Cambodia - Siem Reap / Angkor Wat (19 - 23 April)

We spent a week here, snooping around some of the greatest ancient temples in the world. As it was the hottest part of the year in a country than is always hot, it meant that we had to buy a camp umbrella, which saved us from a daily roasting. Sadly, we became familiar with obscure descriptions of bits of temples from guidebooks, so that we now know what a lintel, a stupa, a gopura, a bas-relief, laterite and a quincunx are. Really useful...
The highlight of our time here was teaching some kids at a small English school. On the way to Siem Reap we were squashed in the back of an overloaded minibus and got talking to a Cambodian man who taught English. We helped him with his English and he invited us to his school. So, on two evenings, we stood in front of a small class of children who were beginning to learn English. I think they enjoyed the novelty of having us teach them and we really enjoyed teaching them. It might even have brought out the hidden teacher in one of us...

It was good to properly meet some Cambodian people, rather than just being another tourist. We got taken for dinner at the local market by the teacher, which was great. The daughter of our guest house owner also had a birthday party which we were invited to, which was a giggle (they have sparklers!) although they played the crazy frog tune too much.