Our penultimate long haul flight delivered us to the chaos that is Bangkok. Spending five days here, we stayed in the heart of tackiness on Khao San Road. Relaxing in our double ensuite, we were pretty chuffed with how far our pennies could now go in relation to Australia - looks like the majority of our dorm days are behind us!

The thermals, hats, scarves and gloves have now well and truly found their place at the bottom of our backpacks, as Bangkok was a solid 32 degrees every day, but more of a cloudy muggy heat than actual sunshine - then there's England in the middle of a heat wave, looking like a strong possibility you will be more tanned than us by the time we come home!

Fresh faced, and before Khao San Road had a chance to destroy us, our first day was a jam packed temple visiting day. Despite being prepared with long trousers and scarves to cover ourselves respectfully, we were still subject to wearing temple-issue shirts, which come straight off the hanger nice and sweaty from the previous user! Sporting our attractive matching mother and father shirts we saw the Grand Palace, a very impressive and beautiful complex with incredible detailing on every section of the buildings, and an almost excessive use of gold - nothing seems too extravagant! We visited a selection of other temples, including the oldest, Wat Arun, which was a lot less glitzy. With hundreds of intricate temples dotted all over the city, often just catching a glimpse of one down a side street, it's amazing how quickly the incredibly designed buildings covered in gold and glitz become the norm. On the other hand, five days in and we're still finding the sight of dozens of monks clad in their orange robes incredibly novel, and will continue to try and take sly pictures of them until someone tells us not to!

Using the local water taxis to navigate between all the sights we wanted to see (with some journeys only costing 3p!), provided a brilliant way of catching a welcome breeze (definitley not acclimatised yet!) and allowed us to see a different side of the city - busy riverside life. The Chinese market was hectic to say the least. Pretty certain you could get your hands on anything you desired, literally anything. With knic knacks piled high and spilling out of every shop, you can imagine this is the source of a lot of exports. We also went up the Golden Mount, another temple with panoramic views of the city, which we would only really recommend if you're in the market for 1000's of gold plastic Buddha's, which really detract from the beauty of the buildings and the religion!

We said a rather emotional goodbye to our trusty tupperwear boxes which have seen us through many budget lunches, and began to enjoy the novelty of it being cheaper to eat out than cook yourselves. Good job really as we had definitely reached our pasta limit, though this could be all too quickly replaced with an intolerance for rice, served at every meal including breakfast! But, with $1 pad Thai from street vendors, fresh fruit on every corner and the most amazing mix of wonderful food creations in markets we can't complain at all! Having great fun pointing at interesting looking things, often getting a complete surprise in the sweet/ savoury guessing game. That said, think we will stick to appreciating certain pots of bubbling concoctions, deep fried chicken feet, and various carcuses on sticks, through our camera lenses!

Khao San Road is the polar opposite of the surrounding serene Buddhist temples, it's easy to forget they're in the same city. Picture any night strip in tourist locations like Magaluf, covered in neon signs, drinks deals, McDonalds and sprawling bars filled with rowdy Brits, add in a few lady boys, vendors selling deep fried scorpions, and rows of people casually having $1 massages on the street, and you'll have a fairly clear image of the ridiculous place. We embraced the 'culture', and had some great nights here.

Bangkok was kind of terrible, and kind of brilliant at the same time, full of tat, tack and generally disgraceful behaviour, but a lot of fun. That said, we're looking forward to returning to Thailand at the end of August, and actually getting to see a bit more of the real country and culture, and maybe one last mad night in Bangkok to say farewell!

Armed with an A4 list of potential scams, we tackled the border crossing from Aranya Prathet (Thailand), to Poipet (Cambodia) - this was fun! The journey itself involved three passengers being forcibly removed from the bus at random points along the way, including one woman who had to be dragged from the toilet where she was being hidden by the bus driver! We had no clue what was going on, but were thankful the scary men in Thai military uniforms were only checking the ID of the Thai passengers and kind of ignoring us. Within two minutes of getting off the bus we were ushered into a rather unofficial looking room and asked for money for the (fake) visa, which they think you'll be more likely to cough up if they're over friendly and talk incessantly about Man United... Textbook scam 1 avoided by refusing to pay, only to be shadily video recorded by the tourist police who we'd asked for help, before finally exiting Thailand following a painted cardboard sign reading 'Cambodia -->' The first and only English words we clapped our eyes on having crossed the border - 'DEATH PENALTY' - for some crime we couldn't decipher, excellent first impression... Now to be overcharged by the military running the official visa office. We really appreciated the craftsmanship that had gone into the scrap paper/biro combo reading '200 baht extra' - obviously they hadn't made enough that day! With corruption even at that level, it was difficult to avoid paying a little extra just for the sake of ease. Taking three times as long as expected we eventually got through to Cambodia, and that's when the transport scams start! Despite the fact that arranging our transfer to Battambang involved an impressive number of people being tipped off, it was reasonably simple in the end!

