You were right Sharon Donadoni.....We love it, love it, love it. Siem Reap is a lovely place to be. When we arrived we stayed at the Garden House guesthouse in Wat Bo village. Handy for the swimming pool at Mom's guesthouse across the road. For 3 dollars we could spend the afternoon chilling at the side of their pool, dipping in and out of the water as we started to overheat in the 38-degree sunshine.

On arriving from Phnom Penh, courtesy of the fantastic Giant Ibis coach company, we were met by a driver sent by the hotel. After driving us to the hotel he asked whether we would like to visit Angkor Wat at sunset, so our adventure started right there as we planned our first visit to the site. When visiting the temples on the Unesco site you have to buy a ticket for one, three or five days. There is a time limit for using the tickets but the visits don't have to be on consecutive days. John and I decided that a three-day ticket would suffice and we were pleased to learn that purchasing the ticket after five would allow us to visit the temple that evening without losing a days credit.

As we approached the temple across the moat, for our first sight of Angkor Wat we were surrounded by hoards of other trippers- all eager to secure the best location for their photographs. Vendors tried to persuade us to buy guide books, postcards and anything which would result in transferring Riels and Dollars from us to them. As the temple faces West the sun went down in front rather than behind the temple. Despite this, we were still able to take some nice photographs.

For our first full day in Siem Reap, we headed for the museum. Everything we had read told us that the museum would help us to understand what we were seeing when we toured around the various archaeological sites. In fact, as it turned out, many of the original carvings and artefacts from the sites had been transferred there to endure they weren't looted from the original locations. I was concerned that temples without adornments would be a little bland, but I needn't have worried. Replicas had been fitted so it would be difficult to know that the originals weren't there.

It was true, having toured the museum we found the archaeological sites more interesting. We were soon able to recognise features that helped to date the sites and started to be able to recognise different buddha positions.

It's difficult to identify a favourite when you see so many temples and buildings, although Bayon is definitely up there. Over three days we visited many of the buildings which were in varying states of repair. None of the buildings had been completely restored, although it was often possible to imagine them being lived in many years ago. On the third day, we visited Ta Phrom which was used as the set for Tombraider. The site is being consumed by many of the trees around it, making it a photographers paradise, with the additional challenge of trying to take a shot without a tourist on it. Easier said than done here.

Many tourists travel to Angkor Wat on executive holidays, staying in the plush hotels which tastefully line the route to the site. Our first hotel was on the edge of this area, close to the river. After five days we had used the three entries on our Angkor Wat ticket and were feeling templed out. We decided we stay in Siem Reap for an extra three nights as we were enjoying the place so much, had lots of planning to do for the rest of the trip and still had lots to explore. As we'd been busy exploring temples and then cooling off by the pool at Moms guesthouse we hadn't ventured to the area on the other side of the town. To make amends for the omission we moved to a different hotel- the Blossoming Rhomduol. For £10 a night we had a double room with air-con, TV, wifi + inclusive breakfast. There was even a pond at the front of the hotel which had those fish that nibble the dead skin off your feet so we had a free fish spa thrown in. It has to be of the most relaxing places we have stayed at so far. Despite being home to a Hard Rock Cafe, Costa coffee ( only the second one we've seen since leaving the UK), and a KFC, Siem Reap still manages to retain its own character. A delightful place where it would be easy to spend two or three weeks combining exploration of the UNESCO sites and doing absolutely nothing.