Cassie and Rob´s world adventure!

We weren't organised enough to get a train up to Rishikesh so we eventually opted to take a 6 hour taxi ride in a typical Indian little white ambassador car, they look sweet but they aren't the most comfortable for long journeys! Whilst in the car we realised how good Mr Singh had been as our taxi driver took some very dodgy risks at times! At one point the road was totally blocked with queues so our driver took a detour through a lovely field which smelt like fresh herbs, we suddenly realised we were in the middle of a ganga field which was pretty funny at the time as we all posed for photos with handfuls of ganga leaves! We eventually arrived in Rishikesh late in the afternoon with our driver promising to help us find somewhere to stay. The first few places he took us to were completely overpriced and very poor quality with cockroaches running under the beds so to his relief we dumped him as he was starting to get a bit agro with us for not booking with his pals and we made our way across the bridge to the queiter area of 'Swargashram'. It was still very hectic with lots of people, cows and monkeys everywhere milling around in the intense heat so as soon as we found a coffee shop we dived in for the comfort of air conditioning and some five minutes of quietness...which we really felt the need for sometimes in India!

With all our heavy baggage, Kate and I stayed whilst Rob and Dave went to find somewhere to stay for our four days. Two hours later and after Kate and I had made up all sorts of stories in our heads of what had happened to them they returned with success! Apparently they had been to several of the hotels recommended which turned out to be complete horror stories. By then it was dark so off we went with our backpacks up and down hills and weaving in and out of the still many cows and people milling around to our hotel which was suprisingly very nice and clean, although we did have to walk up several dark alleyways to get there! Rishikesh is a 'dry' state for alcohol and meat is also banned, already we missed our first three days of extravagent chicken curries and beers but we were all willing to try the strict vegetarian cuisine. Rishikesh has many healthy and western options for food so it wasn't hard to find good food to eat (however we did happen to 'accidently' smuggle in three bottles of Indian rum which we happily guzzled down one night in our room!) Rob wasn't too happy with the options and amazingly managed to eat Aloo gobi (curried cauliflower and potatoes) every day that we were there!

The following day we explored Rishikesh on foot which really is the only way to do it. We followed the trail along the river ganges weaving in and out of Ashrams where many indian people stay and live as part of a community practicing such things as meditation and yoga. We were pleased that the people were much friendlier and welcoming to us here. As we walked into the busy town we immediately became celebrities with children grabbing our hands to have photos taken by their families, Dave also seemed to be a big hit with the young lads as they thought he looked like 'The undertaker' wrestler with his long hair and being such a giant compared to them! At one point I thought we would never get away as people seemed to start queing up to get photos with us which was a really nice but crazy experience having parents pushing their children forward to shake your hands and practice their English!

Unfortunately as I suspected might happen I got pretty ill during the trip, one night I managed to have a fever, sickness bad bad stomach and just generally felt rotten. We weren't sure what caused it but I have my suspicions on the bottled water which sometimes they fill from the tap. I sent back a bottle in a restuarant which had the seal broken, which is apparently a common scam. The monsoon rain was also starting to come on in full strength whilst we were there in the mornings, Kate and Dave experienced this in it's full effect one morning when they went rafting down the river ganges during a thunder storm! By all accounts they had an amazing time, it was a shame I had to be ill in the very last few days of our journey and couldn't join in! However, we did find a cafe we could all chill out in called 'The Buddha Bar', this overlooked the river ganges and the amazing veiws of the base of the himalayas. It was a cool little place to find shade from the sun, unfortunately this time it was Dave's turn to get the Delhi Belly which he suspected was from Salad washed in tap water at the cafe, Rob and Kate managed to escape Delhi belly free!

