thought i'd post some photos of siem reap, the town, and such. it's a lovely town. small, quiet, not overrun by tourists (yet), even though it's so close to a major tourist destination. but the town is slowly developing into major accommodation for outside guests as more and more travel here. they don't allow foreigners to drive so in order to get around you have to hire a driver of either a motorbike, a tuk tuk (as seen below), or on a bus tour. you can also rent bicycles. but the reality is that the temples are so far spread apart that getting from one to another is impossible without having a driver. and the city has a whole system of drivers who do nothing all day but take people around to the temples, or around town. and at each temple, while the tourist sightsees for maybe an hour or two at one temple, the driver will relax with other drivers and the local merchants who have set up shop outside that specific temple, and simply wait for you to return. they have a whole economic system set up on it. you can hire a tuk tuk driver for one or two dollars to take you to one place in town. or more appropriately hire one for an entire day for around 15 dollars who will just take you everywhere for the whole day. i had two tuk tuk drivers, my main one Juntu (sp?) as you can see below with my tuk tuk, and his subcontractor for my third day Kong, also below.

Kong

i'm really glad Juntu subcontracted one day because it was wonderful meeting Kong. he was very nice and took me out to show me good food and drink both for lunch and dinner. he had the difficulty of taking me around on my third day during the biggest rainfall, and i wasn't about to miss my third day because of rain since it was my last day and i had temples i still wanted to see before i left. and when it rains in siem reap, it pours, and the streets are simply soaked and become giant rivers. somehow everyone still drives around even though they are basically driving through rivers.

anyway, as i said, Kong took me to great food and drink, and there is so much good food here. very cheap for american dollar too. an entire meal was about 4-5 dollars. it's a very, very, very poor country and everywhere you can see it. regardless, it is a wonderful country and i must come back one day soon. i've fallen in love with cambodia.
finally, i stayed at a wonderful bed and breakfast, the golden banana, which i highly recommend. very nice and welcoming place. i forgot to take pictures of the place itself, although you can see their website, but here are a few pictures of my room below: