In my life I have travelled on planes, buses, bikes, cars, boats, trains, trams and the number 11 bus, but travelling between Saigon and Phnom Penh represented a first for me - my first ride on a car ferry! I know that some of you may consider me sheltered given this revelation, and god knows Kate has given me enough stick about it, but there it is. I can reveal that it was a truly wonderful experience - all 5 minutes of it.

Upon arrival in Cambodia's capital we quickly realised that this was city of contrasts; one could easily construct a walking tour through it's streets that made you believe that Phnom Penh is a fully modernised, affluent city, but just as easily on other route you come across a raw underbelly full of the sights and stenches of a people struggling. It quickly became clear that of the four countries that we have visited in South East Asia, Cambodia was most recently coming out of torrid times.

After an evening of getting to know the city, and consuming some of the fine, cheap beer the city has to offer, we retired early for the evening after a long day of travel. The next day we were extremely excited to be joined by our friend from Bath University, Jo, who by happy coincidence was in the city visiting her sister who has a teaching job there. Although excited and reinvigorated by the presence of a new travel buddy, we decided to bring the mood down by visiting the S21 prison and killing fields, where thousands of people were persecuted and killed by Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. It was a sombre day, and although interesting, it left us needing to lift our spirits in the evening with yet more local beer and food. The next day we visited the Royal Palace, which was full of highly decorative Wats and Stupers, and we also had the happy coincidence of being able to view both a monk and a monkey at the same time; Kate is convinced that this concept would sell many calenders in pictorial form, however I remain unconvinced. We filled the rest of our time in Phnom Pehn consuming great food and drink, enjoying the beautiful riverside area and wandering the streets taking in some of the fine wares on sale.

The next stop on the tour was Battambang, which is a small, fairly insignificant town in itself, but served as a great stop off point on our journey towards Siem Reap. During our two days there we went to the Battambang museum, which had many ornate stone statues, and also enjoyed walking along the riverside area and being entertained by the locals doing aerobics to western music. The highlight of our time in Battambang was an afternoon on pushbikes exploring the surrounding area. We rode along the river and out towards the old town, taking in local villages on the way. Half way along we cycled past some pretty wired dogs that didn't seem to enjoy the presence of outsiders on their patch as they were barking and growling with vigour. Thankfully they were being restricted behind a fence - or so I thought. As Jo and I cycled past them I turned around to realise that Kate was no longer on the road behind me but was instead hastily weaving across the road and onto the pavement on the other side as the two dogs had broken free and were chasing after her. As I was contemplating my next move, Kate swung out her right beflip-flopped foot and kicked the smaller of the two dogs on the snout, leading to the hasty retreat of the dogs and safety for the rest of us. Kate rode on triumphantly with a smug look on her face. After all that excitement, it was time to move on.

The final stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, and the unofficial 8th Wonder of the World, the Temples of Angkor. The journey there was made on what was fast becoming our favourite method of transport in this part of the world, the slow boat. However, on this occasion the experience was slightly different as we navigated through narrow waterways that could barely accommodate the vessel, floating villages and a large lake in the middle of the country. Unfortunately, a large part of the journey was spent cutting water reads away from the propeller so that we could get moving again, however, 10 hours after setting off, we finally made it to our destination.

We quickly settled into Siem Reap, and it was clear that the city had seen a lot more of the tourist dollar than the rest of the country, as it was populated with many more fancy restaurants and hotels. Our time there consisted of the usual mix of scenic walking tours, great meals and general merriment, however the main event was a visit to the temples of Angkor. Anyone who says that this experience is over-rated (as was recently touted in an MSN article that Kate had read) is ridiculously deluded. The entrance ticket for the site gives you access for a whole day, but also for the evening before. Wanting to make the most of this outstanding offer, we turned up at 5pm on our second day in Siem Reap and watched the sun set over Angkor Wat; it was a truly stunning site to behold and we revelled in crossing the imposing moat by bridge and circling the massive structure as the sun turned the stonework through an array of different colours. The following day we shunned the more traditional way to visit the temples, by tuk-tuk, and hired bikes. This turned out to be one of the best decisions of the trip so far as we cycled along tree lined routes around a 40km trail and took in some of the most famous temples, as well as some of the smaller ones that rarely get visited. It also gave us a chance to see if we could beat the tuk-tuks in a race during one of the day's silly half hours (I failed, but only because the chain came off my trusty steed). It was an amazing day, and one of the highlights of the trip so far.

After saying goodbye to Jo, who was heading off to Borneo for Christmas, Kate and I boarded a bus for Bangkok where we would spend a couple of days before flying out of South East Asia and onwards towards the land down under. The kangaroos await!

Alan and Kate x