To get back to Delhi we opted for the train, this is evidently the best way to travel and safest option in India! We booked out four beds in the second class A/C carriage which was actually a very pleasant journey once we were on the train. At Haridwar we thought we were in for a complete nightmare as when we turned up to the station there were litterally hundreds of people there lying on the floor with their entire families and lots of people begging. We walked past the main carriage which was crammed to the rafters with people hanging out of the window, it looked incredibly uncomfortable and understandably is not advised for tourists. A very friendly Indian/Australian man called Manish helped us out in finding our carriage where he subsequently chatted away to us for the first few hours of our journey!

On arriving at Old Delhi railway station we were back to the complete chaos we had come to know, this was not a good place to be as we were stepping over people doing heroin and allsorts by the taxi rank! We managed to sort our two tuk tuk's to where we were staying, however the one Rob and I got into had no idea where it was going and charged after Kate and Dave's Tuk Tuk at breakneck speed ploughing across roads and in front of buses with total disreguard for anyone's safety! Both tuk tuk's charged through old Delhi passing by hundreds of people sleeping on the pavements and by the roads, we very nearly crashed into other cars and people several times so by the time we got to the hotel I was more than happy to get out and run into the hotel. The drivers actually had the cheek to ask Dave for more money at the end even though it was a pre-paid taxi. As it was now midnight with four very hungry bellys, Rob and Dave once again went on a mission this time to find food. They arrived back armed with macdonalds which was apparently the only this still open in Delhi! So we celebrated our last night of travelling with a Kingfisher beer and a McChicken sandwich!

The next day was very surreal as we woke up, got our bags together and headed off to the airport to return to London. I couldn't quite believe that after almost 9 months it was now all over, however our flight was pretty smooth and we arrived on a very sunny evening to London Heathrow airport. The first thing I noticed on stepping outside was just how clean everything was, how blue the sky was and the breeze in the air which felt amazing after the last few months of intensely hot and humid weather.

So, everyone has been asking us...'what has been your favourite place?', which is a very difficult question to answer! But in a nutshell, we loved Brazil for the beautiful beaches and lovely people, Peru for the astonishing Machu Picchu and Huacachina sandunes, Bolivia for the mesmorising national parks, flamingoes and salt flats at sunrise, Argentina for it's elegant Tango, amazing BBQ' s and exquisite street markets, New Zealand for it's stunning scenery and all the adventures with bungee jumping, horse riding, kayacking, glacier hiking and partying in Queenstown, Laos new year waterfights and parties with the the locals, tubing in Vang Vieng and kayacking to remote villages in the north, Halong Bay in Vietnam for it's mysterious but beautiful setting on our 'junk' ship, Thailand for it's pure fun, Cambodia for their lush green villages and Angkor Wat, and finally India for the Taj Mahal. We both agreed that it has been the little kids in the villages of Laos and Cambodia who have given us the biggest smiles!

I've definately left a million things out but would just like to say a big thank you to all the wonderful friends we have made along the way, it just wouldn't have been the same without you...particularly Sam, Malin and Emma who we travelled with for five weeks in South America, it really was the adventure of a lifetime followed by spending Xmas at Sam's mum's house in New Zealand! We would also like to say a big thank you to everyone at home who has given us their love and support along the way, it was nice to know there were people thinking of us...and finally, to anyone who has taken the time to read our blog along the way :D

Peace out! x

We left rainy Bangkok at 3.30am to head for the airport, we were very tired as we checked in and waited to board our flight. Already we had a lot of people watching us in the queue which we realised was a sign of things to come and definately time to start covering up to avoid the intense stares. The flight lasted about five hours and was pretty bumpy getting there, we had a friendly Indian man sitting next to us who gave us the first 'head wobble' which we had anticipated all indian people to do which we found quite amusing as it really does tend to be used for a variety of meanings! Breakfast was interesting as it consisted of a curry omelet, we figured that in india they must curryfie everything which I was very excited about!!

