7.58N 98.23E

23/10/2103

Back in Boat Lagoon after a trouble-free journey but nonetheless exhausting trip from Blighty. We spent 2 days trudging round 4 temples including Angkor Wat which our guide assured us was one of the 7 Wonders of the World; since it was built in 971 it must be one from the New world. The hotel was excellent especially as almost everything was included; it was the Borei Angkor Hotel. Only mid range but we were treated like royalty, met at the airport and given a drink while we checked in.

Now back on the boat with relatively little to do, I was even reduced to varnishing the shower doors! The fuel bleed screw on the Yanmar 4JH5E turned out to be a fake! I suspected it was welded to the housing but an old salt at the London Boat Show assured me it had seized; I had to take it apart only find he was wrong.

Just had our dinghy returned with very smart burgundy covers on the sides, bit too smart for me I think.

K

There are actually hundreds of temples in the Siem Reap [means the defeat of Siam] area and it is where Lara Croft tomb raider was filmed with a much younger Daniel Craig. Angkor Wat is supposedly the largest religious edifice in the world and is built inside a walled city with gates and a proper moat. Huge lots of walking and clambering around but I am really glad I’ve seen it. My leg coped amazingly well with help from the pharmaceutical industry.   We got up at 5a.m. to see the sun rise over the temple. I think K would rather have been at Billingsgate than surrounded by a thousand jabbering tourists too busy taking pictures to look at anything.

Luckily the sun is not shy like komodo dragons and appeared on cue.

The hotel provided us with a driver and trained guide which was great as he knew how to avoid most of the scrum of bodies trying to get through narrow entrances. Korean groups were his pet hate.

Most of the houses in the area are built on stilts because of rainy season flooding. Why don’t we do this in England instead of whingeing every time the houses built on flood plains get wet?

It is good to be back on board and I am really looking forward to exploring some of the islands.

C