Being back in England should have been the opportunity to catch up on the blog, but the words just never seemed to flow. Everything was tinged was sadness for a journey over, like reading Michael Barrymore's "Back in Business". As I'm about to start my new job in 2 days and am looking forward to making a bit of a home in England again, I thought I'd give another go and write about the last 'big' trip we did - to Cambodia. There's still a whole month of backpacking to relate which we did with our friend Maria, but that was to places mostly already covered so I'll probably just write about Pai on that trip.

I heard that Barrymore was being considered for a return to TV, hosting ITV's breakfast. The same day, he was caught driving under the influence of several things that shouldn't influence a driver. Hopefully this blog entry won't meet a similarly untimely end.

The first thing to remember with Cambodia is that it is very cheap - even compared to Thailand. The second is that you will need a decent amount of money to enjoy it. This is a little paradoxical, but when you visit a country where the average family lives on less than £6 a month, there is a slow burn of desperation. If you're American, there's the extra guilt of seeing all the beggars with blown off limbs. It's very easy to become callous to it like you get annoyed with chuggers and "I need 20p to get to the BRI because I've lost my insulin" pesterers in the UK, but this really is different. You still get the bulls***, like kids asking for a dollar so they can go to school (schools are dire, but basic schooling is still free and heavily supported by foreigners), but nobody can really refuse to buy a fridge magnet for a pittance. The problem is that this means everyone is hassled, everywhere, unless you go to top notch fancy places built by the French. We stayed in an amazing hotel for about £25 a night, and it really is one of the best places I've stayed anywhere in the world. So good I can't remember the name, but it's on the corner near the canal and has lots of wooden elephants.

In addition to this slow burn of supporting every family in the area one hawker at a time and chucking dollars to orphanages and hospitals (there is a doctor who plays the cello to raise funds, and is actually very talented in addition to doing amazing lifesaving work - 'Beatocello'), there is that familiar drain of corruption. Maybe flying is easier, but we entered by land because there is a fairly direct bus route from central Thailand to the border.

The first scam comes with the bus dropping you off at the 'bus station', conveniently located about 2 miles from the bus station and border. A tuktuk can be haggled to 40 or 50 baht, but they'll take you to a fake border. Really. An officer will tell you to get out and buy your visa. This is obviously the mark of a con - the officer is polite, efficient, and speaks English - we walked away without paying for the taxi and he soon backpedalled to take us to the real border. The problem is, even then we had to pay £4 bribe to get the border official to actually do the paperwork in a timely manner.After crossing, ignore the 'official free bus station shuttle' - this shuttles you to a godforesaken bus station with no buses, where you're stranded and at the mercy of a taxi mafia with no way back. We drove past it in our taxi, which I knew to negotiate to around $20. This was tough going, about 20 mins of haggling where they refused to budge from $50 until we were at the point of just waiting for more drivers to appear, and is maybe better to prebook with a hotel in Siem Reap if you plan ahead.

It really sets you against visiting and supporting a country when everything is set up to scam you, but you have to remember that the total is less than an afternoon's parking in the Lake District and judicious spending can actually support the grassroots.

Anyway, the reason you come is the temple. Overpriced and only possible to visit by booking a taxi for the day (ridiculously cheap, but will hassle you to eat at his choice of restaurant and visit attractions which give a kickback - bring a packed lunch with loads of bottled water and just be firm from the start). I can't emphasise water enough, I've never sweated as much as at these temples. I reckon 3 litres is a minimum for the day. The temples are amazing, and you can really get at them. You get a bit temple blind after day 2, in fact we didn't use our free third day, but there is enough variety to keep you interested and areas to seek out, ruins to climb through - it's amazing. Far too busy for any spiritual feeling, and sunrise is a pain to get to, but a real wonder to behold. The town is also amazing, a real travellers' mecca like Thailand was meant to have been in the golden age of backpacking. I'd say the food and drink on offer there beats anywhere else in SE Asia, and for once there are plenty of youngsters and hippies mingling without the classic sexpats.

So a final thumbs up for Cambodia and hopefully some useful tips. Hopefully I can have some new adventures in 2012 and this wasn't a last hurrah. I had a conversation with a friend where we tried to think of older men who we wouldn't mind becoming in the future, and many candidates were from this year. There really is a joy to living in the moment that we rarely glimpse in the west, and an indescribable mix of doing a lot whilst feeling a relaxed pace. There really are still amazing opportunities there for the taking in Asia, and many paths that are still only slightly trodden. I'm sure I'll be back, although the melancholy part of this post is how I only miss all this slightly - it's not the constant ache of longing I expected. I have certainly come to appreciate some aspects of Europe again and am happier than ever before with the idea of settling down for a while. Plus I finally needed to buy a fridge to display all these bloody Siem Reap magnets.