Hi everyone! I'm currently in Bangkok after enduring a terrible 9hr overnight bus ride to get here - we were promised a bus with beds. There were no beds... and a lot of mosquitos. I'm currently too itchy to sleep so I thought I'd update you all.

So I arrived in Phnom Penh on Tuesday and went to stay with Isabel in her friend Anna's apartment - they've both been living here for six months so it was great to see what it's like to really live here. Honing my haggling skills at Central Market, going for drinks at the bar on top of Phnom Penh tower (25 stories high), dodging flying motos in the back of a tuk tuk... and occassionally getting Mexican takeout at home, because you can't be ~cultured~ all the time. Dad, you were right - I love it here (and your driving totally prepared me for the insanity of Cambodian roads).

I visted Tuol Sleng on Friday, a former high school which was used as the main prison during the Khmer Rouge. It was heartbreaking - room after room filled with photos of the prisoners, some of them children, all of them looking malnourished and terrified. Eventually I had to leave - it's so hard to imagine that such terrible things happened only a few decades ago, and right where I was standing.

After a big night out to say goodbye to all of Isabel's friends we got the bus to Siem Reap on Saturday so I could visit the temples. Isabel had already been so I hired a tuk tuk for a half day and got up at 4:30am to climb up to Phnom Bakheng, the temple on the mountain, for sunrise. Not many things could make me get up that early but it was worth it - I was the only person there for an hour and the view was stunning. Angkor Wat was even more breathtaking; bigger and more beautiful that I'd imagined. I spent three hours there and still wanted more.

In the evening Isabel and I got a traditional meal of fish amok and went back to the hostel to lie on the big white beds they have on the balconies. Looking up at the stars, I felt very lucky to be here - and even luckier to be able to return to a safe, clean, developed country when it's all over.

From there it was that awful overnight bus and here I am. I'm going to grab a few hours sleep before hitting the Bangkok vintage market and going to buy our visas for Myanmar. We're heading to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand in a couple of days - I'll update you again from there. Lots of love to all of you!