Tuesday 30th November 2004
A relaxing start to the day. I got up at 8am, which is a lie in since I arrived in Cambodia. I had a good breakfast and went into the town to the market place on my $1 a day bike from the Lovely Guesthouse. I bought a pair of really baggy shorts that are really comfortable. They cost $3 after haggling. I walked round the entire market looking at live fish and other interesting items and bumped into Heiko and Katrien where we continued to look around for a while. Heiko and I bought some footwear, some baggy trousers and a silk shirt. I found some really stylish Birkenstock copies for $5, which I swear are exactly the same as real Birkenstocks costing at least ten times more back home. I am now equipped to dress like a Cambodian! Some amazing bargains, but the truth is that I am way over budget now.
After taking some refreshment in town we all cycled to a couple of temples away from the more popular area of the complex. These places were more isolated, but no less spectacular. There were a number of children there peddling their wares, like scarves, postcards and cold drinks. Actually these children were giving us a harder sell than the ones yesterday. Maybe because the volume of visitors here is not so big. They have to make the most of everyone who comes along. Katrien made the mistake of saying "maybe" to one little girl. To a Cambodian child the word "maybe" seems to be 
translated as "Yes I promise".
We were there for quite a long while and realized as we set off back to town that we were going to have a job getting back before the light disappeared and we had no lights on our bikes. With a dangerous main road to negotiate back we pedaled for our lives back to Siem Reap. By the time we reached town it was dark, rush hour, vehicles coming at us from all directions, totally dangerous and really great fun! We went to Mollopor in the evening and overdosed on cashew shakes before finishing off the evening at the internet café.
