Tuesday 3rd November. Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

We were on the road promptly at 7.30am for the 6 hour drive to Siem Reap. Our guide Makara gave a running commentary for the first hour, the highlight being a personal account of his family's life under the Khmer Rouge. His father was a teacher and pretended to be a farmer to escape death, working in local fields. The military did find out and came for him twice but he was out working each time. The third time coincided with the Vietnamese army liberating their village in 1979, and he survived. Makara is still the most educated of his 6 brothers and sisters but had to defy his father to study at university. His father only found out when he had finished and wouldn't speak to him for 3 months. There is still the fear in the elderly that anyone with an education could suffer under a Pol Pot type government.

On the brighter side we stopped for lunch at an elevated restaurant in a small kampong about 2 hours drive from Siem Reap. They served what they called a picnic which was a tasty egg salad sandwich, a mini burger, sticky rice cake and 2 delicious spring rolls. We arrived in Siem Reap about 2pm. Tinh received a call from his company to say we were being upgraded so we arrived at the Angkor Paradise Hotel, a pleasant establishment in the Main Street. We had arranged to meet a friend of ours in the original hotel so Tinh jumped in a Tuk Tuk and retrieved her.

The highlight of the day was the cruise to Lake Sonlé Tap to visit the floating village of displaced Vietnamese migrants. It is interesting to note that these migrants are stateless as both Cambodia and Vietnam don't recognize their status. Sonlé Tap is the biggest lake in South East Asia and acts as a natural reservoir to store water during the wet season. This vastly increases the size of the lake and increases its depth up to 9 metres. For those readers interested in some impressive statistics Google this lake for more information. The cruise started from the same place when we visited in 2010, but instead of stopping at one of the floating establishments we cruised past and out into the lake for the beautiful sunset. We arrived back at the hotel with about 45 minutes to spare before heading off for our evening meal at a nearby classy restaurant.

There is unanimous agreement amongst the group that Tinh has given us some amazing upgrades with both hotels and meals over the last 3 weeks. Tomorrow has the potential to be the most tiring of the trip to date - the visit to the temples.