Mhairi got up at 04:15 to check out the sunrise over Angkor Wat, I would have gone too but was still feeling rough. Unfortunately there was too much cloud so no views :(

At midday we got the bus down to Phnom Penh. It’s a much better road so it should have been a fun trip. However, they made up for the good roads, by playing *the worst music* I’ve heard (with accompanying videos). Now, I’m all for seeing and experiencing other cultures, but not when I’m trapped in the back of a bus!! And I think they played it as loudly as they could… It’s at times like this that a decent mp3 player and headphones come in handy. I think there was too much noise, so the video didn’t come out too well, but still..

Oh, this was our lunch stop… (they have feet)

After arriving in Phnom Penh we had our first crazy tout experience, comical in retrospect, but after 5 hours of that music it certainly didn’t feel like it… once you stepped of the bus about 20 touts materialised and started waving guest house brochures in your face.. Mhairi and I had just collected our bags but could hardly see eachother just ‘cos they held these cards in our faces! Arrgh! I know I know, it’s all part of the experience, and it is, and it was funny, and yes, we laughed heartily about it later, but sheesh.. I don’t think they understand the concept of personal space. Eventually one tuk-tuk guy said ‘Just come in my tuk-tuk and they’ll all go away’, so we did, and he took us to the Lakeside area – backpacker central, but actually quite nice.

Again a fairly early night for me, still not feeling 100%, but think I’ll be back to normal in a day or two.

The next day we hired a tuk tuk and went to explore a couple of the further temples (and, I really didn’t feel like cycling I must admit)

We headed out to Ta Prohm, one of the temples which has been kinda left to the jungle, it’s what the temples would have looked like when the temples were rediscovered I guess.

It was definitely worth seeing this one, there were lots of people offering tours (didn’t seem to matter how many times you told them you were happy to just wander around!)

After that it was on to a silk factory, I was feeling *quite* rough by this stage, so I’m afraid I wasn’t really concentrating too much on the whole tour, Mhairi has a much better write up here.

Once we got back to the hostel at about 3pm I just went straight to bed, slightly headachey and just generally not feeling quite right. I think it was just the heat though, it’s now 2 days later and I’m feeling more or less human again.

So after quickly changing hostels in the morning (the bus dropped us at one and it was passable enough, but we checked out other hostels yesterday evening so we could change in the morn).. anyway, hired bikes to tour around Angkor

After having to make a slight detour to get the pass, we arrived at Angkor Wat. It really is an impressive place, though perhaps (well, definitely) the huge crowds that it now attracts do detract from the experience.

But, that said, it’s still amazing. Absolutely amazing. I mean these places are *huge*, made out of limestone, and in the middle of the jungle. The sheer scale of the construction is staggaring.

The largest series of reliefs in the world are here, the pic on the right is a depiction of one of the 40 or so hells that they have..

We just timed the afternoon rains incorrectly (though we had good shelter in Angkor) as it lashed down for an hour or so.

Then it was back to the bikes and on to Angkor Thom, which used to be the capital of the khymer empire I think, anyway, firstly it was to the Bayon, an impressive ruin in the middle of Angkor Thom.

Then it was on to The terrace of the leper king and the elephant terrace.

before it was time to cycle back. Well, I cycled back, Mhairi went up Phnom Bakheng which has nice views out over Angkor Wat. I was feeling a little tired after the heat!

At 5am we were off and to the train station to catch the 05:50 to the border. After finding our way through (and making sure to get an exit stamp from Thailand) we paid the $20 (well 1000Baht – they don’t take dollars any more) visa for Cambodia… and we entered the kingdom of Cambodia, at Poipet.

In the guide it said there were pick up trucks you could take to Siem Reap, but everyone said it was a ‘national holiday’ and that they weren’t running today. I don’t think either of us believed this, but in the event (after a good bit of walking in the hot hot heat) it turned out to be true, and we ended up getting a luxury VIP bus (in the very loosest sense of the word)

The road to Siem Reap from Poipet is supposed to be bad, and, frankly, it is. This pic does absolutely no justice whatsoever to how bumpy it is.

It was 8 hours or something on one of the worst roads I’ve ever been on. The road into Whanganui Bay is worse, but that was only 3km, this was 250 or something.

Either way, it was lovely to eventually get to Siem Reap, sleep came quickly!

On Sunday we headed back to the IMPACT stadium to watch Andy play the final against Rojer Federer.

It was an excellent match, first time Andy had made it to the final of an ATP (uber senior professional) event. Personally I don’t think he came off too badly against Federer.

Andy did break his serve in the second set (but unfortunately was broken twice). Either way it was a great match, and I’d be pretty sure they’ll be playing eachother again soon enough!

On the upside, the current Ms. Universe is Thai, and she was presenting the trophy… and it’s not every 18 year old who can say they’ve kissed (ok, on the cheek!) Ms. Universe.

Then we managed to scab a lift to the hotel that the players were staying in with Vijay Amritraj. Great guy, really fun… he took this pic of me with the replica trophy that Federer ends up with. He also played a part in James Bond’s Octopussy!

And then it was all over, and time to get ready for Cambodia.