When we got on the bus in Phnom Penh we found that we'd been placed above the front wheel, leaving no room for my feet. After asking the conductor, we were able to move to the front seats, giving us an uninterrupted view through the huge front windows. Once seated, we set off and left the city, soon entering the spectacularly beautiful Cambodian countryside.

Although without the dramatic hills of Vietnam, the seemingly endless expanses of rice paddies on either side of the road, saturated with flood water, punctuated by lines of trees and colourful wooden houses on stilts and browsed by skinny water buffalo formed a striking and picturesque scene.

It was through this environment, on a long straight road, that we travelled to Siem Reap. Along the way, other than the skinny white buffalo with their pointy horns and ribs showing, we passed hordes of school children cycling to and from school and motorbikes transporting all manner of goods, the highlight being a group of 3 or 4 bikes which each had about 3 mattresses strapped lengthways across behind the rider.

Once we reached Siem Reap, we were told that as the town centre was flooded we'd be dropped at a bus station a little bit out of town. When we left the bus here, we engaged the services of a tuk tuk driver who we instructed to take us to the hotel recommended to us by the staff at Number 9 in Phnom Penh, the hotel next door to OK Guest House where we had had a few drinks. The chap at Number 9 had said that if we stayed at this hotel we'd get a cheaper rate and, on our return to Phnom Penh could stay at Number 9 for only $10, rather than the usual $15.

We proceeded, mounted in the trailer behind our driver's motorbike, through the streets on the outskirts of Phnom Penh towards the hotel, which was situated to the east of the town centre. The roads were indeed flooded, and we hung on as our driver did an admirable job of navigating huge expanses of muddy brown water, which at times came close to spilling into the footwell of our trailer and which concealed numerous invisible potholes into which we inevitably bounced from time to time. Thanks to the skills of our driver, we soon gained the hotel and waded through the inches of water up the paved area outside the hotel and in to reception. Before we left him, our driver Vanna gave us his card in case we wished to employ his services in our visits to the temples of Angkor.

We found once we arrived at the hotel that they only had superior rooms remaining, but that we'd be able to stay in one of them for a discounted rate. When we saw the room, although the price was still a bit higher than we'd planned to spend, we opted to take it as it was huge, with a massive bed, fridge, TV, air conditioning and breakfast included.

We chilled out in the room for a bit, then via email discovered that the Matt, Carolyn and their boys were staying in the same place, just down the hall. We met up with them, then all went out as a group to a restaurant around the corner. The restaurant we visited was one of a few in our area outside which every night a calf would be cooked on a huge spit, then carved up and served to the diners. Testament to the popularity of these places was the fact that the entire beast would be devoured every night, and the places were packed with locals.

We had a fantastic meal at the restaurant, comprising plates of the veal with onions; a huge tray of salad and fresh herbs chilled with ice; little dishes in which we mixed fresh lime juice with salt and pepper; a bowl of creamy sauce evidently flavoured with lemongrass and other herbs; a bowl of clear stock and finally some rice. This was of course accompanied by beer which we drank over ice.

Aside from the food, a highlight of the meal was watching a little kid, belonging to one of the restaurant staff and apparently only 2 years old, sitting in the corner playing with a packet of cigarettes. The little guy would sit with the fags hanging out of his mouth pretending to smoke, presenting a hilarious but slightly disturbing sight, even more so when his older sister tried to light one of the cigarettes.

After eating, we nipped to a nearby shop then all returned to the hotel, where we set up at the outdoor pool with local whisky, red bull and soda. We had the place to ourselves and while I splashed around in a very juvenile manner with Huon and Lochlan in the pool, doing no end of comedy jumps into the water, Lucy sat with Matt and Carolyn. After exhausting both the whisky and ourselves, it was time to say goodbye to Matt and his family as they were leaving in the morning, and to head upstairs to bed.

We got up early the next morning, keen to get out and begin our exploration of the temples of Angkor. The streets outside the hotel were still quite flooded but we knew it would be possible to get out to the temples. After eating a tasty breakfast in the hotel restaurant area, we called Vanna, our driver from the day before to see if he could pick us up. He unforunately had to go to hospital to visit someone, but said he would send his brother to drive us around for the day.

Soon Vanna's brother arrived and we hopped into the tuk tuk. The first stop we needed to make was at an ATM which involved navigating the bumpy flooded streets out to the main road. With our funds replenished, we were then transported north of town along straight roads through the flat countryside towards the main temples of Angkor. Before the temples themselves, we pulled into a large roadside station where we had our photographs taken and passes printed for 3 days at the temples.

