Our bus from Phnom Penh to Siem Reap was a very slow one. The roads are pretty bad so you spend the whole journey being thrown all over the place. Our bus has the funniest toilet yet - designed for Hobbits you literally had to bend and crawl into it. Once inside, a bucket of water splashed all over you! The bumping around didn't make reading very easy, but thankfully the scenery is amazing to look out. It's incredible to just people watch, the smallest little kids are all working so hard doing farming or other tasks. It makes you realise how different our lives back home are.

By the time we had arrived in Siem Reap it was already the evening and we were pretty far out from the main area, so we decided to stay local for dinner. Our hotel was down a dirt track, with a few other hotels dotted around. They even have a hotel with a 'fish massage'. This is something we tried for the first time in Phnom Penh and have since become addicted to. You put your feet into a tank of fish and they eat all the dead skin off your feet. It tickles so much, but leaves your skin very soft! We decided to get an early night ready for our first day in the Angkor temples as we were told its a very active day. They weren't wrong!

Our alarm went off at 6.30am and we all got up and headed off to our tuk tuk. This has been our only mode of transport in Cambodia and it consists of a guy driving a motorbike pulling a metal cart which the 5 of us sit in. Safe as houses. Our first stop was at the ticket office, we decided to get a 3 day pass to give us enough time in the temples. This is $40, quite pricey but well worth it. Then we carried on into Angkor Thom for our first glimpse of the temples. This is a walled area that contains multiple temples, the most famous one of this area being Bayon. For those of you who aren't aware, the Temples of Angkor were built by various Kings of Cambodia. Although now Cambodia is a Buddhist country, when these temples were built it was Hindu, so a lot are based on the Hindu faith.

Driving up to Angkor Thom, the first thing you can see is the doorway, which was pretty impressive, is a huge stone arch with beautiful engravings of faces. After we drove through we approached our first temple of the day, Bayon. It has 55 Gothic style towers with 216 faces looking down from them, they are looking worn, but still pretty dramatic. This was our first chance to experience climbing temple stairs. Many of the staircases are vertical, with barely room of the tip of your foot which means you have to keep a close eye for falling tourists (unfortunately we did see this happen at one temple, it was a pretty bad fall but the lady seemed OK after a bit). It is really incredible to see how big these temples are, they are in such a beautiful setting.

After Bayon we headed off on a tour of many different little temples. The place is so big you need a tuk tuk to drive you from each temple to the next. We had originally thought we'd bike it, but were quite glad we didn't. The heat is incredible, so along with the distance it wouldn't have made for a fun day. After seeing a few more beautiful temples, we headed to Ta Prohm. This was the setting for the Tomb Raider films and the most amazing place we had seen that day. This temple has not been restored like the others and has trees growing out of the top of them. The whole is still within a jungle so its very atmospheric.

After that we headed off up a hill to watch the sunset over Angkor. Its obviously a very popular place and so many tourists are crammed in. What makes it even more dangerous is that it too has steep steps which you literally need to hold on with your hands to climb up. Once at the top it unfortunately started to rain, we saw sense and headed back down sharpish. We weren't too keen on fighting Chinese tourists down wet deadly steps.

That night we got back and were totally exhausted. With the heat and constant walking all we wanted to do was sleep. Luckily our 3 day pass is non-consecutive so it meant the next day could be spend a little more relaxed. After a bit of a lie in the next morning we headed into the city of Siem Reap. The town is so laid back, it gave us a chance to just wander around. There is yet more markets which we were instantly drawn into, plus an iPod shop which you drop your iPod off at and they put more music on it for you. Great news!

The next day we got up at 4.30am to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. This involves a cold, windy tuk tuk ride up to Angkor, then hanging around in the dark getting bitten by mosquitoes for the best part of an hour until the sun rises. Fortunately, it was well worth the wait. There were actually a lot less people there than we expected so we were able to get a spot by the pond (this is the place to get the iconic photos with the reflection of Angkor Wat) to enjoy the sunrise fully and take far too many photos. After we headed into the temple for our first time. It is so amazing and easy to see why people view it as the best. The temple itself has a really Roman feel to it with it all being symmetrical. We ended up spending a few hours just wandering around before we headed off for breakfast.

We had only planned to spend the morning looking at temples, but there are so many its so easy to get sucked in. We ended up in Angkor until about 5.30pm and had spent the afternoon seeing temples that are about an hour away from Angkor Wat. It was really lovely to get out and see some of the countryside. These temples haven't been restored like the other famous ones so its quite nice to just look around the ruins.

After an exhausting day the day before, we decided to spend day five seeing some things outside of the city. The group spilt into two, with Tom and Simon heading for a morning microlighting over the temples and Sarah, Laura and Luke going to visit a floating village.

Tom: Tom and Simon left first and headed off into the countryside to an airfield on the outskirts of Siem Reap. There we met David and Eddie. These guys take tourists up in their microlight for views over Angkor and the surrounding countryside. Within minutes I was being strapped in (the guinea pig!) and taxiing down the runway. Next thing I knew, we were charging full pelt down the runway and then in an instant we literally jumped up vertically and were at 1500 feet in seconds. Its such an exhilarating feeling flying without the walls of an aircraft that I have now decided that I want to take my private pilots license and buy a microlight! We soared over the various temples which was a very different experience to seeing them on the ground. Not only do you get the perspective, but it's so cool and peaceful gliding above them that you can really just sit and take it all in.

After the temples we headed out to the country where we could fly much lower and see a bit more of Cambodia. We 'buzzed' lots of farmers by swooping down over them (they loved this and waved at us - I don't think they were panicking!) and flew over the lake and floating village where the others were visiting.

So while all this was going on the others were at the floating village. The village moves around depending on the season and they never go on land. There is a school, church, hospital and even a basketball court floating on the river. We got a chance to visit a crocodile farm, then were offered an opportunity to visit the local school. It was an absolutely amazing experience. We bought overpriced stationary and we only expecting a quick visit, but the school invited us in to see how it was all ran. We saw a class being taught, their version of a playground and even the kitchen where the school dinners were made. The kids were so amazing and we spent quite a while just playing games with them, their favourite being high five! Although it was great, it was a pretty emotional experience just because the poverty is so bad and the corruption is even worse. The money you can leave as a donation is taken by the police each weekend and the school sees none of it.

After our trip to the school we headed back to land to regroup and spent the afternoon relaxing in Siem Reap. It had been a busy week so far!

Our final day was spent back in the temples. We decided to visit our favourite temples for one final time. These were Angkor Wat, Bayon, Ta Phrom and Bakon. Even a second time around they were fantastic. We even managed to watch the sun set over Angkor Wat. A pretty good way to spend our last day in Siem Reap.

We were really sad to be leaving Cambodia so quickly, but although there were other places to see, after seeing Angkor Wat, nothing was really going to compare. The country has the most fantastic people, after all the suffering they have gone through it seems like all they want is kindness. Its so sad to see the scale of the poverty there, its definitely the poorest place we have been to and its quite difficult to not want to try and help everyone. Cambodia really makes you open your eyes and see things in a different light. It has the most fantastic sights and the friendliest people, its definitely a must see place.