Siem Reap and loads of temples in Angkor

Boy it's good to be on a computer again! The web ain't great here in Cambodia to say the least. Typical when I've so much to tell!

Ric and I are coming to the end of three excellent, if exhausting, days of cycling around Angkor and the delightful Siem Reap. Again we've found that we are happiest when we're busy or being physically active. My irrational fears dissipate too.

We randomly bumped in to some of Ric's old university friends who have sort of done the same trip as us and have been living in New Zealand for a year but are now on their way back to the UK, with mixed feelings I think. It's great to have the chance converse with like minded people, indeed friends, after more than two months of mostly being a unit of two and not really 'socialising. The temptation to talk at a hundred miles an hour and about everything from travelling to careers to relationships and everything in between, and at a tangent, is hard to resist though. It's also made us feel a bit more sane!

Ric, fatigued by Thailand's touristy nature and thinking about making films, didn't read up on this place, wasn't that fussed about coming and had not a clue about what to expect as it was me who led us here but we've both been in our element clambering all over these incredibly impressive temples.

We've seen a lot of them! Crumbling ones, intricately carved ones, huge ones, small ones, terrifyingly steep ones, ones which have elephants all over them, ones which are being slowly destroyed by the massive tress growing up in and around them (in fact they filmed Tomb Raider in this one). And then some!

Yesterday was funny. It started off blisteringly hot. We lost the key to our bike lock so had to saw through that for half an hour and then get a new one. Then we set off to the temples and when in Angkor, somehow managed to visit the same one three times via different entrances. In our defense these things are massive, but still! Then we got caught in a torrential downpour and had to shelter for an hour or so inside a temple (they are far more porous than we hoped!). Got chatting, as you do, to a US sailor who has just finished a month-long post near Burma, trying to get supplies across to the poor people there. They couldn't do anything despite asking the Burmese government 17 times for permission to enter! Apparently more bodies are beginning to appear, implying that people are starving now. The onset of the wet season will only make matters worse. It's so awful.

The rain didn't let up but things improved slightly so we got back on our bikes and cycled for roughly two hours to get home and dry!!!

Personally, I've now seen enough temples here. Ric could have stayed for another week I think such is his boyish enthusiasm for them. Suddenly he's the one taking all the photos!

The people here are delightful as I'd been told by friends they would be. This is all the more touching when one considers how much the nation has suffered in fairly recent years and indeed now with their extreme poverty.

The children at the temples who are made by their families to hassle tourists (sorry - there is no better word for it) to buy their goods are quite relentless though. I feel guilty for getting even the slightest bit pissed off with them considering how poor they are. They are part of the culture, part of the temple experience whether we want to accept it or not. I'd love to support them and I have bought the odd drink, postcard, bracelet etc. but I wonder whether this is the best thing to do. I wonder how many go to school. It pains me to be repeatedly saying no these tiny shoeless children.

I am delighted to see a huge amount of charitable work going on around town though. More so than anywhere else we've been so far. Land-mine awareness foundations, local craft markets, child protection schemes and charities; things like that. I'm more than happy to give towards those.

We've decided we simply don't have time to visit both Vietnam and Laos before we have to catch a fight from Singapore to Hong Kong on the 25th June so have opted for Laos where we're going tomorrow. Luang Prabang to be exact. It's a shame to miss one of our destinations but we wouldn't do it justice in this short time and can always go back another year anyway!

We wish we'd come here to Cambodia sooner and spent less time in the touristy areas of Thailand. Ah well. It's nice to leave a place wanting more.

I've got to go. I'm being chomped to death by bugs and have an early start.