Siem Reap
Our only stop in Cambodia was Siem Reap, the neighbouring city to the Angkor archaeological park. We were concerned that our earlier visit to Ayutthaya in Thailand would have made us sick of ruined temples but our fears proved to be unfounded. The sites in the park are impressive and seemingly endless to a point where working out which photo belongs to what temple is proving to be difficult.
We got ourselves a 3 day pass to visit the park and to break it up a little, we also visited a small floating village called Maichrey on the Tonle Sap lake. We stopped for lunch in the village with the dodgiest crocodile enclosure we have ever seen. The local kids were swimming just outside the floating pen with several large crocodiles in it. For a thrill, I was about to join them until I went to the toilet, flushed it and heard it splashing in the water underneath. So it was the fear of escaped brown trout not crocodiles that stopped me in my tracks.
Every site we visited, we were swamped by hawkers (often very young children) trying to sell us small trinkets like fridge magnets. We read that it is not a good idea to buy from these children or give them money as it keeps them locked into a life of begging as they often quit school to do it and some even buy drugs. In saying that, it was hard saying no, so we comprimised and bought packets of lollies to hand out to the young ones. An older women trying to sell me a shawl told me that I was a rude man when I said "no thank you I don't need one". I didn't give her a lolly.
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