Suits, sashimi and snakes! Bye bye Bangkok.

What a great day! We checked out of the Bangkok Loft Inn, leaving our bags at reception for collection later and set out to spend our final day in Bangkok with no clear plan of action.

After some deliberation we decided that the thing to do would be to visit the snake farm, where they produce most of the antivenom in Thailand.

The farm is in the Lumphini district. En route we stumbled upon the Jim Thompson silk shop, which sold a wide array of expensive silk products...but not to us.

On leaving the silk shop we were accosted by an old Thai gent who tipped us off that if we wanted to buy good value silk (which we did for Amber's mum), we should go to D & M Fashion, which was just up the road. We decided to take his advice.

Minutes later we had already bought the silk cloth we needed, but then we got onto the subject of tailored suits. I have been after a new suit for a while and the chance of having a tailored suit, with my measurements held on record for 5 years was too tempting to pass up (who wouldn't want cheap tailored suits on tap just an email away?).

After much haggling I agreed to buy two suits and have them delivered to Cambridge for the princely sum of...ah...I promised the owner I wouldn't tell. Let's just say it has cost me well under a third of the price of a tailored suit in England to buy two in Thailand.

While the shop was preparing the fitting garment we went for lunch at a Japanese fast food chain called Fuji. I have been hankering after sashimi since we arrived in Thailand and the Fuji sashimi bento set meal I ordered was just what I wanted.



We followed lunch with the main event of the day, our visit to the snake farm. I admit that initially I shared some of Amber's concerns that this could be a bit rubbish - a few generic snakes in tanks and a lousy snake show where they bring out a big snake for people to pose with. Certainly the Lonely Planet only felt it was worth a sentence or two.

We were so very, very wrong.

The first thing we did, after a quick peek at a few of the larger constrictors (they have an enormous reticulated python - easily 6m) was to sit down and watch the snake show at 2:30pm.

Incredible. The guy giving the talk was so articulate and entertaining that even without any live snakes the talk would have been fascinating.

Founded in 1923, this was the second snake farm in the world. It currently produces antivenom for all species of poisonous snake in Thailand, which they do via the typical method of injecting the venom into horses in non-lethal doses, which encourages the production of antibodies. Once harvested and cleaned up, these constitute the cure.

He was full of facts, e.g. How should you react when you find a snake? Move slowly if it isn't a pit viper. Pit vipers can 'see' heat, so in their case you need to move away considerably faster!

We were all hooked.

Then they brought out a live 8 foot King Cobra and dumped it on the floor, right in front of the front row of the audience. Wow.

Suddenly the wire mesh across the front of the seating area made much more sense!

Hands down this was the best, most educational live animal presentation I've EVER seen.

The snake handlers were extremely professional, with nerves of steel and obviously a great deal of respect for their wards as they brought them out one by one. All the wow factor of Steve Irwin at his best, with a heap of fascinating information thrown in.

The purpose of the farm was originally to produce antivenom, but they now have a collection of non-venomous species in order to educate Thais about which snakes are safe, and indeed which snakes are not. Some of the non-venomous species are legally protected due to overhunting for food, which is tragic, as these species are fundamental to keeping the rodent population in check.

In fact, one particular species has been farmed and released in large numbers to combat the devastating effect of rodents on the rice crop. But without educating the locals, who kill all snakes indiscriminately, numbers will continue to fall.

The stars of the show were without doubt the snakes, all of which varied a great deal in their attitude towards the handlers. The running order was as follows: King Cobra, Common Cobra, Mangrove Snake, Green Pit Viper, Keel-backed Snake, Copper-headed ratsnake, Sunbeam snake, Burmese python (yes, people did get to pose with the latter - the small kids couldn't get enough!).

The farm closes at 3:30pm, so we only had a short time to whizz round the rest of the exhibits, which included a fascinating education centre and both an outdoor and indoor selection of live snakes.

I'm amazed that the Lonely Planet only devotes a couple of sentences to this place when by rights it should be high on the list of things to see and do in Bangkok.
And such a bargain for 200 baht!

After the snake farm we went back to the tailor's for my fitting session, which was over in minutes. Fingers crossed I have a couple of fantastic suits winging their way to me once we're back home!

