Well we're now at the last but one leg of our bus journeys. This particular one was good but we knew we had maybe the most testing journey yet, the infamous Siem Reap - Poipet (Thailand border)!!! The bus took us through some stunning countryside and small stilted villages. Upon arrival at Siem Reap we got dropped off at the bus station and it reminded us of India all over again. There must've been 50 touts vying for our blood, but before leaving the bus I choose one of the men as he had a genuine face. He took us around to look at different hotels and we settled on one which was in the heart of the action!!! We agreed that he would take us to the temples of Angkor in the morning. We went out to look around and book our bus journey to Bangkok. We then found a really modern but pricey Indian restraunt that served really tasty food. We then went to a bar and had a few Angkor beers and went back to our room to get ready for the big day!!!!

Our driver picked us up at 8am and off we went. We were in a carriage attatched to a motorbike. Our tire was slowly deflating and we could feel every bump so the driver pulled over and we got some well deserved air into the tyre, then off we sped. through a ticket booth, parting with $20 each and onto the first temple. It was really spectacular we drove through an archway and there were heads just coming out of the stonework. The first temple Baphuon was like a big jigsaw puzzle, you climbed stairs and it was really wonderful all the architecture. There were lots of faces and carving everywhere, kinda spooky at night I guess!!!! We saw a couple more temples before moving onto Thommanon a small and attractive temple. We then went across the street to Chau Say Tevoda which was in bad neglect but was being pieced together. Then we saw Ta Keo towering temple mountain dedicated to the goddess Shiva. Next off to Ta Prohm, temple of the jungle and where parts of tomb raider were filmed, it was really amazing, tree roots just grew out of the temple and it almost looked like they were trying to pull it out of the ground. Certain parts were inaccessable due to risk of collapse. Amazing temple, really fascinating. Next Banteay Kdei, then Srah Srang a baray opposite the east entrance of previous temple, it had Lions guarding the lake side, really picturesque. We then went off to the bit we'd both been waiting for, Ankgor Wat. We could see the towers as we whizzed past the massive moat and into the restraunt. We grabbed some lunch and then waded our way through the street kids and over the moat causeway. It felt like entering the archway of the Taj Mahal. It was truely spectacular, the walk was long and the amount of work that went into it must've been emense. The largest religious monument in the world says it all, from the 5 lotus like towers that rise 65 metres from the ground to the exterior wall measuring 1300m x 1500m, WOW!!!! We climbed the steepest stairs ever and got the most lovely view from the top. We spent a good few hours there just taking it all in and then made the hair raising climb back down. We walked back across the causeway and admired it as we'd admired the Taj Mahal. We found our driver and returned to Siem Reap. We had a really good day and found all the temples really fascinating, and though we would love to bring our kids here!!! We had a shower and went straight out to get some food and have a celebration drink. We went to a really nice bar opposite the RED RED PIANO and sat upstairs and watched the people walk by. There was a lady singing and it was truely magical.

Some people say it takes you a lifetime to learn certain things, but with Cambodia we learnt more in 3 days than we did in 3 weeks in Vietnam.

Right another early start today, we've geared ourselves up for this one and so has everyone around us but just how bad acn the run to Thailand be find out more in the next blog entry............................