Four Nights and Three Days

Friday 17th December 2009, 5.25pm, decking platform on the Boeng Mak Lake - Phnom Penh

Due to the overwhelming sadness and introspection that the past couple of days in Phnom Penh has brought us I haven't found any right moment or focus to write about the fantastic time we had in Siem Reap. Only 4 hours from here but a world away in terms of atmosphere and attitude, Siem Reap was a perfect backpackers city haunt.

We bartered our arses off for jewellery, clothes and hand-painted opium vases (to be used as incense burners!) in the markets, we had hand massages by blind masseurs, we visited silk and stone workshops, wandered through the food markets and gagged at the smell of rotting fish and pig heads, ate in beautiful restaurants, sat with our legs in a pool of water containing hundreds of dead-skin hungry fish, treated ourselves to a few hours at a hotel swimming pool, got disgustingly drunk and spent a night and most of the next morning clubbing with the Cambodians, sat in a movie bar laughing our heads off at Will Ferrell, played a few rounds of pool (if the aim of the game were to pot the white as much as possible then we would be pool masters), had whisky downing contests with Swedes and Canadians, visited the exhibition and the hospital, and the companion, far braver than I, ate a fried tarantula leg from a street vendor! I stood about a metre away holding the camera, trying to keep my dinner down and telling her 'don't put it near me'.

My initial suspicions on our first night in Cambodia were bang on the money. It wasn't lust, I wasn't being fickle, after 4 nights and 3 days there I was truly, madly, deeply in love with Siem Reap. The two of us are firmly in agreement that we had a bit of a ball there, and if it weren't for timetables and sightseeing checklists we could easily have pottered around Siem Reap for a good while longer. The really great thing about it for me is that despite the liver-bashing it didn't feel over indulgent or excessive, the city lends itself perfectly to balanced living, to travelling with a conscience.

All of this and I haven't even mentioned our day of trekking round the temples of Angkor - a recognised eighth wonder of the world. The temples are so magnificent, so breathtaking, that I willingly concede to not being able to do them justice with my own descriptions, so I'll let the guidebook help...'Angkor Wat is the largest religious structure in the world, the Khmer's national symbol, the epicentre of their civilisation and a source of fierce national pride. Soaring skywards and surrounded by a 190m wide moat that would make it's European castle counterparts blush, Angkor Wat is one of the most inspired and spectacular monuments ever conceived by the human mind.' Yeah, it weren't bad. :)

I spent the day clambering up and down, under and over the temples playing Lara Croft. Portions of Tomb Raider were filmed here and I took further advantage of this fact by collecting as many Cambodian children as I could find to wander round with me so that I felt truly Angelina. At the end of the day we had the perfect sunset experience. After a steep climb of about 200 crumbling, 1000 year old steps, I sat perched atop Pre Rup temple from where all the Angkor temples spread carpeted out to the horizon in front of you. As the sun made it's descent on Angkor I raised a cold beer with the companion and four wonderful new friends, and cheering we drank to sunsets you never thought you'd be lucky enough to see.

Then we headed back into town, went to Pub Street, and got wrecked. See?!! Balance.