On arriving at airport we got our first taste of Indian queues, which are basically a free for all with people pushing past you and at one point when we were totally pushed out of the queue and when we tried to re-join, a lady started to really tell us off saying that we had pushed in which I was far too tired to argue about! The morning didn't get much better from here as we waited in arrivals for our taxi which was supposedley being sent from 'Incredible Homestay', an hour later and after Rob having a fiasco with armed guards by wandering outside the airport and being refused entry back in without his passport we eventually decided to use a pay phone. The hotel obviously hadn't sent a taxi as the first person I spoke to had no idea of our booking, he told me to phone back in five minutes. We started to worry as it was getting quite hectic in Delhi airport and we wanted to avoid the notorious taxi's and touts. We eventually got through to the owner of the hotel who told us to get in a taxi and he would pay for it, so very relieved to hear this we jumped into a metered taxi.

The taxi ride from the airport was crazy to say the least, there seems to be no order to the roads, drivers don't stick to the lanes and cows wander freely. Drivers tend to just use their horns loudly as a warning they are changing lane which as our first time in Delhi made us cringe to watch with most of the cars having dents down the side of them too. The taxi driver told us he didn't know where the hotel was so after giving him the phone number he got on the phone to owner, what we didn't realise was that he was threatening the owner that he would take us to another hotel if he didn't agree to pay commision to him! So when we arrived at the hotel finally it was not the beautiful building in a quiet street advertised, it was actually in the middle of a building site! We entered the large house and were sternly told to sit and wait for the owner, again our introduction to India was not working out for us! Prashant finally came out and told us that the taxi was far too much money, however he would still pay for it but then lectured us on getting the right taxi from the airport, he still had failed to apologise for not sending a car for us. We were shown to our room which was at least clean and in an old fashioned Indian style, but had a very cold atmosphere. The many people who worked there seemed to lurk around starting at us which we think might have been them waiting for tips (they would be waiting a long time here!). Later that evening after a long sleep we asked the owner what was nearby in terms of places to walk to and restaurants, he told us he would cook us 'home style' indian food and suggested we relax in the hotel. We were so tired at this point we went along with his suggestion and ate chilli chicken, aloo gobi with roti bread, drank two large kingfishers and we then decided to write off our first day as when we woke up Kate and Dave would be arriving so we figured everything would get better!!

The next morning we woke up early and had room service breakfast, we still hadn't been out in Delhi but we were really excited bouncing around the room. Kate and Dave arrived around 11.00 am, it was great to see them and we spent the next hour catching up. That afternoon we all ventured out into New Delhi. We headed down to an area called Connaught Place, a British designed colonial shopping centre made up of two rings of shops, bars and restaurants with a park in the middle which is in the heart of New Delhi, to get here we had to get on the metro train to 'Rajiv Chowk', which at that time of the day was pretty straight forward. Security is tight on the underground whereby they search and x-ray your bags as you enter which is due to the threats of terrorism in Delhi.

We got taken on several wild goose chases when asking people for directions to the restaurants and bars, one friendly Indian called 'Ricky' struck up a conversation with Dave and told him he would walk us to Connaught Place (we could see where this was going) and we ended up straight into a tour office where they started to question us on who we had made bookings with! It became quite a tense atmosphere as the man became almost angry with his interrogation on our plans for the next few days telling us we may have booked an illegal tour and he would happily book us a driver, which we were not willing to fall for! We left there with Ricky saying he would show Dave where all the bars were and led us completely away from town and into a tailors... again our 'mug' stamp was working at it's fullest today but it was quite funny and a brutal introduction for Dave to not trust anyone!

After finally realising we needed to be pretty blunt in getting rid of 'helpful' people wanting to stop and chat, we eventually ended up in rooftop bar drinking beers in Conaught Place followed by an amazing dinner at Zaffran's....I had to try a Chicken tikka massala in India and it lived up to all expectations! The Metro journey back was an almost scary experience as the trains are completely packed with Indian men on their way home and they all litterally push as hard as they can to get onto the train! We almost lost Kate at one point as she got swepped into the wave, we soon realised the metro is not a place for women at night as although we were with Rob and Dave who tower over everyone, the stares which were probably out of interest can be taken as rather intimidating, Kate also felt the grab of a wandering hand in the crowd which wasn't so nice!

