Phnom Penh was a great entry to Cambodia. Its developed, modern and historical. Siem Reap, though, is the gem of the country. It's the home of the famous Angkor Wat with the hundreds of other ancient temples around it and it also has a quaint town that's developed around the tourist demand for the temples.

Since everyone comes here for the temples, let's start with these. Our first experience of Angkor Wat was for sunset. Seeing it at sunset and sunrise are the two most popular times of day and considering that you need to wake up around 4:30am to see it at sunrise, it was a pretty easy decision for us mlungus to rather make dusk. It really was a great sight and well worth the trip (see the pics). We were, however, convinced by some others at our hostel, to join them the next morning for sunrise and a half day tour of the temples. So, up at 4:30am, we tuk-tukked all the way back to the temple for sunrise. Heading for the recommended left hand pool of water, we joined the masses and awaited the brilliance to unfold. There were unfortunately no spectacular bright lights or halos or anything else godly about this, but looking back at the pictures now, it really was worth it. The rest of the morning we spent missioning around a string of the tourist circuit temples. They were very cool but after about the third one, and in the heat of the day, they start becoming a bit monotonous - especially when you've been awake since sunrise. So we recommend a half day tour of the temples unless you're an avid enthusiast, in which case you can don your compass, rope and Indiana Jones hat, or more appropriately, thanks to the Tomb Raider movie, little shorts and tank top of Lara Croft, and go exploring some of the temples where no one else has tread.

One of our most interesting and unforgettable experiences in Siem Reap came a little unexpectedly. It was a food tour organized by our hostel. Our guide took us through the Old Market showing us all the delicious culinary simplicities of Cambodian food. This included a lot of stuff that we wish we had know about, or were afraid of trying, throughout our South East Asian trip. Fortunately when we got to the real delicacies they were all out of tarantulas. Unfortunately, though, they weren't out of crickets, grasshoppers and snake…just like biltong…only more crunchy. And with his new found gastronomical confidence, mlungu Brett went and ate a frog for dinner.

From keeping ourselves so busy with all these activities we really built up a thirst. Good thing there's the simply named Pub Street for all the tourists, expats, and locals to go get a cold brew, extreme bucket and steam release. You also can't leave without getting your free t-shirt from Anchor What bar - which explains why so many people in Cambodia are wearing them.

We were only in Siem Reap for three nights but we could easily have spent four there. South America was however calling our names and we ventured back to Bangkok by means of a broken, old and over-packed minivan (fortunately the second half of the trip on the Thailand side was in a newer and much more comfortable van). It's funny how we arrived back in Bangkok and found ourselves commenting on being "back in civilization". Guess we really were off the beaten track…

All that was left of our Asian leg of the trek was one night in Bangkok (stop singing) and a flight back across the world to Sao Paulo, Brazil.

Trek on…Brett and Darren

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P.S. Here is some more info on seeing the Angkor temples, the food walk and bussing in and out of Siem Reap

The temples are on a massive nature reserve that covers hundreds of hectares. So you can easily spend days and days exploring. We, however, opted for the shortened half day "small circuit" tour as follows:

- start with sunrise at Angkor Wat

- next head through the South Gate to Angkor Thom/Bayon to see the temple with all the big faces

- then onto the Terrace of the Elephants and the Terrace of the Leper King

- then Ta Phrom or the famous "Tomb Raider" temple before heading back to town

This was more than enough of the temples for us but this tour can be extended into a full one day tour that starts including more temples. We found that the amount of time that we spent at each temple was also good on this circuit. A one day pass to the reserve costs USD 20 but you get discounts for a 3 day or 7 day pass. A tuk-tuk for the day cost us USD 15 or its USD 7 if you only want to go to Angkor Wat. Your tuk-tuk driver is like your informal guide and although he doesn't go to the temples with you, he drops you at them and tells you when and where to meet him for the next one.

One tip is that you don't need to pay to enter the reserve just for sunset (think it was after 5pm) and while you're there, you can buy your ticket for the next day's adventures and prevent queuing in the morning for tickets (more people come for sunrise than you'd expect). If you really want, you can also take a guide for the day which is about another USD 20.

The food walk that we did was really brilliant and is worth checking out. We really regret not finding something similar earlier on in our South East Asia trip. It's only a couple of hours and you can sign up for it at Siem Reap Hostel. It costs USD 7 but included all the food that we ate along the way (which was quite a bit).

We bussed into Siem Reap from Phnom Penh. It was USD 10 for the fast bus which was actually a small van with air con that took 5 hours. The van was jam packed and we'd recommend rather taking the slow bus. It takes two hours longer but at least its comfortable with lots more leg room. It's also cheaper.

Then from Siem Reap to Bangkok we again took the bus. It's much easier bussing from Cambodia to Thailand than from Thailand to Cambodia as you don't need to deal with paying for a visa going into Thailand (at least for Saffers). This alleviates all the haggling and corruption that comes with getting the visa on the way into Cambodia. We paid USD 15 for the a minivan to the Thai/Cambodia border as well as a second minivan from the border to Bangkok. The first van was terrible. Seats were broken, seat belts didn't work and it was way over packed. The second van, in Thailand, was bigger, more comfortable and a pleasure.

More details if you check our Johannesburg blog posts from 8 May.