Cambodia: a 2.5 day trip to Siem Reap
I had the chance to go to Cambodia last week, only an hour's flight away from Bangkok. The trip was a revelation for me, because I had more or less mixed up in my mind a broad swathe of Cambodian, Thai, Laos and Vietnamese culture. The normal currency used by default is the US dollar, and the taxi driver asked me why I wanted to exchange my dollars for Cambodian Riels: "Dollars work everywhere!" They changed from French to English as a second language a few decades ago. It is necessary to visit places on the ground just in order to discover how diverse people really are, how different their beliefs, practices and customs, and how brutal to each other, while at the same time, understanding how really universal our fears are, caring, values, laughter, joys, happiness, pain, sorrow and suffering If you ask politely, they will stop and pose for you! And some had really interesting children hooked to their mobile games! Most of the s...