My last trip has been to to Cambodia, probably the poorest country of all of the ones I have been to. They had told me how beatuful is Angkor Wat, and I was looking forward to going there for a long time, so I took some days off at work and headed to Phnom Penh. Once there, Carlos, Sara, and Camino were waiting for me and we all went toghether to Siem Reap, the closest town to Angkor temples.
The first night we went to watch a traditional Khmer dance show.
Already at Angkor Temples, I took this picture of a monkey that almost ate me… pretty scary 😛
There it is, finally, Angkor Wat. It’s quite impressive to see how well preserved is this temple, specially considering it is almost 1,000 years old.
Beggar children were everywhere. In my view, giving them money they only thing you promote is that their parents keep using them, but it’s very difficult to resist to them, and this little girl could conquer Carlos’ little weak heart.
All together, from left to right, Camino, myself, Carlos, and Sara.
A Cambodian girl taking care of her brother and sister while her parents work at the rice field (according to our guide, a family of Cambodian farmers earns on average around 2 dollars per day working at the rice fields).
At Ta Prohm Temple, very impressive for its trees growing out of the riuns, and famous because they shoot some scenes of the movie Tomb Raider here (among the tourists it’s known as “Tomb Raider’s Temple”).
Already back in Phnom Pehn, the Royal Palace.
Selling meat (at 30 degrees in the shade) at the Russian Market.
In Phnom Penh, it was surprising to see so many people playing badminton, it seems they love it. There was quite a lot of people in the parks. Nevertheless, as soon as you move one block from the park, you go back to poverty, beggars, and misery.
…And as I don’t have much more time (I’m leaving for Busan in a few hours), if you want to see all the pictures, here’s my flickr.