Set off from Bangkok stupidly early and got to the Camodian border reasonably mid-morning. Crossing the border itself was quite straightforward but we were very careful as the place itself (Poipet) is scam central. Between the two border posts is a gambling den of casinos and once over we found we had gone back in time about 20 years by comparison to Thailand.

The road from the border to Siem Reap is dirt road and we shared the taxi with a German girl and her Japanese boyfriend to save costs. After about 5 or 6 hours of truly bone crunching ride our taxi (with full-on rally suspension) bumped into Siem Reap and we checked into a guesthouse and then into the nearest bar. The bars in Siem Reap have a French feel due to the colonial past which gave us a nice familiar feeling as we drank the journey away!

Got up the next day and pedalled a hired bicycle around Angkor Thom. Watched the sunrise and then continued on and explored about another 5 or 6 temples including Ta Prohm (best known as a "film set" in Lara Croft) before getting home filthy, stinky and knackered after 15 miles of pedalling in the heat.

We took a Tuk-tuk the day after and explored a beautiful temple 25 mile away called Banteay Shreay and the day after we went to the big daddy Angkor Wat (biggest religous building in the world). Went back to the guesthouse and collapsed into a beer after 3 consecutive days getting up at 4am to watch the sunrises at each place.

Got the early bus and spent three days including New Year's Eve at Sihanoukville which is a wonderful beach resort . Our hotel had mislaid our booking which was okay because they were bloody miles from the action. The Tuk-tuk driver knew we were stranded so tried to rip us off and couldn't believe it when we hiked the 4 miles back into the party zone to squeeeeeze into the last room available.

All I can assume is that our proximity to China means they have the cheapest fireworks imaginagble because we wandered onto the beach at 6pm to a full-on fireworks show that didn't let up until 2am - in its own way the most impressive New Year's Eve ever. We are notoriously hard to please with things either being too young and trendy for us or too old and stuffy but the evening was a big fat 10 out of 10 with the chilled-out drunkeness, fire-dancing and firework lunacy all combining for a perfect night.

Next day started off awkwardly and late for some reason with a fry-up sometime in the early afternoon. We then proceeded to suntan ourselves sober and then chilled out the next day as well. Got the bus to Phnom Penh (capital of Cambodia) and managed to book into a right dive. The town itself was okay if a little too hectic, grubby etc (i.e. normal SE Asia city). Went to see the notorious Killing Fields and S-21 torture museum from the 1970's Pol-Pot regime - truly bloody gruesome.

Kym got bit by a dog on one of wanderings around the town but has yet to froth at the mouth so we're okay at the moment!