Another 5am morning. Our driver picked us at 5:30am, the third morning in a row that I was awake and outside before dawn to see the sun rise over Siem Reap, this time from the window of a minivan on the way to the boat that would take us to Phnom Penh.

We met the guy on the cover of my Lonely Planet Cambodia guide book. Just like in the picture, he was sweeping out a temple called Ta Prohm. Werd.

When we emerged from the hotel at 5:40am, our moto drivers were waiting for us, bundled in jackets and long pants. We hopped on the back of their scooters and drove through the chilly morning.

From the plane, Cambodia appeared brown and green and flat in all directions with a smattering of palm trees along the runway and dark tree lines in the haze of the horizon. It looked like the tropics. Where was the jungle?The sun blazed on my skin as soon as I stepped out of the plane, runway glittering, dust clouds in the air.