Saturday, February 17, 2007

Day One in Siem Reap




We arrived in Siem Reap too late to really see any of Angkor Wat, so we took a bus to the floating village which is an entire village of mostly Vietnamese that live in house boats (more like shacks on boats). It is very poor, and the water very muddy and smelly. It was an interesting cultural experience though. Jurrien and Rob had brought some children's toys and clothes, and after we visited the village, we stopped along the road to pass out our goodies. A mob of kids and parents formed around Jurrien as he passed out things...we wondered why with all the tourists coming out to see the village why it is still so poor...each one of us paid $15.oo for a boat ticket, and there were hundreds of tourists out on boats cruising around. With all that money coming in every day you would think the people would be rich, but obviously the money never makes it to the people who need it most....ah, corruption.

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