Early the next morning we were all up and ready for our road trip to Agra. It was pretty shocking that although we told 'incredible Homestay' we had a driver coming to pick us up, they still arranged for a taxi which they tried to get us into!! After asking Mr Singh for ID to check he was our driver we were off! The drive to Agra took about five hours, on the way we stopped at Sikandra Fort. This huge tomb of Akbar lies in the centre of large gardens surrounded by four red sandstone gates leading to the grand tomb complex. Dave got duped into having a guide following him around who he started happily chatting away to until he realised it may end up costing him a lot of money, so we had to rescue him away! Mr Singh picked us up from the blazing heat and crowds of indian tourists who were taking photos of us and whisked us off, suprisingly, to a 5 star hotel!! It was called 'Trident' and we couldn't believe this was what we had booked, it was a beautiful hotel with real professional Indian hospitality and even had a swimming pool in the centre.

That evening Dave had asked us all to give him some time to pay his respects to his Aunty Irene who had sadly passed away back home. The hotel told us there was a temple opposite and we should go over and speak to the owner. This was the first time we had seen true compassion and the loving side of Indian people as the Hindu owners welcomed Dave into their temple and let him pay his respects, the Hindu people who looked after the temple looked truely moved and were all interested in seeing Dave's photo of his Aunt. It was a very sad time but I was pleased they had welcomed Dave and the rest of us in such a friendly and warm way, to me it really made up for the harsh introduction we had received in Delhi. Afterwards we made our way to Kamal rooftop restaurant which had views of Taj Mahal. It was a nice end to the evening as we sat up the top looking over the Taj Mahal enjoying the cool breeze with vegetarian curries and kingfishers all round. The evening took a silly turn at the end of the night as we all piled into a Tuk Tuk back to our 5 star hotel! They are meant to fit two people, but we have seen whole Indian families squeeze into them so we thought we would give it a go! Dodging cows and motorbikes along the way, we pulled up outside our posh hotel laughing our heads off in our unconventional transport for this kind of hotel!

We stayed up sampling Indian spirits but then had a rude awakening at 5.00 am to visit the Taj Mahal at sunrise. This is a world heritage sight and one of India's best examples of indian muslim architecture. This amazing mausoleaum of white marble was built between 1631 and 1648 by order of the Mughal Emporor, Shah Jahan in memory of his favourite wife. It is thought to be the most well preserved and architectually beautiful tombs in the world. We walked through the gates with our tour guide who Mr Singh had recommended and walked past many families enjoying the park early in the morning before the daytime heat set in. There was also many monkeys on the walk to the temple who seemed to rule the area. As we made our way into the grounds of the Taj Mahal it completely lived up to expectations as being a beautiful piece of architecture, and it completely blew me away as we walked through the entrance and got our first sight of the immense grounds. Immediately we started snapping away with our cameras but hadn't anticipated how much they would keep steaming up due to the intense humidity in India! We walked around the complex and the guide explained the various buidlings, unfortunately he directed most of his talk to Dave and Rob but as it was early Kate and I were more than happy to be left to our own devices! We all got our pictures taken where Princess Diana famously had her picture taken on the bench in front of the Taj, and fell happily into the tourist trap of buying our professional photos for 50 rupees each!

Afterwards, Mr Singh took us back to our amazing hotel for a buffet breakfast and showers and later that morning we were off to visit to Agra Fort. The Yamuna River separates the Taj and the fort which is made of Red sandstone and structurally similar to the red fort in Delhi. It was very impressive but by this time the temperature was soaring in Agra so walking around the fort was exceptionally hard work as well as with the extra attention we were all recieving too!