Next we were to learn that the excessive use of horns is a prominent theme on the roads, as our driver genuinely used his for about 75% of the two hour journey, seeming only to stop in no horn zones! Essential to let people know you're about to pass, that you're passing, that you've just passed, or simply because you feel like it.

We both sank onto our £1.10 double beds admittedly a little chuffed with ourselves at avoiding so many scams and not feeling as though we had been ripped off too badly! Now to start enjoying the country...

Battambang, Cambodia's second biggest 'city', again not quite fitting Lonely Planet's description of a charming countryside town, although visiting the surroundings the next day showed the true character of the place, and made the trip here well worth it.

We spent the day on a tuk tuk tour with Bun, a really nice local guy who spoke brilliant English, and kept us well entertained with his cockney rhyming slang. He spent all day with us, stopping to try local foods, learning how things were made and generally giving us an insight into every day life. Added to our list of culinary delights are grilled rat, boiled dog curry, fish gut paste, and the slightly less adventerous but very tasty coconut sticky rice and jackfruit waffles. We found some restaurants have a sign outside advertising 'special food', meaning dog after 3pm! The meal cost us a dollar, and we have been thinking about what breed it could have been ever since! It felt, accurately or not, an authentic insight into Cambodian life. The villagers we met were fascinated with our eyes, saying they looked so different, couldn't fathom why we wanted to come into the countryside when cities were available to us, and were completely blown away by the fact we weren't married by 22.

Battambang also provided our introduction into Cambodian politics. One Saturday morning we were awoken at 7am to Gangnam style blaring through loudspeakers, strange we thought, for a quiet countryside town. We went to investigate, and could barely get out of the front door of the hotel. There were hundreds and hundreds of people dressed in white, waving blue flags, chanting along to speeches being made from the back of a pickup truck, and on the hour there was a mass parade of flag wavers riding every kind of vehicle imaginable, with at least 3 times the legal number of people inside/ on it. Mad. This continued for the following two weekends we were in Cambodia, though we're yet to find out the outcome of the election!

We decided to take the scenic route to Siem Reap along the river, being told 'could be 5 hours, could be 9.' I suppose the vessel we travelled on could be classed as a boat, and it did have plenty of life jackets, which turned out to make essential cushions. We knew, being sat on what felt like a full boat, as yet more people and more bags were loaded on, squashing up together and on top of one another, that we were in for a comfortable journey! It was totally worth being squashed for though, as the views as we passed by local houses on the river banks and through floating villages we great. Such a different existence. Not so different however, were the large satallite dishes covering all the roofs - essential to unwind in front of the telly after a long day wading through the river for fish! Stopped in a floating village for a comfort break, in which the sign for the W.C. simply pointed outside to the river - up there with our favourite toilet stops!

We arrived in Siem Reap, and went our separate ways again for another week or so whilst Jess met up with her boyfriend Owen, who had been working out in Cambodia for two months. The three of us visited Angkor Wat together, such a good day, due in part to Nol, our tuk tuk driver for the day, who has to be one of the happiest and smiliest men alive. We began with sunrise at Angkor Wat, the sky was stunning, then saw around five or six other temples, with a welcomed breezy drive between them - we picked a scorcher of a day! We were out for 14 hours so definitely got our money's worth! Templed out, but we had a brilliant day, and ticked off another Wonder of the World (depending of course on what list you are referring to!) We also had a great meal together, a cook your own Khmer BBQ, with a selection of delicious (and traditionally Cambodian!) meats , such as ostrich, crocodile, frog and kangaroo (we were keen to try this in Australia, so glad we got to have it eventually, even if it was a bit late!) All that dull chicken and pork and beef and what not just doesn't do it for us anymore! The Khmer food in general however is really good! We knew a little of what to expect from Thai food, but had no idea for Cambodia. There seem to be about half a dozen really authentic dishes that you find everywhere, our favourite being Amok curry, closely followed by iced coffee, an Asian favourite that contains so much condensed milk it probably falls closer to the dessert mark than beverage, and has no doubt increased our caffeine intake to an unhealthy level!

