The remains of a public payphone stand opposite the Old Market in Siem Reap, Cambodia.

I like this photo, I think the elements in it balance well and it also paints a good picture of Siem Reap. Here, you see what was once a working payphone, as well as a few examples of what they call “tuk tuks” (but are really motorbikes with trailers).

Behind, you can see the edge of the Old Market which is where many tourist shops are located — inside it’s dark alleys there are fewer tourist shops.

One of the views of the local township from our hotel balcony in Siem Reap, Cambodia. Moments earlier, a worker had been cutting up the ice on the table.

In such a warm climate, I was surprised to see how ice is used by the population versus how we keep things cool. On a number of occasions I spotted large slabs of ice easily a metre wide being cut, chipped or — in one case in the Old Market — cut up with chainsaws.

And really, if it works, why not? It’s worked for decades so why change it?

Shopping in the Old Market at Siem Reap, Cambodia.

The Old Market at Siem Reap is both a tourist market and a functioning local market. Shops along edge of the market complex, on the busiest main street are almost exclusively tourist shops. However, if you venture further in or around the corner, you’ll see shops still catering to locals.

Food stalls are contained mostly in the centre, and on the first visit the smell is nearly overpowering; rotting vegetables, meat and other less-easily identified odours force themselves upon you.

The market is like a rabbit warren, further inside it is dimly lit and wares are piled in a ramshackle manner to the roof. Stallholders often climb upon piles of their wares to get to other items higher up.

Coupled with calls of “Hey Mister, you buy, you buy?”, “Buy something OK?” and similar requests make for an intense, dizzying and interesting experience.

A roadside store selling petrol from re-used plastic bottles, Cambodia.

There are dozens, probably hundreds of stores selling petrol in this manner. Some “stores” are simply a stand with a few bottles of petrol. Some bottles may be soft drink bottles, some are Johnnie Walker bottles, some even seem to be watering cans.

The impression I get is that if people sell out of all their petrol (whether they buy it somewhere, or make it, I don’t know) they take the rest of the day off. From the number of sellers it probably doesn’t happen often.

Rather than following a strict set of guidelines, the rule here (and in most of Asia) seems to be that if it works and doesn’t hurt anyone, then there’s no problem.

Afternoon beer delivery. Siem Reap, Cambodia.

While showing someone photos of Siem Reap recently, they commented how it looked like a movie set. They don’t know how accurate that is.

For the first day and a half, I felt like I was on a massive back lot set (with a ton of other tourists and, of course, Justine) and people going about their lives were extras milling around.

But back to the picture, the best things here I think are the small patch of sunlight, and the repetition of the kegs. The pipe in the centre is annoying but forgivable.

This morning we woke to a rainy Siem Reap. The kids in the school next door were either inside or playing in the rain.

After we checked out, we wandered back into town. Our breakfast earlier was a set menu; the eggs were great, not like ours back home.

We headed north to a small temple—Wat Bo—it’s down a few dirty back streets and when we finally did arrive we were unsure whether it was somewhere we were supposed to go.

A young monk approached us, he and a much, much older monk opened up the pagoda for us and the young monk proceeded to tell us all about the temple, the pagoda and the paintings on the wall. Mostly, he wanted to chat with us to practice his English so we hung out for a while. Outside the pagoda, we kept talking; he explained how monks are kept fed by the locals. They closed the pagoda and denied entry to another couple which we thought was odd.

Saying our goodbyes, we went to the French Quarter for the first time and sat in the pretty gardens in the shade. Rested, we did some more shopping before heading to the airport to fly to Ha Noi.

At Ha Noi, our driver took us to the hotel; Justine tried not to watch the admittedly crazy traffic.

Since it was late, we went out for only a short while to get some cash and to get our bearings on our location in town.

Photos taken today: 124
Photos taken to date: 1213

We slept in later this morning than the past few days. After quickly getting ready we popped out for breakfast. I had chicken noodle soup and a pancake, Justine had bread and muesli, both were accompanied by coffee (mine cold with ice, Justine’s hot).

Our tuk tuk—same guy as yesterday—took us to Tonle Sap lake, a floating village. As it is no longer the wet season the houses are spread out. We took about an hour to explore the village. Besides the driver, it was us and a tour guide. The village is another world entirely; the houses move from day to day and even the schools, police stations, churches and basketball courts float. We bought some (very overpriced) books to donate to a local school. The kids seemed underwhelmed though grateful.

