To stand at five o'clock in the morning and watch the sun rise slowly over the five mighty towers of Angkor Wat and cast reflections in the lakes that have been cleverly placed in the gardens, is once again to stand in awe of the achievements of an ancient civilisation.

The Angkor temples date from between 802 and 1220 AD and were constructed by the Khmer kings of the time. From here they ruled over a vast domain that reached from Vietnam to China to the Bay of Bengal. The structures that remain today are what remnains of a religious, administrative and social complex of vast proportions, much of which, at least the less perminent structures, has been lost to the ravages of time.

Although the main draw to this site is Angkor Wat, this building does not stand alone. There are more than 100 separate stone temples in the area. Most notable amongst these are Bayon, which is believed to be more a city than a temple, and Ta Prohm which has been left much as it was first rediscovered by European explorers: semi-consumed by the jungle.

Whilst not matching the age of the pyramids these magnificent buildings certainly match their stature and are no less deserving of a place amongst the ranks of world wonders. There is enough here to keep the enthusiast ammused for several months, but for the rest of us it is possible to buy passes for a day or for three days. A day is definitely not enough and the three day pass is highly recommended. This allows enough time to find the best locations for sunrise and sunset and to explore some of the other temple complexes.

Angkor Wat itself was built during the early years of the 12th century by Suryavaram II to honour the Hindhu god Vishnu and is a symbolic representation of Hindu cosmology. It consists of a central temple representing Mt Meru and five inter-nested rectangular walls and moats that represent chains of mountains and cosmic oceans. Entering is a huge relief, not least because it provides welcome respite from the attentions of over-zealous juvenile hawkers who prowl the outer car-parks and prey on unsuspecting tourists. Passing through the main gate of the outer wall takes you down a long stone walkway to the entrance of the temple proper. Here, if you have a head for heights, you can scale the steep stair-way of the central edifice for incredible views across the temple grounds in all directions. This also gives you the opportunity to explore the beautifully carved interior of the temple. If climbing up the steps is a major undertaking, descending is even more so and unless you have nerves of steel it is recommended to join the long queue for the opportunity to descend the one stairway that has a guide rope.

Angkor Wat is a stunning example of Hindu temple architecture. Similar in appearance to Khajuraho in India the attention to detail exhibited in the construction of the buildings, the thousands of carvings that adorn the walls, the symmetry, the choice of location and the occasional random bullet hole from the days of Khmer Rouge combine to make this an engagingly beautiful and poignant place. It exists on a scale that beggars belief and is difficult to convey, dwarfing anything that India has to offer. It is, in fact, the largest religious structure known to exist. There is no doubt that a visit here leaves you agog at the audacity of its creators.

And yet, it is Ta Prohm and the other temples that have not been completely reclaimed from the jungle that leave the most indelible impression. Here you gain a real feel for what the French naturalist Henri Mouhot must have felt when in the 1850's he stumbled upon these wonders.

Simply amazing!

In order to reach Cambodia we had to cross Northern Thailand. Here the impossibly picturesque mountains of Laos give way to a flat landscape which, if you ignore the padi-fields, would not be out of place in the Netherlands. This set the scene for the next two weeks in Cambodia.

We crossed the border into Cambodia at the ramshackle border town of Poipet. Whilst the flat padi-field landscape here remained mostly indistinguishable from Thailand the tarmacced and brick built infrastructure of the former quite suddenly gave way to mud, pot-holes and an obvious feeling of poverty. Once again it was abundantly clear that we had changed countries.

Our first stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap. After the drive from Poipet entering Siem Reap was a bit of a surprise. This is the home of the much vaunted Angkor Wat and as such represents something of a paradox in Cambodian terms. The drive into the town takes you along a seemingly endless row of top class hotels and restaurants that have the glitzy, vaguely artificial facade of a millionaires row in some nameless American city. These rows of wannabe palaces have sprung up in answer to a burgeoning demand for accommodation for the rafts of tourists that fly in directly from Bangkok for a quick tour of 'The Wat' a couple of beers in the 'Irish bar' and an equally rapid departure often without seeing anything more of Cambodia. Angkor Wat is, without a doubt, Cambodia's star attraction and so this is, I guess, inevitable but to my mind it represents a tragedy of almost biblical proportions. Whilst there is no doubt that Angkor is quite remarkable the rest of Cambodia offers no less of a rich experience.

Passing through the glitz you soon realise that millionaires row is very much a veneer beyond which lies the real Siem Reap. A host of small, quaint and slightly dilapidated hostels combine with lean-to restaurants and market stalls to give the place the familiar buzz of a SE East Asian town that I have come to love. We had three days here. It was going to be fun.

