Nation - Religion - King

We took a trip to Cambodia for a few days - which turned out to be quite the journey. First the bus from Bangkok to the border, then on to another bus to Siem Reap (where Angkor Wat is). The contrast between Thailand and Cambodia is quite striking - as soon as we hopped off the first bus - children ran up to us begging. One boy was pulling on my arm because I was carrying a bag of fruit. Poi Pet (border town) is dusty, has bumpy dirt roads, it's full of little kids begging and people everywhere hanging around. The bus ride to Siem Reap was on a bumpy dirt road that they are apparently working on, as is evidenced by the little bumpy detours every couple of minutes (the rumor is that an airline is paying the gov't not to develop it). The road goes through a rural area with green flooded fields with people in the water the whole way - men throwing their fishing nets, children swimming and even two kids riding a yak. There are rural towns of sorts with houses along the road; very minimal sort of shack-like bungalow kind of structures - some over water. Food carts, people on bicycles, people washing dishes, gas stations (carts with racks of glass and plastic reused bottles filled with gas), beasts of burden, children playing and dogs lined the road.

We arrived at night to Siem Reap to find an abundance of 5 star hotels, but turn a corner and you find evidence of the poverty so rampant in Cambodia--people sleeping on their motos and food stands lining the streets - the contrast was amazing.

We spent two days biking through the temples of Angkor - we ended up biking around 67km total (not an easy task in scorching heat/when it's raining cats and dogs - we experienced both).

There is a huge amount of kids near the temples. As soon as they see you, they run after you "Lady, you buy my water!", "You buy my pinneaple!", "Ok, you buy on the way back", "You buy my postcards, 10 for 1 dollar, 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9,10". One boy counted to ten in English, French, Spanish and something else. "Where you from?" - United States- "Capital Washington D.C.". Their English is good considering these children are savvy salespersons not students. Beneath their rehearsed roles as profit-slingers, they are sweet and fun kids--our Belgian travel friend Jeroen won a temporary hiatus from the onslaught when he bought a round of icecreams for them all!

Also quite captivating about Cambodia is its recent genocidal history. Something like a third of the population, and most of the educated, were killed by the Khmer Rouge regime in 1975-79. These atrocities have left a scar on the country, and the current government is struggling with choosing long-term benefit over short term profit, thus much corruption.

Did we mention how long the bus ride was? A day there and a day back. But worth it for the enchantment of the temples and ensuing adventure. Angkor Wat at sunrise with mists rising from the rainforest within the temple walls...slurping fresh passion fruit inside the temple where Angelina Jolie's 'Laura Croft: Tomb Rader' was filmed...drinking coconut juice straight from the nut...dodging yaks, tuk-tuks, motos, hot clam carts in highway traffic on bicycle...