After the bus ride to the border town it was still another 6km to the border crossing. Our driver stopped at the Cambodian Consulate on the way and told us to get our Visa first. We had heard about the troubles on this border crossing with touts and scammers and after being asked to pay 1000 Thai Baht (or $30) instead of the official 20$ fee, we promplty left for the border to get a Visa on our way through. Here the hassles weren't over with plenty of people offering to "help" us with our visa. Even at the official Visa office they wanted $30 and were shutting the hatch on me when I was offering the correct fee. In the end we had to make do with paying a 400 Baht bribe on top of the $20, this turned out to be less than many people had had to pay who we met further down the line!
We then tried fruitlessly to find a bus (they only left in the morning) to our next destination and eventually made do with an inexpensive taxi. We reached Battambang, got a nice room for the night for only $5 and went out for food. We ended up at a sort of local barbeque place with no english menu but an enthusiastic waiter. The beef, rice and sweetcorn that we had incredibly managed to order was delicious.
The next day was a boat journey to Siam Reap, a gorgeous ride past traditional houses on stilts, a famous bird sanctuary full of diving birds and entire floating villages on the Tonje Sap (a huge lake providing Cambodia with 80% of it fish). It took 7 hours but was worth it.
Siam Reap is the home to Ankor Wat and the famous Kymer Temples. We spent the next few days travelling around the temples in a remorque-moto (trailer for two attached to a motorbike). They were incredible, especially considering some were over 1000 years old. They are spread over a huge area making it too far to walk between them and tiring enough just walking through and exploring them. Huge walls headed by 30ft faces of buddha and other deities, it was great fun ducking and diving through the walkways and staircases which were so steep you had to use your hands in climbing up them! One of our favourites had huge trees growing out of it (see the photos) and was used in the Tomb Raider films.
Next stop...the coast...