With our passes in hand, we were able to set off for the temples. Although at this point we were close to some of the main temples, we were keen to build up to the main sights, and planned to visit the Rolous temples which pre-dated the others and would give us an insight into how the designs of the temples progressed over time. These temples were some 15km east of Siem Reap, so we headed back towards town then east along the main road, through the picturesque green countryside, before turning up a dirt road to the first temple, Lolei.

Avoiding the drinks sellers who descended on us as we quit the tuk tuk, we had a look around this small temple. Comprising a square raised stone area topped with 4 very crumbly and overgrown towers and surrounded by wooden temples and other modern buildings, we knew it wasn't going to be the most striking site we'd visit. It was a fine introduction though, and we climbed to the raised platform, which in its day would have been located in the middle of a huge 'baray' or reservoir and therefore surrounded by water. The towers were all supported by wooden beams and although they would have once been covered by engraved stucco, were mostly now made up of exposed bricks. Still intact though, were the ornate lintels above the towers' doorways which we had a look at before getting back in the tuk tuk.

We then drove back down the dirt track and across the road, down another track to a further two temples. The first, Preah Ko was similar to Lolei but had 6 brick towers with crumbling stucco rather than 4, but the second, Bakong, was on a different scale altogether.

We first apporached Bakong around a large walled moat, then approached the temple down a long walkway crossing this moat. Even from a distance the temple was impressive, consisting of a large, stepped 'temple mountain' topped with a tower housing a shrine. As we approached the crumbling stone hill, passing through the surrounding courtyard with its own ancillary buildings, we could see weathered shapes of animal statues at the corners of each of the temple's levels. We passed through a stone archway, ignoring the whineing sales pitches of some local kids, and climbed the tall, steep rounded stairs to the top of the temple. The heat was intense but the scramble was worth it for the view from the top, of the overgrown compound enclosing the temple, its crumbling walls and moat and the surrounding countryside. After taking in this view, and looking at the weather-smoothed sandstone carvings in the doorframes on the tower, we clambered back down the steps and made our way back to the tuk tuk.

We began the journey back towards town, planning to go straight to some of the main temples. However, along the way the early start caught up with me and I began to nod off, ending up fast asleep until we reached Siem Reap. Since we were both tired, we decided it would be better to grab some lunch and have a break for a couple of hours before resuming our explorations in the afternoon. We intimated as much to our driver and he dropped us beside our hotel. We had some lunch at a little Chinese restaurant next door then retired to our room for a shower and a nap.

At 2pm we met our driver outside the hotel and drove back out towards the temples. We continue down the long straight avenue, through the trees and past the ticket station before emerging at the side of a body of water. We turned left and drove alongside this apparent lake, but soon realised it was the moat surrounding Angkor Wat, some 200m wide. We turned and drove up along this moat, past the stone causeway leading to its gateways and caught our first glimpse of the iconic towers rising above its stained stone walls.

We were, however, saving Angkor Wat for another day and so continued past it, soon approaching a bridge crossing another moat, lined on either side by stone figures holding the body of a naga, those mythical serpents we had seen so much of in our time in Asia. We drove across this bridge and through an ancient wall by way of a towering stone gateway, topped with four carved stone faces looking out serenely in the four cardinal directions. This was the southern gateway of Angkor Thom, a city of the ancient Khmer empire which is thought to have been home to around 1 million citizens in its heyday.

Nowadays though, the majority of the area inside these grand stone walls is overgrown with trees, the only buildings remaining being the temples built in honour to its inhabitants' gods. The houses of the inhabitants would have been made of wood and had therefore all fallen prey to the elements over the years.

Once again, we were leaving the exploration of Angkor Thom for another day so continued through the city on straight roads, only deviating to skirt around magnificent crumbling temples. Our road took us past the long 'elephant wall' carved with processions of elephants and sitting opposite an open grassy areas with ruined brick towers dotted around. Shortly after crossing this area, and awed by the scale of the city, we passed through the north gate, the twin of the south gate.

We followed straight roads cutting through tropical forest, moving in a large square clockwise from Angkor Thom. We soon reached the next temple we planned to visit, Preah Khan. We had to walk down a wide muddy path through the trees until we reached this incredible maze-like monastery. The main structure was made up of loads of interconnected shrines with high-linteled stone doorways leading in every direction, through courtyards filled with crumbling carvings, tumbled walls of overgrown stone blocks and incredible trees growing straight out of the structures.

We walked through the structure and out on the far side, where there was a stone courtyard with a view back to the entrance of the main structure, flanked by pillared galleries with flooded pools of water at their base and trees towering overhead. The whole time we spent picking our way through this incredible place we were awed by the singular exotic, aged atmosphere the whole place exuded. Although there were other tourists around the place, at times we almost felt like Indiana Jones and found it an incredible place.

