On Wednesday after going to the Grand Palace I went to meet the rest of the tour people. We met at six at the hotel and then went for food in this local market. At the market you buy some vouchers and then exchange them for food. Food was amazing and so much choice and got to try my first Chang beer (Pennie – I see what you mean now!). The rest of the group are really nice and vary between the ages of 19 and 67! Most are under 30 which is good and come from the UK, Canada, Turkey and Denmark.

It was an early start the next day to make our way to the border between Thailand and Cambodia. It took four hours to get there and I am very glad we did this via an organized tour as the border crossing was a little scary. Just so much going on, so many forms to fill out and queue to stand in - it was good to have our guide to show us what to do. He is called Richard and comes from Canada. He is fairly new to the SE Asia route but is very passionate about it all. After crossing we had another 4 hour trip to our final destination called Siem Reap.

We got there early evening and had a brief walking tour from Richard before heading to a restaurant called Dead Fish , which is an old crocodile farm. Food there was again very lovely and I had a local fish cooked in coconut milk – yum yum. Siem Reap is very westernized but still has a lot of character.

The next day we started early – 5 am early and went to Angkor Wat to see the sun raise. Angkor Wat is a Buddhist Temple – well a ruin of it now. It was amazing to see the sun rise of this temple and afterward we had a look around. Most of the tourists who come for sun rise then go back to hotels to have breakfast but we decided to carry on and then have a break iover lunch when the sun is worse. It is very very hot here – to some extent unbearable but so worth it. After Angkor Wat we went and had a look around the Angkor Thom with the famous Bayon faces. This was also amazing to see – especially the detail in the stone work.

We then went and had a break back at the hotel before heading back out to look at the final temple – there are many more but three main ones – called Ta Prohm. This is where they filmed Lara Croft- Tomb Raider where we the tree have destroyed the temple with there routes. We then climbed another temple to see sunset. Unfortunately due to the haze we did not see very much. That evening we went for a Cambodian BBQ and got to try snake and crocodile. I would def recommend crocodile- yum yum.

The next day we had the morning free and then had another very long journey to Phnom Penh where I am now. This morning we went to the S21 prison and the Killing Fields of the Khmer Rouge. It is so hard to believe such awful things happened only 30 years ago. The torture processes of the Khmer Rouge were particularly horrid especially to children. After a fairly hard morning we are now about to go on a cycle tour of the city. Luckily we don’t have to do any work just sit back and relax…so should be good.

Tomorrow another long bus journey at 7am – So glad I bought an MP3 player before leaving the UK – it a god send! We are making out way Sihanoukville – which I think we are all looking forward to jumping in the sea to cool off. We are going to be doing a snorkeling trip to one of the local island which is cool…so till the next time xxx
Rhi 