Wednesday 12 September 2007. Day 23. La Vila Loti, Siem Reap.

Up early at 7am for visits to the Angkor temples today. Leave at 8am in tuk tuk after warm baguette breakfast and a liberal coating of mossie spay and sun cream. Boiling hot at the temples, as we fight through waiting hawkers and cross the moat to Angkor Watt. Wander around the ruins, pausing to take some pics and wipe our sweaty faces. An amazing number of workers are in the grounds, gardening by hand, their lunches hanging from trees in plastic bags. Climb up to the inner 2nd and 3rd floors of the temple, for great views of the area, with Lou managing to drop a packet of wet wipes out the pocket of the rucksack on to an unsuspecting Japanese tourist making the steep climb just below us. Spider climbed the steeper steps up to the final level, which proved to be even hairier coming down as we had an aborted attempt to descend the steps we came up, deciding instead to go down the tourist steps which had a metal rail attached – still pretty steep though! The steepness of the climb was 2 in 1.

Sweltering, we headed back to the tuk tuk and moved on to the next temple, Bayon. Saw elephant taxis and walked around the temple, the went on to Victory Gate and the Terrace of the Elephants, where Louise was dispatched for photo taking, whilst Ieuan got accused by a cheeky tuk tuk driver of being a rich fatty, due to the fact he was English! On to Ta Prohm and Banteay Kdei where we were accosted by hawkers and so bought a tablecloth and a set of postcards from a very young girl with good English. We refused the flutes and crossbows. Bought some fresh pineapple and donated some cash to the landmine survivor music groups playing in the grounds of the temples.

Got back to the “hotel”, hot, sweaty and dirty, changed and went into town for lunch at the Blue Pumpkin – chicken satay and gazpacho. Bought some spices and black pepper, and gifts from the Rahab shop. Head home via the post office, on the way checking out some options for dinner - Shinta Mahi, Madame Butterfly and the FCC. By this time, Ieuan had exhausted conversation with our tuk tuk driver (hired for the day) although the driver hadn’t! Ieuan frustrated as unable to delegate the talking responsibilities to Lou on this occasion! He wonders if he can spend final day and a half under the mossie net to avoid nasty insects (and people!).