We had been warned and had read about the chaos and scams at the Thai/Cambodian border so we felt we were on our guard and well prepared not to take any nonsense.

The posh, air con and spacious leather seated minibus picked us up at our bungalow and drove about 3 miles down the road towards the port then stopped next to a rubbish dump. We were told to get out of the bus and board another one which we duly did only to find it was a clapped out old bus with pathetic air con and broken seat belts which proceeded to squeeze in far more people than it could legally carry. The ferry crossing from Koh Chang back to the mainland was uneventful but the drive to the border was a complete fiasco. The driver 'allegedly' didn't know where he was going and having driven about 30 miles towards Poipet (the border town) we drove back to the port. This happened twice! Eventually we arrived at a restaurant which was about 5 minutes from the border where we were told to get off and go and sit in the restaurant to fill in some forms for the visa. While we did this our luggage was once again transferred to another vehicle, a dirty old pick-up truck. After we'd filled the forms and had some food... (we think the restaurant was owned by a member of the bus driver's family) we were herded on to the pick-up truck and driven to the border. Once we got off of the truck and waited for our luggage to be handed down and assigned a border guide, I realized that my little Brazilian ukulele hadn't been unloaded from the second minibus back at the restaurant. Ray and I alerted our guide and he said don't worry I'll ring the bus driver and get it back for you. I presumed he meant the bus driver could bring the uke to the border as the restaurant was only 5 minutes away. Trusting this guy with the safe return of me cavi, we were led across the border and told to join a queue which took 2 hours. Of course we could have paid our guide (his price was 200 baht) and he would have got us to the front of the queue! ..Yeh right! When we finally got to the other side and through the Cambodian entry office I found our guide and asked him whether he'd had any luck tracking down my uke and was told "go away, I'm busy!"....then he disappeared and so it seems did my little Cavaquinho...I never saw it again....gutted!! !

At the bus station just outside border control we were told that all ATM machines in Cambodia charge an exorbitant fee for usage and we were better off exchanging money at the bus station....of course we did this and were royally ripped off with a massive exchange rate. Then they tried to convince us that we should not get on the bus to Siem Reap as a taxi would be better and would take us right to the hotel door. Having already paid for this we stuck with the bus and were glad we did as later we found out it was the bus leader's cousin's taxi!

We arrived in Siem Reap, thoroughly exhausted, sweaty, hungry, ripped off, scammed and fed up, so much for being prepared for their nonsense!!!

The next day we explored and actually started to really like the place. Siem Reap is a little town full of dusty but interesting streets, lots of street food sellers, markets, people doing very dangerous but entertaining tricks with fire right outside the restaurants and hundreds upon hundreds of tuk tuk's everywhere. We found it had a certain charm.

It became apparent that unlike the Thai people we had encountered (we'd been told the ex-pats call Thailand the land of false smiles and I totally agree!) The Cambodians were warm, generous, funny and genuinely happy people and didn't appear to want to rip you off..well one or two tried but not on the scale of the Thais and although they are constantly trying to sell you something they did take no for an answer.

One of the reasons we went to Siem reap was to visit James a friend of mine from Manchester who is working as an English teacher there. We booked a room in the same guest house where James lives and on the Sunday he arrived back from his Christmas hols in England. It was great to see him, meet the people he lives with who are just lovely (mostly Australians and Cambodians) they were all like one big happy family and really looked after Ray and I.

On Monday morning we hired a tuk tuk and headed off to the world famous temples at Angkor Wat National Park. The National park is made up of a collection of ancient Hindu temples built at the time of the Khmer Empire of the 9th to the 15th centuries and they are absolutely stunning and the construction of them, mind boggling. The largest of the temples is the Angkor Wat temple and it was the first one we visited. Our tuk tuk driver said he would wait outside and take us to the next temple after about an hour and half so off we went. The temple was magnificent and as we walked around you couldn't help being intrigued and impressed by the size of the place, the ancient architecture and beautiful sculptures on the walls of Hindu goddesses and sacred animals. At the end of the site there is a main temple which archeologist's believe may have been used as a massive mausoleum for Cambodian Kings. I wanted to see it but was refused entry once again as shorts and vest tops aren't allowed here either, so Ray went up to take photos for both of us. I walked around the lower half of the temple then sat and waited for Ray to return. As I sat there I suddenly had the most excruciating burning sensation in my wrist. It came from nowhere, I looked down and saw nothing, no bity insect but realized that my wrist was starting to swell up and go blackish/purple. It was shocking. Within seconds I began to feel really sick, sweaty, shaky, woozie and thought I would pass out. Thankfully Ray arrived back and spoke to a security guard who then called his superior and then he called his and suddenly I was surrounded by about 10 people whilst the crowd of temple tourists looked on at one very shaky, flaky English lady with a pulsating wrist...very embarrassing... anyway the guards all agreed that I had been bitten by something and felt the best course of action was to get me to a hospital in case it was a life threatener!! So a tuk tuk driver was summoned and I was whisked away very quickly..(A little bit like a keystone cops sketch!)… At the gate I was handed over to our tuk tuk driver who took one look at my wrist and said "Oh blimey!" and immediately kicked his tuk tuk into full thrust and delivered me to the hospital, where upon the doctor completely cashed in on my injury giving me almost everytghing the hospital pharmacy had in stock; an anti-histamine shot (which was again excruciating and hurt more than the bite!), some hydrocortisone cream, some paracetamol, some diarrorlyte??, a bandage and a sleeping pill?!!!...after careful consideration he informed me that the bite looked as if it might have been from a temple spider!!!!!!!!!.(What is it with me and spiders??)

After all the shinanigans, drinking gallons of water and realizing that I hadn't gained special spider powers, I started to feel a lot better and we returned to the temples tour. Next stop was an incredible place called Ta Prohm. This temple was my favourite. Stone pillars and carvings intertwined with massive tree roots and jungle foliage in this amazing Lara Croft meets King Louis with a bit of Indiana Jones thrown in type place. As we entered the site a Cambodian band made up of ancient instuments such as; bells, gongs, woodblocks, cymbals and a weird instrument called a : Tro Khmer ( a three-stringed type of fiddle with coconut shell body) were playing serenely, it all added to the mystical atmosphere. The jungle birds of paradise were hooting and whistling all around us but apart from that it was silent very spiritual and magical. Every now and then someone would appear from behind a doorway or statue and try and sell you a trinket or some temple wall rubbings or a joss stick for the shrines. As I turned the last corner a little Cambodian fella appeared and beckoned me over and in a whisper like it was a massive temple secret he said " hey madam, you wanna see a really big spider? I show you for one dollar!!"...........I politely replied.....NO b***** off!!!!!...........(of course I looked!!....black and yellow, sturdy, as big as a huntsman but prettier and it was flippin hooooooge!!!)