Crossing the Thai/Cambodian border would have been much more of a struggle if we hadn't have had Ellie with us! Having crossed the border before she knew the kinds of stunts that may be pulled there so it was good to have someone who would just say no to the things we didn't need. An example of this was the tuk tuk driver who tried to take us to a fake visa place who were charging more than the government were! After a few firm no's he then took us to the real crossing where we could obtain the official Cambodian visa...phew!

At the other side a shuttle bus takes you to a building where you pick up a taxi heading for Siem Reap. They if there are less of you than is required to fill the car they will put one more person in (ours was a local) who pays for his seat. After around a 2 hour drive we were dropped at a hotel which wasn't ours where we told another tuk tuk to take us to our booked guesthouse. Once arriving at the placxe we still didn't think this was the booked one but as it was late and the place looked ok we checked in! We were bitten by bed bugs here which we found on the second night to be crawling amongst our sheets! We had moved rooms a couple of times but the bed bugs were still in force amongst their sheets! Even though it was so hot I resigned to sleeping in a hoodie and trackie bottoms with socks rolled up just so the bugs wouldnt bite me any more! Ellie took the brunt as her whole back was covered in red bumps!!

The next day Jack and I took a tuk tuk to the Angkor Wat temples which are the national pride of Cambodia, and rightly so! There are 3 temples to walk around, and although they are mostly ruins they are a sight of pure beauty and not to be missed if you find yourself in Cambodia. The nice thing about this place is that although it attracts lots of tourists, it is still spacious enough to get lost amongst its never ending trees and long corridors. The tuk tuk back to the guesthouse was welcome after the heat of the day, as the driver picked up speed and the breeze was in our hair! I took a look around me and noticed cows grazing on the side of the road and family of four squeezed together on a motorbike, it dawned on me then how amazing it was that I was in Cambodia!

That night we had a few beers in the Green Banana restaurant and played trivial pursuit on Ellie's ipod,which went on to be a bit of a running tournament between the three of us during our time together here!

The next day we went into Siem Reap town to visit a market and was taken in by the beautiful recycled rice paper bags and purses that most stalls sell here. I practically bought a whole set, including bath bag, day bag and ipod bag :) After the market we sat in a bar and kept an eye out for the bookseller that Ellie had met on her last trip to Cambodia. His name is Mot Douk and he is a landmine victim who lost both arms. He sells books by placing a basket around his neck attached to some string which hold his literature selection. I wanted the book about the killing fields and had waited to find Douk before buying it on Ellie's reccomendation. We were pleased to meet him and to see how happy he seemed even after obviously being caught up in such a tragedy. Without trying to sound too corney, it did make me think about my own life and how I have been known to make a bit of a mountain out of a mole hill on occasion! I realised I have it easy compared to people like Douk and this was definitely a humbling experience for both Jack and I. The other thing that coming to Cambodia did for me was to ignite an interest in Cambodian history which I had before had no knowldege of. I liked the fact that I was able to read about the places I was seeing and picture the places, making them more than just words in a book.