Whereas Battambang had felt relatively rural and not geared towards tourists, Siem Reap was the complete opposite, although for a town made up primarily of bars and cafes it had a lovely feel to it. We went to the first of many Asian markets, although four days in and we're already bored of hearing 'lady, tuk tuk?', 'lady, massage?' and 'lady, buy something?' every third step, and the hordes of begging children heaving even smaller children around on their backs, who think it's nice to slap you if you don't give them money. Guess we might have to get used to that!

Next was to the capital, Phnom Penh. Sarah visited the S-21 prison, formerly a school, where people were held and tortured during the reign of the Khmer Rouge, and the Choeung Ek killing fields, where over 20,000 people were taken to be executed. The facts and figures you were continually presented with were horrific, but the site of the killing fields today was really quite beautiful, and very peaceful.

Another reminder that most things are possible in Asia, Sarah ended up at a shooting range en route to the Russian market with two Danish guys who were keen to let off some masculine steam by firing big guns at coconuts. I decided not to partake, mainly because it was extortionate, but also because it was loud and scary, but was amused by the laminated menu I was given showing all the available products. If only I'd had a spare $350, I could have been handed a rocket launcher to fire!

We all went to the night market, full of local BBQs and large communal eating spaces, and indulged in yet more unfathomable foods. Then more evidence was collected to prove that if you pay all of about £1 for a cocktail it will never be good. Never. On the whole, Phnom Penh is worth visiting to go to the prison and the killing fields, then after that you're done.

After the tease of a few short hours in the sun in between sightseeing and shopping in Bangkok, and having spent two weeks in Asia without really stopping, we met up again with Holly and headed to Sihanoukville on the south coast, to the beach, and hopefully to the start of our tans! It's a popular holiday destination for the locals, who sat around the beach bars eating seafood banquets all day, then swam in the sea fully clothed. There's being modest, and then there's knowing that jeans just aren't suitable swimwear! The place was full of beach bars and shacks so we just chilled out on a sunbed and drank from coconuts. Never far away were the children intent on harassing you with their smashing set phrases 'maybe later?' and 'pinky promise if you do buy one you'll buy it from me?', though the ladies managing to insult every aspect of our appearance in trying to sell us a manicure/pedicure/leg, arm and eyebrow wax we humoured slightly more!

From here you could go by ferry to Ko Rong, a small island two hours from the mainland, and where the French version of shiprecked was filmed! We stayed in a little bamboo bungalow a stone's throw from the beach, and with only around five sets of bungalows and four bars, it was the most most undeveloped place we've been so far. The first afternoon was beautiful sunshine so we spent a lazy afternoon on the white sandy beach, saw a casual water buffalo paddling in the sea, then retired for happy hour mojitos and fish on the BBQ. We became victims of theft in the night - all our Tuc biscuits vanished, and a mouse-sized hole chewed through Sarah's backpack - how rude! Just goes to show you should always eat all your snacks the minute you get them! Day two was drastically different, bringing a tropical storm and relentless rain, which brought down trees, and had us penned inside all day. Still, there are worse places to sit and watch the rain than the roof terrace of a beach bar!

After a pretty rainy and rocky boat journey we made it back to dry land, and it was time to get on our first sleeper bus and head into Vietnam. Excitement was running high upon seeing bunk beds on a bus, we'll let you know if we still feel the same way after we've used them to travel the whole way through Vietnam! So it's safe to say our first taste of Asia has been a great one, here's a few observations to finish:

1. Bad Asia tattoos - possibly developing a bit of a twitch from the everyday cringe at travellers with cling filmed body parts on display!

2. So. Many. Thai. Brides. - think we both thought this would be a bit of a joke here, but no, they're everywhere, and we've had plenty of fun laughing at the pairings!

3. Dual currency - only place we've been that uses both the American dollar and Cambodian riel simultaneously. Takes a bit of getting your head around using two sets of notes permanently, clever though, as they don't take American coins, so can get away with charging you at least a dollar for most things!

4. Love for beer - we must be becoming travellers, considering neither of us really drank beer before, but when it's a quarter the price (35p), and much more consistent than the dodgy cocktails there isn't any competition!

5. Feeling like a giant - we know we're pretty tall, but having a Thai lady do a double take in the street on our second day, make a little shrieking sound like she'd seen an alien, then hold her hand above her head and say 'you so tall!' really made us look around. Now feeling like Jack Black in Gulliver's Travels!