Kingdom of Cambodia

Trip Start May 30, 2007
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Trip End Aug 21, 2007


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Friday, July 13, 2007

hello everyone! ok, i keep hitting some button that has made me lose my entry three times. Cambodia is great, the temples are amazing and everything here is really cheap. To hire a car with a driver and guide, two guys, cost 55 dollars a day.  The temples are amazing and my first day out I went to Angkor Wat and the floating villages. My first day here which was wed I met a fellow solo traveler and tagged along with her guide the next day, whcih was to Angkor Wat and the river. At the temple we even rode an elephant as you see in the pic.We also went to see a traditional Aspara dancing which was very nice as well. Today I was alone with different guides and visiting Angkor thom and about 4 more temples whcih i do not recall the names right now. Anyway, it was nice to have a travel mate and am looking forward to Celia joining me in Greece next week.

Although I have had a blast traveling alone it was nice and will be nice to have some company Angkor Wat
Angkor Wat
 !  The temples here are amazing and words do not do it justice. There is so much history to learn and its very much intergated with the buddist and Hindu religions. Tomorrow I will viist more temples and the mine museum. As you may know, Cambodia has a recent history of civil war and has finally experienced political andf economic stability in the past 5-8 years. The tourism industry in siem reap has also exploded in the past 4-5 years which has resulted in a huge growth in the population as well as the hotels that are being built here to accomodate all the visitors.

Cambodia unoffical currency is the US dollar and pretty much all busness, street merchants and even ATMs use the dollar. Things are very cheap here and I am told that peopel in the country make less than one dollar a day. The bartender tells me he makes one hundred dollars a month and supplements his income by working as a carpenter during the day for another 60 or so dollars. When I went to the floating villages, most of those people are rice farmers and/or fish for a living and are extermely poor. You literally see people del;ousing each other, kids naked, and peopel living in bamboo shacks that they move during the rainig season.. They literally pcik up and move the entire house to higer ground. Enjoy the pics!!!
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