That elephant's wearing shoes!

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Bye bye Borneo, hello Cambodia!!

As soon as our plane touched down in Siem Reap we knew we'd done the right thing coming back. Cambodia is, without a doubt, one of the most beautiful countries I have ever been to and the friendly Cambodian people just make it all the more special.

Once through customs we saw our smiling tuk-tuk driver waiting for us, who had been sent by Geordie Phil, the owner of our guesthouse. I'd forgotten how odd and wobbly your first tuk-tuk drive feels and was happy to see our driver don his 'Lucky' helmet..."I hope so" I thought as we skidded out onto the bustling road across the path of numerous coaches and lorries.

When we arrived at 'Siem Reap Rooms' Phil talked us through the sights etc. which was all very well and good but then he mentioned "We do English breakfasts" and in that moment became our favourite person in the world. We decided to hop back in the tuk-tuk to see the Angkor Temples at sunset and pick up our permit for the following morning, to beat the crowd. We'd both been to the temples before but it was fantastic to return and they were as beautiful as I remembered.

We were up again at 5am to see the temples at sunrise (we might as well have slept over!) and spent the day being ferried from temple to temple by tuk-tuk until we'd have been happy to never see another temple again.

While in Siem Reap we also visited a War Museum which was more like a patch of grass with tanks, guns, grenades and other war 'paraphernalia' but we had a tour guide who told us of his own experience of the war which was as fascinating as it was horrifying and sad. He had fingers missing from picking up a recently blown grenade at the age of seven, and metal visibly wedged under the skin on his face and stomach from when his friend stepped on a land mine and was killed in front of him when he was ten. We also heard that there are still 2 to 4 million unexploded land mines in Cambodia. You can see why they describe us a coming from 'the lucky country'. It was a subdued tuk-tuk ride home.

After Siem Reap we headed to Phnom Penh where we visited the Killing Fields and S-21 prison. On a beautiful, sunny day such as we had it's difficult to imagine the horrific things that happened at the Killing Fields, which was a former orchard and so peaceful and quiet. That is until you look across and see all the dips in the ground which were mass graves. There are still clothes embedded in the ground. S-21, however, just emanates evil and I was glad to leave it behind.

On a lighter note, upon our return to our hostel there was an elephant being fed outside. He was wearing shoes.

Next we headed for the coast of Sihanoukville which I visited three years ago and remembered as being a beautiful, peaceful, beach town. How things change. It is now more like an 18-30s holiday, full of youngsters who made even me feel old, fresh out of secondary school and ready to drink themselves into oblivion. On the other hand we had a fantastic BBQ with fresh fish, potatoes and salad which we enjoyed immensely and only after we'd eaten did we see two giant rats run past the restaurant bar. Yum!

After a night of joining in the drinking culture we had a power cut at 5am which stopped all electricity and water. The sweltering heat in the room was joined by an over-zealous cockerel outside our window and then by some interesting Cambodian music played full blast from an unknown location. Hungover, hot and tired, we decided to move on. Not far, we just moved into Sihanoukville centre where we immediately headed to a British bar, aptly named Britannia, and had delicious Sunday roasts and numerous cups of tea while reading our books...yes, we are officially getting old.

We needed something new, a change of scenery and a new country to explore. We brought our bus tickets to Vietnam. First stop, Ho Chi Minh City...

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