Although we didn't originally plan to visit Cambodia it seemed a shame to come this close without at least seeing the country's two most historical towns.

Phnom Penh and Siem Reap are two totally different places, the first is the capital city and as you would expect it is pretty overcrowded, the other is a town based around the tourism brought in by the coach load to visit the numerous ancient temples scattered around the area.

Seeing as Siem Reap is considered the more interesting of the two places it would have been logical to have caught one of the many coaches straight from Bangkok across the border and straight there. There are a few issues with this route however, it takes around 12 hrs to make the trip, the roads are extremely rough once entering Cambodia and the border patrol guards are known for charging tourists whatever they like just to enter or leave the country! We heard all of this before we planned our trip so instead we decided to go for the slightly more expensive but hassle free flight option. It is cheaper to fly to Phnom Penh, a one hour trip, and make the 6hr journey up to Siem Reap by bus, the road between the main towns is in good condition so the journey is pretty straight forward. Although we did have to stop and pick up some passengers from the bus traveling up in front of us after their driver knocked a drunken moped driver off his bike and then decided to jump on the first bus going in the opposite direction and leave all the passengers, and the poor guy he had mangled with the bus, on the side of the road!

We decided to spend two nights in Phnom Penh, as we were already there, and after careful consideration we decided to visit just one of the two main historical sights in the area. There is a terrible past to Cambodia and it is summed up by both the 'Toul Sleng Genocide Museum' and the 'Killing Fields of Choeung Ek' where millions of people where murdered by the Khmer Rouge. We went to the Genocide museum, it was once a school but then turned into a jail used for the interrogation and torture of anyone deemed a threat to the government. The 'Killing Fields' sounded far too gruesome and immoral for a tourist sight as it is essentially a mass of skulls and bones from the victims of the Khmer Rouge.

Siem Reap offers a different type of history in the form of a large number of ancient temples scattered around the region. In order to get to see everything it is necessary to first buy a pass for one day, three days or one week. We opted for the three day pass but only used two days of it as although we both enjoyed exploring the temples neither of us would call ourselves temple fanatics and after a while the ruins all start to look the same. In order to get around all the temples we opted for the most popular option, Tuk Tuk! We agreed a price with a driver and he took us round the temples in the form of different circuits that all the drivers use.

We opted to see Angkor Wat, the largest and most impressive of all the temple, at dawn. After getting up at 4.30am and waiting around for the sun to rise it wasn't actually as impressive as we had hoped but at least it meant we had an early start so we could see almost everything we wanted to within the day and still get back to see Angkor Wat with the sunlight helping to display how impressive it actually can be.

The town of Siem Reap is full of bars, restaurants and markets so it is an ideal tourist spot but the prices here as in Phnom Penh seem to be far higher than they should be! The country's official currency is the Riel but as the Khmer Rouge played havoc with the money system the defacto currency is the US Dollar! The Riel and the Dollar are now used side by side and it takes a little getting used to but basically 1 Dollar equates to around 4000 Riel. ATMs produce US Dollars and the shop keepers help circulate both currencies.

It will be interesting to see how this country develops.

NEXT STOP/LAST STOP!: Thailand (again)