With the rest of the afternoon ahead of us, we decided to visit the Pak Klong flower market over on the other side of town. We almost gave up after two cabs failed to understand our Thai pronunciation, but we got lucky with our third attempt and pretty soon we were surrounded by stalls packed to the rafters with marigolds, orchids, chrysanthemums and roses. The price for a bunch of a dozen roses? 20 baht!!! Really puts UK Valentine's Day prices into perspective...



We walked back to Bangkok Loft Inn from the flower market over memorial bridge, stopping along the way so I could eye up a couple of tropical fish stalls. Nothing too special apart from a couple of show quality Flowerhorn hybrids and a few giant plakat fighting fish. Interestingly they were selling frogs on one stall.

Back at the hotel we grabbed our bags, did our best to get cleaned up in the toilets by reception and got a cab to the bus station.

We arrived with time to spare, so we grabbed a quick dinner in Noodle Garden, which failed to live up to its name by virtue of the fact that they had (I kid you not) run out of noodles.

The bus is great! Nice big reclining seats with foot rests, pillow and blanket; powerful aircon; free snacks and water; and even a movie (albeit in Thai with no subtitles).

Turns out dinner was also included in the ticket price. Amber didn't have any, but I couldn't say no to more congee!

A boat, two Buddhas, a bar and a band.

We set aside our first full day in Bangkok for doing a tour of all the main tourist attractions, so after a fantastic breakfast at the hotel (fabulous congee) we set off to buy a day ticket for the Chaopraya Tourist Boat.

For 150 baht you get to use the boat all day and it stops within walking distance of most if the main attractions.

The first task was to take a photo of Wat Arun from the river, as by all accounts it's not worth seeing it close up. Apparently it's best viewed at dawn, but with the string of late nights and early mornings we've had there was no way that was going to happen.

We got off the boat at the pier nearest to Wat Pho and walked to the temple. The main reason for visiting this temple is to see the world's largest reclining gold Buddha. He looked suitably comfortable laid down on his enormous plinth and was, as you might well expect, huge. The overall effect is as if a giant lay down for a nap and while he slept they built a temple around him, especially as your view of the Buddha is obstructed by structural columns as you walk around it.

Having ticked one Buddha off our list we walked to the Grand Palace. Unfortunately, we somehow ended up walking around the perimeter wall as we had missed the main entrance. As a result we decided to get a cab to the Southern Bus Terminal to buy our tickets on the VIP night bus to Krabi for tomorrow night and then get one back to the palace entrance. At the bus station we got two tickets for 691 baht each.

No idea what makes the VIP bus so special, but we figured we might well try it, as we'll be on the bus for 12 hours solid.

We arrived at the main entrance to the palace only to find out that it was closed for a special Buddhist ceremony until 2:30pm. Typical!

To kill the time we went in search of the backpacker haven that is Khao San road. This was a boat ride upstream and a short walk away. When we got there it was everything you'd expect from a backpacker hangout: cool restaurants; stalls selling body jewellery, funny t-shirts and souvenirs; tattoo and body-piercing parlours etc. A good vibe (I was sorely tempted to get another piercing) but nothing you can't find in similar places the world over. The only thing we bought was a tray of veggie springrolls. Then it was time to head back to the palace.

This time we actually got inside. The palace complex is very large, so it took us a while to get round it all. It's funny, everybody says that once you've seen the temples of Angkor all other temples look a bit pants, and they are absolutely right. For all its glistening golden spires, proud statues and colourful mosaic tiling, the grand palace fails to capture the imagination in the way that the temple of Angkor do. This is largely due to the fact that the former looks like it was built last week, a tribute to all things concrete and kitsch - all spectacle and no substance.

Having said this, I have to confess to quite liking at times the use of excessive amounts of gold leaf and gold paint in these temples. You can't help feeling a bit like you're walking around some mythical 'City of Gold' from a children's novel.

The most important sight at the palace is the so-called Emerald Buddha, who sits a mere 66cm high and is technically made of nephrite jade. The King of Thailand changes the Buddha's gold outfit four times a year to coincide with the changing seasons. The Buddha sits atop a seriously elaborate mountain of gold, looking for all the world like a green jelly baby with a size issue and a penchant for rather a lot of 'bling'.

In fact, this statue is a rather important war relic and when you're in the temple alongside the Thai people saying their prayers, you start to understand what all the fuss is about.

