Cambodia

I'm We've just crossed the border into Vietnam after 5 days in Cambodia. One plus for coming in the hot season is that queues are much less than in the high season so we hardly had to queue. No mans land between Thailand and Cambodia was a chaotic gambling metropolis full of casinos as gambling is banned in Thailand. we had to walk through while someone wheeled our bags through on a hand cart.  Fortunately we were reunited with them and with our Cambodian Exodus team of Channi and Wan without any hasssles. 

Cambodia itself was more developed than I expected and appeared to be thriving although still well behind Thailand. The lanscape was totally flat with fallow paddy fields extending for miles in every direction. Our first stop was Siem Reap which was a lovely shady old French colonial town which was the base for exploring Angkor Wat temples. The first we went to was Ta Prohm which was the setting for tomb raider.

An amazing temple from the Khmer empire (9th to 13th century I think after which they moved to Phnom Penh as they got fed up of being invaded by Thailand) with huge trees growing up through the masonry.

Next up was Bayon temple in Angkor Tom which was my personal favourite. We reckon it would be a great site for a fashion photo shoot for Anna when she is rich and famous and can get someone else to pay the air fare. 

The group is bonding well so starting to generate a few unoriginal team poses:

Smiling Buddhas everywhere to help you on your way to enlightenment..

The last and grandest was Angkor Wat which was hugely impressive but less intimate than the other two. We went there first in the sweltering afternoon, but it was much more atmospheric to see it a dawn - well worth the early start.

Coach transfer to Phom Penh uneventful except for a stop at the insect capital of the world - fried insect of every description. I tried a fried grasshopper but drew the line at eating a cockroach.

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