Later that afternoon we had a six hour drive to Jaipur and arrived at Khandela Haveli Hotel. This was a lovely boutique Indian style hotel where we stayed in that night after an exhausting day and had Indian food in the restaurant which again was excellent food (so far so good with the delhi bellies!).

Early the next morning we visited the incredible Amber Fort, Dave and Kate decided to take an elephant ride to the top, where I stood snapping away photos of the elephants and monkeys and Rob got hassled by people selling paintings where he nearly blew his top at them until I told them to go away very sternly!! The grounds were beautiful, but again in the heat it was hard going exploring the immense area. That afternoon we also went to the Observatory, wind palace and water palace in the area of Old Jaipur which is known as the 'Pink City'. We had lunch in Mr Singh's recommended vegetarian restaurant where we ate 'Thali', this comes up as a metal tray filled with several different dishes. That evening we went for dinner at The 'Copper Chimney' which we found recommended online, Rob and I had an amazing Chicken Bhuna and suprisingly no one was fed up of Indian food indulgence!

The next morning Mr Singh picked us up to meet his boss, Sabu to pay him the money for our trip. This all went very smoothly and Sabu seemed to be a very friendly and professional businessman which did suprise us as he had previously emailed me to ask if I could arrange for a camera to be brought with Dave and Kate from England which was a bit suspect! Mr Singh also stopped off to give us Massala Tea from his brother's street stool which is made with Cinnamon and ginger, very nice! He also stopped at the off licence to buy us some bottles of drink to sneak into the dry state we were heading to the next day! (He was working for his tip today we thought!). On our drive back to Delhi we were positive we didn't want to return to 'Incredible Homestay' after our bad experience there so Mr Singh took us to 'Star Plaza' in Karol Bagh, it was much better value for money with modern rooms and we managed to haggle down the price, Dave even got them to throw in breakfast!

That night after dinner in the hotel we got a tuk tuk to India Gate, a huge war memorial which was very impressive lit up in bright lights which looks very similar to the 'Arch de Triumph' in France. We wanted to go to a bar but we got the impression our tuk tuk driver was giving us the run around so we abandoned the idea and went back to our room to drink the beers put aside for Rishikesh whilst watching Bollywood music videos on the TV!

After a hectic but fun packed three days, the following day we would be heading north, away from the chaos of the Golden Triangle and to land of Rishikesh, which is the gateway to the Himalayas!!!!

We were dropped at the hot and dusty bus stop in Battambang and sat waiting for our rickety bus back to the border, whilst there we saw the locals in full swing haggling for bags of mystery fruit and vegetables being driven into the centre of town and again the tuk tuk drivers literally running after the arriving buses to try and convince a tourist to go to 'their' hotel! We arrived at Poipet border where our bus just drove off giving us no indication of where to go (we are getting used to this now!) and with us was a rather crazy European man who launched into conversation telling us he was going back to Bangkok as he had a heart problem but at the same time was drinking beers out of a shopping bag.

We got to the other side of the border and were stamped back into Thailand for fifteen days, luckily there was someone on the other side waiting for us. Just as it started to pelt with rain we were loaded into a minivan and driven at warp speed back to Bangkok arriving at our hotel, 'Diamond house' on a very dark and stormy Sunday night.

The purpose of our return to Bangkok was to get our visa's for India which we were told would take five working days, so with the weekend we were now to wait eight days! As we were now running very low on money this was to be a very low key week. However, we did manage to have a fun few days with our friend from home, Anthony and his girlfriend Darapen who were visiting Bangkok whilst on holiday! We all visited the World Health Organisation snake research centre which is attached to a hospital in Bangkok. This was extremely interesting as it is one of the first centres set up to extract venom from poisonous snakes in order to treat people coming into hospital with potentially lethal bites. Every day they bring out the snakes and give an educational talk about the snakes, their natural habitat and the potentially lethal damage they can do to humans if they bite! After this we walked down to Lumpini Park which has a huge lake in the middle and very unexpectedly has turtles and large lizards living in the lake who were not shy in coming out to say hello. We all spent a couple of nights out in Bangkok, one around the Khao San road area watching an acoustic band play and one in the Patpong area which is famously known for it's sleazey 'ping pong' shows....we were neither drunk enough or felt any need to lower ourselves to going into any of these bars! However, we did end up in an alleyway full of neon sign bars which only after sitting ourselves down and ordering drinks did we realise this was the gay street! Rob and Anthony got lots of attention from the waiters whereas as Darapen and I were mostly ignored and served last!

