Anchor which?

We arrived at the very civilised Siem Reap airport (our only destination in Cambodia) 3 days ago. For those not in the know Siem Reap is the town nearest to Cambodia’s and probably South East Asia’s most famous temple complex Angkor Wat and friends. For this reason it’s obviously been suffused with tourist money and is extremely civilised.
I’m sure you’re all dying to know all about every temple we visited, when it was built what spiritual purpose it served etc. However we would then be taking away the joy of your own visit and therefore your money from the people of Cambodia. Instead we’ll tell you about the other things we did.
Day one was pretty chillaxed. We arrived in the afternoon, got our temple passes and went to see the sunset at temple xxx. This is obligatory and all the gap year kids were up there comparing who was in the cheapest hotel, who had washed the least and who had the most authentic experience. We remained aloof, took a few photos, laughed at the prolific traveller clothes, had a beer then went for a lovely dinner. During dinner we noticed some people over the road putting their feet in fish tanks. We thought we’d scout out this unusual spectacle on our post prandial perambulation. Closer examination found it to be some weird form of massage where you shove your feet in the tank and hundreds of teeny fish nibble all the dead skin off them. After a few months of walking about, trekking and wearing sandals we thought we’d been good candidates to feed the fish and hopped in. Interestingly, manfoot seems to be a great delicacy than ladyfoot amongst these fish and I was ravaged.
Day two saw us rise at an ungodly hour for the sunrise visit to temple xxx. Again this was mandatory although the gap yearers were strangely absent. After returning to the hotel for breakfast, being blessed by a monk, lying by the pool, lunch, lying by the pool we returned to visit temple blah, blah and blah. Again sunset required at temple blah and the gap yearers were back. While I vilify them I think I secretly envy their youth and vigour, I’ll continue to vilify them though because it makes me feel big. The eve saw us yearning for western food, there are only so many fresh rolls and noodles you can consume. One burger and two pizzas later we hit the night market to examine the tat. Some excellent displays probably topped with a Daffy duck nightie that looked like it had been in the stall for at least a decade.
Day three saw us weaken and the morning was spent reading (I finished the excellent In the Name of the Rose) and eating for the morning before heading out to temples John, Paul, George and Ringo. Truly spectacular. Tonight was our last night with the sparkling Natalie and she offered to treat us to a slap-up feed. Naturally we went to the most expensive restaurant in town and emptied her wallet.
Reflecting on our visit today in the airport what I think really struck us (me) was how friendly the people here are. They are truly always ready with a smile even when you’ve told them you don’t want to buy their temple guide/cold beverage/ice-cream/Cambodian silk bag/postcard/tuk-tuk. Although we’ve been in a pretty hermetic bubble of tourist-funded Westernism here we feel Cambodia deserves more Morge. We’ll be back!