Cambodia and the temples of Siem Reap

It's been an eventful few days, which began with a 4.30am, start to catch the sunrise over the magnificent Angkor Wat temple in Siem Reap. Angkor Wat has been recognized as one of the 7 wonders of the world and it's easy to see why. Taking 37 years to build with 40,000 elephants helping build this wondrous sight it truly is breathtaking. The scale may not have been matched by our next stop but the ruins of Ta Prohm were almost mythical in appearance. Built in the 12th century and surrounded by jungle this temple was used in the Lara Croft Tomb Raider film and walking around, it actually felt you were on a film set - the camera was red hot all day!

The temple theme continued in the evening with the less splendid Angkor Wat?? Bar. This joke was cracked at least a dozen times by our guide and seemed to be the in-joke of the locals who cracked up every time they used it. Angor Wat?? Proudly advertised that they had been 'encouraging irresponsible drinking since 1996' - I don't think the 'drink aware' campaign has reached Cambodia yet. Drinks and dancing flowed into the wee small hours, which topped off a truly memorable day.

The next day we set off on a boat to experience the floating village. This is a little village about an hour from Siem Reap but is 50 years behind in terms of development. The whole village is on stilts giving the rise in water levels in the wet season increasing by almost 100 feet - puts our mini floods to shame. The journey was eye-opening with the locals catching fish by hand in this murky water and these tiny kids helping the family out by steering the boats They do go to school, but all spare time is spent working with their parents. This was a step back in time and the first time we really got a feel for the traditional Cambodia and the amazing resilience and ingenuity of a people whose existence is dictated by nature every single year.

The Mekong River & the bamboo bridge

After a grueling 5-hour bus ride on public transport, we arrived in Kompong Cham, a provincial little town that straddles the mighty Mekong River. Once settled, we went on a bike tour of a tiny little village, which is the other side of the river. The way to get across is via a rickety bamboo bridge, which is rebuilt every year as the rainy season takes care of it courtesy of an increase in tide of about 30 meters. The bridge was about 3 meters wide and about half a mile long and was an essentially a two-way road for bikes, scooters, cars and horse and cart. Bamboo is tough but also flexible and the sensation of riding on it was akin to riding over flattened conservatory furniture - very odd but thrilling at the same time. Once safely over (although it's not something you'd want to repeat very often), we were cycling through this little village. Westerner's are not in abundance and the kids were delighted to see us with there little smiling faces they shouted 'hello, high five' as we came past and one by one we pressed hands as we went by the hoards that gathered along the path.