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Well we're just back from our holiday in Cambodia - what a place! We spent 5 days in Siem Reap which is very near the Angkor Wat temple and the numerous other beautiful temples there. Most were built during the 10th to 12th Century and they vary from the huge like Angkor to the very small and dilapidated like Ta Prohm which was in the Tomb Raider movie - our personal favorite of the trip.
On our first afternoon we did a boat trip to the floating village where everyone lives in huts on huge stilts. They survive on fishing, so when the lake recedes each dry season, they up sticks so to speak and move the village to the new wet area of the lake - they are so poor it baffles you.
We spent 2 days seeing the temples and we saw about 20 percent of it - it's huge! It rained a lot - torrentially...so we got very wet, but it didn't matter a bit. We were staying in town near the old market centre, so we got the chance to eat out in Pub Street (yes that's what it's called!) every day. The food is great - a cross between vietnamese and thai I spose. Beer cost us about 50 cents a pint - dirt cheap!
Rick discovered when we were in Bali earlier in the year that he liked massages, so we ended up having a massage every day - whilst I found one place I liked, he was on a mission to try a new spa every day - although when the last masseuse crawled up his back on her knees he decided not to be too adventurous!!
We wanted to see the countryside a bit more and found a quad bike company that goes out to the villages around the town - we loved it so much we went the next day as well. Covered in red mud and having a ball, we met villagers, visited a local orphanage where I wanted to bring home about 20 kids and went out to the lake to see the floating village again.
The people of Cambodia are some of the poorest I have ever met, but they are so happy and welcoming. We saw a lot of landmine victims and women begging on the street, but the one that got me was the kids who would hawk books and postcards on the street. they ask you where you're from and when you say Australia, they recite the most amazing number of facts like our prime minister (kevin 07) and how many people there are - they teach them in school! It's quite a patter, so as you can imagine, I came back with lots of books and postcards!!
All I can say is go there now - before they change and become too commercial and touristy like Thailand - it's still relatively unspoilt and beautiful and I can't wait to go back. We're now back home and Rick is off on another work trip in Taiwan this week. Looking forward to our trip to Aus in November and seeing as many of you as possible. Now I have to go get some more red mud out of our clothes...Cheers!
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