Now that we had both Buddhas under our belts, it was time to go back to the hotel for a much needed wash (it was crazy hot today).

Once we had freshened up we rode the Skytrain to the Silom area of Bangkok and walked to the Banyan Tree hotel. Sat in the rooftop Moon Bar on the 59th floor of the hotel, we drank a couple of cocktails as the sun set and watched the city put on its evening dress to a soundtrack of jazz. It doesn't get much more romantic than this.



The romance didn't last long. We decided to migrate from the Moon Bar to a live jazz pub we'd read about called Brown Sugar. It looked to be in walking distance, so we set off in what appeared to be the right direction, according to trusty Lonely Planet.

An hour and a half later, we were getting a little frustrated by the fact we'd been up and down the same street three times and still hadn't managed to find the flippin' place. It made no sense, we were standing right where it was meant to be, but it wasn't there! What a crappy end to what had been a lovely evening. We gave up our search and walked further up the street to find the Skytrain...

...and would you believe it? There was the pub.

And what a fantastic experience it turned out to be. We sat down in the attached restaurant at 9pm and promptly ordered a jug of margarita (we definitely needed it!).
We then had a fantastic meal. Amber had an authentic Thai yellow curry and I had easily the best tom yum koong I've ever tasted. Then the live jazz started downstairs and made our whole evening. What a brilliant find!

We headed home with big smiles on our faces.

Goodbye Cambodia...hello Bangkok!

The rain had stopped by the time our alarms went off at 6:30am.

We had settled our bill the night before, so all we had to do was get breakfast and hop in our nice air-conditioned minibus to the airport.

The airport in Siemreap is surprisingly nice, despite being on the small side. I took a photo of their goldfish pond because it looked like something out of a tropical interior design manual. All very peaceful.

We were at the airport well before our flight so we spent a bit of time perusing books in the bookshop. They had some really lovely coffee table books full of gorgeous photographs of the 'real' Cambodia. It's always a petty to find such books when you are backpacking because you know you won't buy them - they add too much weight and are too likely to get damaged in transit. There are a couple I will have to look up on Amazon when I get home.

Sadly our otherwise relaxed morning was somewhat tainted by both of us having rather upset stomachs. It was bound to happen eventually, but clearly it's less than ideal for it to happen when you are about to get on a plane and have limited toilet access for a while!

The flight to Bangkok was a little bumpy, thanks to a much smaller plane, but otherwise not too bad. We did bounce on landing, which was quite exhilarating (or terrifying in Amber's case). The flight was nice and quick, a mere 45 minutes.

Getting out of the airport was straightforward and (after yet another bathoom visit - just to be on the safe side!) we were soon hurtling towards the centre of the city at 140km/hr in our hotel's enormous airport pickup SUV. The driver was playing hip-hop on his stereo with some rather colourful lyrics. Not your typical tinny taxi radio.

As expected, everyone in Bangkok drives like a nutter: Very aggressively and as fast as possible. Reminded me of the M6 toll road!

We arrived at the Bangkok Loft Inn to a remarkably lackluster welcome at reception. Our choice of this hotel had largely been based on rave reviews on Tripadvisor largely focused on the friendliness of the staff, so we were quite surprised. The lady at reception recommended we devote the afternoon to visiting some shopping malls, which sounded like a good plan. We ditched our bags in our room (which turned out to be very nice) and headed out to catch the BTS Skytrain from nearby Wongwian Yai station to Siam Central.

We spent a while enjoying the culture shock of coming from the relative poverty of Siamreap to hang out in the Siam Paragon mall, with its masses of fashion outlets, technology stores and, strangely, several sports car showrooms on one of the upper floors.

Everyone in Bangkok appears to have an iPhone, even the monks, who get to travel everywhere for free, so all forms of public transport have 'monk seats' in the same way we have disability seats in the UK. It's not unusual to see a monk walking down the street in bright orange robes listening to his iPod...an iMonk?

We ate a tasty lunch in the enormous food court. I finally got myself some chicken rice. Man, that's a flavour I've missed for a long time! Takes me right back to spending the summer holidays in Asia as a kid. Proper nostalgia food.

We managed to top our Swensons icecream experience in Cambodia by getting a ridiculous mixed icecream sundae in a waffle bowl for pudding. Luckily we probably managed to walk it off afterwards.

