Saturday 5th April 2008

We managed to ditch our driver yesterday and found ourselves a tuk-tuk and driver for today. We arranged to meet our new driver 'Seal' at 7am, which would allow us to get to the temples nice and early and have a look around before it got too hot.

The Temples of Angkor were AWESOME! We didn't see them all - just the main ones. There are far too many to see in one, or even three days. You can buy a week long pass, which gives you a good chance - but they cover an area of 200 square kilometers! Even for their age, some of them are in pretty good condition. One of them however, which was also one of our favourites, has been totally destroyed by nature. For some reason the trees of the forest have gone crazy and have smashed the place to bits - growing right through everything and leaving it in a right mess. This temple was used as part of the set on the Tomb Raider film.

At about 1pm, it was roasting and we were all templed-out. I think our tuk-tuk driver was getting pretty hot too and he was happy when we said we wanted to go back to town. When he got us back, we took him for lunch to say thanks, before returning to our room for a rest. Nikki tried to have a nap, and I was reading when all of a sudden this huge racket started coming through our windows. At first we tried to ignore it in case it was children practicing some (awful) musical instrument - but it went on and on and on and on and on... In the end, Nikki started going crazy, telling me to hunt them down and do something - but instead we went out for a walk.

This evening we went to a free music concert, just outside of town, which was organised by a Swiss guy called Dr. Beat. He's been a Doctor in Cambodia since the 70's and he gives up his Saturday nights so that he can raise money for his hospitals. He's obviously pretty good, or been doing it for a long time - because he's built five! He was excellent on the cello, and he also played some videos, showing the healthcare situation for Cambodian children, which were pretty upsetting. When it was time to leave, we donated $20 to the cause, which wasn't much - but all we had. Afterwards we came back to town for some drinks to try and cheer ourselves up.

See Mr Toyota driver, give us a smile and we're happy to do business... we'll even do lunch!