Hello again! First and foremost, 'Happy Birthday Kay!' We hope you've had a fantabulous day! and big birthday hugs from us (though don't get too close, we're hot and sweaty!)

After a lazy day today I thought I'd better update on our adventures in Cambodia, just before we go and enjoy a cocktail on the terrace and have dinner (am I a big fat show off or what!) Yesterday was a busy, busy day, with another early start and when I got back the computers here were teeming so I said I'd go up to the room for half an hour and then come back down to see whether any were free and promptly fell into a deep, deep sleep, so asleep I didn't even flinch when Lee took my specs off and turned out the light! So I wised up today and thought I would blog before a big yummy dinner and the cocktails which are bound to make me sleepy after a relaxing but sun filled day!

So yesterday....our alarm went off at 4.15am and I must admit I didn't relish the idea of getting out of bed, even for something as unique as sunrise at Angkor Wat. We eventually hauled butt out of bed and straight to the window. The weather forecast promised thunderstorms and an overcast day - a bit of a bummer if you want to see the sun come up! However when we stuck our head out onto our balcony it was dry outside and ridiculously hot to say it was before dawn. True a blanket of cloud covered the sky, but we're British so a bit of cloud doesn't stop anything so we headed downstairs to meet our tour guide and driver for the day, who to be fair both looked far more awake than we did! Our driver was quiet and just said hello etc but our tour guide Pisith (pronounced much like Pizza!) was friendly, commiserating about the cloud cover and the probable lack of sunrise we were about to see. We drove the short way to the entrance of the Angkors where we dutifully paid our $20 and were slightly surprised to have our pictures taken to be put onto our day passes. Believe me having your picture taken at 5.30am, especially when you are not expecting it does not produce a pretty image! Still golden ticket in hand we joined the surprising number of people towards Angkor Wat, one of the most famous of the region, so much so its recognizable silhouette features on the Cambodian flag.

I'll just go off on a bit of a tangent to explain about where we were spending the day. Siem Reap is pretty much a tourist town because of the Angkors, these are ancient temples and cities built by kings and emperors of the very past (some as old as 9ad!) These once grand structures hold reams of history within their walls, the differing styles of each temple reflecting the religious whim of the emperor who built it. Statues and carvings of the most intricate nature decorate the walls of the temples and depict the histories of the battles won and lost to create the empires and worshipping both Hindu and Buddhist gods. Due to many years of the temples being disregarded they are in varying states of ruin, with Angkor Wat being the best kept due to the monks who worked diligently to maintain the temple right into the 16th Century. However, the tales of more recent conflicts are buried within the sandstone masterpiece at Angkor Wat as bullet holes leave a pockmarked impression on the pillars of the entrance, left behind by the civil war and deadly regime of Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge. Despite the states of disrepair (and re-repair in a number of temples which are being restored by many countries around the world!) these structures are awe-inspiring and beautiful and HUGE!. We had just a one day pass so covered most of the main temples directly in Siem Reap. People can buy 3,5 or even 7 day passes to venture out to temples up to 40k away from the city centre, but on our limited time we decided to take the tour of the most popular and nearby temples.

