Phnom Penh to Siem Reap

Phnom Pehn, the capital of Cambodia, grew on me during the short time I was there.

At first I found the poverty, disabled people, children begging and constant appeals by tuk tuk drivers and moto taxis very frustrating, tiring, confusing.

The city is at odds with the French colonial buildings and corrugated iron slums, 4x4s with groomed people sporting the latest cell phones and dirty-clothed, bare-footed mothers with snotty babies slung on their hips.

On Thursday morning I went to Wat Phnom, a temple on the only hill in the city. It was rather disappointing in its similarity to the hundreds of other temples I had visted in Thailand, it's less than stunning views, the foreigner entry fee of $1.

I got chatting to Jim, an American, and his Thai girlfriend Kate. They were looking for monkeys in the grounds and had brought fruit for them to eat. We talked for ages and then decided to hunt out the furry beasts.

There were dozens of them playing at the bottom of the hill - swinging from trees, sitting in the grass, nicking things from the shrines.

We fed them the fruit and they cheekily tried to snatch it out of our hands. There was a big daddy and three tiny baby monkeys. They were friendly and tame and we spent ages taking photos and videos and feeding them bananas.

Later, I ignored the tuk tuks and wandered the streets for a while - a much calmer alternative. The drivers in Cambodia are far crazier than in Thailand and crossing roads is quite a trial. I shopped for a while at a silk shop with handicrafts made by disabled people in Cambodia (there are many due to Khmer Rouge torture and landmines) and then wandered the riverfront for a while.

In the late afternoon I visited the Royal Palace and Silver Pagoda which were impressive and beautiful in the early evening light.

Tired, I returned to the guesthouse feeling Phnom Pehn had a better atmosphere than I had felt at first. In the restaurant, one of the tuk tuk drivers talked me into visiting the orphanage that afternoon.

I wanted to take the children something so I asked him to stop off so I could buy them some rice. They get through 70kg a day and rice is expensive at this time of year.

I ended up buying 25kg which cost a whopping $15 - it seemed a lot for rice to me and I wondered if the tuk tuk driver was in cohorts with the lady at the market.

Nevertheless we popped next door to the orphanage. The marketplace is down a dirt alleyway - a dark and smelly place of tin huts and wooden slums. The orphanage (Cambodian Light Children's Association - http://www.cambokids.org/) is quite honestly horrible. Like a cowshed. It leaks on the children packed into the bedrooms. The classrooms are dark holes with tiny electric bulbs.

Dinner is a meagre portion of rice and a watery vegetable soup because they cannot afford meat often.

Backpackers and travellers come here often and the charity is geared up for these visits. The director, Pat Noun, showed me around as night fell - children holding my hands and asking my name or counting for me as we toured the small area.

They were adorable, friendly and full of life. I felt awful presenting them with only half a sack of rice. I felt worse when the director asked me to donate exercise books to the school - a donation of $80 was required for that! I had to explain I didn't have that kind of money on me but it was useless to tell him I could not afford that.

To him, I am travelling and am western. I am froma rich country and I have many material things. They have nothing.

I left feeling sorrowful for the children but a little surprised by the directors straight-forward approach. I have no doubt about his passion for the cause but was a little concerned, in a country full of corruption, that the money was being filtered through.

Now, I have discovered that they have been vetted by the UK's Charities Aid Foundation which gives me hope that these orphans are being cared for in the best way under the difficult circumstances.

After such a draining encounter I was ready for bed. But I wanted to tell other people about the orphanage and encourage them to visit the children. I got chatting to John and Jenny, an Irish couple, and their friend Connor (also Irish).

After a beer, we decided to join a girl Connor had met in Vietnam at a party at the lakeside - the main travellers ghetto. So Andrea (Brazilian), Connor, Jenny, John and I hopped in a tuk tuk and headed for a guesthouse with a bar over the lake.

We sat ontop of a two storey boat which had been permanently moored to the landing stae and chatted with Marissa, an Argentinian girl Andrea knew, Chicho - an Argentinian who looked and sounded JUST like Chico, an English girl Rebecca, an American John... many many people.

It is much easier to meet people here and in Vietnam it seems than in Thailand. There, people are on holiday as part of a couple or a group more often than being a backpacker.

Here, most people are travelling alone but you are rarely alone here.

After Thursday night out, I had planned to meet Andrea in Siam Reap on Friday morning and met Marissa on the bus there. In Siam Reap, I caught up with Jenny and John and numerous other people we had seen on our bus or in Phnom Penh or elsewhere.

The trip to Siam Reap was long and included a breakdown in the middle of nowhere for an hour or more.

Marissa and I ended up at Queen House Villa guesthouse and, after settling in, wandered town for a while to get the atmosphere and find a tuk tuk to take us around the temples of Ankor.

We saw many of the people we had been with in Phnom Penh and on the bus, had Amok - the national dish of Cambodia - for dinner, and met Mr Won who became our driver.

The last two days have been spent exploring some of the lesser temples around Ankor - such as Ta Phrom (where Tomb Raider was filmed) and Bantay Srei, and these have been amazing.

We haven't managed sunrise yet but saw sunset last night and this evening, the sky was a hazy burnt orange colour over the fields and huts of rural Siam Reap as we returned from Ankor.

Last night, we met up with our friends and partied at Temple Bar and Ankor What? bars. It is quite a pleasant, although very touristy town. Stepping onto the street - any street - means about five tuk tuk drivers will descend on you for business along with a child carrying a baby, a one-legged man with his cap out a-begging and a small boy selling postcards.

It isn't easy to deal with, especially when tired, but that is life here. Before we went out for a few drinks, we went to Beatocello concert - a former Swiss cellist-turned doctor who has worked in Cambodia for more than 14 years. He worked in Phnom Penh before the Khmer Rouge took power and returned at the request of the king after their fall.

He has now set up a childrens hospital here (there are three affiliated in Phnom Penh) and plays a free concert every Saturday to ask for donations and blood donations and to explain his work. Here, there is a dengue fever epidemic, HIV, Hepititus and an outrageous TB problem.

This hospital is free to Cambodian children and has modern equipment for the blood transfusions and operations necessary to save lives here. But he is fighting a battle to get decent health care for poor people and relies on private donors, the Swiss, the Thai government and others to run the hospital. He is also fighting for proper drugs to be made available for free here instead of cheap and dangerous ones which have been banned in the west - a sobering tale (www.beat-richner.ch)

Tomorrow, we do the daddy's of Ankor - Ankor Wat, and Ankor Thom (including Bayon) and maybe the landmine museum.

Maybe I will have some profound thoughts for my next blog. All I can think of now is sleep...