I arrived in Siem Reap after a 6 hour bus ride, which wasn't that bad actually, and got a tuktuk to the hotel I had booked. Oh yes, you guessed it, I found it in Lonely Planet...

The 'budget' accommodation I had booked, in a place far out of town, was actually a grass/bamboo hut out the back of the family's junk yard (it was described as lush gardens in the guide). There was a 1 inch thin mattress on the bare floor with bugs everywhere. It was also about 40 degrees in there with no windows. The shared 'bathroom' was a concrete hut outside with no light, and a sink with no pipes connected so when you ran the water it poured over your feet. I stayed there about 4 minutes. They didn't even charge me. The tuktuk driver took me to a much nicer place right in town, and this is where I am writing to you from now.

I spent most of the Saturday night and Sunday feeling ill and lying in bed with headache, neck ache etc. Sunday afternoon I managed to get up and drag myself out and found a lovely coffee shop (a Starbucks basically, but called Blue Pumpkin) and had a pot of Earl Grey and a lemon tart. Spiffing. I then had a shoulder, neck and back massage, and to be honest I think I would've come off better if I'd had a street fight. She beat the hell out of me. But my neck has been fine ever since! There's also a nice night market right next to the hotel, so I wandered round there, had dinner, and retreated to bed.

The next day was my first day of temple sight-seeing, starting with the Roulous group, which are the earliest temples. There are only 3 of these, but they are still pretty impressive and give a good basis as you work your way through the ages. They are mainly small square bricks piled high with faint carvings which have been worn down over the centuries.

Tuesday I continued with the 'Grand Circuit' of temples, ending with sunset from the mountain. Exploring the temples is good fun as, if you can reach it, you can climb on it/through it etc... Though it's hot work! And you can really see the developments and differences as you go through them. The earlier ones are more tower-like and you can't go in them, as there's nothing to go in. But as you go on they develop corridors and walls and inside areas. But the thing that struck me most was how much (especially the early ones) looked like something out the Jungle Book Disney film - wrong country I know! I kept expecting King Louie to come swinging out or Mowgli to be running around! The old ruins in the jungle look just the same as many of the Angkor Temples.

One of the last temples of the day was a very large but greatly dilapidated one. In some parts whole trees had grown ON TOP OF - not out of or through - but on top of the wall of the temple. All the roots were bare and twisted round the walls, it was just surreal! And they are real hundreds-of-year-old trees too. It's also amazing to see how much detail is still left after sooo many years of non-use, exposure to the elements, and Khmer Rouge rule.

The sunset was nice, but odd as there were hundreds of Japanese tourists that seem to have ascended on the town since Monday and there were hundreds of them waiting to get up the mountain. Once up there it was a good view and we all must've looked a sight, 300 people crammed into the same corner, all aiming our cameras in the same direction.

In Nature Watch news - I saw some monkeys that live by the river/road side near the main temple area. They didn't look friendly though. And there are elephants which you can pay to ride up the mountain (you don't pay the elephants, you pay to ride them). I also saw a guard at one temple doing what I thought at first was his Basil Fawlty impression, beating the grass with a large branch. On closer inspection I saw that he was actually trying to scare off a rather large and not-very-friendly looking snake which I think was a cobra. I have also seen various lizards of different shapes, sizes and colours. Kate Humble impression over.