Molina Village Hotel Siem Reap

The sign explains how the City of Women is special, so I will not say much more on this except that this place is truly the "jewel of Khmer art": this is what all artists came to see. Instead, I would like to share something Little Chen told us.

Cambodia is a female-dominant country, and women are worth more than men ...

... Once out and onto the Cambodian side I instantly love this place. Rough and ready. We hop on the free tourist bus and arrive at the bus station where we are hassled to change our money and told that the other 2 who were going to get our taxi have already left. Oh what a surprise. Pete and sit down to have some food and I tell him it's all a scam!! Bless, he is so trusting of everyone and I know exactly why because I believe that is how you should live your life and when the 'official ...

... come to see Angkor Wat.

Unfortunately our first choice accommodation was booked out so we had to rely on a recommendation from a tuk tuk driver. This one came out tops though, he found us a big clean room at the Ancient Angkor. A bright place that had a small pool and cost considerably less than the first place we had tried. As a reward he landed the contract to be our tour guide and driver the following day.

We hadn’t even ...

... us. I asked if they wouldn’t mind taking a photo of us and they immediately agreed. Afterward I asked if they wanted a photo and when I bent down to take it from a better angle I noticed they had been carrying a Middlebury bag.

It just so happens that Gabe’s little brother goes to Middlebury, a small college in New Hampshire. I remarked on it and it turns out that the girl had been his curator at school for ...

... he understood why I yelled at him to not touch me.

After we came back to Siem Reap, we stopped at a Khmer restaurant for a stupendously refreshing beer (it's like 34 C here after the sun has set) and a subliiiiiiiime Khmer dinner. Amok fish (fish grilled with coconut milk and served in banana leaves) is a well-known national dish and the one we had was tingingly delicious (I know "tingingly"is not a word but the food was so good it ...

... the owner, later the same day and was offered the job on the spot.

We are an Orphanage to 35 children who sleep at the school, with another 100 coming into lessons over two shifts during the day. We are building a series of further education facilities throughout greater Siem Reap, where we will provide English Lessons and the infrastructure for the local people to develop the facility further. Thus COF is ...

... compensates for all the Pho).

After all that walking, we decided our first massage of the trip was in order (this puts us behind Andrea’s stated goal of a massage every day once she heard they cost $5). The description stated that massages were available to do with a friend, a lover, or lovers (yes, plural). We opted for friends, wrongly assuming that this would mean separate rooms. Nope. We were led into the same room with 2 ...

... harmless and quite polite, and that their relative poverty is somewhat responsible. I cannot say the same for kids in this country, however. I watched on the news, a few days ago, that Angelina Jolie, a famously rich celebrity has joined the bandwagon of others, such as Madonna and Sir Elton John, in wanting to adopt of child from poorer countries, in her case from Cambodia, to give it a better life. I think she's entirely missed the point.
Today was my final day for ...