Amazingly enough, we're back in Singapore! It seems really strange to be back here and back at the same old hostel nearly a month and a half since we left.

I should update you a bit on all that's happened since Hanna last wrote. Despite having free internet at the last place we were staying, we did really badly at making use of it, since we were out seeing things most of the time and too tired to do anything but go to bed when we got back. We had a great three days at Siem Reap seeing the Angkor temples. We decided in the end to get a three-day pass for the temples, rather than trying to get it all done in one day, and we were glad we did - I don't think we could have survived that kind of blitzing! The temples were fanastic. We did it all by bicycle in the end, since we thought we couldn't afford the rather expensive tuk-tuks that you need to get between the temples. This worked out well and meant we could take things at our own pace and see exactly what we wanted to. We obviously saw the biggest temples - Angkor Wat, the Bayon, the maze-like jungle-overgrown Ta Phrom - and also quite a number of interesting smaller ones. The bas-reliefs were very impressive, particularly in Angkor Wat, but by the end of the second day we were rather bas-reliefed out (bas-relieved?).

We told you, I think, about our amazing chance meeting with Carolyn and Jim through the window of a bus. We had established then that they would be in Siem Reap at about the same time as us, so we met up one day to go for dinner. I'm sure you'll have stopped being amazed by our incredible coincidences long ago, but just to add another to the list, they were in the same guesthouse as us, two doors away.

We decided to splash out a bit on going to an evening of apsara dancing - a traditional Cambodian style of dance. It was a buffet in a fancy restaurant, with the dancing going on on a stage at one end of the room. We got the tickets through the guesthouse and Carolyn and Jim did the same, so we all went together, which was good fun. The food was excellent and we made the most of the buffet, taking several plateloads of each course! The dancing was amazing and was accompanied by a traditional orchestra. Unfortunately, although all the young men and some of the young women participating looked like they were having a great time, the older women looked at best bored, many positively irritated: oh Lucy!, we though, if only you were there to whip them into shape!

We left Siem Reap on a bus to take us all the way to Bangkok. This turned out to involve several buses and a lot of faffing around at the border and (one my greatest irritations, I've realised) being ushered around by people who won't explain why you're going where they want you to go. Eventually we arrived in Bangkok, though, and went to our old guesthouse. We had the following morning in Bangkok, doing a bit of souvenir hunting and some other jobs, before flying in the afternoon back to Singapore (not without more than its fair share of irrations and ushering, of course). We arrived here in the evening and came back to our old friendly hostel, where we had a booking that we made last time.

Now we have today to spend in Singapore. Tomorrow we fly to the Philippines. It's rather sad to have come back round, completing our adventurous loop, but we both feel it's certainly not before time and we're looking forward to a rest.