Sunrise to sunset with a plethora of temples followed by swimming with bats

---

Hooray, the alarm is going off at 4.30am! I leapt out of bed, did 100 push ups, swam fifty lengths of the pool before a quick shower had me ready for our 5am pick up. Believe that and you'll believe anything.

The bits about the 4.30 alarm and the 5am pick up were true though as we joined the masses en route to Angkor Wat to watch the sunrise. Probably about 1000 people were vying for the best spots in the dark. And then the wait and the slow shutter speeds and the hope that the picture will be good enough for alamy or shutterstock.

And then when the sun was too bright we moved to the lake to get a shot of the temple reflected on the lake. Okay so everybody does it and probably does it better than me but you can't NOT take the shot once you're here. A few other hundred people thought so too.

I managed to get some shots of some monkeys as we walked back to the van and then it was back to the hotel for another superb breakfast. I went to the egg station TWICE today, once for a couple of sunny-side-ups and once for an omelette. Claire is very keen to man an egg station for me at home and is going to suggest it to her boss. Imagine that, whenever I fancy an egg I can just nip to the kitchen where Claire will be waiting wearing only an apron, with a spatula and a box of eggs in hand. Maybe she shouldn't mention that bit to her boss....

After a sturdy 30 minutes nap we were off again, this time to The Tomb Raider temple. Guess which film was filmed there? Yes, you guessed it, Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom; oh and Two Brothers of course. And something with Angelina Jolie in it, can't remember what it's called.

The Tomb Raider temple is our favourite so far with huge trees intertwining with the ancient monument. People queue up to have their pictures taken in front of the roots made even more famous by that Angelina Jolie movie. It's jungle and a world heritage site combined and it's wonderful. And we were actually there!

Excuse me for getting a bit technical but....it was built a long time ago by some people for some other people. Hope those statistics don't bamboozle you too much.

After that it was temple time and a climb up some massive steps. Claire asked why the steps were so high and was told that the people used to be taller, about 2m tall. I'm just 10cm shorter than that and those steps were bloody high and hard work!

It's hot today as well but no use coming here and sitting by the pool all day eh....

Following a reasonably pleasant lunch and a bit of diarrhoea it was time to see another temple. This one was different from the rest as it was colourful with some fantastically ornate carvings. I think it's called the ladies' temple. It's in Cambodia; look it up. Then go.

There are quite a few sellers of souvenirs here. Not as bad as India obviously but some can be quite insistent and not leave you alone even if they are selling hideous scarves or garish trouser type things. But there are bargains to be had. I managed to barter down from $15 for one t shirt down to $6 for two. One ornament for $25 down to $20 for two and some artwork which I thought was a bargain anyway at $2 so I just paid it. They wouldn't sell it to me at a loss before you think I'm robbing them of food for their kids. All part of the fun.

And then it was off to temple five of the day which involved a hike. Yes after getting up at 4.30 then trawling through a number of temples in the blistering heat it was time to start hiking!

Our guide was suffering from a bit of Delhi belly and so he stayed at the bottom. The climb (of course it was uphill!) was over rocks, up steps, over vines and then with some stepping stones at the top. The good news was that it was mainly shaded and it was quite a pleasant jaunt to be honest.

There wasn't much of a temple left at the top but there were some intricate carvings with water running through them that were quite unique. The area is called Kbal Spean and we also found a nice waterfall on the way down where we tried to get some blurring water using slow shutter speeds. Tried anyway.....

At the bottom Andy managed to haggle a lady down from $3 to $2 for a t shirt he didn't want and then ended up paying $3 as she didn't have enough change. She was happy and he has a new lining for his dog's basket.

At a quick stop off to photograph the sunset reflecting on a lake we were bombarded by kids selling trinkets. Claire bought about 100 fridge magnets and some bracelets while I ended up with a flute. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it but apparently if I keep playing it it will be shoved somewhere the sun don't shine. Then though every time I fart there'll be an out of tune tune too....and that's a lot of out of tune tunes.

Whilst at the stop we also saw a car accident. Some peckerhead in a Chelsea tractor didn't see a wooden post and drove straight into it, ripping his bumper off in the process. We were obviously full of concern and rushed over to take a couple of photos.

Anyway, the sunset was quite nice and the kids VERY insistent. The little girl allowed me to take her picture after I'd bought the flute from her and her smile when I showed her the picture of herself was glorious.

By the time we had passed up the opportunity to visit a silver shop and got back to the hotel it was pitch black. So into the pool we went! With the moon in the sky, planes flying overhead and bats flying around us it was a pretty good dip. Very welcome after a very hot and busy day too.

What was left of the evening was spent in the hotel as we looked forward to a lie in tomorrow. We're not being picked up until 8am! Might get up and have a swim first....I said might....

---