Our last night on Don Det involved an average selection of Laos food and our last bottle of Beer Laos (our favourite so far) before another early start for our next epic bus journey into Cambodia!

We all met at the boat landing at 8am for what was to be our longest journey so far! After chatting to a few others we quickly discovered we all had different tickets, some going to different destinations but all just told to be here at 8! We all boarded the 10minute taxi boat to the mainland where we all wandered about for nearly 20 mins before someone rounded us up! For some reason we were split to different sides of the road yet it wasn't clear why, we all ended up at the border crossing together after 3 hours on a mini-bus!

Clear of passport control and quarantine (which we paid an extra dollar to avoid??) we waited patiently for the coach - at which point Sinead's body decided to have a little wibble with the intense heat and she became really fainty (is that a real word??). . .I actually worried we wouldn't make the bus! After a painstaking 10 minute conversation with a local store owner which ended in me ripping her cold box open and pointing, we managed to get some ice and Sinead was soon back to normal, just in time to be crammed onto another VIP bus that was nothing like the picture OR description! The next leg took 7hrs (of which some poor English lad had to spend in the aisle on a wooden stool!) then due to 'our' companies forwarding bus breaking down, ourselves, a German couple and an Austrian guy were dropped at a foodhall (this is putting it kindly) in the middle of nowhere, in th dark, to await our onward travel! One thing I can say though is Cambodia has a stunning countryside, the greenest and lushest trees and little lakes and rivers with plenty to see, from locals working in the paddy fields, men fishing in the water with their make shift nets, cows and water buffalo, little quaint bridges and friendly faces all over.

Fortunately someone had been arranged to meet us at the drop point (or else he was just a random bloke that befriended us, we're not sure), a smiley Cambodian guy with the fetching name 'Sally' . . . he spoke really good English and organised some food, our hotel in Siem Reap and our Tuk Tuk there! This was greatly welcomed as we finally arrived in to Siem Reap at 1am . . . . . .nearly 18hrs after leaving our bungalow on Don Det!

We were chuffed (well as much as we could be after our day!) to find our hotel was probably the best we've stayed in so far - swimming pool, bar, restaurant, t'internet, and our room was big and clean with 2 big double beds and a large wet room - all for a measely $10 per night! After a 'nightcap' Angkor beer with the other guys, we finally got our heads down at about 2am!

The main reason (and ours) for visiting Siem Reap is to see the massive temple complex of Angkor Wat but after our late night we decided to save that for the Thursday! We organised a Tuk Tuk to meet us at 12 on the Wednesday to take us to the floating villages at a nearby lake but we heard that it was a bit of a 'floating scam' so decided to leave it until we get to the floating markets of Vietnam. So instead on the Wednesday we decided to take a wander into the local markets and check out the town a little. It had a really good vibe to it and all the locals were very friendly - a polite 'no thank you' accompanied with a smile was enough for the tuk tuk drivers to stop asking 'tuk tuk, today? and tomorrow'. Matt got himself a fish pedicure and we decided to make the most of the pool and get out of the heat wave for a few hours, so we headed back to our lovely accommodation (first time i've been able to say that!). That evening we had arranged for the tuk tuk driver to come and get us at 4.30pm so we could have our first visit to the Temples and see the sun setting over Angkor Wat from Phnom Bakheng temple. This was a small climb up a beautiful tree lined path with hundred of other enthusiastic temple bashers and when we got to the temple the queue ascend the temple stepa was huge. The temple closed at 5.30 and at 5.25 we were still about 10 mins from the steep vertical steps up and battling with typical tourists trying to busy their way to the top of the line but we did make it and it was beautiful. Some of those that had been there earlier than us to watch had left as the sun dipped behind a cloud and looked like it had gone altogether but when we got up it was just popping out of the bottom and fell into a beautiful orange sphere that gave a stunning red hue across the sky - gorgeous (unfortunately our camera doesn't have sunset mode so the pictures as usual won't do it justice).

We headed out for food and the night scene in Siem Reap and it was really good, nice and chilled and a refreshing little town with lots going on. We ate at Le Tigre de Papier and had some western food. Me a properly cooked pizza, that was so good to taste and Matt had a huge piece of steak with pepper sauce - yum (and as per usual, cheap as you like, however Cambodia is the most expensive country so far as they use American dollars so the cheapest you can get things for is 1dollar mostly). We went on to sample the night life and were not disappointed, everywhere had a good vibe, busy and friendly staff, Matt even attempted his Cambodian and we all had a laugh when he asked for 2 beers and was served 3 . . .or was this the plan?? so all in all a good night but we headed home early as we were getting collected at 5.00am to head to the temples and watch the sun rise over Angkor Wat itself.

This was lovely, we had to navigate from the tuk tuk to the temple and out to the lake that it sits on in pitch black. We got sucked into a blessing as we weren't fully awake and had to pay for it (typical tourist lol) once we got to the lake a local called Tiger told us to stand at the very left of the lake as that way we could see the sun light up all 5 towers of Ankor Wat - then we could get a coffee from his stall once sun had risen lol

After the sun rise we explored Angkor Wat and its surrounding temples. They stretch for 80miles so obviously we didnt see all of them but we had our tuk tuk driver (who had a 9hour shift with us and templed us out) to bring us to the main ones - we wont go into all of them here but look at the photos and a bit of a spiel on each one of them so its a more interesting read - I know a lot you use picture books ;)

Back we went to the hotel and chilled by the pool awaiting our early rise for the bus trip to the beautiful white sands and blue waters of Sihanoukville.......