We just about made it on the bus to Siem Reap after the usual stopping to fix a flat tyre etc etc. When we arrived at the bus station at night we caught a Cambodian style tuk tuk (meaning he was stinking of alcohol and tried to sell us drugs......welcome to Cambodia!!). We found Cat and Sam within minutes of arriving and then found a lovely hotel where we got a huge room and split te cost meaning we got somewhere nice for $15 US Dollars each. The currency here is ridiculous, they use a combination of Cambodian Riels which are about 6,000 to the pound and USD. Basically you pay in dollars and your change comes in both currencies so you never really know if you are being ripped off unless you whip out your calculator which would just make you look retarded.

Anyway, the first night we went out for beers and a party until the early hours, at 5am we were accosted by Cambodian children askin for money, it's really sad and I made the mistake of giving one of them a dollar, it was like feeding just one pigeon in Trafalgar square......! Consequently we were chased by about twenty minature dirty people who cling onto you with such strength. They then somehow, god knows how, managed to steal my flip flops and one of my bracelets and made me look like a complete lunatic when I started chasing harmless minors around the street shouting at them, hilarious.

Our first full day in Siem Reap we went for a horrendous lunch, then wandered around the town m, down by the river and visited a small Buddhist temple. We found a really wierd place called Dead Fish, it's a restaurant/bar/hostel and inside it's basically a multiple storey construction site, built our of scaffolding and a few wooden planks that doesn't look a bit safe. The oddest thing was that they had crocodile pits on the grond level, we wnt and had a look a them and fed them frozen fish, terrifying, we didn't eat/drink/stay there surprisingly.

That evening we wandered around the night market and found a beautiful, cheap and tasty Indian restaurant for dinner. After that we retired to bed for an early night and we watched some films before going to sleep.

Our alarm went off at 9am and we jumped, ok that's a lie, we slowly dragged ourselves out of bed and called our regular tuk tuk man to cone and collect us to take us for a temple day. We agreed on paying him $12 for the four of us for the whole day. First stop was world famous, ancient wonder, Angkor Wat. This place is incredible, we wandered around for a good hour around the vast ruins. I had a prayer read to me by a monk who gave me a bracelet and blessed it with perfume. It's strange how the whole place is grey and as soon as you get the sky, some grass or a person next to it, it makes brilliant pictures. We were very lucky and had clear blue skies the whole day. After Angkor Wat we went to Angkor Thom which is much smaller and more ruined, given that theyse buildings were built in the 1100's it's no surprise they're falling down however, if they were in the UK no doubt they'd be roped off and you'd only be able to look at them, not walk all over them as you can here. The third temple was Ta Phrom, were Lara Crofts Tomb Raider was filmed. This place is famous for it's humongous tree roots that have grown within the temple and grow over, under and around the walls. It's incredible to look at and we spent ages waking around here ad there are so many areas and tunnels to explore. Mr T, our driver took us to one final smaller temple which we walked through and stopped in the centre of to have a picnic, French breadsticks with peanut butter and jam yummmm!

Our last stop was an easy 20 minute walk up a hill next to Angkor Wat, on the top is yet another ruined temple which looks really stunning because on all the photos it looks like it's floating in the sky. We sat on the floor with our legs overhanging a huge drop and watched the sunset. Overall an incredible, exhausting experience. Mr T took us back home and we went out for a cheeky pasta and red wine dinner, such a treat. Then another early night, after watching Beauty and the Beast hee hee hee!

This morning we were up at 6am for our early bus to the Cambodian coastal town of Sihanoukville, the bus is supposed to take 10 hours but once again, I'll belive that when we arrive. We've just stopped for lunch at a small outdoor eatery and I spotted some deep fried tarantulas, as I got my camera out the woman who ran the stall cane over and whipped out a live one from here handbag, I'm sure you can imagine the scream that came out of my mouth.....! She asked if we wanted to hold it, we all declined!

Now we're back on the road with a mere 6 hours to go, if only they'd turn off the dubbed Khymer film that's playing full blast and the driver would stop beeping his horn every 4 seconds at whoever is in the road. I am not exaggarating one bit either, and because the bus is so old the horn sounds louder from inside that it does outside, deafening. The curtains look like they've been dipped in cow s*** and the filthy ceiling is taped in place with masking tape.....that's what you get for £5!

Next update may be en route to Phnom Pehn...

That's all for now, love you all

The once again smelly, flea ridden backpakers

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