And so to Vientiane. The capital of Laos, and sadly our last stop in this country as we were unable to get a permit to take the truck into the south. This is a pleasant town, small for a capital city and sporting, as a result, a delightfully sleepy atmosphere. There is not much to see or do here but compensation is delivered in the form of a river-front 'esplanade' with multitudes of outstanding BBQ restaurants serving all manner of sea-food, local delicacies and beer.

We spent a very pleasant couple of days here, eating, drinking, making merry and enjoying the stunningly cheap massage possibilities. An hour of full-body, very accomplished massage being a steal at three dollars (US), a bargain in anyone's language (that is to say any western language). Sadly, as I was to later realise, this represented the pinnacle of Asian massage and a sudden end to my recently started quest. Nowhere did I find one better. If I had known at the time I would have had another.

So, duly stuffed with exemplary prawns and thoroughly relaxed courtesy of the skilled hands of local messieurs we departed after not enough time for the Thai border and a hell-for-leather drive for our next destination.

Cambodia here we come.

Just off the end of Route 13 lies Vangviang. This is back-packer heaven with a plethora outdoor activities on offer to amuse and abuse. Rather than stay in the town, which is tacky beyond belief, we found an indescribably picturesque but intensely hot and humid rough camp just on the outskirts with en-suite swimming pool - of the muddy, fast-flowing variety - and integral karst monolith. Amazing. A quick slither down the adjacent bank ended in a plunge into the river and welcome surcease from the brain-frying heat of the Lao mid-afternoon. This day was by far the worst we had encountered in that respect since India.

The next day we had enough time to 'play' and so went into Vangviang to see what potential there was on offer for suicide. Laos, in common with many of the countries we have been through, could not really be considered a litiginous society. They, instead, take the view that if you die doing something you decided to do yourself then well it is kinda your own fault. Radical huh? Coming from a cotton-wool society this is something of a refreshing take on things, encouraging one, as it does, take responsibility for one's own destiny. And so, risks duly weighed and, well, pretty much disregarded, off we set for a morning of fun, frivolity and caving.

It didn't take long to realise that this was no day-trip to Cheddar Gorge. The walk into the caves took us along the edges of padi-fields and through jungle for around 15 minutes during which time we were given a definitive practical demonstration of exactly why they call this the 'wet season'. Thoroughly soaked in a way that is only possible through complete immersion in a tropical rain-forest or, shall we say for example, the sea, we arrived at the cave mouth. Here we were issued with head-torches, an unusual design in that they required activation by twisting two bits of bare wire together, and led resolutely into the first of two caves. This was the 'dry cave', which in relative terms I suppose it was. Large, carpeted in thick sticky mud and bedecked with some of the more impressive stalagmites/tites I have seen, this was used as a hide-out for local people during the Vietnam war. In this particular chapter of the Indo-China saga Laos was intensely bombed by the Americans who were engaged in the oxymoronic (or maybe just moronic) practice of 'armed reconnaissance'. This was largely because parts of the Ho Chi Minh trail extended across the border from Vietnam. In fact, the Americans allegedly dropped, on average, one bomb every 8 minutes on this country for the better part of the 9 year duration of the war bestowing on Laos the dubious accolade of: most intensely bombed nation ever in the history of modern, and therefore probably all, warfare. Not bad for a country that was to all intents and purposes neutral.

It is difficult to appreciate, 40 odd years on, what it must have been like during that time, especially for those of us who have never seen conflict in any measure. Certainly there remains no outward evidence of the raveges of war. It is also easy, on another level, to snigger good-heartedly about the astonishing range of the SE Asian diet. Standing in a small huddle in this dank cave, our torches extinguished to give us a full appreciation of the total absence of light and realising that people lived here, in these conditions, under an almost constant barrage of high explosives, starved to the extent that they were ready to eat cats, dogs and even spiders just to survive very effectively takes the hilarity out of the situation, however.

Having said that we saw one of the spiders in question and, let me tell you, there was meat enough there for a full three course meal with optional doggy bag. Yeech!

To visit the second cave we were again given the standard issue torch, complimented on this occasion by a truck inner tube. They were not joking when they said this one was 'wet', involving as it did entry mounted on said inner tube through a small hole no more than 10 inches off the surface of the river. Tubing 100 odd metres into a flooded cave with no more than 3ft of clearance to the roof and an exit not much bigger than my hand-span is a great experience. It is also, perhaps, one of the stupidest things I have ever done give that it was raining heavily just outside. I can still see the headlines. All's well that ends well, however, and we celebrated with an hour or so of far less dangerous traipse swinging into the river from a stupidly high platform followed by a very welcome and slightly more relaxing iced late in one of the local cafe's before jumping once again aboard our trusty steed and heading for Vientiane.

