February 5, 2018

The temperatures remain mild. The mid-80’s with low humidity makes it easy to climb temple stairs or at least relatively easy. We visited two more this morning including one of the oldest and one known as the pyramid. I’ll for my book write up to get the actual temple names right.

The consensus of our fellow traveler and us is that Cambodia is less stressful than Thailand. The economy is well behind their western neighbor but they seem to be rapidly evolving. The people are gracious and friendly towards us tourists. Yes, we have money but then extend common courtesies that have been frequently forgotten in many places like the US.

Our hotel in Siem Reap is modern, air conditioned and clean. The restaurants that we have been taken to are the same and we can choose the spice level. The food is better than Thai.and or we may be getting used to Asian food. We have encountered no bugs except on our elephant ride. We have plenty of bug spray for our visit to watch a temple sunset this evening may draw mosquitos. We are prepared.

Lots of tourists but the venues don’t feel crowded except for the “Tomb Raider” temple we went to yesterday. Angkor Wat is so big that a 100,000 visitors wouldn’t crowd the place. It is good thing since the Chinese tourists have found the place. The Thai and Cambodians appreciate the Chinese money but they have replaced the “ugly Americans” as the least desirable visitors. They rarely tip and travel in huge groups that clog venues. Instead of a restaurant they seem to prefer bowls of instant noodles. The good news for us is that our meals are leisurely, quiet and peaceful.

We enjoyed a visit to craft training workshop. Craftspeople learnt radio all handicrafts and make a good wage while learning. We now have a hand carved soapstone elephant to carry home.

The last pictures are of lunch. The cost was the same as a trip to McDonald’s.