On our third morning in Siem Reap we got up early, had breakfast downstairs then called Vanna to see if he would be able to provide his tuk tuk services for another expedition to the temples of Angkor. He was available and after we agreed a price, he drove round and picked us up.

We drove out through the slightly less flooded streets, past the entrance gate to the temples and around the huge moat of Angkor Wat again. As we approached the bridge across Angkor Thom's moat, Vanna stopped and let us get out, saying he'd meet us on the far side. This gave us a chance to walk across the bridge and admire the crumbling statues, holding a long stone naga, and the gateway topped with its huge carved stone faces.

On the other side we hopped back in the tuk tuk and drove through the trees, spotting monkeys larking about on either side of the road, until we reached the magnificent Bayon.

Bayon, taking the form of another temple mountain, looked from a distance like a completely haphazard pile of stones. Because of the weathered surfaces of the stones, all the angles and faces merged into one big grey mass, and it was hard to pick anything out. However, as we aproached the huge stone structure across a stone block walkway, we began to make it out and could see the round central mountain structure high above, surrounded by numerous 'face towers' with huge carved stone faces.

We started our exploration of this amazing temple by walking around its outer walls. These were carved with incredible 3m high bas-reliefs depicting various historical and religious events. Using a guidebook we'd picked up from a young guy at another temple, we were able to examine the various scenes with a bit of background, which made them all the more interesting to look at.

Once we had walked halfway around the outer walls, we passed through a gateway and ascended through claustrophobic, interconnecting stone galleries up steep staircases until we emerged at the top level of the structure. Here, apart from a great view over the area around the temple, we were able to see the face towers up close, and to walk around the huge central shrine mountain of the temple. We took loads of photos and peered into the various nooks and crannies of the temple, including the central shrine itself in the centre of the mountain. In this dark, dingy insence-filled hollow we found a statue of Buddha.

After looking round for a while, we descended on the far side of Bayon and walked north through the grassy grounds of Angkor Thom, to the next temple, Bapuon.

We approached Bapuon via a long, raised stone causeway which gave a great view of the massive rectangular temple. At the far end of this causeway we climbed steps to a gallery which extended around the perimeter of the structure. Inside were details of the restoration of the temple, which had been recently completed after interruption in the 1970s during the Khmer Rouge era, and consisted of pretty much the complete disassembly and reassembly of the temple.

We continued our exploration by climbing up some very steep stairs to a second level. The stairs were actually wooden stairs erected over the original stone steps at a shallower angle, so the originals would have been rather scary to climb. We walked around this level, once again getting great views of the jungle around the temple and the open grassy areas within Angkor Thom. An even steeper staircase led to a third level. Lucy opted out of that climb, and descended to wait for me on the far side of the temple while I climbed up to the top.

An ever better view awaited at the top, and I took this in as I walked around a square-pillared gallery surrounding a central stepped stone mound topped with stone doorways. After enjoying the view sufficiently, I took on the descent down the scarily steep wooden stairs to meet Lucy at the bottom.

We walked around to the back of Bapuon where we were able to view the incredible partially constructed reclining Buddha, made of huge stone blocks and spanning the entire length of the temple, about 70m long. From there we continued north, having to navigate through some flooded stone gateways, until we reached the pyramid-like Phimeanakas.

This tranquil temple was situated in the middle of a pond, and we reached it via stepping stones before climbing the near-vertical wooden steps attached over the worn stone ones. At the top, I clambered up a further, rubbly mound to the top where I found a small shrine and a chap selling incense. Aside from him, the only other person at the temple was a monk, garbed in his vibrant orange robe, who followed me in climbing to the top.

We descended from Phimeanakas and made our way through its grounds, picking our way through flooded areas across randomly-strewn blocks of laterite, towards the main gate. Along the way Lucy got a particularly stingy bite from a black ant, and I had to support her as we walked out through the main gopura onto the top of the elephant wall.

From this elephant wall, hypothesised to be a gallery from which royal processions would have been observed, we had a view over the wide undulating lawns in this area of Angkor Thom, reminiscent of an English country garden. This similarity did not extend to the the age-worn stone towers dotted around the area, in front of the jungle which encroached on all sides.

We walked along the elephant wall, almost able to imagine the city laid out before us in its glory nearly a thousand years ago. At the head of the wall, we climbed onto the terrace of the leper king, a raised area surrounded by carvings in a narrow canyon of stone blocks.

From here we descended and walked through an area of stalls, avoiding the souvenir-touting salespeople, back to the tuk tuk parking area where we met Vanna who had been waiting for us as we explored. He asked us where we wanted to go next and, although we were planning to visit Angkor Wat in the afternoon, we realised we were exhausted after walking and clambering around in the heat and probably wouldn't enjoy it. Therefore we asked to be driven back to town.