We had decided to walk to China Town from Siam, to see a bit more of Bangkok. This was a fine idea in itself, but sadly we hadn't factored in that Amber's stomach wasn't quite settled yet. This made our walk somewhat more exciting, as every few blocks we had to stop and decide how urgently we needed to find the next toilet! Not fun for Amber, but in hindsight pretty funny, especially when she had to choose between using the hideous toilets at Hualamphong train station or hedging her bets and holding out a bit longer (she held out).

To make matters worse, we had managed to get lost a few streets away from Yaraowat, the main drag of China Town, when the next wave of urgency came along. Thankfully it passed without mishap and for the next hour we were able to explore the bedlam of Bangkok's China Town.

They have some crazy stuff for sale in the market, but my favourite find was a plastic packet with an entire crocodile hand in it. Mmm...tasty AND nutritious!

After exploring the sights and smells of China Town we got a bright pink cab back to the hotel to get ready for dinner with Andrew, a contact who had helpfully given us a lot of advice before we came out to Thailand.

We met by Thong Lo BTS station on Soi 38, for some excellent street food - you can just order what you want from the various stalls and then bring it ll back to the same table. We had a great selection: pad thai, spicy papaya salad, egg noodles soup, satay, pork stew, mango sticky rice and a selection of jellies and fruits in sweet coconut milk. Yum.

Afterwards we walked to a pub called the Witch's Tavern to have a drink and watch an army of rats running around the alley behind the pub. They were joined by an equally impressive army of cockroaches. We didn't order any food!

Andrea had to work the next day so we parted company around 11:30pm and made our way back.

Waterworld: The Amazing Floating Town on Tonle Sap lake

The sights and sounds keep getting better and better! This morning we took full advantage of our free 1 hour massage in our room (another perk of the hotel package). Cambodian massage is really good. Nice and strong (if you're brave enough!) and full of all sorts of body manipulations to get the bones crunching and the joints cracking. It's also rather 'involved'. There's this weird disparity between the need to cover up the body in public and the total lack of inhibition in the massage process. Felt amazing afterwards though.

After all the trekking around temples, we devoted the morning to a nice long stroll around Siem Reap, largely focused around two key destinations: the Old Market and Swenson's ice-cream shop (no prizes for guessing which of us picked which destination).

The market was chaotic to say the least. Inside the air was full of all kinds of smells, some considerably more pleasant than others. I felt particularly sorry for the women who seemed to be hand mixing some sort of fish paste by hand in a big plastic container, although the butcher woman didn't look to be having much fun either. Although I generally don't like to buy souvenirs (you usually regret them once you get home) I couldn't resist buying a shoulder bag made from recycled fish food bags. It's made in Cambodia and the workmanship is fab - it's even plastic covered to make it waterproof (i.e. UK proof). The look of thunder on the girl's face told me that I got a pretty good deal for $6 (she started the process at $15).

Whilst we were exploring we came across a lovely art gallery run by a local expat photographer called John McDermott. The gallery is lovely and modern inside and the photos are stunning, so it was a real joy to spend a few minutes walking around and reliving some of our favourite temples.

Lunch was a very basic affair. Just a can of soya bean milk (Yeo's, my favourite from my childhood) and a plate of boiled pork dumplings. Plenty of food for two and a snip at just $3 for the whole meal. The place was called Wooden House restaurant.

After lunch we got involved in some serious chill time, reading by the Central Boutique's lovely pool and taking the odd dip until it was time to leave with San for our afternoon excursions. San suggested we had a bit of time to kill before heading to the lake, so he recommended we check out a local artisan training centre, which we did. It was really interesting to watch the trainee artisans at work carving stone or wood, and painting on silk or painted wood panels. The shop had some lovely silk products and one fantastic painting of two peacocks. Sadly the latter was neither wallet nor backpack friendly.

Once we were done at the workshops, San drove us out to Tonle Sap, where we paid $20 for our own boat complete with a crew of two - a teenage driver and a younger kid, who was like some kind of water monkey the way he clambered around the boat.

The lake is something of a natural phenomenon, rising in size from 2,500 square kilometers in the dry season to 13,000 in the wet season. The lake is fed by 16 different rivers, but the primary source of water is the Mekong.

