After lots of sea, sand and snorkelling, good company and plenty of fresh seafood, I had a day’s travelling, more hairy scary driving, and am now in Siem Reap. Arriving here after dark and all I saw was a long road of monumental looking hotels full of air conditioned luxury coaches in their car parks. It all looked like something out of Hollywood , and all have Angkor somewhere in their name.

There’s a great market here, lots of the usual stuff, but some good fairtrade local art too, beautiful silk. Lots of “jewellery” stalls, they also change money, as the $ US is the main currency, with the local currency the subsidiary one , something like 5000 riel to the dollar, so all those noughts again.

One moment tat, the next you are in the food market, fruit and veg fine, but you don’t want to be in the meat and fish section late in the day as it’s getting a bit hot by then. And a man with a sewing machine who took up my trousers to make them into shorts for $2.00!!

A day is probably enough to find your way round Siem Reap, which left me a day free, so off I went at dawn (again) to see Angkor Wat. It’s so enormous it’s hard to take in, but I still prefer European Cathedrals which are more delicate and feel less claustrophobic. Like them it is probable that a lot of the stone work was originally painted, but then of course, the stone would have the soft colour of new sandstone, not black and polluted. Later on the day I went to another temple, which I much preferred, and got the tail end of the daylight.

So just waiting to be picked up by the school, first day back nerves, think i’ll by winging it.