Sunrise over Angkor Wat...

We got up at 4am this morning to get ready to meet our driver at 5am and head over to Angkor Wat. We got there in time to take some great photos of the sunrise.

I might have an issue with some of my earlier pictures. I think I mentioned that I deleted some of my earlier photos, but they were not a particular worry. It sucked, but I had taken pictures with my FZ-30 that were similar.

In order to clear up some space on my SD cards, I transfered several photos onto my 1gb flash drive to store them. I then attempted to upload them at Big John's. Big mistake. His computers were too slow, so I stopped. Now it appears they were too slow because of a virus. It infected my drive and has deleted all references to the files. However, the drive still shows as full so I think the information is still there. we are going to leave well enough alone for now and have my friend Dan work on it in Japan, or find a tech expert who can help us extract them.

I hope they are not lost, as I planned to submit one of the pictures I took in the Brandeis photo contest next spring. I'm thinking that some of the ones I took at Angkor Wat this morning are worthy as well. The only issue was that my lenses were all fogging up from the air conditioning of our car ride over so I had to warm them up before I could take clear photos.

We got back from the temple around 8am as it had already become horribly hot. We are going to eat breakfast, take a nap and head back out to explore another part of the complex at about 4pm when the sun is past its peak.

post script, we did so and here is a sample shot from Bayon...





















Siem Reap is a very nice town and much of what we have seen seems brand new. With a site such as Angkor Wat five miles away it is not hard to see why. Still, they seem to have undertaken this growth with a bit more of a master plan than the Thais did on Koh Samui, and it shows. I am certain the the influence of the UN (in naming Angkor Wat a World Heritage Site) is partly repsonsible for this.

Still, there are far more poor people and beggars here than in Thailand, which is reflective of the relative wealth of both countries. Cambodia is still desperately poor and striving to recover from the bloodbath the Khmer Rouge inflicted on the country. Unfortunately their legacy is still felt by the millions of unexploded land mines littering the country.

When we went to the old market to eat last night I held my money in my fist. I know that the kids would have picked my pockets clean if I'd left the money there. I have a feeling that Saigon is going to be much the same, but with less of the cleanliness and planning involved. Like the worst possible combination of Bangkok and Cambodia. We shall see.

Honestly, I can't blame them. People don't seem to be going hungry here, but that could just be because tourists are not allowed to see it. A dollar to them (and U.S. dollars are the accepted currency) probably feeds them for days. The Khmer meal we had last night where we had four different dishes, rice, an appetizer of spring rolls, four Tiger beers and a large bottle of water cost us $13.50. That would probably feed a family here for a couple of weeks, and we considered it to be laughably cheap for the quality of the food we ate. Perspective can be everything sometimes

I plan on offloading a few dollars to night just to salve my conscience a bit. If that means I eat ramen in Japan a bit more than I planned than so be it.