Our next few days were largely taken up with exploring other areas of Bangkok which included a day in Siam, the more upmarket area where we stopped off to see 'Super 8' at the cinema! Going to the cinema in Thailand is very cheap and we love standing up at the beginning and saluting the king who is probably the most loved man in Thailand, we've become big fans of him too whilst here! But it never fails to suprise me how many people get up and leave halfway through the film or just go there for a chat! The rest of the time we were hunting out cheap market stools to eat at with our ever dwindling funds. We were pretty much bored by Bangkok by the time our visas came back, second time around here (and fourth time for me!) we had pretty much seen it all. So as soon as we got our passports back we got straight on a bus down to the seaside town Hua Hin, this is where the King goes on holiday so we guessed it must be nice! We had heard it was a bit of an upmarket area for ex-pat's and rich Thai's but we found a cheap guesthouse called 'All Nations' which was right by the sea in the fishing port area. Our little room with air con, fridge and TV was only 12 pounds a nights which was about half of what we were paying to stay in Bangkok.

We had a very chilled out few days in Hua Hin, the weather wasn't great as it is starting to be cloudy and rainy everyday however it was still hot and the perfect little town to explore for a few days and has a very lovely beach. The restaurants and bars were way out of our budget here so we ate Thai food at the night market, ashamedly we also ate Mcdonalds but we also found a Tesco's down the road with a street market style food court where you could eat for very cheap and it was clean! A lot of Thai people seemed to eat there too which is always a good sign.

We're on our way back to Bangkok now for one last night at Diamond House before leaving at 3.30am to go to the airport to catch our flight to India! This is the last entry for South East Asia and we've had an amazing time here with the highlights being Tubing in Vang Vieng, Laos New Year in Luang Prabang, the boat trip in Halong Bay, the beautiful town of Hoi An in Veitnam and the temples of Angkor Wat in Siem Reap, Cambodia. The last part of our adventure will only be for 12 days where we will be visiting the Golden Triangle in India and head north to the base of the Himalayas, Rishikesh!

Peace out...next entry will be from INDIA!

The five hour bus trip from Siem Reap was a hot one! The rickety old bus left about an hour late while they waited for locals to fill it up at the bus station and then the 'air con' wasn't working so everyone had their windows open...which really only let in more hot air! The driver was a little all over the place as he kept trying to overtake and then slamming on his breaks, causing the whole bus to lurch forward. A little baby hit his head on the seat in front which caused the whole family to start shouting at the driver, so he seemed to be a bit more careful after that! Our drive was quite interesting through the countryside as we had 'Mr Nicky' on board who is a cambodian tour guide, he had been to a friend's wedding in Siem Reap so he happily sat himself next to us in the hope that we would use his services in the coming days telling us all about himself, his family, the history of Battambang and sharing his fruit with us! It was sad to see a family's wagon had come off the road at one point, all their fish which they were obviously taking to a market were all over the road and the children were very upset! This must happen quite a lot as the families load up the wagon and then all get on top of their stock which must be quite a weight.