We arrived at the entrance and saw the familiar towers looking in the murky dawn. Some of the towers bear scaffolding and green net as they are being restored (by the French apparently, the Indian government were doing it but according to Pisith they did sod all for 6yrs so they decided to bring in someone else!) We walked across the long bridge which leads to the outer wall and down the path to the lakes in front of the temple. There was a smallish crowd gathered on plastic chairs and we took many, many pictures despite the fact that the sunrise was far from impressive. To be honest though the Angkor didn't really need it to be beautiful, in fact a glorious sunrise would merely have been set dressing to the main event, which is irrefutably the Angkor's themselves. We got some amazing pictures of the Angkor Wat reflected in the lake in front of it and we joked that as we had seen and photographed an amazing sunrise in Kinnabalu and it would only take five minutes on photoshop to create an immaculate backdrop! We had hot strong coffee while we snapped away to our hearts content and to our delight the rain held off only throwing down a measly few fat drops as we headed back to the entrance of the temple with the sun well and truly up (if not visible). We stopped for breakfast at a little cafe at the entrance, well Pisith breakfasted while we had fresh lime juice (I'm going to miss fresh lime when we get home!), already it was a hot and muggy day and the temperature was probably hovering around the late 20's and it was just 6.15am so eating was something we could do without. In fact that has been the trend of the holiday, we've even missed most of the free breakfasts offered by hotels we've stayed in, either because we've been off doing something, checking out too early for early flights or simply not feeling hungry. Between the lack of hunger, muchos walking and activity and the wonderful side effects of the malaria tablets which unfortunately caught up with us (anyone whose been on Malarone will probably understand what I am talking about!) I think we have both actually dropped a little weight while we've been away. In fact my bikini bottoms are somewhat loose which calls for very careful swimming!

Anyway after Pisith was satisfied we jumped into the car to head to the first stop of the day, Angkor Thom. Now Angkor Thom was the city of the complex, where the king, his concubines (apparently every year the king took the most beautiful girl of the village for his own and made her one of his concubines - no argument against this was accepted. In fact just looking at the king if you were not permitted was a be-headable offence) and family lived, his soldiers and wise men also lived within the walls with local people taking up residence outside the walls. Now Pisith was fascinating telling us the whole history of the place and I won't bore you (or confuse) you all by attempting to repeat it. The kings had very, very long names and none of them sound like you would think when you see it written down, most likely because Cambodia uses the sand script alphabet which has many sounds our Europeans tongues cannot even broach. In fact, one of the kings names was even tricky for Pisith to say and the first time he said it I though he was about to cough up a fur ball! He showed us around the amazingly carved walls and explained the difference between those in Angkor Thom to Angkor Wat as they were completed by different kings. Angkor Thom is fairly dilapidated, there is much clambering to be done up and down teeny tiny steps, actually, that's not right, they are big steps in their depth but the place to put your foot is slim and restricted meaning that the best way to climb is sideways in a kind of crab scuttle. The inclines were also incredibly steep and coming down was much harder than going up. Pisith was really good at helping us up and down and advising which views were worth the climb. He warned us away from a particularly steep incline where not so long someone fell and was fatally injured, we were happy to take his advice and just look up at that structure!

At the top of the Angkor Thom there are the most amazing Buddha faces carved into the rock looking out on all four directions, Pisith said he was going to do three separate 'novelty' type photos before letting us loose to clamber around ourselves for a while. The first was nose, to nose with Buddha, we were told to stand one at a time on a line and Pisith shouted instructions like forward, back up and down, now at this point we were not really sure what he was trying to achieve so there are a few pictures of us looking totally bemused! Eventually he shouted got it and showed us the pictures on the camera, to be sure there we were in perfect profile, nose to nose with the Buddha so our silhouettes look vaguely like the familiar optical illusion! The next was hilarious, it was a kissing the Buddha picture where lee and I sat facing inwards on either end of a window frame. Pisith kept making us laugh because when he had directed our faces into the right place he kept saying 'now ....now kish (not each other, just puckering up), then he kept saying 'keeeep kishing....keeep kishing.....no, no kishing not shaking' as we dissolved into giggles which made our shoulders shake!. The eventual picture shows us both simultaneously planting a smacker on a Buddha's cheek! We then had a last picture when he got all three faces in one shot with us peeping up at the bottom, the shots are pure gold and in fact Pisith was a keen picture taker which means we actually have some pictures of us together, which doesn't often happen when there are just two of you!

