After checking out of our hotel in Sihanoukville, we caught a minibus to Kampot. We went there as it is meant to be less touristy and more like the 'real' Cambodia, but there were loads of tourists and expats so I'm not sure that's true anymore! Anyhow, Kampot is quite a small, dusty, cute riverside town. At night all the dogs in the neighbourhood howl like crazy, like something out of 101 dalmations. The electricity cuts out at least once a day. The roundabouts all have giant and slightly odd statues on them (e.g. of durian fruit, a dove on top of a globe, the number '2000' etc), which proves very useful in trying to get around town and follow directions - especially considering we only saw one roadname in the two days we were there! Oh and we had amazing lemon meringue pie at a little cafe, which was definitely the best dessert we've had in a couple of months. And that's all I can really think to say about the place. It's nice but not great, I think people stay there mainly to explore the surrounding countryside and/or Bokor National Park.

Therefore on our second day we booked up a countryside tour that took us to a salt farm (we got to lie on mountains of pure salt crystals and make snow angels!!), to a pepper plantation, through Phnom Ch'nork Caves, to the seaside town of Kep (we ate seafood taken from the sea before our eyes) and, finally, to Koh Tonsay or 'Rabbit Island'. Rabbit Island is lovely: clear sea, palm trees, white sandy beach etc and is blissfully undeveloped. We only had a couple of hours there but found out afterwards that there is an option to stay overnight in a beach hut, which would have been cool had we have known beforehand.

On Wednesday we got two buses, one from Kampot to Phnom Penh (3 hours) and one from there to Siem Reap (almost 7 hours). We had very numb bums by the time we arrived but other than that the journey was fine. We headed out to Pub Street immediately with some people from our hostel and spent the night sinking vodka buckets in a bar called 'Angkor What', where we met three people from Bexleyheath :-) I THINK we left about half one but can't be too sure.

Yesterday we had a lie in and didn't do too much during the day, apart from sniff around the market for a bit. At 4.30pm we jumped into a tuk-tuk and headed for Angkor Wat, as if you buy a one-day pass to the famous Angkor temples after 4.45pm then your ticket doesn't technically start until the next day and you get 'free' entry to view that day's sunset. We watched the sunset from Phnom Bakheng. We were a little disappointed to be honest. We had to queue for ages to climb the steps up the temple, and when we did it was quite cloudy and the views weren't great (the main Angkor Wat temple was just a smudge in the distance!), and we were surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of other tourists, all sticking their elbows in our pictures and bashing into us. We left, thinking 'what is all the fuss about?!'

However, we spent several hours at the temples today and have definitely changed our minds, they are bloody amazing! We were up BEFORE the crack of dawn so that we could watch the sunrise at the main Angkor Wat temple. It was magical. We could hear the jungle all around us as the sky turned from indigo to orange to pink to blue, and then - some time later - a huge bright red circle slipped lazily up from behind Angkor Wat and climbed the sky, getting lighter and brighter as it did so. All the time we could see the whole scene, and the three iconic towers of Angkor Wat, reflected in the water in front of the temple. It was literally one of the best sights I have seen whilst travelling. The whole place felt so mysterious and ancient (which of course it is!)

After sunrise we visited Angkor Thom, the ruins of an ancient city where 1million people used to live, and the main temple there, the Bayon. Walking through the Bayon was perhaps even better than watching the sunrise. It is one of the most famous Angkor temples as it is has huge faces carved into the many stone towers. These look seriously impressive up close. There's also lots of more intricate carvings all over the inner walls, some of which are hidden behind pillars or hidden in dark corners, which seems sort of wasteful when you think about it. It's a bit of a maze in there though as it has been built and added to by Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists in turn. Every now and then we would look up and see higgledy piggledy stone blocks spiralling away above us, like a chimney, with a tiny little square of light at the top. We're not temple buffs but even we had to drag ourselves away from this one! (If you've not seen pictures of it before, google 'Bayon temple' - the pictures are good but it is ten times better in real life believe me.)

The next stop was Ta Keo, the old checkpoint for the city of Angkor Thom. It had about a hundred steep steps and by this time (only 9.30!) it was hot hot hot, so we were seriously flagging by the time we descended and staggered out.

We then visited Ta Prohm, better known as the jungle temple where Tomb Raider was filmed. This temple has been left largely in the state it was found in, with trees and vines growing out of and over the crumbling rocks. Very impressive, but still not as good as Bayon. It was also the most crowded temple, but that may have been because it was mid-morning by this point. The big tour groups were out in force.

Last (and least) we visited Banteay Kdei, which used to be a hospital in ancient times. This was practically deserted - a nice change after the previous temples we'd visited - but a bit neglected. Perhaps this is why it seemed to be the only place we visited where hawkers were allowed inside. Everywhere else the cries of 'Lady! Buy postcard?', '1 bracelet, 1 dollar!', 'Sir, you want cold driiiink?' stopped once tickets needed to be shown.

In total we spent seven hours doing the small circuit of temples today, plus an hour at another temple last night, and that was enough for us. But we can see how those really interested in architecture or history could spend three or four days visiting the grand circuit and all the outer temples as well. The sheer scale of the Angkor Wat complex is ridiculous. It's even more impressive when you consider it was all built before the mid-thirteenth century and without the help of modern technology.