I got here without too much of a problem from Kompong Thom. In the morning, when I had gone to get something to eat, I bumped into Mr. Sokhom. He was waiting in the exact spot where you are meant to get minibuses, so he pointed this out and I went to go and get my stuff. A few minutes later I was back in the same place and managed to negotiate a minibus to Siem Reap.

Several hours later I arrived and got dumped in a convenient place for the driver. Luckily, there were some helpful moto drivers hanging around, so not only did they show me where I was on a map, they pointed me in the direction of some guesthouses. After walking around in the mid-day sun, I eventually found one and stayed there for the remainder of my time in Siem Reap.

The next day I hired a bicycle and cycled to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. This was slightly later than most of the other tourists set off, so I found it relatively quiet. This was not the case a day later, when I was a bit more organised and got there a bit earlier.

Late on the second day I ran out of time, as I had wanted to see Ta Prohm, but had got there at lunch time and there were too many tourists. I decided to go for a wander and ended up at Preah Khan, leaving it almost too late to see Ta Prohm. As I had only bought day passes, it was going to cost another $20 to come back the next day, so I really had to see Ta Prohm the same day. I cycled like a madman, using up all my internal energy reserves and got to Ta Prohm before it closed. After this though, I was totally wasted and only just managed to get back to a restaurant to re-engergise. I took it easy and went back to the temples for a quick cycle ride the next day.

When the temples of Angkor are described, they are laid out in 1 of 2 loops, a small circuit and a big circuit, according to the guide book. I had quite fancied doing the big circuit, but as I had to back-track the day before to see Ta Prohm, I was left feeling slightly incomplete. The next morning, without wanting to pay for another entrance ticket, I managed to get in for free and cycle round the remainder of the big loop from the day before. Before setting off for Battambang, I managed to cycle around the entire of the big loop, for free, seeing many of the temples (only fleetingly) that I hadn’t seen either of the days before.

I could have stayed an extra day at Angkor, but I had only bought day passes ($20) instead of a 3-day pass ($40). Therefore, due to time and budget constraints, I decided to move on to Battambang after day 2.

I got to Kompong Thom without any problems. The road between Stung Treng and Tbeng Meanchey was like a baby’s bottom (despite still being under construction) and I had lunch with the motorbike driver when we got to Tbeng Meanchey. He helped me find a shared taxi and I got pack into that with 4 other passengers for the journey to Kompong Thom. The front seat was going to cost $10, or I could sit in the back (with 3 other passengers) for $5. I opted to go in the back, but there were even 2 people in the driver’s(‘) seat at one point.

In Kompong Thom I got met by Mr. Sokhom, who was a taxi driver who also ran a tour agency. I went and rented a motorbike from him the next day for a trip to Sambor Prei Kuk, some pre-Ankgor Wat temples.

The trip to Sambor Prei Kuk was amazing. I went through some tiny villages, which were absolutely beautiful. They were all centred around a red-dirt main road, lined with coconut palm trees. The houses were all on stilts, to protect aginst flooding during the rainy season. The colours were all pastel greens and blues and every village was immaculately clean, with lots of happy people and friendly children in them. I liked going through here so much that I went exactly the same way on the way back.

Sambor Prei Kuk was OK, with some temples built out of brick and some pushy children wanting to sell scarves. I spent most of the day here, getting very dehydrated and went back to Kompong Thom in the evening in order to catch a bus to Siem Reap the next day.

For reference, the nice villages I went to on the way to Sambor Prei Kuk were:

• Prey Kuy village
• Sachey village
• Team Chas village
• Thnot village
• Ashu village.

Here I didn’t really do much, other than change modes of transport.

I got up early to get a 07:00 bus to Stung Treng from Ban Lung. The bus stop was actually a picnic table sat in front of a food stall, where the bus drivers congregated. There was no written indication that this was a bus stop, but the people there looked like they were waiting for something, so I had decided to stop here and ask a day earlier about buses to Stung Treng. The bus was late, so I sat there and ate a fairly enormous baguette until it turned up. A man who had helped me with the bus times disappeared with his son and returned in a minibus a few minutes later.

