Season's greetings from South East Asia! We are still in Cambodia but only until tomorrow, then we head to Thailand, the final country for us to visit on this trip......

We have had almost 2 weeks in Cambodia and visited the 3 main tourist destinations; Phnom Penh, Siem Reap and Sihanoukville. As previously said we entered Cambodia from the Mekong Delta in Vietnam. Headed to the capital, Phnom Penh and spent a few days here. Saw some sights, sampled the gorgeous local Khmer food and of course tried some new beers! We do more than just eat and drink though, honestly! Phnom Penh is a nice city, very grand and pretty by the riverside. There are a lot more cars there too compared to Vietnamese cities, they don't mix well with motorbikes and tuk tuks though.

Visited the Royal Palace which was very impressive. Lots of buildings built for the royal family along with temples within a walled area, very colourful and mostly covered in gold decor. The King is a big deal in Cambodia and has much more power over his country than the Queen does in Britain. Saw a few monks wandering around the complex too in their bright orange robes.

Spent a very depressing day learning about Cambodia's recent violent history, namely Pol Pot's reign of terror. It is estimated that 2 million people were murdered over the 4 year period, 1975-1979. Visited the infamous S21 prison, formerly a high school in a quite area of the city. The Khmer Rouge (Pol Pot's army) converted it to a prison and 20,000 people were held here, interrogated and tortured. The Khmer Rouge initially targeted intellectuals such as teachers and lawyers, (even if you wore glasses it was a sign of intelligence) and imprisoned them under the accusation of being CIA spies. Whole families were imprisoned and forced to confess to false allegations. Former classrooms were converted into tiny individual cells. We saw torture beds and weapons and graphic photos of torture victims hanging on the walls. There were also mugshots of everyone who had arrived at the prison and it was horrible to see all these faces knowing that they would have met an horrific death. Those who didn't die during the torture were sent to one of the many killing fields around Cambodia to be exterminated......

The killing field near Phnom Penh is 15km out of the city. It used to be, and is again, a peaceful country orchard. We visited this site where dozens of mass graves have been dug up and still dozens more lay undisturbed. There is a tall memorial as you enter with thousands of skulls inside. It was quite chilling looking at them knowing that each one belonged to an innocent person. The Khmer Rouge killed adults, children and even babies, this was because they didn't want anyone to survive to seek revenge. Saw a tree which was used by the soldiers to bash babies against, how can anyone be so sick? It was all very, very upsetting. We could not believe it was all fairly recent too, still happening when we were born. It made us realise how lucky we are to live in a peaceful country and have the opportunity to travel the world. Every family in Cambodia was affected by the genocide but the nation is moving on and looking towards a peaceful future.

Next stop was Siem Reap, gateway to the famous Angkor Archaelogical Park. It was a 5 hour bus journey north of Phnom Penh and on the way we had a couple of snack stops. Forget your usual sandwiches, crisps and chocolate, here you could snack on fried beetles, crickets and.......tarantulas! We'd heard they eat some insects here and they do! They were all piled high in baskets at the little market stall and people would come up and buy a bag full of their chosen delicacy. I saw a man buy a tarantula, twist it's legs off and eat them, then a little boy of about 5 munch away on a whole fried cricket! Gross! There were even live tarantulas on sale so you could take them home and cook them fresh yourself, made me cringe when I saw them! Phil was tempted to try a bit of a spider but the more he thought about it the less appealing it became! Unusal for us, we normally try all new foods!

Spent 2 days exploring the temples of Angkor, all that is left of the ancient Khmer empire. It is a World Heritage Listed site which covers 3,000 sq kms and has over 100 temples. You can spend weeks exploring if you really want to, but in our short 2 days we felt we'd seen enough. A tuk tuk driver took us round each day which was a good way to get about. Early start on day one as we were up to watch the sunrise over Angkor Wat, the most famous temple in the site. It is Cambodia's national symbol and also appears on the country's flag (making it the only flag in the world to feature a building - Phil's fact!). It is a huge temple within a large perimeter wall, surrounded by a wide moat. There are three levels to it and in the centre 5 large lotus-shaped towers. We spent 2 hours looking round, there are so many covered walkways, intricate stone carvings and walls covered in bas-reliefs. It was amazing and to think it was all built in the 12th century, wow!

Over the 2 days we saw about 12 temples, varying in shape and size. One of our favourite was Ta Phrom, a temple ruin that had been left largely unrestored. The jungle which had taken over after the area was abandoned has only been partially cleared. It is a great place to explore and a good location for a film set. Can anyone guess which Hollywood blockbuster was filmed here?! (answer at the bottom, but don't skip past the text!) There are many trees growing on top of and in amongst buildings with huge roots taking over. It was quite an eerie place and we wouldn't like to be there in the dark! Fascinating though.

At each temple there was a long line of market stalls and restaurants. We would always hear shouts of "eat something?", "buy some pineapple?", "you want mango?" which just became part of the day for us. There were many children about too selling books, postcards, braclets and other handicrafts. Some were only about 3 years old! Older children we met were lovely and spoke excellent English. Bought a silk shawl off a little girl who was a good sales woman! We bartered as usual, but it's very difficult bartering over 50p with a cute, poor 8 year old.

On day two we watched the sunset from a temple high up on a hill. Got a great view of the whole junlge area and the top of Angkor Wat peeping over the tree tops. It was a perfect location and a nice way to end our time there. Shame we had to share it with a thousand other tourists, the temple was literally covered with people! We'd thoroughly enjoyed Angkor and what we'd learnt about the Khmer empire etc, however we were a bit 'templed out' after 2 days! We'd been on our feet a lot so before leaving Siem Reap we both had a Khmer foot massage. This was lovely and just what we needed! They didn't only do our feet but legs, neck and shoulders too, $5 for an hour, bargain!

Back to Phnom Penh for one night, couldn't go out unfortunately as I got my first (and last hopefully) bout of Asian sickness. I was sick for 2 days but am much better now. Phil was fine though so don't know where i'd picked a bug up from.

Our last stop in Cambodia was Sihanoukville. This is Cambodia's beach resort town but is not over developed so has a nice laid back feel. It's a bit rough round the edges but we like that. Not too many western tourists there, although quite a few older western men with younger Cambodian girls, gross! We've spent 3 days here soaking up some sunshine, 30 degrees everyday, bliss! Doesn't feel like December! Did a brilliant boat trip the other day, went snorkelling and spent lots of time on a paradise island just chilling out. I spent most of my time in the sea. It was crystal clear and so warm. Had a delicious barbequed barracuda on the beach for lunch, no beer though, having a few days off it before christmas!

We leave Cambodia tomorrow and head across into Thailand. We have had a great time here and don't want to leave just yet (but we have that feeling after everywhere we've been!). It is inspiring to see a country bouncing back so strongly after such traumatic events and welcoming foreigners so warmly.

Will be nice to visit Thailand again after our visit 5 years ago. We are spending christmas week on Koh Chang island, (not been there before) so christmas on the beach for us this year in the sun, bit different to the usual! I'll miss having my mum's roast turkey dinner though!

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!! we're home in a month.....

lots of love, us 2 X

Film answer = Tomb Raider, starring Angelina Jolie! Anyone guess correctly?!