A long bus journey brought us North West across Cambodia from Phnom Penh to the town of Siem Reap. The road was appalling and the bus had certainly seen better days. However, the bus had been modified to meet the needs of the modern Cambodian traveller and featured a TV, Karaoke DVD player and flashing lights all the way up the bus. We were subjected to loud cambodian karaoke music and locals singing along for the duration of the 6 hour journey, stopping only to watch a Cambodian version of the Chuckle Brothers. The 1 hour slapstick comedy revolved around yet again, karaoke. On our arrival to Siem Reap, we were supposed to be met by a driver to take us to our planned hotel. As the bus pulled into the station and came to a standstill, hundreds of guest house and tuk tuk touts were waiting to pounce on us. Before we could even get out of the bus, they were pushing and shoving to be the first to get on the bus. One guy tried to get me to go with him but I very assertively told him to shift out the way and let us all off the bus. I made it to the exit and all I could see was a sea of faces all looking up at me and shouting to get my attention. I realised that the only way to get off that bus and get my bags was to shout louder and tell them to get out of my way.This I did and it was very funny because they all went quiet for a minute and a channel opened up for me to walk through. It was like the parting of the seas! As soon as I stepped in the middle of them all the shouting began again. I thought my head was going to explode! Whilst trying to get throught them all to the baggage hold under the bus, I had my fingers in my ears shouting "I'm not listening, la, la, la, la". It made them laugh and the situation was all very lighthearted and not at all threatening. Our good friend Claude, who we had spent the last week with, called out my name because he and Simon couldn't find me in the masses of people. Big mistake because then all the touts knew my name and all I could then hear was Lisa, Lisa, Lisa. I did not know at that point that for the next few days I would hear my name being called out by the tuk tuk drivers who saw me around the town. We eventually found the guy who was supposed to be picking us up and we left the madness behind to find our hotel. We came to Siem Reap to explore the nearby temples of Angkor. The temples and ruins extend over an enormous area and include the worlds largest religious site, Angkor Wat which covers an area of almost a square mile. The temples are in various states of repair. Angkor Wat has been fairly comprehensively restored but others have been left to the jungle. Our favourite temple ruins were Ta Prohm which supposedly looks as it was when French explorers hacked throught the jungle and found it 150 years ago. It was like something out of an Indiana Jones movie. We hired a tuk tuk driver and spent an incredible couple of days exploring all the ruins. The negative side of this World Heritage site is all the beggars and street vendors hassling you. Every step you took, they would shriek at you, "lady, you want to buy cold drink? You want postcards?". When you have said "no thank you" for the 400th time that day it was hard not to look exasperated by it. This minor irritation however, could not take away the enjoyment and excitement of being at this incredible place. Siem Reap itself is doing pretty well for itself due to the steady influx of foreign visitors and many of these people earn a decent living. There are still plenty of people who aren't though and it is especially evident in this town. One in every 290 cambodian people have been victims of landmines that unfortunately left them with amputated limbs. Poverty amongst these victims is widespread as they cannot work and with no welfare state, they have no way of earning money. The only way they know is to beg on the street. Beggars are everywhere and it's not easy to say no to a man who has no legs and has no way of gettting a job. We handed out loads of small bills but we knew it was going to make very little difference. From Siem Reap we boarded a bus headed for Poipet, a rough town on the border with Thailand. The travel agents promise of an air conditioned bus was unsurprisingly broken. This is Cambodia, so we have become accustomed to the lies and scams that go with the territory. For 5 of the six hours to the border, the roads were unsurfaced and in appalling condition. No kidding, it was like driving over a cattle grid for a continuous 5 hours. To make things worse, we had to have the windows wide open to combat the heat. This meant that all of the red dust kicked up by passing veichles came straight through our windows. We were all covered from head to toe in thick dust. It was either that or die from heat exhaustion. We stepped off the bus at the border, our teeth shaken loose from the journey and headed to immigration to complete border formalities. It is incredible to think that we were looking forward to crossing over into a civilised country - which is how we now regard Thailand. Lisa x