Hello from Siem Reap, Cambodia! We flew into the country two days ago with our temporary travel companion, Ruth, whom we met in Don Khong and just happened to be booked on the same flight as us. The three of us have been busy exploring the city. On our first day we hired a tuk tuk and visited some of the cities major sites including the war museum and the worlds dodgiest zoo, before catching the sunset at one of the Ankor Wat temples. At the mine museum we met a 19 year old lad whose brother and sister had both been killed by land mines when they were just children. He, like many other people we have come across in cambodia, had lost a leg when he triggered off a bomb. There are still many mines and bombs in cambodia, and every day people are killed or injured by them, particularly children. We read that it cost just 5 dollars to plant a bomb, but 5000 dollars to remove one. Every day people lose their lives in an effort to 'clear away' the bombs. It's very sad. Yesterday we got a day pass for the famous Angkor Wat; one of the seven wonders of the world. some of the temples were really impressive, though many of the them had really steep steps (twice as high as normal steps and only half as wide) which you had to venture up in order to reach the top and get the best views. At the temples we were continually bombarded with young children trying to sell us random objects like drums, postcards and flutes (which were on special offer at 2 for 1 dollar, though I never quite understood why you would want two flutes!) There were even some children as young as two or three, whose parents had obviously programmed them to sell merchandise to the tourists. A young boy (baby) no more than three, and who came up no further than my knee, toddled alongside me holding a postcard and yelling "öne dollar!" It was surreal. We've seen so much poverty during our short stay in Siem Reap. Last night, as we walked to the pub, several young women holding babies approached us, begging for money, children as young as five were out begging past 11pm at night, and an amputee with no arms tried to grab hold of Dean (shock tactics I guess) We escaped the beggars and entered the pub only to meet a bar tender who works from 11am til 3am every single day, for 30 dollars a month (about 15 gbp) He told me he wakes at 9am every morning so that he can study English for an hour. He wants to better himself by becomming a tour guide. I suddenly feel so guilty. Here we were, sat in this attractive little bar, letting the music envelope us into a state of escapism, merrily drinking our beer (one of which costs more than most people here earn in a day) and discussing our travel plans. When below us on the street, only 20 or 30 metres away, there was so much poverty, hunger, and desperation. It changes you, it really does Well, today we move on to Phenom Pen, Cambodia's capital. i'll report back soon Claire x