Cambodia--Angkor Wat

In Siem Reap, are the famous, ancient temples of Angkor Wat, the main tourist attraction of Cambodia. The temples are approximately 1,000 years old and are a mix of Hindu and Buddhist shrines. It is amazing how many temples there are, and they are quite spread out. For many years, they were hidden by the jungle, and some of temples are intertwined with the jungle trees. The vastness and ornateness is breath-taking. Most recently, Angkor Wat was where the movie Laura Croft Tomb Raider was filmed, and subsequently, Angelina Jolie adopted her Cambodian child.

As an aside, the poverty is pretty severe in Cambodia, and a disproportionate amount of the population are children. Kids are everywhere. Mostly, they are foraging for food, selling souvenirs, or just having fun. They certainly touched my heart.

We felt Cambodia was very easy to navigate, more so than North Viet Nam. I definitely felt safer, and virtually everything was priced in US dollars, so it was easier to gauge the markets. Neither of us got sick, even though we ate salad and fruit.

These girls are fishing in a ditch after school: Erik buys grilled bananas from a street vendor. Note how small the women are. The people seemed to be the smallest in Asia as far as we've seen.Erik and our driver who took us took us to many of the temples--see how small he is.

We had a fabulous time in Cambodia! Our next trip is to Tokyo for Christmas weekend.