Between 1976 and 1998 almost no foreigner dared to visit Cambodia. The Khmer Rouge, who had governed the country between 1975 and 1979 and who were not totally defeated until the early 90ies, had been terrorizing the country. The dead toll was enormous, the economy lay down and people wearing glasses were generally slaughtered.

However, we considered it worth a try and entered Cambodia via Pailin, a small frontier village with a casino (!) between Thailand and Cambodia. Once again, crossing the border was easy. The custom officer told me that he was sort of surprised to see a foreign car at his border. I showed him the Carnet de Passage even though Cambodia is not a member state of this agreement. However, every clerk likes official looking documents, and after he could use 3 different stamps, he smiled and let us in.

While streets in Thailand make Swiss roads look bumpy, Cambodia welcomes you with something reminding me of a tank training ground. Back to adventure mode!

The road was in a miserable condition, but the landscape we drove by was of a peaceful beauty. Gentle green hills, small bamboo houses and glimmering rice fields. Somehow, even the light is different here – there are more colours in the air, cloud-towers seem to be higher and the whole scenery is just more intense.

We passed many people in colourful clothes and they all smiled brightly and waved at us. You can see loads of interesting transport vehicles – mostly small motorcycles, with, let’s say, a pig on the rack. Or they are used as ambulance with driver, patient and a nurse holding a drip.

When stopping for lunch, Oskar, my new travel mate and on-board photographer, and me agreed on something: you do not travel to Cambodia for the food. While hygiene is important (on every table you find some toilet paper to clean your mouth and fingers), the variety of food is not too impressive. However, if you have a fetish for rice and chicken bones, you might like it here .

Once your chicken is served, you will have to start the work with fork and spoon. No knife is available. Make sure not to bring the fork too close to your mouth – people will consider this as strange and rude. Eat with the spoon at all times – whatever it is that you are eating.

In the evening of the first day, we arrived in Badtambang. This old French colonial style village would be the perfect place to go on writing my PhD thesis. It’s peaceful and charming city and for the first time since Singapore, a decent red wine of French origin was served. However, after Oskar came back from the internet café with news concerning the speed of the connection, I decided to move on a bit before settling down for another month or two of studying and writing.

After two days in this idyllic village (well, sorry, Cambodia’s second biggest city), we made way towards Siemreap (which translates in "Thailand defeated”; nice, isn’t it?) and the famous temples of Angkor Wat.

Along the dirt road you often see small stands selling some yellow drinks in old coke or rum bottles. We inquired what this was and were told that this was gasoline for the “motos”, the small motorcycles everybody in this country is driving. If you need Diesel, we found out, you have to watch for rusty barrels next to the street – normally with an old man sleeping in the shade next to it. Luckily, we could make it without a refill and after 160km and 4 hours we arrived in… …Las Vegas?

We gasped for air. From one meter to the other, the dusty road turns into a perfectly paved boulevard with palm trees on both sides. New shiny hotels are just about to open; Casinos invite guests with neon billboards. After we passed this strange world of glamour (and no guests, as far as we could see), we turned left and suddenly were confronted with no less than the biggest religiously motivated city in world (you lose, Vatican!): Angkor Wat.

Even though I do not like sightseeing that much, I loved what I saw here. The temples are of a mind-boggling beauty, the carvings and figures are amazing – no comparison to the dull pyramids we saw in Central America. The temples are situated in the midst of the jungle and often trees grow out of ancient windows and conquer the old stone walls. The right setting for Indiana Jones (or Tomb Raider with A. Jolie, for that matter)! Sure, even at 5.30 AM you are not exactly alone for some sunrise pictures, but once you move away from the main temple of Angkor Wat, you will find yourself on intimate terms with a temple and some Buddhas. You can walk and climb everywhere – still, it is not touristy at all (but take my advice: once these new shiny hotels fill up, forget to climb around on your own. Better hurry!). To give you some idea: We talk about more than 20 square kilometres of temples!

Whenever we came back to the car (yes, you can drive around with a car – try this in Vatican City!), some 20 kids were waiting for us. “Do you want postcards, sir?”, or, “I remember you, you promised to buy cold water from me!” They are all super cute and it is hard not to buy anything. But once again, it is sort of disappointing when they bring their hard earned dollar back to their mother who accepts the money with a mere nod.

We spent three days discovering the temples around Angkor Wat. No we are off towards the North – to find some remote temples where Mr. and Mrs. Smith won’t dare to go. Let’s see how far we get – it’s the rainy season and we were told that roads in the North might be under water.