There are 19 trillion mopeds in Bangkok

200 meters up the Khao San Road on the left hand side is a petrol station. By day it sells fuel and by night small yellow metal tables and chairs appear around the pumps. Candles are lit (yes, naked flames) and placed on all the tables where tourists sit and drink beer. When I walked passed there were only Americans seated getting drunk. I dinned last night with a lady named Lisa from Hamburg, she also said the petrol station was filled with American people. I wonder why?

So, after 48 minutes on a fearsomely small plane with propellers I have arrived in Cambodia. It is with some luck that I was able to get a visa on entry because the last time I saw my completed application and passport photos they were on my desk at work. Cambodia is completely different to anything I have ever seen before. When I flew in I thought we were over the sea only to realise there was a the roof top of a house and it was in the middle of a flooded field. The monsoon is coming to an end which means its hotting up every day, but still ever so humid. Its reaching around 38oC. Its taken me until now to get used to it, everything I do is in slow motion.

I've been travelling around with a lovely chap from Norway. His name is Eiran, hes some kind of political historian, he likes food and the economist mag so we have lots to talk about. A couple of nights ago we ate at a large local street side stall and I fear attracted too much attention when giving away our beef noodles to 3 kids, ordering more for ourselves, giving these to more hungry kids and ordering more. This happened 3 more times until we left the table without eating and looked back to see 12 kids digging in to all the noodles. It made a change to be asked for food and not money, at least then you know its going to the right place. It did cause a bit of a commotion which made me feel a little uncomfortable so we left quickly.

I'm in a small town with orange sand all over the place called Siem Reap. It has a river running through it, a few markets and brilliant places to eat (pork with ginger and Khmer beef curry are my two favourites so far). Its a bit of a party town by night, but a great place to meet people from all over the world. I'm still recovering from a visit to the Angkor What? bar last night where we met a lovely OZ couple Trent and Cherri who have given me some good tips for moving on to Phnom Phen tomorrow.

Today is my day of doing nothing after a 0400 start yesterday for a visit to amazingly massive Angkor Wat and all its surrounding temples (I'm about to attempt to post some pictures of it). The whole site is spread over 300 sq kilometres and after 15 hours of exploring I felt like I had covered every inch. My favourite, that others did not rate at all is a relatively small grey sandstone temple called Banteay Kdei. As you enter you pass through a huge stone arch with four beautiful heads looking in all directions, the temple is set in between two lakes full of water lilies with a forest behind. As you walk though loads of the huge stones have collapsed, all with intricate carvings and Sanskrit inscriptions. There are Buddha statues everywhere, mostly with their heads lopped of. The whole place is mystical and I thought brilliant.

Blogger day fact: Between 1979 and 1987 there were 10 million land mines planted in Cambodia. Because none of these were mapped no one knows where they are and many of them still exist.