Picture this - you're strolling round the remains of what probably deserves to be the eighth wonder of the ancient world, the architecture is phenomenal and the scenery stunning. The sun is shining down, and the only thing that could possibly taint this experience is a hangover of equally epic proportions - oh wait...

Put simply, Siem Reap rocks, in every possible way. (Random fact - 'Siem Reap' means 'Siamese Defeated', nice for the neighbouring Thais!) We got there in the late afternoon (the less said about the bug-ridden pit we stayed in on the way there the better, suffice to say that Kompong Cham is not worth a visit unless you like towns with scary dark streets, swarms of bugs round every light and people staring at you on every corner)and you could already tell that the place was buzzing. First on the agenda though, was some culture. The tuk-tuk driver who picked us up from the bus station ended up being our defacto guide for the few days we were there and he was awesome. On this first night he took us to the temple complex of Angkor Wat to watch the sunset from Phonm Bakeng. There were dozens of people there with the same idea, and it made the climb up the steep, narrow steps quite tricky, but the view from the top was stunning. It actually reminded me of the stone circle at Glastonbury, but on a much grander scale!
After the sun went down, we got dropped into the main part of town, where we enjoyed cocktails, some incredible amok curry (possibly the best food I have ever tasted), before moving onto a bar/club called Angkor What? (see what they've done there? Nice...). The music there was ace, mainly indie and rock, so I was in my element. I was also thrilled to see that this place sold cider, but it turned out to be a glorified apple-flavoured alcopop. Strongbow should take more interest in what they pur their name to. Shah 'won' a T-shirt for buying two vodka-redbull buckets in the same round, and then that's when the night becomes a bit of a blur... there are a couple of air guitar-related flashbacks, and I remember leaving the club and finding a tuk-tuk to get us both home, only to run back inside because there a certain song came on that we just had to dance to (I can't even remember what it was now), leaving the poor driver to wait another 10minutes for us. Pretty silly, but very fun, and we made it home safe in the end.

As you can probably imagine, it was a bit of a struggle to get up to go see Angkor Wat the next day! And it turned out our driver was in an similarly sorry state, so the three of us could at least sympathise with each other. Despite the struggle though, Angkor Wat was still a breathtaking experience. I'd never quite realised the scale of the place before, but it was enormous. Fact time - Angkor Wat was actually built to honour the Hindu god Vishnu and only became a Bhuddist temple later.
The whole complex is too big to walk round, so our driver took us round in the tuk-tuk, which was a great way to see some of the smaller temples. The next temple we explored was Bayon, inside Angkor Thom, a fortified city that's surrounded by walls with statues of devas (gods and asuras (demons) lining the roads into it. Bayon had massive stone faces all over the towers and turrets - 216 to be precise. The final highlight was Ta Prohm (fact - this the temple that was the location for the Tomb Raider movie), and this was both Selina's and my favourite. The trees seem to have grown up around the building and the roots were like tentacles clinging on to the walls and archways. It was as if nature was trying to claim it back... Following such an eventful day, all we had the energy to do that evening was watch a bad Adam Sandler film back at the hostel - if anyone's planning to watch 'Click' soon, don't bother...

On our final day (after a long-awaited lie-in - until 9am!) we decided to explore the town a bit better and try to work out where we'd been two nights previously! There were a couple of cool markets, where I re-stocked on clothes after having lost some to holes and splashed out on a few souveniers. Also checked out the museum (a very modern and very swish building), which was pretty good for learning more about Angkor Wat, and the ancient kings and queens of Cambodia. There was an exhibition of 1,000 Buddha statues within the museum too. I didn't count to make sure, but there were enough there that I was happy enough to belive them! We got dinner for a dollar that night at one of the street stalls, and it was worth every penny! Easily as nice as some of the pricier places we've been to, although not a patch on the amok curry.

Siem Reap was also a goldmine for exotic fruit and veg. I will summarise my cullinary experiences below...
Odd fruit/veg #1: Rambutan - red and hairy on the outside, like a sweet lychee on the inside
Odd fruit/veg #2: Mangosteen - has a papery purple skin that you peel off and is also quite lychee-like in taste, but jucier, sweeter and with a sharp aftertaste (I have actually tried these before, in Southampton with Andi, but as I suspected, this one was nicer)
Odd fruit/veg #3: Morning glory (huhuh) - spinach-like leafy vegetable with more of a crunch than spinach, I had it in amok curry - did I mention it was the best food ever? Ever. It was so good I had it again the next night, in a different restaurant, but it wasn't as nice :-(

We've now moved onto Phnom Pehn - it was an eventful journey that saw Selina eat a fried spider leg (not bad for a self-proclaimed arachnophobic) and a little girl mistake her for a fellow Cambodian (she pointed to me and said: 'No, she English, you Cambodian!' while pointing back to Selina)! I'll write more in a few days when we've seen a bit more of Phnom Pehn - we're going to seen Tong Slueng and the genocide museum tomorrow, so I'm a little aprehensive, but hoping it will be interesting nonetheless...

Oh, and it's 33 degrees, which means it's officially hotter than the sun.

Byee! Kim xx