On arriving at Battambang it really turned into complete chaos, we were the only tourists on the bus and the tuk tuk drivers went crazy. They literally ran alongside the bus banging on the window with signs for their hotel, there was so many of them it was very hard to actually get off the bus and get our bags from underneath, they started to pull on our shoulders which didn't go down too well with us! Luckily I saw my name on a sign in the crowd and as we said 'yes, that's us, we're with you!' all the drivers laughed and started to playfully hitting the tuk tuk driver who had our booking and dispersed straight away like it was a game! We were glad we'd booked a hotel already, as it would have been very hard to get away from the money hungry crowd. We're staying at the 'Holiday Hotel' in the centre of town, it's quite nice as it's new and has all the added wifi and tv bonuses...although they keep turning off the electricity which isn't so helpful! We've managed to get used to the daily thunderstorm too which usually happens every afternoon, it starts very quickly with the wind picking up, the thunder is very loud and the rain comes down heavily so we always plan to be inside at this time!

When we explored the small town of Battambang we realised there really isn't much to it. There is a big market in the middle by the river for the locals selling meat, fruit etc and surrounding this are many french colonial buildings. The first two days were mainly visiting restaurants we liked the look of, also we got a tuk tuk to a french restaurant where we could sit by the pool for a couple of hours and that was basically it, it really is a very quiet town! So as we still had a couple of days left, we contacted Mr Nicky who we had met on the bus (he cleverly gave us his business card before getting off!) and asked how much he charges for a day out. We agreed to $15 and it really was worth the money. He picked us up and drove us out into the countryside stopping at various temples and pagodas, some which were very similar to what we had seen at Angkor Wat. He also took us to a village where we watched a family making rice paper to sell at the market, a fish paste market where we watched how it was made (it stunk too!), sticky rice making stools, a vineyard, a disused pepsi plant...the list goes on! We also went past an area where some cows looked very unhappy and were being bound up, as we drove away they all would have been killed for meat so I was happy to just miss that one. Next we had a ride on the rickety 'Bamboo train', this is going to be closed very soon so worth a trip on this ancient little railway line! He also took us to Phnom Banan, which had 358 stone steps to climb, this was a real mission in the heat but nice to sit at the top and look at the views of the countryside. Lastly we drove to the Killing caves of Phnom Sampeau (you can imagine what went on here during the Khmer Rouge takeover). We were shattered after our day our with Mr Nicky, but it was well worth getting away from the town for a day to see the countryside and villages! I don't think I have ever waved or said hello to so many children, we were treated like celebrities which was really nice.

Tomorrow we make our way by bus back over the border to Bangkok! Overland we can be stamped in for 15 days, so we will be back in Thailand for 15 days before our flight to India to meet Kate and Dave! :-)

We left Phnom Penh by taking a 6 hour bus to Siem Reap. Most of this road is now sealed so it wasn't too bumpy. Again it was amazing to stare out the window at the lush green countryside and small villages that we passed through with all the hand built houses which are up on stilts.

When we arrived at bus station, it was very chaotic with lots of tuk tuk drivers shouting for you to go with them, luckily our hotel had sent a happy Cambodian chappie called Richard to pick us up, he was waiting patiently and had a big smile on his face when we spotted him. He loaded us up with all our bags into his tuk tuk and drove us out to the 'Angkor Spirit Palace' which seemed to take about half an hour as we drove through lots of rice fields and rural countryside. We found this hotel on hostelworld, it had no ratings so we checked it out on trip advisor and people seemed to say very good things about it. The hotel cost about 14 pounds a night, a little bit more than the guest houses in town but we were very tempted by the look of this place. We were so glad we did as it is definately the nicest place we have stayed at in the whole time we have been travelling! It looks from the outside like a beautiful old temple, it's very well looked after as they are constantly gardening and cleaning but the best part is the swimming pool...hooray! Consequently we've ended up staying here over a week, as it is away from the busy town in the middle of dusty roads and rice fields, they will drive you by tuk tuk in and out of town for free until 10pm, so we get the best of both worlds.