After we’d finished with Chang Kucas (the village on the lake) we headed for Wat Athvea.

Wat Athvea is a not-very-well known temple. Upon arrival we made our way to the temple and started investigating. No one else besides us was around. A few moments later we heard a “hello,” and a young man appeared. Supposedly, he was studying history with the local monks. He proceeded to tell us all about this temple’s history and its significance. The most impressive thing about this temple was the silence. In comparison to the “Angkor” temples the silence was near deafening.

The young man also gave us a tour of the pagoda the monks use beside Wat Athvea. Feeling generous, we paid him $1 USD, just like we paid the Chang Kucas tour guide and boat driver.

Next, we wanted to go to a puppet shop, as we’d described to our tuk tuk driver. Instead, he took us down a dirt road rather than the “boulevard” on the address. This dirt road turned into a slum which turned into a great fear about where we were being lead. I asked a few times to turn around and go back to the hotel, but the driver persisted. He stopped a handful of times asking for directions and lead us over dirt roads so bad a 4WD would have trouble. I nearly lost it when the tuk tuk got bogged in a particularly large pothole and almost flipped. I got out and worked it free.

Eventually, we stopped at an orphanage which the driver tried to convince us to visit. I demanded we go back to the hotel.

An uneventful trip later, and the driver dropped us in the centre of town, then asked for payment but I declined, advising we were to pay our hotel directly. Slightly distraught, we had lunch at a burger joint. Perhaps mirroring our mood, it began to rain.

Some wandering of the town lead us to a restaurant where I grabbed a large bottle of beer and Justine had a margarita – strawberry. After the drinks we headed back to the hotel for a short while.

The sun went down, so we headed to the night market. We bought some tops—cotton because it’s our second wedding anniversary!—and went to a bar in the market. We had a few more drinks and chatted to the bartender which entertained us with card tricks. I had a shot of French absinthe—it’s like a cross between Sambuca and Listerine.

Back into the markets and a large American man yelled at us to try a “fish massage” place. We’d seen him there earlier.

A quick lap around the market and we ended up at the “Dr Fish” massage place. Plucking our courage we removed our shoes and plunged our feet into a pool of water. Instantly dozens of fish raced to our feed and began eating—yes, eating—the dead skin from our feet. It’s a strange sensation, slightly ticklish but not at the same time.

We met some other travelers: “Germany”, “America” and “Sydney”, who were also in the process of having their feet eaten.

Meeting up with the travelers later in the same bar we’d visited earlier, we chatted and drank long into the night.

It turns out that our “we are lost, going somewhere we don’t want to go, and are worried” experience is far from unique. Rather than being troublesome, it’s a comforting thought.

Photos taken today: 188
Photos taken to date: 1025

Early morning, this morning. The alarm woke us at 4am. We opted to lie in for 15 minutes then readied ourselves. We headed downstairs to a black room. Locked in! After fumbling for a short while in almost total darkness, I found a buzzer. I pressed it and it buzzed… right next to us.

Moments later, a young man emerged from a room bleary eyed and half dressed. He apologised and let us out.

Our tuk tuk driver was the same as yesterday. We drove towards the temple of Angkor Wat, some way out of town. The town is eerily quiet at this time, in stark contrast to the other 20 hours of the day. Our way was blocked by some road works but we detoured through side streets, right besides some brothels.

Closer to the temple we noticed the steady procession of headlights all heading to the same place, with the same thing in mind.

We walked into the temple, view difficult to see, before heading to the spot where everyone takes “the shot”. I took many “the shots” as the sun rose, magnificently, behind the large temples. An amazing sight and the atmosphere is exciting.

Shortly after, we headed inside Angkor Wat itself. Inside are ridiculously steep staircases—something we would see many times before the day was out—and some interesting buildings.

Angkor Wat explored—and one does feel like a 19th century explorer—we moved on to Angkor Thom, the main city. Thom has many buildings inside. One of the largest is Bayon, which has many (thousands) of faces carved. All are large and almost none are still complete. The views inside the complex are wonderful and the feeling of exploration you get when watching “Indiana Jones” movies washes over you. Well, me at least.

Moving on, we say another temple, but not before I squished a half inch long ant under my t-shirt. This temple—Ta Keo—has steep stairs and was never finished. We didn’t stay long.