The next stop in Laos was Louang Prabang. A pleasant little town on the Mekong with almost nothing going for it beyond a pleasant ambiance, some Buddhist caves, a very nice night market and the odd bar or two. We spent a relaxing couple of days here, nevertheless, enjoying, coincidentally, the pleasant ambiance, a boat trip to the Buddhist caves, an evening trawl around the arts in crafts on sale at the night market. We also found time for an impromptu and very drunken karaoke evening which was a lot of fun. Despite there being not much to do here it was a very enjoyable visit and I was sorry to leave. This, as much because the prospect of getting back on the truck and of rough camping was wearing a little thin as Louang Prabang holding us in any particular thrall. Get back on the truck we did, however.

Normally this part of this trip is spent on boat drifting slowly down the Mekong. Whilst this might sound idyllic, it is, we were reliably informed, not too kind on the old derriere, and so there had been a concerted campaign to remove this from the programme and replace it with a drive down Route 13. Route 13 has only recently become accessible to tour companies as the FCO has had a red flag on it. Apparently a few years back a couple of backpackers were killed here by bandits. However, the red flag has now been lifted and so we were allowed to make this part of the journey by road. This was something of a relief at least to those of us whose derrieres had been thoroughly abused by riding in the back of a truck for what was now approaching six months.

Making this part of the trip by road was quite a coup as it turns out. Route 13 traverses some of the most beautiful scenery that we saw in SE Asia. Let me tell you, that is no small accolade; it has some stiff competition. This drive put us smack in the middle of Laos' karst landscape. Once an ancient coral reef many times the length of the Gt. Barrier reef, this is part of a continuous strip of limestone land-forms that stretch from the south of China all the way into Thailand. It is these rock formations that are responsible for the 'classic' Thai beach scenes that are so familiar from films and postcards. In Laos, rather than projecting from the sea these startling monoliths rise abruptly and to incredible heights straight out of the padi-fields and tropical forest. It really is quite spectacular. Otherwise, Route 13 passed uneventfully. There was a slight nervous moment when a guy in a t-shirt and shorts wandered nonchalantly in front of the truck carrying a semi-automatic rifle, but we were assured that he was part of the local militia installed to provide safe transit for vehicles on this route. The bandits are now mostly elsewhere. Phew!

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That time again...

Our first stop in Laos was The Boat Landing in Luang Namtha. Situated on the edge of rain-forest on the banks of the Namtha river, a tributary of the Mekong, the Boat Landing is a low impact eco-tourism centre. It provides tourists with the opportunity to experience treks and boat-tours into the surrounding rain-forests combined with visits to the local hill-tribe villages whilst running a number of programmes to help the local people, wildlife and the environment. Do take a look at their website - they say it much better than I do.

Unable, once again, to face trekking on the back of rough-camping, (this time due in the main to having a stinking cold) I opted not to make the over-night trip to one of the hill-tribe villages. This, by all accounts, was a good decision judging from the soaking, disheveled, exhausted, leech-encrusted state of the participants when they returned the following day. I instead opted for a much more relaxing and less arduous boat tour, and tubing experience down the Namtha. This was of course supplemented by some excellent food and some very comfortable accommodation. I can't honestly say I am all that sorry to have missed the trek.

Sitting on the balcony of my lodge, enjoying the sunshine and wonderful tropical surroundings whilst wistfully bidding farewell to our intrepid compatriots as they set off for their jungle adventure was a nice way to spend the morning of my first full day at the boat landing. The afternoon was spent in an equally relaxed style as we had a nose around the village and then indulged in a 2 hour tubing experience back to the lodge. Despite being thoroughly soaked during the course of this event by a somewhat over-zealous thunder-storm (well we were in the river anyway so it didn't really matter) this was a wonderful experience taking us as it did through some incredibly beautiful countryside and past a number of picturesque villages.

The following day our boat-trip was a more-or-less full day experience, and visited three different villages, all of which were startlingly different in character, custom and ethnic background. The first, a Lantern village, originated in China and has the notable custom that all women wear blue and shave their eyebrows. Their stilted wood-thatch huts are built in a traditional style with the recent addition of solar panels to provide electricity. They make their income from growing sticky rice and making bamboo paper. The second village, belonging to the Kamu was similar in construction but the people were ethnically, religiously and physically quite different originating as they do from Cambodia. The most notable feature here is that they operate a 10 day week. Sadly, though, they still have only a 2 day weekend - a raw deal if you ask me. The third village we visited was a Black-Thai village, originating from Thailand and specialising in the production of silk. Lunch this day was a traditional Lao affair of sticky rice and bamboo, chili, banana, egg etc. eaten with fingers whilst squatting on the bank of the river. Very nice and extremely tasty, which coincidentally, during the course of the meal, is exactly what the local insect population thought about us.

The Boat Landing visit concluded with a buffet evening of local food which incorporated more sticky rice, more bamboo-based delicacies and the opportunity to turn the tables on the local invertebrate population. I am not exactly sure what species of insect I was eating, and I would happily not repeat the experience. These things have to be tried, however. All in all our stay here was a great experience and I would highly recommend a visit.