After a 12 hour journey which included a somewhat strenuous border crossing at Poipet (we paid 30 dollars instead of 20 dollars) we arrived at our Guesthouse in Siem Reap, only 3.58gbp per room per night :) We got here about 7pm and by then it was dark so we opted for a meal at the guesthouse and an early night. It's a huge family run guesthouse and we both feel very safe and looked after here.

The previous night we booked a Tuk Tuk, 12usd for the day to pick us up at 9am to go to Angkor Wat, one of the wonders of the world. We went to many of the temples, including one used in the filming of Tomb Raider but Angkor Wat was the most epic of them all. It has been in constant use since it was built in the 12th century so it was much more intact than the other temples and is surrounded by a beautiful moat. Can't really put the experience of seeing it into words, hopefully our pictures will do it some justice. In the evening we walked up to Pub Street where there are lots of quality bars abnd restaurants, almost all selling draft beer at 35p a pint - Matt's kind of place! (and cigarettes are only 20p a pack). Food is cheap here too so we ate in a restaurant for 5dollars between us. We found somewhere to watch the Grand Prix qualifying only to be disappointed by McLaren!

Sunday we walked round the old market and explored Siem Reap town as much as we could in the soaring heat. It's amazing how different it is to Thailand, everything costs much less and it also seems more built up than Thailand, something we didn't expect. We were cooling off in a bar on pub street in mid afternoon when we bumped into the 2 guys from the bus to Koh Chang and the waterfall. Paddy and Dave challenged us to a pool tournament, 4 hours later and after copious 35p beers we attempted to watch the Grand Prix and opted for an early night. (not much of an option though!)

Monday morning we booked the hotel Tuk Tuk as we wanted to see Tonle Sap lake which is the giant lake you can see on the map of Cambodia. We opted out of seeing one of the floating villages as we have heard negative things about it and the 20 dollars they charge apparently does not go back into the community. We did see some further afield villages that were very poor and eye opening to see what charities are doing here. We saw water pumps donated by several organisations and houses donated by westerners. We went to a crocodile farm, seemed like a good idea for something to do but wasn't that nice - especially with the shop attached selling numerous souvenirs including crocodile shoes and handbags etc :( In the evening we went to the night market in Siem Reap and stopped for a drink in a bar (shack) next door. This turned out to be an inspiring experience. The owner was a young Cambodian guy probably in his early twenties. Won us over immediately, allowing Matt to play Kings of Leon the while time we were there! There was an Aussie guy drinking in the bar who has been in Cambodia for 2 months and is teaching english at the local school across the road. He explained that the owner of the bar does loads for local kids and all proceeds from the bar go directly to the school or other projects he is working on in further afield villages which he has seen first hand and helped build a school last month. It was at this time that we noticed there were kids coming in from the streets and they all sat around a table and started getting their books out. The owner had a white board on the wall and spent the next hour teaching the kids english. These children can't afford to go to school so he teaches them in the evening, it was funny to watch and hear them all speaking and singing in English. We joined in with Old McDonald and left a small donation to help them before carrying on to the market.

Today has been spent updating this blog and tomorrow we leave for Battambang ealry in the morning, the next destination on our travels. It is supposed to be a much quieter place with lots of French style building from the French Colonisation of Cambodia.

We have decided to spend our last evening seeing Angkor Wat at sunset, such a magical place we couldn't leave without seeing it again!

In summary a quality start and looking forward to the next 3 weeks in Cambodia.