We've ventured most evenings into 'Pub street' which is basically a street full of bars and restaurants, it's very touristy but we have had some fun nights out eating Khmer, mexican, indian and italian food! The town also has an amazing night market (well, I was much more impressed with it than Rob) which sells artwork, jewellery, khmer crafts, scarfs, books etc. I had a very happy evening wandering around where I left Rob in a funky little bar at the end of the market whilst I walked around the market. I managed to spend 20 pounds which is at the moment, a huge amount of money so I felt quite bad afterwards...but bought some nice stuff When I went back to the bar, the bar staff were making a real fuss of Rob trying on his glasses and wanting to see his tattoos! We've been very pleasantly suprised just how nice Cambodian people have been, on the whole they are very warm and happy people (unless they are ordering you to buy BOOK Madam!!)

During the week the staff arranged for Richard to drive us out to the Angkor Wat temples, Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world and the Khmer's (Cambodian people's) national symbol. It is now a world heritage site which is encouraging the Cambodian government to look after it as there has been much damage and theft from the site in the past. We drove into the park which just on it's own is a beautiful place. We paid $40 each for a permit, which was hugely expensive on top of paying and tipping Richard to drive us!! But once in we looked at many temples, my favourite was 'The Bayon'. This is a magnificent structure made up of 54 gothic towers decorated with 216 faces (which resemble the king at that time). This particular day was incredibly hot, the weather in cambodia is very unpredictable as it is the rainy season...one minute it's storming heavily, then the next is it scorching sunshine! We had to keep hiding from the sun under trees and drinking lots of water so as not to completely dehydrate! From here we looked around the rest of the temples of 'Angkor Thom', including 'The Baphuon', otherwise known as 'the worlds' largest jigsaw puzzle' and 'The Terrace of elephants' which was once a giant viewing stand for public ceremonies. By late afternoon we finally arrived at the very grand 'Angkor Wat' which is surrounded by a moat, it really was an amazing sight which completely lived up to all our expectations. We spent an hour walking around the rectangular grounds snapping away hundreds of pictures. After this, Richard drove us back to the hotel where we couldn't keep our eyes open for being so tired, we then ordered KFC delivery...oops.

On our second day visiting the park we were driven further out to 'Banteay Srei', which is a Hindu temple thought to hold some of the finest stone carvings on the earth. Luckily it was a rainy day so a bit cooler. We saw many more impressive temples and also where they filmed 'Tomb Raider' with Angelina Jolie. Along the way we stopped to say hello to some monkeys who lived in the grounds. We were careful not to go too near them as we had heard they can be quite vicious, these however did seem quite friendly and seemed to love climbing all over the tuk tuk! We especially liked the fat old monkey who lolloped along the road, he seemed to know the Cambodian lady who sells bananas to the tourists as he plonked himself next to her and tapped her on the leg!

We spent our last few days in Siem Reap lazing around in our hotel and Siem Reap town. Our extravagent couple of days at the temples cost a little more than expected so a couple of cheap days were needed. The staff at the hotel think it is hilarious that we've got up late the past few days, they never cease to find it extremely funny to say good morning to us past midday and then laugh like it's a hilarious joke! (I think they think we're lazy, especially the cleaning lady who we send away at 10am every morning!)

Last night we met up with our brilliant Irish friend Kevin who we met whilst travelling with the Kiwi Experience in New Zealand. We had a fun night drinking in 'Picasso' bar which is run by a lovely English couple who are travelling the world, then the night got far more messy as we ended up in a graffiti covered bar in Pub street downing vodkas and rocking out to Metallica and Rage against the machine! Was a fun night and great to see Kevin again as it's been five months since New years eve in Franz Joseph! :D

Today it is very dark and stormy (the thunder is incredibly loud which is shaking the hotel!). It is a shame as it's our last day in Siem Reap, but tomorrow we will be moving on to a town called Battambang, the 'ricebowl' of Cambodia! We'll be there for a few days before returning to Thailand to finish our South East Asia travels...we only have a month left!!