Thailand/Cambodia - first travel - part 5 - Siem Reap

In the morning a driver is waiting for us outside the hotel. We drive a few miles to the ticket office (What a terrible cold at 6:00 morning!). We buy a 3-day tickets to the complex of temples (needed photo - ticket for 3 days costs 40USD - data from 2007 - now they shoots photo by camera or scan of your passport and directly prints on the ticket). Tickets are with photos and foiled. At the entrance to every temple they checks every visitor. Temples are making quite an impression on us. They are very photogenic. Ta Prohm is a temple overgrown by jungle - in this temple filmed part of the movie "Tomb Raider". Some trees grew inside the walls, elbow it by the roots. One hour for visiting is not enough.

It's difficult to make a picture without someone in the background. All around the hordes of Japanese/Koreans people in organized groups. They go ahead blindly like a herd of lemmings stumbling over all exposed roots. Quickly got an allergy to them. Sometimes mocking them, posing each other for taking photos forward with outstretched hands and fingers of both hands set in a V mark. All the japanese, at the sight, are grinning happily and float the thumbs up.

We buy from the Khmer musicians/veterans playing before the temple - a CD of their music - will be used as background music in our movie (10USD). In each temple are a lot of local children who are trying to sell you souvenirs. Everything costs 1USD. We buy postcards, scarves, T-shirts, cotton, coconuts, drinks.

The biggest temple is the Angkor Wat. Crowds of people inside and around. Very picturesque temple, built with a flourish. In some places are still preserved reliefs depicting heaven and hell, dragging the hose through the sea of ​​milk. We climb to the top of the temple (very steep stairs!) - back down is much more difficult, so is installed a handrail on one way (only for descending from the top).

The main entertainment of all tourists in the temples is "hunting for a monk". As soon as someone occurs in a neighborhood with his picturesque orange clothes, that crowd runs after him with a camera and takes photos. The monks try to hide and run away.

At the evening, we buy a local prepaid sim card (7USD - empty - without any units to use) and charges the phone for 20USD. We call home - 4 minutes for 1USD - dirt-cheap :-)

We're going out to dinner - dinner in the pub is a smorgasbord and after dinner we'll watch Khmer dance show. Price 12USD (about 2USD more expensive than in our hotel but the driver has a commission for this so we do him a favor). Dance show is picturesque. "Trees" runs around the stage and breaks out the joints in their wrists. :-) After the show, everyone who wants it, can take photo on stage with the dancers. I want to! :-) On the stage gets crowded when whites lining up alongside dancers. The dancers stand still - it's not hard to guess what they think about these idiots (ie me too :) doing pictures with them.