As I've said before, were coming to the end of the dry season now, so we had to travel down a very shallow channel to get onto the lake proper. At first we were a bit gutted because we thought we'd fallen prey to Scambodia yet again. Who would pay $20 for a trip in a boat up and down a dirty stretch of river water?

We were so wrong.

After motoring along past a ramshackled collection of makeshift houses on the bank and groups of kids playing on the riverbank the channel started to widen and we arrived at the edge of the great lake. The lake seemed to go on forever and after a short stint of open water we arrived at the floating village.

I had been expecting houses on stilts, assuming that the 'floating village' was simply bad translation, but in fact the houses are indeed all floating like something out of a big Hollywood sci-fi movie. I have never seen anything like it: house after house floating on the lake, presumably anchored in place. Each house had its own living quarters and kitchen and a good number of them were gaily painted in bright colours reminiscent of Central American buses. Everyone travelled around by boat and they had a floating market, a floating school and even a floating restaurant complete with aquarium display, crocodile pit and fish pond!!! To cap it all, there were a small number of very entrepreneurial girls who were doing a roaring trade persuading the Japanese tourists to pay them a few dollars to pose with their Burmese pythons. God knows how they feed these big snakes out on the lake, bit we did see a few floating duck and chicken coops...

We went upstairs to the viewing deck of the restaurant to try and capture the sun setting over the village. The houses in silhouette with the golden sunlight rippling on the water was beautiful, but nothing compared to the effect created by the last few minutes of sunlight as we left the village: Once the sun had dropped below the horizon, everything was bathed in incredible pink light - the surface of the water, the clouds in the sky, the boat, everything. I sat on the prow facing the direction we'd come from and soaked it all up. Truly magical. Probably a once in a lifetime feeling.

San was waiting for us when we got off the boat, ready to take us back home. Back at the hotel we freshened up and went out for a fabulous meal at the Sugar Palm. Amber finally got to try Cambodian amok curry. I had pork rib sweet and spicy soup. Nice food in a nice setting. No wonder it's a Lonely Planet recommendation.

We got back to our room in time for a full on tropical rain storm complete with thunder and lightning.

Tomorrow we leave Cambodia. I will be sad to go. We have already decided we will come back one day.

The Temples of Angkor - Day 2: Kbal Spean, Banteay Srei, Pre Rup and sunset at Bakheng Hill

I know you all want me to talk about temples today, but for me the 17th April 2011 is all about lizards and fish!

We set off at 9:00am for Kbal Spean and arrived at 10:30am in blazing heat. Kbal Spean is famous for carvings in the bed of a river, which is a good 40 minute trek from the car park up a well cleared path. Within about 10 minutes I had spotted my first lizard of the day perched elegantly on a vine. It was Calotes versicolor a.k.a. Oriental Garden Lizard or, more bizarrely, the Common Bloodsucker. Presumably the latter name comes from the fact that males have a bright red head and torso in the breeding season. Given the number of brightly coloured males we saw today, I would guess that the breeding season is around now!

Later on we came to clearing, where I saw another three lizards. Male and female Bloodsuckers and one as yet unidentified lizard, which I am fairly sure was a flying lizard (Draco maculatus), as these are found in Cambodia. Another fantastic find for me, and an unmissable photo opp.

Thanks to the leafy roof of the forest, the trek was actually really pleasant and we made it up to the river in no time. We'd been told by our friends Courtney and Dave that there would be a refreshing waterfall awaiting us at the top, but this is the end of the dry season and as such the river wasn't even flowing! This afforded us a great view of the carvings in the river bed, but the waterfall was distinctly lacking. Interestingly most of the carvings are of male fertility symbols, or linga, which essentially look like little domes (imagine the top sliced off a concrete bollard!). There were rows and rows of these carved into the rock and presumably most of them are usually submerged.

It was here that I got my next zoological treat. Given that the river wasn't flowing, all that remained were a number of fairly large, extremely shallow pools in which the water had been died a deep brown from all the tannins leeching out of the fallen leaves. In these pools were several species of fish, but the ones that got me all excited (sad I know!) were the dwarf snakeheads in the Channa genus. I've seen these in aquaria and actually kept a few briefly in my own tanks, so it was incredible to see them in the wild in their natural habitat. I would never in a million years have imagined that they would live quite happily in water so rich in tannins and so low in oxygen, but here they were.