We followed the same route we had taken so many times already, and arrived outside our hotel about 45 minutes later. We had lunch at the tasty Chinese restaurant, comprising a feast beef noodles, beef noodle soup, wonton soup and fried rice and then went to our room where we showered and slept for an hour.

After our nap we met Vanna outside at the appointed time of around 2pm, then went back out to the temples. This time instead of driving past Angkor Wat, we parked opposite its stone causeway and grand entrance, then headed into this massive and magnificent temple.

We walked up the wide, raised stone pathway which cut straight from the gateways, across the huge grassy expanse of the temple's grounds, to the massive main structure. The iconic appearance of the towers of the main temple was marred somewhat by green-clad scaffolding covering part of it, but it didn't bother us too much.

We entered through one of the man gateways, passing through the bas-relief galleries which ring the entire temple structure and up some steps to the cruciform terrace, where covered walkways passed between four deep stone pools which would have once been filled with water. From here we continued towards the main towers, getting a great view from the courtyard surrounding them as we walked around to the rear. Here, we found some more incredibly steep wooden steps built on top of even steeper stone steps, which led to the top level of the temple with its 5 huge towers. We climbed up the steps and walked around the galleries ringing the towers, where we got great views over the weathered stone walls and courtyards below us, to the green surrounding grounds and the jungle outside the main walls. In the distance we even spotted a bright yellow hot air balloon rising from the trees.

After looking around and taking in the views of the country garden-like grounds of the temple, which would have once housed an entire city, we descended from the top level of the temple to the courtyard below. Whilst sitting on a wall here taking a breather, we noticed the sky becoming ominously grey, and armed ourselves with our umbrellas just before the first at plops of rain began to fall.

We nipped down some stairs at the back of the temple and reached the eastern bas-relief galleries just as the real downpour began. Daylight was reduced to a dusk-like murk, and with the rain dripping from the edge of the gallery behind us we explored half of the incredible carvings by torchlight. The bas-relief galleries, which run along all four sides of the huge temple, detail scenes from the epic Hindu stories the Ramayana and the Mahabharata as well as depictions of the heavens and hells of Hindu mythology, a royal procession and the mythological story of the Churning the Sea of Milk.

We spent some time walking around the north-east, north and north-west galleries, which allegedly had the poorest carvings. We planned to save the best carvings for a separate trip, but were thoroughly impressed by those we saw, though this may have been due to the unique atmosphere lent by exploring the galleries completely on our own, in the dim light and with the rainstorm in the background.

After making our way back around to the west side of the temple, we participated in the mass exodus occuring due to the rain, following the poncho-clad tourists down the stone pathway and back across the causeway to find Vanna. Once reunited with our driver, we made our way back to town through the rain.

Once again we asked to be dropped off at Pub Street, since the area around there had the highest concentration of eateries. We made our way to the large Temple Club, where we noticed there were some happy hour deals. We ended up ordering a jug of G&T, which meant we were entitled to a free t-shirt. As we sat enjoying our drink, we noticed that the bar put on a free show of traditional music and dance every evening. We decided to hang around for it, and ordered some food to eat while we watched the show.

The food was good, though not amazing, but it was fun to get to watch the show, which featured several different traditional dances. The highlight was the apsara dance where one female dancer began the performance alone, executing graceful manoeuvers with her arms as she stepped around the stage, then was later joined by her fellows to complete the performance.

After the show, and with our dinner demolished, we left and caught a tuk tuk back to our hotel. Most drivers were reluctant to take us because of the flooding but we eventually persuaded one, who ended up taking a less-than-ideal route which saw us stuck at least twice, meaning I had to get out into the muddy water and shove the tuk tuk free. A fair price for being too lazy to walk, perhaps, but we'd learned the hard way that it was easier said than done wading back through the water.

Back in our room, we showered and then relaxed with some movies on the TV before getting off to sleep.

We decided to have another day off from the temples the following day. We got up for breakfast as usual, then caught a tuk tuk in to the town centre. There had been heavy rain during the night and the flooding was the worst we had seen yet. We were dropped off at the central market where we had to jump out into calf-deep water and climb over sandbags to get into the actual market.

We spent quite a while exploring the warren of the market, wandering around the various souvenir stalls and food courts. In parts the floor of the market was submerged beneath a layer of flood water, which we had to splash through. We bought a few things then went to a little restaurant attached to the market where we had some great cheap food for lunch.

After eating, we walked around the streets to find a pharmacy where we needed to buy some supplies, then checked out a few travel agents to compare prices for a bus to Kampot. We booked a ticket with the cheapest agent we queried, for a bus in a couple of days. With all these tasks taken care of, we caught another tuk tuk back to the hotel.

We spent the remainder of the afternoon relaxing in our room, then in the evening walked around the corner to the excellent restaurant where we'd eaten with Matt and his family. We ordered another plate of the delicious spit-roast veal with all the trimmings and enjoyed this along with a beer each for just over $5, before returning to the hotel to watch movies and chill until it was time to sleep.