The day started brightly with a delicous breakfast at Sala Bai – I had Bor Bor chicken porridge a rice porridge with an egg, slivers of chicken which was salty and moreish. Ally chose a baguette, Jo a crossante and a bowl of fruit and Greg settled for a ‘big breakfast’ of eggs, bacon and so-on.

During breakfast we were informed by the hotel that the guide we had booked the day before required some form of transport to take us around. Feeling slightly embarassed at our mistake we hurredly organised a van and within half an hour it was ready to take us to Angkor!

The minvan was a great relief between temples and our driver steered us through the sheer chaos of the Cambodian streets with aplomb. Our guide, Sanchey, was the most knowledgable and personable guide we could have hoped for. A university educated, former schoolteacher he speaks excellent English, came prepared with a bag full of maps and illustrations and proved absolutely invaluable in leading us around the mammoth temple complex. Where our first day in Cambodia as we tried to find our way around was a bit of a farce, the second was everything we could have hoped for.

Our first destination was Angkor Thom, the former capital of the Khmer empire. From the imposing South Gate we were taken up to Terrace of the Leper King and the Terrace of the Elephants. We wandered to the former royal temple of Phimeanakas, which I regretted climing once I saw the view down -  and, lastly and most spectacularly, the Bayon – the temple covered with the serene smile of King Jayavaraman VII.

Finally, we drove five minutes down the road to the big one, Angkor Wat. Wow! So richly and intracately carved, although it was simply swamped with tourists! Apparently tourist numbers are way down this year in Cambodia, but Angkor Wat still seemed like a sea of people.

I really can’t describe the beauty of the temples we saw on the first day – the sheer scale, the quality of the carving, the completeness of the temples, despite their age really amazed me, despite all the reading I did before arriving.

I really won’t try to describe the temples, rather I will post some of the photos we took. My hopes were so high that I had steeled myself for certain dissapointment, but I think they are amongst the most spectacular things I have ever seen. They are awe-inspiring, cryptic, beautifully preserved and so heavily concentrated in such a small area around Siem Reap.