Our first impressions of Cambodia were that it seemed much hotter getting off the bus, and smiling faces! Everyone here so far has been so friendly! We had our first experience of a tuk tuk- although I think these are different from the ones in Thailand. These are just a moped with a carriage attached on the back- not entirely sure how the little engines manage to pull a carriage and people! We had decided that we'd spend a fews days in Phnom Penh, before going up to Siem Reap to see the temples of Angkor, and then return to Phnom Penh again at a later point.

In Phnom Penh we visited a couple of markets, the National Museum- a huge set of statues amongst other things dating back more than a thousand years- in a beautiful building. We're trying to put pics of all this up as hard to explain- but very slow process and think we're near to giving up for the night so you might have to wait a bit!! On the downside, Cambodia seemed obviously more poverty stricken than Vietnam on arrival- and we found the huge amount of children begging upsetting.

Six hours drive from Phnom Penh (and on apparently very improved roads) is Siem Reap. A barman we met said that 5 years ago this was a tiny village, with no paved roads and only three bars- now its quite a big town, with bars and restaurants and hotels lining the streets. We found a hotel with a swimming pool- and proceeded to spend a lot of the next few days in it- definatley worth spending a bit more for!!

We had an amazing day visiting the temples at Angkor, with Chay, our really friendly tuk tuk driver. We decided to only spend one day visiting the temples (with 1, 3 and 7 day options)- although we're sure we're very cultured, we thought any more might perhaps be too much for us! In hindsight, a very good decision. We had a really good day visiting about 7 temples, but were exhausted by the end, and all the stone buildings were beginning to merge together! We really enjoyed Ta Phrom- the temple where Tomb Raider was filmed- with trees growing from the temple walls. I think we both agreed our favourite was the Bayon- with huge towers, each with faces on each side. We were slightly disappointed at Angkor Wat itself, as the top section was unfortunaltely closed for refurbishment works- still an amazing piece of architecture though.

Siem Reap has also been great for meeting animals, two tiny puppies live at our hotel- which we couldn't resist cuddling! (even smaller than when we first met Ruby). We also saw lots of wild monkeys- which I fed bananas- although I think them snatching them from my hands is more descriptive!! And then before walking to a temple on a hill for sunset we saw elephants giving rides- we decided not to have a ride but went to see the elephants anyway!

We head back to Phnom Penh tomorrow- although just to pass through- we miss the beach too much and so are heading to the south coast the following day, and will see the rest of Phnom Penh after that!

Love to all, hope everyone is well

lots of love xx