Cambodia beguiles, distresses, enchants, shocks to the core and enthralls. We toured this fascinating country with Marcel and Paula, a Dutch/Brazilian couple from Amsterdam, and Ibo, a German of Turkish descent. He possessed the most outrageous bartering skills known to man and probably saved us about $200!

It is commonly known amongst backpackers that the Thai-Cambodia border crossing is one of the most lawless and harrowing travel experiences you can find. There is a bus scam offering tickets to Siem Reap where you are over charged for visas, and then taken on the longest and most uncomfortable route with the aim of making you stay at the drivers recommended guesthouse. We knew the score and to the extreme annoyance of our bus company persuaded everyone to get off at the border and go it alone. Not without the mandatory stops for "lunch" several times on route - a common theme with Thai travel!

Checking out of Thailand is simple, efficient and air-conned. But as you step out onto the no-mans land between the two countries you immediately get the feeling this place is dodgy as hell. There are two casinos on either side of the dirty strip - read: money laundering, drugs, prostitution, guns and Cambodian mafia. It isn't clear which official you purchase a visa from - there are stories of officials taking people's passports and demanding $500 to get them back. Fortunately we were in a group of five so were in decent shape. We eventually got through to Poipet, a dirty, muddy and lawless wild west style town with an edge we haven't experienced in S.E.Asia.

Ibo managed to haggle two mafia taxis (they were all in cohorts with each other) and it was the most uneasy time we've had yet. All the way to Siem Reap the driver was checking the rear view mirror to see whether we had fallen asleep, as well as driving on the wrong side of the road at speed. Interspersed with being afraid for our lives we started to see Cambodia's stunning scenery; lush vegetation and flat green plains, cows pulling carts and basic but pretty agrarian villages. And of course CCP signs everywhere (Cambodian People's Party). Finally as we neared Siem Reap our drivers shipped all five of us onto a tuk-tuk, as they could not enter the town due to police juristiction/mafia territory/bribery - who knows.

Anyway enough of this misery! Siem Reap is a brilliant and lively place to stay - of course the base for visiting the imfamous ancient city of Angkor, the capital of the bygone Khmer Empire. The Khmer's began to build their civilisation from as early as the 9th century AD, and for hundreds of years dominated most of what is now Thailand, Laos and Cambodia. To put it in perspective Angkor boasted a population of 1,000,000 when London was only 50,000. The site is massive with well over 100 temples, a lot of them in very good condition. Angkor Wat itself is the largest religious building in the World, surrounded by moats many miles across. We got up at 4am to see sunrise over this amazing ruin, and visited numerous other temples (with our guide Tea or Mr. T) before they were overun by happy snapping Japanese tourists and their tripods. With his help we saw the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed on our own - Jumanji style trees sprouting out all over the ruins. The ancient city is absolutely stunning and in two days we saw so much, culminating in watching sunset over the fertile plains from a temple sited on a small mountain.

Cambodia's tale of a glorious ancient past is in stark contrast to it's recent history. Between 1975-1979 Pol Pot's regime the Khmer Rouge (Democratic Kampuchea) massacred between 2-3 million of their own people (out of a total of just 8 million). Still no one is sure exactly how many. The KR was an ultra communist dictatorship that wanted a simple agrarian society of equals, and therefore no intellectuals or potential dissidents (doctors, teachers, students, lawyers and even people who wore glasses). With this newfound knowledge we visited the war museum in Siem Reap where we were given a tour by a guide who had missing fingers and shrapnel in his face, due to one of the 5-6 million landmines still scattered throughout the countryside. Today a fifth of Cambodians have been disfigured in this way. Despite this they have an amazing ability to see the bright side of things, which may seem distasteful to tourists. Our guide would offer us many photos with guns, tanks and artillery just after telling us that half his family had been killed, and after explaining how the weapons were used. Often the ammo was too expensive and people were bashed to death.

We came to Cambodia quite wary of these horrors but really warmed to the country, especially the children who have managed to aquire adept sales techniques. 7 year olds selling Jesus shirts and postcards to westerners for massive profit, with great humour. Our personal favourites were "hey you, by my beer" followed by "why you not by my beer" and "no money, no honey". The five of us clubbed together and bought toys to donate to a childrens hospital run entirely off donations. The people get nothing off the corrupt CCP government (who have remained in power since the toppling of the KR).