After our time exploring Angkor Thom we headed to Ta Phrom, a second temple which had been created by one king for his mother. Now this temple is pretty much a ruin but there are several things which make it famous, most notably the fact that both 'tomb raider' and 'two brothers' were filmed within its crumbling walls. The uniqueness of this temple is the trees which grow within it, literally. The trees have rooted on top and within the walls of the temple, their enormous and elaborate roots winding down through the walls and making the magical and mysterious atmosphere one of an enchanted fairy grotto. This was definitely my favourite temple of the day, the trees hanging overhead played with the light of the sun which had peeked through the clouds making the woodland glen/temple beautiful. In fact we took so many pictures that we noticed a very worrying thing, the camera battery was nearly on zero and we still had to visit Angkor Wat properly and we were going up to the Bakeng Temple to attempt to watch sunset (though the cloud cover meant we were expecting another damp squib!)

After Ta Phrom Pisith said it was lunchtime (it was 12noon by then and we'd been walking around the temples since 5.30am so we felt we'd done a whole day!) he offered to take us for some local food and we unfortunately had to decline asking to go back to our hotel to have a break as this meant we could use those hours to add some more juice to the camera so we didn't miss any pictures. Pisith said that was fine and we had three hours at the hotel to recharge the battery and ourselves. Lee had a little nap and I watched a really interesting documentary on the National Geographic channel all about the Mekong Dolphins!

At 3pm, slightly recharged (us that is the camera recharge was much more successful and was back to full!) We journeyed once more to the Angkors. Now another little aside here, at the Angkors there are many people selling things, they can be quite persistent, the most persistent and hard to resist being the children who attach themselves to you offering their wares, often wooden beaded bracelets or postcards. After a while their cries become familiar 'two doll-ars...two doll-ars, OK, OK one doll-ar, one doll-ar, Oh My God one doll-ar' and I found them hard to resist as even though they were healthy looking kids no 8yr olds should be hawking goods to tourists when they should be in school....suffice to say I've an armful of wooden beaded bracelets if anyone wants one! The kids selling stuff in the town are funny though they start off with the same cry 'one doll-ar, oh my god one doll-ar' and when you say no thank you they say 'Ok one hundred doll-ar, no 300 doll-ar!)

Anyways we spent the next two hours exploring Angkor Wat and it's elaborate walls and walks again with elaborate carvings and often headless statues (the statues around are often headless, either destroyed by Kings who decided to bring in a different religion and were therefore eradicating the religious paraphernalia of kings gone by, or destroyed in conflict or just nicked by looters!) We climbed right to the top of the towers which are still used for Buddhist worship, meaning you have to cover your shoulders to go up and walk around only in an anti-clockwise direction. Only 100 people are allowed at the top at a time so there was a short queue, the queue was in the courtyard below and we got a genius picture of two Buddhist monks, one in the orange robes the other in saffron (different colour represent different hierarchies within the religion) they are framed by the stone carved wall and one of the monks is chatting animatedly into his mobile phone, we therefore named that picture, 'monk on a mobile!' and vow to frame that and many many others when we return (we need a bigger house solely to increase wall space!)

After Angkor Wat we headed to Bakeng which is a ruin on top of a mountain (65m only so to us - a tiny hill!) in fact no building in Siem Reap can be over 65m as that is the height of the Angkor Wat and it is decreed that as the temple this has to be the highest point of the city, meaning all buildings must be shorter than it - apparently it plays havoc with the real estate prices! Now when we reached the foot of the mountain imagine my utmost glee and joy when I spotted a number of heffalupms. now ever since Singapore I've been in love with these creatures and still count 'to be a Mahmout' as one of the priorities on my to do list of life'. So, imagine further my excitement when for just $40 (I know it's a bit pricey really but the elephants looked well cared for!) we could ride on the back of these amazing creatures up to the temple. Well at that point was there any option, a sandy trek up the hill in baking heat or a ride on the back of one of these immense creatures! I was on that elephants back before you could say 'trunk!'. The Mahmout sat on his head and although he had a stick to prod the elephant, he used only his feet to nudge behind the elephants ears to direct it right and left. Now I loved the ride but I gotta say that it's not the most comfortable way to travel and you have kind of roll with the movement of the heffalump as he ambled up the hill (we were in a little chair obviously, not riding bareback!) The path up was winding and fairly steep and I was a little concerned when the corners seemed quite sharp but I had faith in our heffalump (who I christened Brian as when I asked if he had a name the Mahmout just said 'yes' and smiled so "don't know if he had a name and it was secret or if he didn't understand!) especially as we had seen that heffalumps can do a 360 degree turn while stood on a log when in Singapore! The only hairy part was when a dog leapt out of the undergrowth cutting up our heffalumps path, he did not like that and harrumphed and trumpeted at the dog until it went on its way.