From that point on I was pretty sure we couldn't do any better on the wildlife front, but then on the way back down we came across not one but two Blue Crested lizards (Calotes mystaceus), a male and a female. I would like to include my own photo, but at the moment I don't have the technological requirements, so you'll have to make do with one from Google images. Either way I think it's safe to say that these lizards (even to a non-lizard-enthusiast) are outstandingly beautiful.



THEY MADE MY DAY! I was grinning from ear to ear after that. You can keep your temples, this is what travelling to far flung reaches of the world is all about for me!

Anyway, with that huge success unfer our belts, we ventured onwards to 'the jewel in the crown' that is Banteay Srei - perhaps the most impressive temple in Cambodia for sheer intricacy of stone carving.

For the millionth time we were left speechless. You just have to see Banteay Srei to understand how mind-blowing the carvings are. It's insane that people were able to produce such beautiful carvings without any of the electronic machinery we use today. Just an amazing place - you'll have to wait for photos, as I didn't take any from my phone and those are the easiest to upload right now.

From Banteay Srei we headed back to the main Angkor complex to check out one more temple (Pre Rup) before walking up Bakheng Hill to catch sunset. At Pre Rup we bumped into Manuel again! He'd hired a moto (motorbike taxi) for the day and had been busy seeing as many temples as possible. We chatted briefly before he had to carry on and we climbed back down from the top to seek out the perfect angle for a photo.

Unfortunately it was soon after this that the clouds started rolling in, so as we got to the bottom of Bakheng Hill you couldn't even see the sun. What you could see were the lovely elephants they have there, who looked very well looked after indeed and had some very fancy wooden chairs set on their backs (you can pay $20 to ride an elephant up the hill for the sunset). Beautiful looking animals and different to the elephants we had seen in Thailand in that they seemed smaller and had much darker skin.

In the end there was no sunset to be had from the top. We took a few photos up there to capture the impressive view, but decided to maximise our pool time back at the hotel and call it a day.

We headed back to the hotel for a refreshing dip and then left the Central Boutique to check out another recommendation: drinks in the bar at the Raffles d'Angkor hotel. A quick stroll later and we were in the Elephant Bar in the hotel, which is a jolly fine place to be. We ordered two scrumptious cocktails and were presented with two enormous bowls of snacks. The first was bite-sized crispy rice cakes served with curry sauce, the second was full of cassava crisps. Eating both bowls would certainly have constituted a decent meal for two adults.

They have a free pool table in the bar, so I challenged Amber to a game. We're both terrible at pool, so it was only down to the fact that statistically if you take enough shots you will eventually pot the requisite number of balls that I just managed to win. I don't think the bar staff had ever seen such incompetence round a pool table. They were most amused.

Following on from our visit to Elephant Bar we headed in search of a restaurant called Curry Walla for dinner. The food there is Bangladeshi in origin and I have to say it was very tasty indeed, especially the tamarind chutney.

The Temples of Angkor - Day 1: Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm, Ta Keo, Preah Khan, Angkor Thom

Thanks to getting to bed early last night, the 4:30am alarm clock wasn't too unpleasant, so both of us managed to get our act together in time to meet our tuk tuk driver, San, at 5:00am.

Cambodian tuk tuks are different to those in Thailand. The Thai ones are all enclosed, whereas the Cambodian ones are essentially a motorbike with a sheltered cart attached.

San drove us to the ticket office to buy our three-day pass and the onwards to Angkor Wat, where he dropped us at the bridge over the moat so we could walk inside the complex and find a good spot to catch the sunrise.

With it being so early, there weren't too may people around, so we had no trouble positioning ourselves on the edge of one of the ponds to get a decent shot of the sunrise. The only mild irritant was a group of giggling Japanese girls who insisted on taking each others photo directly in the way of my shot! While we waited for the sun we ate our packed breakfast (Amber had banana pancakes and honey, I had yellow noodles with chicken).

Sadly it was a little hazy, so when the sun eventually did rise, we were denied the spectacular scene of fiery orange I was hoping for and instead had to make do with a mostly grey-blue sky. Also, because we are in the dry season, the water level in the two ponds either side of the main walkway was relatively low. This meant that despite my best efforts with the camera, none of the photos came out postcard perfect. Nevertheless, just being there was great.

