Cambodia...Siem Reap

My visit began in Siem Reap, which is home to the most popular tourist attraction in Cambodia...Angkor Wat. I met a dutch guy named Daniel on the flight from Bangkok who tagged along with me to my hostel. (For any of you who watch "Weeds," he reminded me of Andy, fun and kind of quirky.) We hired a tuk tuk (motorcycle that pulls a 2 bench cart behind it) for the afternoon and went straight to the Angkor temples. We spent that afternoon and the next morning touring around to the different temples all over the grounds. The temples date back 800 to 1000 years and it's still unclear as to how they managed to build such huge structures. What was most impressive was the intricate carvings on every surface. It was great having Daniel around since he was much better at bargaining with the tuk tuk drivers than I was, but is kind of a sucker for the kids selling stuff so they'd bug him and leave me alone. :) I think I'd become somewhat immune to their sales pitches since I was coming from India. Although, it was almost more difficult to say no, since they are less aggresive here but you know they need the money just as much.
The next day Daniel headed back to Thailand and I spent the afternoon on a tour of a floating fishing village on the Tonle Sap lake. It's the largest freshwater lake in Asia and according to Vien (my guide) is home to 400 Vietnamese families, 500 Cambodian families and 10 muslim families...just in case you were wondering. Vien explained how the families have to move their houses depending on the season and the water level, and that the reason people live on the water is because that don't have enough money to buy land. But the village has a few floating schools, churches, police stations and some people even keep pigs in floating crates (which they didn't seem to enjoy). There are also little boats that people take around to sell produce, kind of like a convenience store that comes to you.