That evening we ate dinner at a quirky restaurant called the 'Dead Fish Tower' which had many different open wooden levels inside where you sat on cushions on the floor and ate your meal. There was also a live crocodile pit. It was a shame the Thai food didn't match the atmosphere!
The following morning, Saturday, we were up early and hired a tuk tuk driver for the day to take us on a tour around the temples of Angkor. A huge UNESCO World Heritage site, the temples of Angkor were built between the 10th and 12th centuries and are spread throughout the jungle outside of Siem Reap. They are considered by some to be the eighth wonder of the world and they did not disappoint, despite the hefty $40 entry fee each! As we approached the entrance, elephants came plodding through the main gate which really set the scene for the day ahead.
To start, our driver Sumat took us into a huge temple area called Angkor Thom which houses some of Angkor's most important monuments. Our first stop was the Bayon, the King's state temple which rises from the centre of the Angkor 
Thom compound in a cluster of beautiful stone conical towers. Carved into almost every stone wall are huge, smiling stone faces of the 10th Century king, and we climbed the steep steps of the central tower for views of the temple and surrounding jungle. From the Bayon we walked north and a
round the Baphuon, a huge 3 tiered temple pyramid before strolling along the 350m Terrace of Elephants where stone marching elephants are carved. We finished by walking the Terrace of the Leper King.
From Angkor Thom we headed east, wandering the smaller, quieter but no less beautiful temples of Thommanon, Chau Say Tevoda and Ta Keo before we stopped at Ta Prohm. 
The temple is stunning, having been nearly engulfed by the jungle, and was Ash's favourite! It is a series of dark galleries and pillars held together by gigantic tree roots and the experience of walking through the ruins was extremely atmospheric. 
It felt like something straight out of the Indiana Jones movies! From Ta Prohm we visited the huge lake where the King used to bathe before heading around to see the area's highlight, Angkor Wat. It was baking hot by this point so we were really grateful of the cool breeze we had when being driven around in our open sided tuk tuk.We arrived at Angkor Wat at lunchtime, which was perfect as the site was devoid of the usual noisy tour groups. Angkor Wat was built in the 11th century and even though we were almost 'templed out' it was a real feast for our eyes. Angkor Wat is surrounded by a wide moat and enclosed by a huge wall, and the centrepiece of the temple are five magnificent stone towers.
The temple is the national symbol of Cambodia and a source of enormous pride for the people and it is easy to see why. We wandered through the huge stone hallways and courtyards, admiring the stone bas-reliefs that had been so intricately carved nearly 1,000 years ago, and took in the great views from around the outside of the towers. Having been on the go for nearly 8 hours we returned to Siem Reap mid-afternoon and relaxed for the rest of the day, enjoying an authentic Khmer meal that evening.
On Sunday morning we met our tuk-tuk driver Sumat again to spend a day exploring the more distant, remote temples. We drove north for nearly two hours to Kbal Spean, passing through small, rustic villages, open farmland and along some seriously
bumpy and dusty roads. In our little open-sided tuk-tuk we w
ere exposed to all the elements and it became so dusty we had to share a bandana to breathe through! After fishtailing around in the deep, sandy drive up to Kbal Spean we arrived safely and our driver was in need of a rest! We walked 30 minutes along a sandy, uphill path through thick jungle to reach Kbal Spean,
the skilfully carved river bed, known as the 'River of Thousand Lingas' for the thousand phallic shapes that have been carved into the river bed. The river flowed over many other beautiful carvings and cascaded in a waterfall. It was amazing to us that anybody had found this place as it was buried so deep in dense jungle. We returned to our tuk-tuk and headed back towards Siem Reap to see 
Banteay Srei, the 'Citadel of Women' which is the most ornate of all the temples we have visited. Although tiny in comparison to the other temples, it has the most detailed, intricate carvings and every doorway, lintel and wall is absolutely beautiful.
From Banteay Srei we stopped in at the small Cambodian Landmine Museum which has been set up by an ex-Khmer Rouge soldier in an effort to raise money to remove landmines from Cambodia and to educate about the terrible effect they are still having today. During the Khmer Rouge regime and Vietnam War, hundreds of thousands of landmines were placed across the country and they are still killing and maiming hundreds of farmers, field-workers and children today. Inside the museum, there was a glass cage containing thousands of different landmines, all found and defused by the owner of the museum. 
There is a small orphanage at the back of museum for the children who have lost their parents because of landmines. From the museum we headed to our final temple for the day, Preah Khan, and climbed to the top for views across the temple and the surrounding jungle. We returned back to Siem Reap and that evening dined at the same Khmer restaurant we had eaten at the night before as the food was so good (and so inexpensive!).On Monday morning we were up at 6am and after checking out of our hostel took a taxi 180km west to the border with Thailand. The taxi was a beaten up, old car and before leaving the driver filled up with petrol from a hand-operated pump and stopped in to fill the tyres with air... we were grateful for the safety check!
The road was largely unmade, dusty and very bumpy, but this didn't stop the driver from racing along at breakneck speed and we arrived safely at the border town of Poipet after three hours. After a long queue to cross the border into the small town of Aranya Prathet we took a tuk-tuk to the main bus station and jumped on a bus to Bangkok that took 4 hours. 
In Bangkok we took another bus back to the Bangalamphu area, where we started our time in Asia 5 weeks ago. We found a small, if slightly dingy hostel and enjoyed a Pad Thai from a local food vendor before treating ourselves to a 1 hour Thai massage. After the long travelling it was much needed!Today is our last day in this part of Asia as tomorrow we will take a flight to Kathmandu to begin the next leg of our trip through Nepal and India.