To be honest it would be far too time consuming to describe each of the temples we visited in much detail, so I'll post a few photos to do the talking for me. Suffice to say, I have wanted to visit these temples for a very long time and now that I have, I can honestly say they are every bit as awe-inspiring as I imagined they would be. Amber and I spent the whole day in a state of amazement. The temples are so beautiful, so intricate, so peaceful and so different from one another that I think a person searching for answers could get lost in them for days.

We started the day at Angkor Wat, which is the temple people refer to when they talk about the temples as a whole, despite the fact that it really isn't the most spectacular. Don't get me wrong, when you first see Angkor Wat it is very impressive, especially the amazing carvings in the walls - it's like the worlds most intricate wallpaper, as many of the patterns repeat over and over again - but compared to the likes of Ta Prohm (the temple which features in the Tomb Raider film) and the Bayon in Angkor Thom, it's somehow less interesting.

Our plan had always been to visit the temples recommended by friends who had visited the site before, so today we did sunrise at Angkor Wat, then went to Ta Prohm to see the ruins overgrown with the roots of enormous fig trees. A genuine case of the forest's triumph over man. The amazing thing about Ta Prohm is that the stones are all green with lichen compared to the grey colouration of Angkor Wat, so it feels very different. After Ta Prohm, we caught Ta Keo temple and then passed through Angkor Thom to visit Preah Khan. Preah Khan, like Ta Prohm, has huge trees growing out of the walls and is a very similar feeling temple, but in better condition. Again, pretty impressive. The thing that struck me most about Preah Khan alongside the detailed carvings of figures was the incredible noise of the cicadas. When they were perched within a courtyard or corridor the acoustic qualities of the stone greatly amplified the sound to produce a noise quite unlike anything I've ever heard before. It really added to the atmosphere of the temple.

We saved the biggest temple complex, Angkor Thom, for last. This area comprises several key sights, but the main ones are the Elephant Terrace, Preah Palilay, the Terrace of the Leper King, Phimeanakas, the Northern and Southern Kleang, Baphuon and Bayon. All of these were worth seeing, but the Bayon temple is easily the most impressive sight.

We had lunch within the temple complex, although it was slightly more expensive than normal, the portions were enormous. I had a delicious pork soup served with rice.



We ended our visit at Bayon, with its huge faces carved into the many towers. It's a hugely affecting place to walk around and there is a great feeling of being watched by an omnipresent king. What a fantastic way to end our first day.



After Bayon, San drove us back to the hotel to relax in the pool for a few hours. Then we headed out to get a couple of cocktails and some spring rolls, to tide us over until dinner time. Amber had sore feet from walking around the temples, so we decided to get a 15 minute massage each. Amber had what sounds like a fantastic foot massage, whereas I was attacked by a Thai lady who seemed intent on killing me (it was supposed to be a neack, shoulders and back massage, but I have my doubts). Somewhat battered an bruised I thanked her for the lovely massage, begrudgingly gave her a tip under Amber's stern gaze and then we both set off to find Angkor Palm to meet Manuel.

Unfortunately Angkor Palm wasn't open as a result of New Year, so when Manuel turned up we had to change our plans. We ate in 8th Street Bistro, where I had a fabulous beef lok lak (the other famous Cambodian dish). We managed to get a table on the first floor overlooking pub street, which was perfect, especially as they had draught Tiger beer. The conversation flowed and as expected, Manuel proved to be excellent company.

After dinner we went to find another bar with cheap drinks. Sadly all the places we looked at seemed to have horribly overpriced beer, so we wandered further afield and evetually stumbled upon a great rooftop bar called X Bar. This is a great little hangout and offers a great view of Siem Reap coupled with a skateboarding half-pipe on the roof! My kind of bar!

The bar was being temporarily run by three Aussie guys because the usual Cambodian staff were on holiday. This made for fairly slow service and some comedy moments. By far the best was when Amber ordered a beer and was presented with a glass of beer with a gecko literally frozen to the side! We have photo evidence. The great thing was that the guy hadn't even noticed the gecko was there until he put the glass down on the bar. I was a little concerned we'd discovered a local Cambodian custom, much like the cobras and scorpions in whiskey!

We stayed drinking in X Bar until gone midnight and then said our goodbyes to Manuel, having already exchanged email addresses and made firm promises to keep in touch and possibly go snowboarding with him sometime (our global network continues to grow!).

