Phnom NOM NOM NOM Penh

Off we trotted then to Cambodia's capital Phnom Penh for some city sightseeing. We found some lodgings in the Lakeside backpacker area, which had a sort of grotty bohemian chic to it, with its bars full of board games, cushions and finally brandy! We even found a place which provided a pub quiz and a Sunday roast :)

Our Phnom Penh residence

After settling in and getting to know our area, we set off into the city centre to visit the City's main cultural attractions:

Vietnam/Cambodia Friendship Monument

- O Russai Market which stank of fish and scared Jenny!

 - There were live chickens in bundles!

The National Museum (+ Matt)

We visited our third Grand Palace in SE Asia so far, in the middle of a huge thunderstorm. See below for impressive buildings 1 through 3:

The 'Chocolate Stupa'

I'm a little Teapot

After this we took a break from visiting cultural attractions and civil war atrocity sites (not pictured) with a relaxing dip in the pool : )

Now its off to Saigon, see you there!

Angkor Wat?

After a long and arduous bus ride from Pakse, which took about six weeks (or a day and a half) we eventually arrived in Siem Reap, Cambodia. It was a very pretty and quite touristy town, with friendly locals (especially the shift tuk tuk driver John Rambo) lots of book shops, bars and fun restaurants. Matt enjoyed the meatiest breakfast known to man:

"Yum Yum steak and sausage for breakfast" Gobbled Matt

We took a few days to take in Siem Reap, enjoying a massage by a blind man, exotic ice cream and making the acquaintance of an interesting man called Doctor Feet:

The fish foot massage tickled at first, but was fairly relaxing after you got used to the fact that fish were eating the filth off your feet!

Then it was time to head up to the temples of Angkor, so we hired bikes for the day and set off on the 10k journey to the ancient ruins. We visited Ankor Thom, Angkor Wat and Ta Prohm (where they filmed tomb raider - I'm pretty sure we saw Lara Croft at least twice)

South Gateway to Angkor Thom

Monkey!

The Bayon

More Bayon

Even more Bayon

The Elephant Terrace (next to the Leper King Terrace)

Ta Prohm (Tomb Raider Temple):

Lara Croft sightings!

Angkor Wat:

The standard of Buddhas varied wildly

After a highly cultural and exhausting day, we headed back and rested up before taking a tuk tuk the next day to the nearby Floating Village, which had an orphanage school, lots of shops a Catholic church and even a crocodile farm:

"Om Nom I am going to eat you!!!"