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.