We arrived at the top, 15 bumpy but cool minutes later and it was with reluctance that I waved goodbye to Brian, I did consider booting the Mahmout off mid ride and taking his uniform and place at the helm of the heffalump but then I realized I'd need to learn how to drive an elephant first....I'll be prepared next time! At the top of the hill we took pictures of the views, Angkor Wat in the distance and the panoramic scenes of Siem Reap. We didn't wait for the sun to set as the clouds were thick and it was obviously not going to set, merely just get dark. We made the right call so as it did exactly that shortly before we arrived back at the hotel having missed the heavy traffic as everyone leaves! Hot and dusty we jumped in the pool before having the most amazing Singapore slings and traditional Khmer food at the hotel. Our meals were works of art, with Lee's roast duck in red curry served inside a carved pineapple and my Amok Trey which was smoked fish with coconut milk curry hidden cunningly in a young coconut. Both meals were delicious, and Lee decreed it to be the best curry he's ever had!!! The Khmer food is really nice, it's decidedly Thai-ish and we discovered the reason for these influences. The Siem part of Siem Reap refers to Syam the old word for Thailand with whom many of the early battles were fought and Reap means defeated, therefore the city was created after as battle with the Thai where Cambodia won and they therefore named it Siem Reap - The Syam defeated!

So today dawned bright and very, very, very hot creeping up to 39-40 degrees at some points! When we checked into our hotel the crafty people here poked in a little 'spa' voucher with our room key offering us 20% off treatments, as there is little to do in Siem Reap apart from the temples and the town built for westerners (actually a fair amount of it has been closed while we've been here as it's Khmer New Year, so maybe we missed the non-western bits?!) therefore we thought we'd have some pamper time in the amazing spa. Bee chose body scrub and a deep tissue massage for his aching muscles, which apparently, he enjoyed in a pleasure/pain kind of way as she certainly got the knots out of his back. He said when she stuck her elbows in his back, he was glad to be face down in the bed as he had a kind of Edvard Munch's 'The Scream' face going on through the hole in the bed! I'm not a big fan of massage having had a bad bout of sleep paralysis when I had one once meaning I cannot relax cos if I have a massage, I'm really tense trying not to fall asleep and risk the creepy sleep paralysis. Being unable to relax during a massage kind of defeats the object, so I had a manicure, a pedicure and a facial. I did apologize presenting my deformed, blistered and quite frankly manky trotters to the lady but she's done a sterling job of making them look normal! In fact, Bee said they almost don't look like monkey feet now! We've spent the rest of the day by the pool and now as night draws in we are heading for cocktails and tea to wave off our final night in Cambodia! For tomorrow we fly back to Malaysia for a brief one-night stop in KL before 5 nights pure R&R in our own tropical paradise in Tioman. The pace of the trip is definitely changing to the 'holiday' portion of our adventure and it scarily feels like it is drawing to a close, despite nearly two weeks left, 2 countries and 6 flights to go!

So, I will sign off from Cambodia and write again most likely from Tioman as tomorrow will be spent purely in transit and I don't even I could find much to talk about there! Although saying that on our flight into Siem Reap we were chuckling at the lady in front who had the fake Calvin Klein bag, we knew this as the logo proudly boasted 'Calvin Klean' rather than Klein!

So, speak soon lovelies, well done for wading your way through this lot!

Loveth you all loads and big hugs!

Love Kat & Lee - Masters of the Heffalump!