Had to be up incredibly early for the bus, so were in the lobby of the hotel at 6:45am waiting for our pick up. The pick up didn't arrive until 8:00am, so we were very pissed of by that point. We had to walk up the road lugging our backpacks in the morning heat to a s***ty bus which was waiting for us at the top. Everyone else from surrounding hotels appeared to have been picked up early as the 'pint-sized' bus was almost full and we both had to sit next to complete strangers. Odd, I thought, but maybe this is a transfer bus to the 'luxury coach' I had been shown in the picture. - No! This was it, all the way to bloody Cambodia. So, after collecting more people and cramming them into this sardine tin on wheels we left Bangkok for the Cambodian border. The roads weren't too bad through the rest of Thailand and we arrived at the border in about 6 hours. I even managed to sleep for some of the way. We had lunch and fought through the young children begging for money as we crossed the border to pick up a different coach at the other side. By this point we had bought ourselves some of the local currency (Reil), which was kind of pointless as the Cambodians prefer to trade in US Dollars instead. They don't have anything less than a dollar, so you tend to get change in Reil instead. There are about 4,000 Reil to the US Dollar, so it seems like you're loaded! The was some kind of commotion with the buses on the other side as they split us up into 2 groups and put us into vehicles the size of camper vans to do the rest of the journey through to Siem Reap. I thought we'd be OK as the previous journey to the border had been quite smooth and we weren't exactly going "off road". I'm not sure if you've ever travelled this route, but take my advice and just don't! There is a reason why airlines fly this route and I'm sure it's a money spinner! The Cambodians certainly need some lessons from the Romans on raod building as they don't appear to have any roads to speak of!! We bumped all the way to Siem Reap at about 30 mph for a further 7 hours - my heart was in my mouth at some very perilous moments when we were going over wooden bridges that looked like they were about to give way any second. In fact the driver even said to me "I hope all the bridges are intact on the journey"!! Doesn't inspire confidence. Fortunately they dropped us off at a nice guest house in Siem Reap, so we all went straight to bed, nerves shot, after our 15 hour ordeal. The following day, we hired a tuk-tuk driver for 2 days to see the temples. So from morning to dusk for the next two days we went from one temple to the next to the next - and there are lots of temples to see, each differing in size, structure and meaning. The temples are a wonder and the history of why and how they got there almost speaks to you through the ruins. My favourites were Ta Phrong, Bayon and Angkor Wat - although the tranquility of many of these temples is completely disrupted by coachloads of Japanese tourists, which was becoming a bit of an annoyance for me on my trip around SE Asia. In the eveing we ventured into town, which is situated on lake Tonle Sap. It's quite run down, but with a distinctive and charming French Colonial feel to it. We ate at a lovely restaurant called Red Piano one night and then had a 'Ruby' at the Taj Mahal restaurant the next night. All relatively cheap, swishing it down with the local brew Angkor Beer, which is served in massive 700 ml bottles. On the third day, we had to be up at 4:30am ready for our transfer to the boat to Phomn Penh at 5:30am. There was chaos at the harbour where the boat was moored - people selling all sorts of stuff and more children begging and stealing at the tourist trap, but we managed to fight our way through the termoil unscathed and boarded the boat. The journey to Phonm Penh was smooth and there were some nice views of local townships along the river. It took about 6 hours in total to motor all the way through the lake and down the Tonle Sap River to the point where it joins the mighty Mekong River at Phnom Penh. We were greeted at Phnom Penh by a bararge of taxi and moto drivers offering lifts to neighbouring guesthouses and hotels, with whom they strike a commission deal for the number of guests they present to the hotel. We had already decided where to stay, by reading the commentary in the Lonely Planet, but our driver (donning Liverpool United T-shirt, I might add) said that he would give us a free ride anyway and if we didn't like it the he would take us to his recommended place. To cut a long story short, we ended up staying at his place, which was lovely if not a little far out of town (10 minutes walk). Upon further inspection we noticed that there were other guests staying in the room with us - mice!! There were little holes here and there and droppings in some of the drawers, however they were not to be seen during our stay, so I guess this was OK. Similar to Siem Reap, we hired a taxi driver for the day to take us to see some of the sights. There isn't a whole lot to see here apart from learning a little about the history of Cambodia. We took a drive out to the Killing Fields, where many of the bodies from Pol Pot's genocide were buried. He killed over 2 million Cambodians from all walks of life and these killing fields have only unearthed about 9,000 of them by exuming mass graves. There is still a large area surrounding the discovered graves which has yet to be dug up, but I'm sure it will follow in time. As you enter the killing fields you are immediately faced with a tall pagoda-style builing which has shelves upon shelves of human skulls, all grouped by age and gender. It's a chilling sight. Just behind this are the mass graves, where the Cambodians again were buried by age, sex and social class. As you walk around these holes in the ground, you find yourself stepping over human remains in the floor and rags which were used to bind and gag the unfortunate victims. As if we hadn't had enough of the evidence of the atrocities, we were then taken to a prison which was used by the Khmer Rouge regime to hold and persecute prisoners. It was built as a school, but when the Khmer Rouge took over, they saw it as an ideal place to turn into a prison. There were cells after cells in the rooms and the museum has tried to keep it as authentic as possible, keeping all the beds, chains and shackles used during this time. There are photographs of the thoousands of victims all over the place and some of the torture devices used. Local artists have painted pictures to help you visualise the events of that era. Very chilling indeed and it left us quite depressed. Next on the taxi drivers agenda was the Royal Palace. He dropped us at the gate and we told him he didn't have to wait as this would be the last stop of the day. We waited for him to leave (so we didn't show any disrespect to Cambodia's tourism) and then went straight to the pub for a drink! Much needed. That evening we pushed the boat out by going to the Foriegn Correspondents Club, which has fabulous views of the Tonle Sap and Mekong Rivers. The food was fabulous in there and really not as expensive as you would think - about 10 GBP per person for food and beer. Of course there are much cheaper places you can eat, but from time to time you have to treat yourself!! The next day we were geting another coach, this time across the border to Vietnam. After the travel agent 'promised' that the bus would look like the swanky coach on the picture we reluctantly booked the tickets for 7 US Dollars. I was in much doubt, however was proved wrong when a half decent coach pulled up and loaded us all on. The roads were actually very good on this side of Cambodia to the border and my sleep was only disturbed by the coach driver driving like a maniac with his hand constantly on the hort, shooing bike riders out of his way. Also, he must have had the bladder the size of a walnut as he kep stopping every hour for a wee in the bushes! Very odd. The border crossing was pain free, if a little long winded and the weather was a blistering 33 degrees. I was quite disappointed actually and was expecting lots of big gates and police guards with guns offering bribes, but there was none of that. We had to walk over the border as you inevitably do in these countries and then join another bus at the other side. I was pleasantly surprised to see that the roads on the Vietnam side of the boarder look a lot like one of our dual carriageways. We split our party into two groups and proceeded through to Ho Chi Minh City in small minibuses along the nice smooth road leaving Cambodia far behind...