After taking our fill of the sights at Preah Khan, we traversed the muddy path back out to the quiet road and our tuk tuk. We continued down more straight roads to Neak Pean. To get to the site of this temple we had to walk out a long wooden boardwalk, inches above a wide expanse of glassy water, dotted with trees growing out of and reflected in its surface. This was the baray or reservoir for Preah Khan. At the end of the boardwalk, in the middle of pools rimmed by stone walls were a few small stupas and a small temple building. As it was the wet season the ponds were quite full and we couldn't get to the middle of the pools, but could only view the structures from a distance. It was nevertheless a pretty scene, though not as exciting or stunning as exploring the likes of Preah Khan.

After walking back along the boardwalk, passing a group of disabled musicians, a sight common to seemingly every temple, we hopped back in the tuk tuk and continued to Ta Som, another temple hidding in amongst the trees. We arrived here in the late afternoon just as many groups seemed to be leaving, so our visit was well timed to see the small temple almost alone, and in the warm late afternoon sunshine.

This temple consisted of a succession of tall stone gateways with huge carved faces, but the highlight was to be found behind one of the far gateways or 'gopura's where the tangled, rope-like roots of a fantastic strangler fig straddled the opening of the gopura, the main tree growing straight out of the top of it. After photographing this singular sight we walked back through the warmly lit enclosures to our waiting tuk tuk driver. On the way I picked up a fresh coconut from one of the stalls erected at the entrance to the temple.

Although we didn't think we would have much light left, we were able to carry on and visit two more temples. The first was East Mebon, a large mountain-like temple on an artifical island which would have been in the centre of the massive east baray of Angkor Thom. We climbed up more steep stone steps to the top of this structure where 5 crumbling brick towers stood, and got a great view of the sinking sun over the surrounding forests. We checked out more intricate lintels on the towers and some fantastically preserved carved stone elephants standing at the corners of the middle levels of the temple, before descending and carrying on to the last temple for the day, Pre Rup.

At Pre Rup, a former state temple taking the form of another tall 'temple mountain' we climbed really steep stone steps along with a group of typically strangely-dressed Russian tourists to get a view of the last of the suns light which cast the mainly red laterite structure of the temple in a great hue. We looked around the numerous towers around the top of the temple before tackling the steps to return to the tuk tuk.

It was finally time, after a day full of temples, to head back to Siem Reap for the evening. Our driver took us back along the straight roads through the trees and rice paddies as darkness fell, and I found myself nodding off for most of the journey. Instead of going to our hotel, which was a bit out of town, we asked to be dropped at 'Pub Street' in the centre of town. This involved driving past the overflowing river down some streets submerged under inches of water, but we made it albeit with slightly damp feet.

Pub Street lived up to its name, lined from end to end with cheerily lit bars and restaurants. We picked a nearby one with happy hour deals on beer, climbed over some sandbags from the flooded street and took a seat. After a beer here we moved across the street to the Red Piano bar where we got some tasty pasta for dinner.

After eating, we ignored the shouts of the tuk tuk drivers trying to get our business, and decided, perhaps foolishly, that it would be fun to walk home through the flooded streets. This decision resulted in well over an hours journey which saw us crossing the river on a bridge inches above the water, then picking our way down streets underwater in the darkness, barefoot, trying to avoid potholes and sharp gravel. Somehow we eventually made it back to the hotel, took a well-needed shower and chilled out for a bit before dropping off to sleep.

The next morning we decided to take a day off from the temples so as to not overdo it, and therefore had a long lie, getting up just in time to catch the end of the breakfast service in the hotel. After a tasty omelette we returned upstairs to our big, comfy room and sorted out some of the blog. We'd enquired the night before about moving to our promised $15 dollar room, and after midday we were able to move. We found that the cheaper room was exactly the same as the one we left, except with a tiled floor instead of a carpeted one, but cost 25% less. It also looked out over the pool, which our last one hadn't.

After moving we continued doing very little, taking full advantage of the hotel's free wifi until the evening, when we decided to head out for dinner. We got a tuk tuk through the floods to the central market, then walked through almost knee-deep water to find a Burmese restaurant attached to a guest house that we'd read about and fancied visiting. We got a tasty meal at the place, then caught another tuk tuk into the town centre. We popped into the fancy Blue Pumpkin cafe for some ice cream for dessert, opting for some interesting flavours including banana & galangal. After our ice cream, we caught another tuk tuk back to the hotel, deciding not to bother trying to walk it again.

In the hotel, we chilled out for a while before getting off to sleep.