After a couple of nights spent in Bangkok where we had a quick exploration of Khaosan Road and the surrounding area, we arrived after a 12 hour bus journey into Siem Reap, Cambodia... land of the ancient Ankors.

Our journey consisted of the following:

- Leaving Bangkok at 7am with a crazy Thai driver going at 130mph to the Cambodian border with no regard for safety whatsoever.

- Dodgy cafe stop where our waiter took our order for lunch and gave us our Cambodian visas at the same sitting.

- Corrupt border crossing where we were continually offered by our "guide" a VIP service which would fasttrack us through a 2 hour queue for an entry stamp... at a cost of course. We were left with no choice but to oblige the little s***.

- After our VIP treatment we were finally in Cambodia and waiting for another bus to Siem Reap. We boarded this one and thought "finally", bus to Siem Reap..... WRONG!

- We arrived at another bus station where we were told to wait for another hour and a half before we could board our bus to Siem Reap. Unless of course we paid a further 200 baht each for another VIP treatment.

- Luckily for us, a fiesty Argentinian lady in our group dismissed this and decided to try and get on a bus anyway... we followed and SUCCESS! It was quite satisfying looking out of the window at our guide as we departed, who was playing football at this point, with no clue what had happened.

- We arrived finally in Siem Reap at 7pm where we met our Tuk Tuk driver for the next 3 days called Ham (most probably not spelt like that).

- He took us to our hotel where we were told they were full... luckily for us they were kind enough to put us up in another hotel of equal quality for no extra cost for that night.

Phew, quite a day. But was it worth it? Hell yes! After a day of exploration of Siem Reap which we found to be quite a nice city filled with Taxadermic Crocodiles, we had dinner at a place specialising in Khmer BBQ. This consisted of choosing 5 raw meats and being provided with a gas cooker with a moat and griddle. The moat was filled with soup which you cooked your vegetables and noodles in, meanwhile the griddled centre area cooks the meat. Check out the photos if you can't picture this or I have explained it poorly! We chose Snake, Crocodile, Frog, Ostrich and Shrimp... Yum! Our favourite had to be Frog, tastes like Chicken, it really does!

The next day we had Ham pick us up at 5am for the sunrise Ankor Wat experience. Now this was impressive! You enter the grounds in pitch black, not even being able to see the Angkor Wat at all, and gather around a lake which is the best spot to see all 5 pillars. As the sun rose it illuminated the silhouette of the Angkor Wat, at the same time creating a beautiful mirror image of itself on the lake. What an amazing site. Once the sun had rose fully, we explored around the vast temple section at a time noticing extra details of the building as the sunlight hit it. Check out the photos for our photographic summary.

After the Angkor Wat, Ham took us to 4 other Temple sites including; Bayon (my favourite), consisting of hundreds of faces carved into the stone of each pillar and walls, Ta Prohm (Laura's favourite) where the trees have invaded the ruins of the temple, this is also famous for being used as a film location for Tomb Raider and Transformers 3. Such amazing views and an unforgettable experience.

Our tour wouldn't be complete without a nice Angkor beer to finish the day. Cambodia as a whole had quite a nice range of beers to choose from!

The next day our friendly Tuk Tuk driver Ham took us on a 45 minute journey to a peaceful floating village on the Tonle Sap Lake called Kompong Khleang which he advised was a better choice as oppose to Chong Khneas as it was less touristy. It was interesting driving through the village waving to the children, seeing the houses on stilts and a very basic way of living. We were told the water here can rise between 6 and 10m in the wet season hence the huge stilts! After a short boat trip into the lake where the main village was, we spent the day floating on the boat with Ham drinking beer he bought from the boat shop and chatting amongst the floating houses. He told us his views on the country and its history expressing its importance to ensuring peaceful living after such a tragic history with the Khmer Rouge... details of which we were to find out later in our trip at the Killing Fields in Phnom Penh.

The next stop after Siem Reap was to Battambang which we didn't really see what was so special about it after it came recommended. We checked out a museum and walked along the riverside noting the French colonial building designs. This was only to be a one night stay thankfully on our way down to the south coast.

Our 13 hour bus journey from Battambang to Sihanoukville was broken up in the capital, Phnom Penh where I was compelled to buy an acoustic guitar. One of my least practical impulse buys really but I couldn't help it! Since the purchase things haven't gone according to plan with it unfortunately and after tuning it for the first time the machine head broke :( Moral to this is not to buy cheap Chinese made guitars! We were thankful to arrive in Sihanoukville and our lovely guesthouse manager Patrick who made us very welcome. We indulged with an amazing Pizza and cheeky glass of wine, much needed after the long journey.

The next couple of days we spent on the beach and enjoyed our chill out time, getting pampered by the local massage and pedicure (Laura not me) services while sipping cocktails! While lounging on the beach we were given multiple free drink flyers from various Brits stuck here trying to earn money to continue travelling. We obtained enough to do our own pub crawl entirely on free drinks. Bargain!

Our third day in Sihanoukville was filled with a boat trip of Snorkelling and lounging on Monkey Island as part of a 3 island tour. You will notice a picture of me jumping off the top deck of the boat into Sea Urchin filled waters. Consequently, shortly after I managed this unscaithed, a lady on our boat was not so lucky and ended up with a Sea Urchin spine through her foot. Ouch!

With word of a tropical paradise island only 3 hours away by boat, we decided to visit the island of Koh Rong. The boat ride there was choppy to say the least and Laura was very grateful to have survived the journey without seeing her Breakfast again. Well the island itself did not disappoint and it truely was a Tropical Paradise untouched by crowds of tourists. The accommodation was a basic beach shack, not the most glamorous of our hotel list but you hardly go to a tropical paradise to spend time in your room! We spent our day scaling the 4km stretch of beach which seemed to be our own due to the lack of people. Beautiful.

We stayed a couple of nights on the island and made the choppy boat ride back (which was even worse this time!), to Sihanoukville where we stayed one more night before heading up to Phnom Penh!