Siem Reap

This is the street scene outside our hotel. Though this was the monsoon, we had several fabulously sunny dry days.

Like Thailand, the market was very clean and organized. People here know how to do food. And as a bonus, Cambodia, being a former French colony, has great baked goods. Meals on the street were often $1-2, though watching them wash dishes in the gutter was a little off-putting.

Woven spice containers line the bazaar stall shelves where we haunted the isles for unusual gifts.

As we know, rice is the mainstay of Asia and not just any ole kind of bland white rice. Here we can sample just a few of the savory and delicious grains which are staple to Cambodian cuisine.

Asian markets have the freshest produce as well as other four legged products. Pork seems to be a mainstay as well as other unusual critters that we don't care to sample . We admit we are adventurous gourmets, but snake, dog and cat are off our menu. Hopefully, we wont ever be THAT hungry!

The sumptuous market in Old Town Siem Reap had us perusing the isles for hours. This nameless red fruit on the left was one of the sweetest and best tasting exotics yet to date. Every day we breakfasted on a gigantic plate of fresh fruits all for the exorbitant price of two dollars.

Speaking of exotics, here we see a "ladyboy", complete with bleached hair and wearing jammies in public. The Buddhists of Cambodia are pretty tolerant of unusual citizens in their midst.

The workhorse of Cambodia is the small motorcycle, which is hitched to just about anything with wheels. Here we see a driver taking a siesta on a city street with his steed at rest.

We were concerned at first that Cambodia might be challenging to visit owing to its recent history. However, we were most surprised at how heavily touristed and generally cleaned up the Siem Reap area is. Because of its proximity to the Thai border, the area was heavily mined during the various conflicts that occurred in the 1970s.Cambodia is one country still suffering from the results of the Kmer Rouge's genocidal tactics.

Although the Cambodians have been through horrific experiences, they impressed us as very kind or at the least not pushy in the way we experienced in Bali. We often saw people missing limbs and were told that upwards of 29,000 people, about 3 per hour, continue to be killed and wounded by land mines.

We learned much of this stuff at the famous Land Mine Museum.

The entrance is flanked by bombs. The one on the left is US, vintage Viet Nam, the right is a Russian cluster bomb. They dig up this stuff every day, most of it live.

Chock full o' mines. The small cup-size mines at top are plastic anti-personnel mines, good for a foot. in the middle are bigger, leg-sized mines and at bottom a mixture of anti-tank mines and mortar bombs. The museum digs more mines up every day. Some soldiers used them for hunting, but kids and cows are the main victims nowadays.

A case full of the ever-popular Katyusha rockets.

They have handy advice on how to work through a mined area. The green items are small mines.

An example of clever booby-traps: "A cigarette is carefully opened near the filter and a small landmine detonator and ball-bearing are placed inside. The cigarette is then re-sealed. When the victim smokes the cigarette the first half smokes normally. As the second half becomes hot causing the detonator to explode, the victim's face is blown off and ball-bearing is fired through the back of the victim's skull. If the victim was holding the cigarette he would at the very least lose his hand." Life in 1970's Cambodia was short and cheap.

Khmer Rouge uniforms and hardware.

OK, enough daily life. Let's see if we finally filled in pics on Angkor Thom!