13th Villa Siem Reap

... stories of enchanted woods. Back up the path again and we walked all the way through the main temple, along the causeway, through the gateway, back across the causeway over the moat and were soon back at the tuk-tuk. We had spent a good hour or more wandering around the temple and its surrounds, and it had been spectacular.<br><br>Our next stop was Angkor Thom two kilometres to the north, the ruins of a great capital city built between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries that was ...

... with the "It's hot, I have ice cold drinks, how many and what do you want to have?" approach. How does one say no to a sweet, unassuming 10-year-old with big brown eyes and a benevolent demeanour?<br><br>Once we're seated, another little girl of about 7 or 8 in bright blue pyjamas with a torn basket came to try and sell us flutes and noisemakers made of bamboo and coconut shells. When it was clear we weren't buying, she launched into the usual "where you ...

... United Nations. What has shocked me is not only their lack of the basics - food, shelter, health care - but also their lack of education on simple things like the origin of diseases, dental health, and nutrition. Their food is green and white. Period. They eat vegetables, fruit, and white rice, but very few red or orange veggies like carrots or beets. That is, when they eat. Many of the poorest families don't eat every day. <br><br>Most ...

... than I was expecting. Sure it was dirty, but the people were nice, and hassled you a lot less than Saigon.<br><br>The markets were also cheaper and refreshing. I got a 'foot massage' with little fishes eating my feet LOL. I"ll put the pics up as soon as I can.<br><br>We also spent the day at the temples of Angkor. The tuk tuk driver picks you up at like 4.30am and drives you around anywhere you want for like $10 for the whole day.<br ...

... James, Rich and another James! So we moved on to another bar and had a few drinks with them, and agreed to meet up for the next few nights, which was really nice. They are two days ahead of us so we had some useful advice and compared travelling stories over 50 cent beers in the middle of Cambodia, good times. <br><br>So there was a happy ending to our ...

... monkeys since I had seen one hanging out by some locals on the way in. I asked him at just the right time because we were already really close to a tree that had dozens of them. We stopped and I bought a bundle of small bannanas from a local boy. I gave a few bananas to some monkeys that were already hanging out by the road and they quickly consumed them. We then walked toward the "monkey tree". I have never seen so many monkeys in my life, it was incredible. They almost litterally ...

... p<br><br><br><br>I felt a little upset when these relics are now starting to collapse, one by one...<br><br><br><br>Work being ...

... unpleasantness, social division, spark-plug conflicts and human aggression, elemental nastiness called the UK, than I ever experienced in Cambodia or Laos, or China, or in Tibet for that matter. The Chinese mistakenly think that British men are renowned for being gentlemanly. Only streaks of them. I wish it were true for them all, if they think gentlemanly qualities apply to all of them here.<br>I headed back along the windy highway, got some Chinese RMB ...

... 10 for a dollar) She then wrote me a poem &#8211; I think she probably had many copied of this in her bag &#8211; but nice all the same. With the money I gave her she went to get her breakfast from a vendor &#8211; it was a bright pink ball of dough &#8211; looked disgusting. She told me it was a PHO CAKE and gave me some to try &#8211; pretty rank! Its savoury dough &#8211; I thought it would be sweet. I took a couple of photos and then we left to go to Angkor Thom ...

... and I proceeded to see it every day thereafter. Every visit to the Post Office proved frustrating as there was no mail for me. I gave up in the end, after a week of waiting, and phoned my bank to cancel the new card which had gone AWOL. We now had real problems getting access to money - our travellers' cheques had run out back in Laos. Luckily my broken credit card had been repaired by a kindly woman in a camera shop in Chiang Mai. She had stuck it together with sellotape ...