I got in the bus ad sat there for the obligatory drive-arouund of the local area, fishing for extra passengers. Eventually we set off for Stung Treng and got there a few hours later. In Stung Treng I went and had coffee as soon as I got off the bus and was joined by an Australian man who had spotted me in Ban Lung the day before. We talked and a German and an Italian the Australian had bumped in to came over and joined us. The conversation started getting a bit deep, so I left and went and found a hotel. After finding one, the woman on reception had wanted all of the money up front. I had spoken to a Thai and a Cambodian woman whilst having coffee and they had said that it was dangerous staying in guesthouses, as you never knew if your stuff was safe. With this in mind, I decided that I needed to give the guest house staff some incentive to look after my stuff, so I refused to pay and then left, as they refused to give me the room key. I walked around the corner and checked-in to somewhere else.

After findind somewhere to stay, I went to the nearest place that looked like it had tourist information and asked them about getting to Kompong Thom. They said that I could get a motorbike to Tbeng Meanchey and then a shred taxi to Kompong Thom. This was going to cost $60, but they could give me a discount of $5, to make it $55. I walked outside and talked to the motorbike drivers and they said they could do it for $35. The next morning I got up to meet my allocated moto-dup driver and got to Tbeng Meanchey, paying $5 for a shared taxi to Kompong Thom.

I got there on a very wild motorbike ride from Koh Nhek, which was also pretty wild! The bus trip from Sen Monorom went without problems, but it was one of the more exciting ones. I had a load of Angkor beer piled up behind me, which became dislodged about 20 minutes after setting off. I spent most of the journey trying to contend with this, as the road was very bumpy, until the bloke next to me suggested that we try sitting on it. This we did and had a slightly more comfortable journey to the point about 3/4 of the way there, where it got unloaded.

Once in Koh Nhek, I pretty much had to remind the bus driver that it was here that I wanted to get off. I found a restaurant and had something to eat, asking the same person who had helped me order the food whether I could get a motorbike to Ban Lung. He took my number and called one of his friends, ringing back later with a price. Whilst I was waiting for the helpful Khmer person to ring back, I walked over to where one of my fellow travellers on the bus had been sitting. His friends pretty much helped me do the same thing and this was arrange a motorbike to Ban Lung. Later that day, I had a lift sorted.

I stayed the night in Koh Nhek, which was an experience, as it was easily the smallest town I had ever stayed in. There were about 3 restaurants, 2 guest houses, 1 bank (with no ATM) and cows and pigs wandering the streets. It was all situated around one central cross-roads, with dirt roads everywhere and electricity getting turned off at 23:00. I met Nok in the hotel, who offered to have a drink with me and then take me for dinner with the family who owned the guest house. This I did and ended up sharing chicken and soup with the extended family of the guest house owners, the father of whom stayed around until the end asking lots of questions about university fees and how we, in England, pay them back. Nok translated everything between Khmer and English and did a very good job.

The next day I got up for the motorbike to Ban Lung and the original driver did not turn up. I had agreed $30 with him, but his friend had turned up instead, late, asking for $45. We got it down to $35, as I didn’t want to waste the time of the person helping translate for me and we set off for Ban Lung. What followed was a very bumpy, dusty, windy road to Ban Lung, with at least one river crossing. Despite it being slightly painful, it was very good fun.

In Ban Lung, I found a guest house and got myself sorted out for the next few days. I liked the energy of Ban Lung, so decided to stay an extra day and go to the Boeng Yeak Lom lake for swimming. There were loads of Khmer people there, all jumping in fully-clothed and I spent at least 3 hours swimming and walking around the lake. It was very good. In the evening I went out to find something to eat and stopped to look at a wedding that I could hear from my hotel. Here, the waiters told me to come over and sit down and spent the next few hours drinking with me and giving me lots of the food intended for the guests. I left slightly inebriated, very full and glad I had stopped to take a look.