Our first morning in Siem Reap and we managed to sleep in a bit today as the experiences of the past week followed by a six-hour bus drive to get here took its toll somewhat.

We were a bit aghast to learn that the coach line we used allegedly belongs to a corrupt politician so we were going to be lining his pockets even further but, what the heck, I know of a few corrupt politicians back home and they're not so bad... (names withheld to avoid prosecution).

Plus these coaches are air-conditioned, have reclining seats and plenty of leg room for me. That alone trumps the competition.

Getting out of the bustle of Phnom Penh was a bit of a relief and the scenery on the way to Siem Reap is absolutely stunning. True to form, our driver was a bit of a loon and overtook by scraping past anything in his way from a tuk-tuk, to a truckload of gas cylinders to a couple of oil tankers on wheels causing the odd "Madonna Santa" from random members of our team, but we still managed to take in the peace and beauty of the landscape.

Miles and miles of rice paddies lined with distant palm trees, water buffaloes wadingnose-deep in ponds and shallow lakes, and exotic birds that would make the FKNK wet themselves, and of course children. Always children. Everywhere. Waving and laughing,

We have a lovely hotel in Siem Reap and after we checked in we had some dinner - nice but does not compare to the wonderful meals that have been prepared for us but the lovely ladies at VCDO.

This close-to-perfect day was marred when I stepped out of the hotel for a bit of fresh air (ok, ok - I felt like a smoke). I was boldly approached by a tuk-tuk driver who offered to take me to the seedier part of town: "Girls? I take you to girls. Young young girls". ERM, NO THANK YOU! "Come back in one hour. Your wife won't know". His proposition was shocking though I doubt I was the first foreigner he'd propositioned, so he must have had some kind of success before.

Anyway another day in Cambodia, another unbelievable experience. We set off to one of the regions' famed floating villages - Kompong Kheang. Despite being one of the largest of these types of settlements, it is one of the least visited as it is situated a good 35km away from Siem Reap, but our wonderful guide, Vishna, wanted us to experience this type of riverside community living to the full, so after an hour's van ride, we boarded a rickety boat and set off down the river, put-putting in water the colour of milky tea against a background of lush verdant mangroves and a sunny blue sky.

It is a community that, obviously depends on fishing. Everything in this community floats - apart from the homes, you have a floating pharmacy and petrol station. The school is situated on a little island which features some stunning buildings including a rather imposing pagoda.

Summer school was in session and with typical Cambodian hospitality we were invited into a class where 20 or so children were having a lesson in English grammar. This is a comparatively small class however - we learned that a typical private school class in Cambodia contains 40 - 50 kids - in government schools that figure can go up to 100, statistics that made Katherine, a primary school teacher by profession, shudder in horror.

We returned to land a couple of hours after we set off, pretty much gobsmacked by the diversity we are constantly encountering during our visit here.

Just because we could, we all indulged in a Thai-Cambodian massage and I swear my body was bent and twisted in ways I didn't know possible, however, the highlight must be at the end of the 90-minute massage when Matthew stood up and his massage trousers fell down (he's going to kill me for sharing this... but I'm still laughing).

We are now enjoying some post-prandial down time before we set out to an early dinner and definitely an early night for tomorrow we set off at dawn for a full-day visit to Angkor Wat... another experience that we have no doubt will blow our minds.

We set off at 6am and it will be a very long day, so look out for our next installment on Monday.

In the meantime, thanks for reading and for the many messages of support and encouragment we are constantly receiving.

Ciao for now