opportunity when we get home!