If you haven't looked at our itinerary, it's worth mentioning that we spent the first part of this trip in Northern Vietnam, the middle portion is in Cambodia and we will return to Southern Vietnam for the final third. This is mainly driven by the prevailing weather in different parts of the region.

Our flight from Hanoi to Cambodia was on Vietnamese Airlines, which we have not used before. In common with most carriers in rapidly developing nations, their aircraft fleet is in far better shape than those of the "Old World". We sat next to a Japanese gentleman who had apparently visited 27 countries and would not rest until he had named all of them in English (the flight was only 90 mins). He was learning English and was keen to practice on us - which is fine. After asking us what our favourite flowers and pets were, he informed us that he was very keen on photography - a Japanese man brandishing a camera, who knew? Regarding the flight, we were very amused to see that the in-flight entertainment consisted of clips of children hurting themselves that had been downloaded from YouTube. Standard entertainment for the Japanese gentleman of course!

Being experienced globetrotters, as soon as we landed at Siem Reap in Cambodia, we picked up a local SIM card and then Steve went off to extract some local currency from the airport ATM. Armed with the knowledge that there are about 6,000 Cambodian Riels (KHR) to the pound, we thought 600,000 KHR (£100) would be a good number to type in to the machine. ATM says "No!", berating us that we could only withdraw 35 notes. That was a tough one as we didn't know what denomination KHR notes existed, which made it hard to work out how much to ask for. After trying 60,000 KHR and then, in desperation, 6,000 KHR to be met with the same response each time, we gave up and went to the guest house instead. Turns out the ATMs dispense US$. That could have been embarrassing! It would be helpful if there was an indication of the currency somewhere on the screen.

Siem Reap

Welcome to Siem Reap (សៀមរាប). Let's dispense with the ridiculous font now, except to comment that, here in Cambodia, they don't use the space character, so all the squiggly words are joined together - not that this makes any discernible difference to us! Perhaps as a concession though, they only count up to five! More specifically, six is five-one and seven is five-two, etc, which helps. It would still be hard to count 600,000 US$ though.

There are some temples here that we came to see but, unlike most people, we are here for a week. The vast majority jet in and spend a couple of days dashing around getting completely templed out before hurtling off on the next leg of their tour. There's nothing wrong with this of course, but we have the luxury of a little more time. It turns out that it's more than just a luxury. It is unseasonably hot here right now, about 35°C and very humid, which makes a whole day out quite a challenge. According to the locals it should only be mid-20s right now, but they do not seem to have heard of El Niño.

Our guest house is run by Norwegians, which is appropriate since Christmas is approaching. Apparently they try and plough some of their income back into the local community. They observed that 50% of visitors here are from China/Japan/Korea and that the latter in particular run their own airlines, their own hotels and their own guided trips so virtually none of the money they spend goes to the local economy. This is a shame since the locals do seem to be trying to do the right thing. We have seen groups of land mine victims who play local music for the tourists in preference to begging, which is good and should be supported. We have our own dedicated, local tuk-tuk driver who will take us wherever we want to go. His command of English is not good so we try and help him whenever we can. He makes up for this by being psychic and appearing as if from nowhere whenever we wish to go somewhere.

Our room seems to be above where they keep the screaming babies during the day. At night, it is where they hold the "cultural show". This is a performance, identical the world over, that shows the tourist what life was like in their country of interest. Women dress up in garish costumes that they last wore for real in the year never and then wail to discordant music (again, this is not Cambodia specific). At least the performance is well rehearsed as it is repeated every night - not so good if you live above it, but it does drown out the screaming babies.

If you haven't guessed by now, the city of Siem Reap clearly exists due to its proximity to the world-famous Angkor complexes. We suspect it would otherwise be a dusty backwater close to nowhere. As it is, the place is massive and sprawling and consists almost entirely of pretty upmarket hotels (none of which we are staying in) and swanky restaurants (none of which we are eating in). In an attempt to make their guests feel at home, these places are now all decked out for Christmas. It is again incongruous to see reindeer, sleighs and Santa in this heat. In town, not all the streets have names for some reason. Often they are referred to by a famous shop or building (for example, Hospital Street). Many of the streets are given numbers, so there is a Street No. 6 and a Street No. 9. This is a splendid system and works well. It would be even better if the numbers were consecutive.

There is a Pub Street.

You can do pretty much anything in Siem Reap; as long as it involves drinking, partying or having your feet nibbled by fish. There are one or two rather spectacular Wats to see, but they get rather overshadowed by their neighbours up the road. Worthy of note is Wat Preah Prom Rath which is decorated throughout in impossibly saturated colours that make it look like a Photoshop project gone mad.

Angkor Wat

In 2013 we visited Machu Picchu, in 2014 the Taj Mahal, so this year it's Angkor Wat. Actually, although everyone has heard of Angkor Wat, there is a lot more to the area than this one temple. The word Angkor means "Capital City" in Khmer and there are over 1,000 temples dotted around the forests and the entire area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. There are large walled citadels, palaces, lakes and temples everywhere. It has been concluded that Angkor was at one point the largest pre-industrial city in the world covering over 1,000 square kilometres. The famous Angkor Wat is but one temple amongst all this, but it is reputed to be the world's largest single religious monument, so it probably deserves some kind of recognition.

When we were in India last year, we visited the temple complex of Khajuraho. There we learned that the Indian "experts" had come over here to consult in the restoration of the temples at Angkor. Now we learn that, when they came here, they managed to ruin a large number of carvings by using inappropriate acids on them. Nowadays, the Germans and Japanese are on the case.

We got the incredible appearing tuk-tuk boy to take us somewhere to watch the sun set over the temples since this is what you are supposed to do. It turns out that the collective local knowledge of the guest house staff did not know [honest] that it is not really possible to achieve this at the place we were taken due to draconian entry restrictions. So our first attempt to see any of the temples was a bit of a flop.

