I've been in Siem Reap, Cambodia for two days now and they have been amazing. We drove 4 hours to the Thai/Cambodian border which wasn't much fun, but I was so excited to see what Cambodia was like. From the one day I spent in Bangkok, it reminded me of Malaysia so I didn't feel much excitement for being there, though I knew Cambodia was a lot different!

It took an age to cross the border and get all the formalities sorted, but once we had completed all of the boring stuff. We had another 1 and a half hour journey into Siem Reap and to our hotel. Steve, our tour guide had arranged for us to go to a local school and then to have a traditional meal, serviced by volunteers. We ended up running 20 minutes late because of the traffic and only ended up having 20 minutes in the classroom with the children. It was such a different experience, the children were so friendly and spoke very good English. I expected them to be shy when a group of foreigners walked in, but they were very interested in our lives and backgrounds and I guess wanted to practise their English on us.

We left the school at 6pm, then were taken next door to a room with a very long table and cushions on the floor. Set up for our dinner. It was so lovely, there were 4 courses! Plus a desert which waas all complimentary. The food was amazing, I even daringly tried fried cricket! It was okay...I think it''s just the thought of it that put me of!! We got introduced to one 19 year old boy, I forget his name now, he had downs syndrome and was deserted by his family because of his condition, it was very sad to hear his story, but the whole village look after him. They all take it in turns to help him out with anything he needs. He sat down with us at dinner which was nice.

We then took a tuk-tuk to "pub street" yes, very western! There was so much to do down there (aside from drink!!) most of us decided to get a "fish massage" we all sat around a pool full of fish and put our feet in. Obviously, most people know what happens, the fish pick at your feet removing the dead skin. It's such a weird sensation!!! I could have made more of that experience because I kept taking my feet out because it was so weird and tickly!!

After the excitement of the fish eating our dead skin, all of us on the tour met up for a few drinks, and no, we didn't get drunk! We had to be up at 4.30am as we were leaving to see the sunrise over Angkor Wat. Athough, saying that, drinks are VERY cheap here, not even just beer, actual spirits too!

The next day, waking up at 4.30am was very hard....I still haven't managed to get over my jetlag and have a lot of sleep catching up to do! We took a mini-bus to the Angkor Wat temple and sat around, waiting for the sun to rise. As one of the guys on the tour group said, it just seemed to be very staged...There were hundreds of tourists huddled around the lake, waitig for the sunrise. It just sort of lost it's effect. Of course there are lots of tourists around and it can't be helped, but it just ruined it slightly. The sunrise was a bit of a disappointment!! IT was very hazy, though I did get some good photo's when the sun was out!

We then spent the first part of the day looking aroudn Angkor Wat and two other temples. They honestly were amazing. It all seemed so surreal being there. I can imagine it being so peaceful and quiet (obviously without the hundreds of chinese tourists snapping away) The visit to the temples were all a bit rushed though as we had to meet back at the hotel at 2.30pm to go on a boat trip on the biggest lake in South East Asia, Tonle Sap. To get to the lake we had to go through one of the water villages. At first it was great to see something new, obviously in Malaysia they have this sort of thing, but it was different here, a lot poorer, a lot more unclean and dirty. The water was a very thick ,muddy brown with so much rubbish in it. It was something new. After a few photos, I felt like a patronising tourist taking photos of other people's homes and them doing their day-to-day chores. I just felt slightly weird and wrong about it. It was as if they were animals in a zoo and we were taking photos of them. It really wasn't something I enjoyed too much, I guess it was just the reality of how a lot of people out here, and around the world live.

After we got back from the lake and had all showered etc, we went out as a group for dinner. We found a really nice restaurant/bar. I had sweet and sour chicken which was nice. A few of the group stayed back and had drinks, but most of us were very tired from the long day so came back to sort ourselves out for tomorrow. Tomorrow, we are leaving at midday to travel onto Phenom Penh. I't's going to take roughly 6 hours, so that's our day pretty much gone on travel! But who cares, we are moving onwards and seeing something new each day!

Sarah x