<title>Siem Reap

Crossing the border went smoothly and we avoided all scams… luckily we made a train friend from Hungary so we got a shared taxi from the border to Siem Reap for only $40 for 2.5 hours! We walked into town to see the night market and picked a traditional Khmer restaurant to get a taste for the food we will be eating for the next 4.5 months, and it tasted goood. There was no air-conditioning at the hostel so it was an extremely hot night – however, it was something else entirely which woke me up - the prayers projected out on loudspeaker which started at 5.30am for an hour and a half (and again at 5pm).

Next we had our first full day of sight-seeing, where we visited the amazing temples of Angkor Wat, Ta Prohm and Angkor Thom (Bayon Temple) which were extremely exciting to explore. It was also fun to spot the people most dripping in sweat; invariably the American tourists won this game. It was certainly a scorcher at 33 degrees, which is something I will have to get used to living here. At the temples most of the statues are headless due to looting, which brings a sort of eerie feeling to the place. I was impressed by the fact that it wasn't over developed as a tourist spot and you could just explore – especially at Angkor Thom which was left untouched to savour the ruinous atmosphere, but you do bump into warning signs suggesting impeding danger! After a sweaty morning we chilled out in the rooftop terrace at the hostel and had some mojitos!