The following day, we did what is known as the "small tour". This still had us outside in the sun for about six hours, which was plenty. We visited some of the main sites including Angkor Thom, the Bayon and Angkor Wat. Being contrary types, we did the tour in the opposite direction to everyone else which meant that, even though we are in the busiest part of peak season, the places were not completely rammed with people. Our approach was part of the reason for the relative tranquility, the other is that the organised tour groups are not mad enough to be out at midday.

Whenever we emerge from a temple amid a throng of tourists, wondering how to find our tuk-tuk amongst a veritable sea of the things, as if by magic, tuk-tuk boy appears. Whilst it is all very well being driven around by Mr Ben, it soon becomes apparent that, if we want to go off piste at all, things get difficult very quickly due to our inability to communicate. We need a different arrangement. Spurred by our success in Cat Ba, we decide to hire a motorbike from the man down the road who sells woven bags and leather stuff. We manage to settle on a mutually acceptable rate for a couple of days' hire that includes bonus helmets. Having spent a while finding skid-lids that actually fit, we discover that they won't fit in the space under the seat where they are supposed to be stored when not in use. The owner's suggestion to remedy this problem? ... Take smaller helmets! After handing over the greenbacks and just as we are about to depart, the owner asks as an afterthought... "do you have a driving licence?". Most of the aforementioned is academic anyway since it is illegal for tourists to ride motorbikes here. What could possibly go wrong?

There is plenty of splendid documentation available about Angkor, so there is little point in us giving you reams of detail about the temples, but there are some worthy points of note. We are informed that "Tomb Raider" (a popular cinematic show, apparently) was filmed here. It is possible to photograph some of the iconic images from this audio-visual extravaganza although this is surely a much more expensive method than taking a screen-grab from the DVD. A Mr I.Jones had a Doomed Temple here once as well. You are supposed to get up for sunrise although it seems that it's a bit of an overblown experience and we didn't bother. At this time of year, there is little cloud around so sunrise and sunset are probably not even as spectacular as some we get at home. True, we don't have Angkor Wat reflecting the dying rays of the tropical sun, but then they don't here either as it's shrouded in trees!

With the motorbike, we were able to get somewhat further afield. One day we trundled 35km north up the N67 towards Anlong Veng to visit the temple at Banteay Srei. It's only a small complex, but intricately carved and guarded by monkeys and weird mythical creatures. It's also guarded by a girl who insists you pay for her to look after your motorbike.

As we explored the temples we continually amended our favourites. We agreed that the best ones were the more atmospheric and this generally meant those that were somewhat crumbling and partially overgrown by forest. Those film makers obviously agree. The Bayon was of note for the huge, enigmatic faces keeping an eye on you Dr Who style as you strolled around. Banteay Srei is carved from red sandstone and guarded by fierce looking monkey creatures.

Angkor Thom is notable as the French dismantled the place in order to restore it. They documented everything and marked all the stones. Unfortunately, before they could put it back together, the infamous Pol Pot rose to power. Amongst the horrors and atrocities, one of his more innocuous acts was to destroy the documentation. Recently, the site has been put back together rather like a jigsaw without the reference picture.

Rather unusually for monuments of this importance, it is permitted to climb around on most of the buildings. Some areas are cordoned off for safety reasons and some whilst they are being worked on, but most of the structures are pretty accessible despite being in quite an unstable state. It is clear to see where trees have done their damage to the structures although nowadays it seems like they serve to hold the stones together.

Preah Vihear

This time last year, we popped up to the India/Pakistan border to see what all the fuss was about. This year, we read in the Phnom Penh Times that the closest border skirmish to us was about 300km away where a couple of Cambodians were shot by the Thai army for trespass. So we hired a chap with a Toyota Camry for the day to take us there. In a country where 80% of the population are agnostic, drivers have a healthy respect for the dangers of overtaking on blind bends and other religion-based madness. Our driver got us there and back without incident. He delivered us the 300km again via Anlong Veng (the last stronghold of Pol Pot) to the bottom of the Dângrêk Mountains where we had to pay another chap with a 4x4 to take us to the top. Of course, we didn't only come to see people shooting each other. This is the location of the Preah Vihear temple. It sits in a majestic location on top of a mountain with Cambodia on one side and Thailand on the other. The Thais claim that at least part of the temple is theirs.

Being a hotly contested temple, Preah Vihear is not guarded by UNESCO dudes, but by the Cambodian Army. This makes an interesting counterpoint to the monks who also seem to do stuff here. The location is rather spectacular and its strategic importance is underlined by the sand-bagged trenches and machine guns pointing north. We were instructed not to photograph them!

It is a bit of a trek up here and might not be worth it if not for the location, but the temple is of a very different style to the Angkor ones so it makes a refreshing change. In fact, it is rather reminiscent of a ruined abbey in the UK.

Riding around on the bike was fun, even though it is not something we would normally consider for sanity reasons. Steve had a go at riding down the wrong side of the road in the dark against the prevailing traffic just like the locals do, although he didn't turn the lights out and he did chose Hospital Street. Megan was not involved in this stunt.

After spending a week in Siem Reap, we have temples coming out of our ears so it is time to move further into Cambodia. Our next destination is the French colonial town of Battambang. Keeping our finger on the pulse of the travelling community, we read in a local rag that, if someone offers to sell us a train ticket to Battambang, we should refuse to buy it because it will be a scam. This sage advice is based on the fact that there is no rail line from Siem Reap to Battambang. In fact Cambodia does not possess any public railway network at all, so we shall be on our guard for that one to be sure!

We wish all of you a happy festive season.