Here’s our latest video diary (a Week 3&4 combo, seeing as we were away for almost a week of the last two)… Thought you might like to see snippets of all we’ve seen in the last few weeks, as well as hear what we have to say about it (in real life, not just written words!)

Here’s the embedded video, or you can watch it on YouTube here.

So now my blood sugar has stabilised and I’m feeling well and energetic and happy again… Sorry for the rants last week! I tend to turn into a bit of a Wicked Witch of the West when I’m exhausted and my sugar is acting up.

But now I’m back! Aren’t you relieved? (I know Mark is…)

Today we had an amazing day, exploring the ruins of Angkor Wat here in Siem Reap. Absolutely incredible. We left at 8am and our tuk tuk driver took us to Bayon, the ancient temple with over 37 pillars of Buddha heads facing four directions. From there we wandered around exploring Baphuon, the Terrace of the Elephants, the Terrace of the Leper King, and the Pyramid (which was not quite a pyramid, but which was terrifyingly high to climb up without help!)

Then we zoomed off into the forest to find Ta Phrom, the half-overgrown jungly temple that’s been left to crumble (to some extent) where we found a secret spot for a bread-and-cheese-and-watermelon picnic overlooking a lake. Stunning!

And then, finally, once we’d taken at least a thousand photographs, we went to Angkor Wat, the star attraction. It was staggering from a size point of view, and extremely intricate, and lovely. Here’s our Best Moment of the Day, from one of the spots we found high up on the temple:

I must say, I was surprised how many tourists there were out and about today. You’d think, what with it still being off season and the flood and all, that there wouldn’t be that many people but there were tons! By far the most tourists we’ve seen on this trip. Mark and I made a concerted effort to find small hidden nooks and crannies, little spots that didn’t seem to have been discovered by a queue of people that morning, and all in all I think we succeeded.

It was just such a wonderful deluge into Cambodian history and culture, and such a welcome break to be feeling well and energetic enough to fully enjoy it!

Hundreds of photos to follow soon, I promise. I just have to get them off my camera…

Trust me, I’m not exaggerating.

Yesterday, 1st October 2009, exactly a month since we left, was HECTIC.

Allow me to set the scene before I give you a blow-by-blow… I arrived back in Bangkok, Thailand, from a really busy (and fascinating) 4 days in Vienna. 10 hour flight, 14 hours in transit, 5 hour time difference. My second dose of jetlag in a week. The idea was to spend 2 days recovering, catching our breath and resting before the trek to Cambodia. Except my flight landed late, we had to wait an extra hour for the bus, and the traffic in Bangkok was crazy. So we only arrived at about 5.30pm, and then found out that the only bus that would get us to Cambodia in one day (and thereby avoid sleeping in a dodgy border town) left at 5.55am. So let’s change that two days into one. The day after that one day…

* 2am: Woke up sweating, heart pounding, head floating, and craving sugar. A night-time low, my absolute worst (and as far as I can tell, without direct cause – I’ve taken notes trying to find the source of a night-time low. Anyone have the answer for me?) After a super-sweet juice and a couple of miniature bananas, my heart rate slowed enough for me to go back to bed and try to fall asleep again (now 2.20am)

* 4.30am: Alarm went off to wake us for the day. Dragged myself out of bed, showered, drank tea. Had stupidly decided in my exhaustion the night before that I could quickly pack in the morning. Baaaad idea. We both scrambled to get everything packed in time to catch a taxi at 5.20am, to get to the train station in time for our 5.55am train.

* 5.30am. Still in the hotel room. Torrential rain outside. Pitch dark.

* 5.35am. Run through the rain with a backpack and suitcase each, desperately trying to protect our electronic valuables with an umbrella. There is water everywhere – huge puddles every footstep. We’re too late to care.

* 5.40am. In the taxi, at last. Our train leaves in 15 minutes. The hotel recommended we allow 20 minutes to travel. Thai trains are notoriously punctual. I chant a prayer the whole way to the train station – we’ve already bought our tickets and transfer tickets and they’re non-refundable.

* 5.51am. Arrive at the train station, throw money at the taxi driver, and run to the train. Find a seat just as it departs.

* 5.55am to 11.40am. Train ride. 3rd class seats only, so they’re a little hard (and dirty), and all the windows are open. None of the cushioned air-conditioned luxury we’ve been treated to on Thai trains before, but the tickets were ridiculously cheap, the scenery is fascinating, and we’re too tired to care.

* 10.21am. High blood sugar, for no reason. Makes me feel emotional (let’s make that extra-emotional, given the exhaustion, the jetlag, the low this morning, and the inability to sleep on the train).

* 11.42am. Met at the train station by a very nice man from the company we booked our transfer with. He takes us to a songthaew (a kind of open-backed, covered truck) where another very nice man drives us to what is supposedly the border between Thailand and Cambodia, but is actually a ‘consulate’s office’, one of the famous border scams. Two men dressed in official-looking costumes sit behind a desk with Thai and Cambodian flags, hand you official-looking forms, and ask you for 1200 baht each for a visa ($36 US dollars). When you say that you’d rather just get a $20 visa at the border, they tell you it’s impossible, and that it will take 3 days. We’d read all about the scam, so we insisted.

* Noon to 1pm. Made our way through the maze of scams and false stories out of Thailand, across the stretch of mud to the Cambodian border, where we went through a ‘quarantine’ (had our temperatures checked) and got a $20 visa no problem. Then we waited at the ‘bus station’ (a couple of benches just around the corner from the border, next to a stretch of mud) for our bus, which we had paid for in Bangkok, and was supposed to leave at 2pm.

* 2.35pm. An hour and a half later, still no bus. Eventually arrives and takes us to the bus station, where we catch another bus, which will supposedly take us to Siem Reap Bus Station or Market, depending who you ask. Either way, no problem to catch a tuk tuk to our guest house, they assure us.

* 3pm. We are now officially on the road, and officially in one of the tourist scam buses we had read about. I’m not quite sure how, because we’d booked from the State Railways of Thailand information desk, so you’d think it was all above-board. You’d think wrong. Our trip will take us 4 hours, so we’ll arrive at 7pm, after dark and, we’ve now been told, at a guest house that offers a ‘special deal’ for tourists (the special deal being that any tourist who checks in earns a $7 commission for the bus driver).

* 5.15pm. Mark keeps saying that the landscape around us looks flooded (there was a typhoon in this general area a couple of days ago, but we’d heard that it was concentrated elsewhere). I keep telling him maybe that’s just what Cambodia looks like.

* 6.53pm. We finally pull into Siem Reap, and it is F.L.O.O.D.E.D. People walking down the street with water up to their knees. Our bus making waves that wash over motorbikes. No distinction between the river and the street. Water water everywhere.

* 6.58pm. The bus driver tries to convinces us that the area we’ve booked a guest house in is severely flooded, but we don’t trust him (the dirty scammer) so we get a tuk tuk to take us there anyway.

* 7.09pm. He wasn’t kidding. The water is so high that it washes up over our feet while the tuk tuk is driving. Eventually it gets so bad that we get out and walk (the water is up to our lower thighs) while the tuk tuk valiantly carries our suitcases to the door.

* 7.15pm. We arrive! At last. Our guest house is clean and comfortable, and above ground (i.e. no flood water, thank goodness!) We have made it through over 13 hours on the road, without sleep, with jetlag and, oh did I forget to mention? Our first two days on anti-malarial tablets, which tend to make you tired and a bit under-the-weather.

So all in all, I’m going to go ahead and say that was our most hectic day yet.

Today was a lot easier (thank God!)