Feb 24th Marti Gras

This was our last day at the temples and we had left the best to last: the oldest temples lay about twenty kilometers outside of Siem reap, to the South East, far from the rest of Ankor. There were two major temples to see: one of the was shaped like a pyramid, it rose about twenty meters high and you could climb it and we did.
When we arrived first we realised we'd forgotten our passes, doh! Paddy and the driver went back together by motor bike while I waited with a group of Cambodians who had been selling postcards. The driver knew them and said I should wait with them. We were in the middle of no where, there was nothing else to do. I sat sipping sprite at a small table in a tent which the sales women and little girls showed me all the stuff they were selling. I was nervous at first, I didn't really know what to say and I felt ackward, I couldn't wait for Paddy to return.
But we started talking and time passed more quickly. They were all really curious about Ireland and how rich the Irish are supposed to be. I explained that we weren't always that way, told them about the famine and all that, about being occupied by a foreign force, about our recessions and struggles. They hadn't heard this about a western country before, they seemed really shocked.
They told me about Cambodia, what its like now. People are so happy and upbeat, they want to make something of their lives. The children in the tent were working there, selling postcards, in order to pay for school so that they could become tour guides.
Siam Reap is great in its own right, even without
Ankor I'd go there again , it was my favorite place of all. The nightlife is just crazy, bars sell buckets of whiskey mixed with red bull and coke. There is a really cool pub called Ankor What that is full of graffiti dating back years from all over the world, you can add your own, we did. we managed to catch Marti Gras there too. They had people drinking beer on an ice funnel coming from the third floor (a luge) and everyone was dancing and drinking on the streets. I got beads !! (from Paddy, but it still counts).