Getting to Siemreap. Welcome to SCAMbodia!

I have to admit, the night train to Bangkok exceeded all expectation. Amber and I both managed to get some decent sleep and we didn't feel too rough when we exited the train just outside Bangkok in Samsen.

This turned out to be a genius plan as we were then much nearer the Northern & North Eastern Bus terminal. We hopped in a cab (they are all air conditioned Toyota Corollas) and were at the terminal in minutes.

Finding the ticket booth was easy enough and two tickets to the boarder cost us 212 baht each. The bus was due to leave shortly after we got to the terminal at 7:30am, which gave us just enough time to buy snacks. I bought a bread roll filled with shredded pork which turned out a lot better than I was expecting it to.



On the bus we met a German dude about our age. His name is Manuel and within seconds of meeting we had agreed to share a taxi to Siemreap once we'd crossed the border.

The bus made excellent time and arrived at the stop near the border at around midday. From there the three of us crammed into a tuk tuk with all three rucksacks for the short drive to the actual border. This cost us 80 baht between us.

Once at the border, we successfully evaded the scam emigration office, where the tuk tuk driver had dumped our bags. Sadly there was already a lady there who had clearly paid them money for a form that you get for free at the main border office.

We got through passport control in the departures office and then walked to another office to obtain and fill in our entry visas. The guys there tried to scam us again by saying that we needed to pay an additional 100 baht on top of the actual visa cost of $20. When we refused to pay it they told us to sit down and wait 2 hours before they would process the visas!

We decided to call their bluff. Sure enough, they did process a few peoples' passports who had arrived after us but had paid the extra, but within 10 minutes we had all got our passports back and were on our way to the Cambodian immigration office, where we filled in yet another form in order to finally get across the border. High fives all round.

From here we got the free government shuttle bus to the main transport terminal, which took a few minutes. To our amazement there were no taxis within the terminal walls, so we took a little stroll outside and eventually were approached by someone who agreed to drive us to Siamreap for $40. This was cheaper than the guide book had prepared us for, so we were dead pleased with that result.

The drive to Siemreap was supposed to take an hour and a half. Our driver took about two and a half hours!!! This was incredible, given that most taxi drivers drive like lunatics and that the road from the transport terminal is essentially straight, with just one wide bend. We were gobsmacked.

To make matters worse, he had no idea where our hotel was in town, so in the end we made him stop the taxi by the river, so we could all get out and walk our separate ways to our respective accommodation.

We have agreed to have dinner with Manuel tomorrow night at Angkor Palm, which comes strongly recommended, to compare notes on our Angkor Wat experiences tomorrow.

The Central Boutique Angkor hotel proved relatively easy to find and we were welcomed with iced tea and big smiles. Our rooms is perfectly adequate and the swimming pool very tempting.

We were both desperate to get cleaned up after more than 24 hours in the same clothes!!!

That done, we moved our dinner to 6pm as we were starving.

Dinner was a set menu included as part of our hotel package deal. Spring rolls, glass noodle salad, pumpkin curry soup, fish amok and diced banana and mango in sweet milk. Not bad at all, although because Amber doesn't eat fish we played a game of 'pass the fish-wrapped-in-banana-leaf parcel' every time the waiter turned his back! I'm sure he didn't notice. Amber didn't want to be seen to have left her fish amok as this is considered the local delicacy in Cambodia. Personally I felt it had nothing on Chiang Mai's khow soi.

After dinner we headed into town to find the night market and a couple of cocktails. The night market was much like the night market in Chiang Mai i.e. stalls full of rubbish souvenirs. Deeply uninspiring.

We saw a funny thing. Like Chiang Mai, they have fish pedicure areas in the night market, but here in Siemreap they are using the wrong fish! We walked by shop after shop with people dunking their feet in tanks filled with either African Mbuna cichlids or Tilapia, neither of which are likely to do your feet much good, even if they are starving. We had a smug chuckle to ourselves at the hordes of backpackers trying out this amazing new experience. I'd get a better pedicure from sticking my feet in my 6'fishtank at home!

After a couple of 'Night Market' cocktails, we called it a night.

We have to be up at 4:30am tomorrow to get to Angkor Wat for sunrise. The hotel has kindly arranged us a tuk tuk driver for the day and we'll get a packed breakfast to take with us. How's that for customer service?