The last we saw is “Ta Prohm”. This temple is being overgrown by trees, and is famous for being in the “Tomb Raider” movies. Regardless, the way the trees are clawing at the buildings, almost trying to rip them from the Earth, is an amazing sight to behold. The jungle is rebelling.

And it is jungle, which can be easy to forget. If you stand still the sounds, smells and feel of the place reminds you quick smart. It may not be the Amazon, but jungle is jungle.

Leaving Ta Prohm, we were faced with not a simple dusty track, but a flooded, muddy waterway. Enterprising motorbike riders offered $1 rides to avoid walking in the water. We declined. Instead, some locals had put sandbags in the water and we hopped from bag to bag to escape.

Our tuk tuk driver took us back into town; we killed some time in the rabbit warrens of the old market. While trying to avoid the smell of rotting meat, we bought some sandals. And probably paid too much.

Again on the tuk tuk, we headed to a silk farm via an in-construction road, trying to stop choking on dust. The farm was fascinating but the only thing I wanted—a silk tie—was out of stock. Justine bought a cushion cover.

In town, we both had Khmer curries for dinner. Both weren’t bad. An early night, as we’re trying not to stay up too late this time around.

Photos taken today: 619
Photos taken to date: 837

Our send off at the airport was low key, non-existent in fact. Passing through security, I neglected to remove our computer from its bag. The security goon asked me to “come around here”, so I did. Into a secure area. I was chased out and sent to the proper location. No harm, no foul. We killed time in duty free. The flight left for Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia at almost one am.

Sleep was sporadic; maybe three hours? After eight hours in flight we were glad to be off the plane. Our layover, however, made us wish we could get right back on. KL airport has “Sky Trains”, which are automated trains travelling between the two buildings of the airport. We rode one for the sheer interest of it. For our efforts we were reminded of Lyon, France, which has similar trains.

The layover was six hours, we entertained ourselves with wandering, being amazed at the expense of the food and–as we eventually discovered—free internet. We ate at Harrods. Food was terrible and, again, overpriced. I uploaded a few photos of the airport to pass the time.

I had an interesting altercation with my first “squat” toilet. I’d come to expect it on this trip, though no so soon. I did my business and after washing my hands noticed “Western” style toilets. You win some, you lose some.

Finally, FINALLY, we boarded our plane to Siem Reap. And found out it had to stop at Phnom Penh first.

Phnom Penh airport continued the theme for the day: ever smaller airports. Two duty free stores, one set of toilets, a bar and a … Dairy Queen?

Surrounding the airport are countless waterways of various kinds, some big, others slightly less so. Houses (or other buildings) are situated on stilts and some even sit in the middle of large sections of water.

The wait was short. We were given “transfer” cards which allowed us to wait while the plane refueled – great.

The TV was running BBC. I watched and read, in dismay, that a flood has ravaged Hanoi. We’ll be there in a few days.

Finally (really this time) we took off for Siem Reap.

And made it. Approaching the runway, we saw no tarmac, only grass. It appeared moments before touchdown, to our relief. Eighteen hours of transit finally over. Almost.

Siem Reap airport is light years ahead of Phnom Penh (the capital). Obviously this is where the Cambodian government spends their money.

Once through immigration we saw numerous signs for pickups. “Mr and Mrs This”, “Family That”. Ours said “Michael”. The tuk tuk driver didn’t even know if “Michael” was male or female.

The ride was both cooling and exhilarating. Water buffalo lined the edges of the road. Traffic swerved every which way, beeping all the while. All the strange photos you’ve ever seen of people with strange loads on their vehicle, we saw. Dozens of chickens strung to a motorbike, coconuts overloaded a trailer attached to a motorbike, entire families on a scooter. We saw it all on the space of a few minutes.

After checking in we walked into town. This is obviously a tourist town. Calls of “Tuk tuk Mr?” are easily ignored but it’s not always as easy as you’d think. More difficult still is crossing the road. We walk out, keep a steady pace, keep eye contact and keep praying. So far so good.

Dinner was at “Red Piano”. I had an “Amok” (Cambodian fish curry). We returned to our hotel to sleep under mosquito netting for our early (4am) start to see Angkor Wat at sunrise.

Photos taken today: 218
Photos taken to date: 218