Day 28: finishing off the temple trek

Day three and yet more temples. As today was the royal ploughing ceremony, and most of the temples are on the same approach road as the ceremony and the agricultural show, we couldn't revisit any of the most well-known until afternoon so we headed off to a little known group in the other direction. They were nice enough to see simply because they were quieter and we were able to wander in peace. Didn't stop the hawkers though. We continually bombarded with requests from women and children at each site - "you buy something!!" Never a request, always phrased as an imperative, which you could argue is down to their ability with English, but then you can have an entire conversation with them about having kids (a very popular topic here as in Vietnam) or about why you don't need two more t-shirts. JP has a new tactic - distract them with showing them the pics on our camera, or taking their photo. We now have several photo's of two children's fingers holding their postcards thanks to this tactic (see photo above for an example).

On the way back into town, with the kids shouts still ringing in our ears, we were treated to a very Cambodian sight - two pigs being transported on a motorbike. "Moto" is the main transport here, and if at all possible, everything will be transported using them, but this was a real treat for us as it is the first time we've seen livestock on them. It was hard to see how the bike didn't topple over, but the pigs were pretty well trussed and although they occasionally wriggled their snouts, they didn't really seem keen to move.

In the afternoon we decided to head back to Angkor Wat again, to see if it was any more impressive the second time around, as I felt like we didn't get the most out of it the first visit. I can now appreciate that it is an impressive achievement, but I don't love it the way some people do. Each to their own, I say.

All done now, tomorrow is an easy day and we are looking forward to a day where we don't have to be on the road by 7am. Sad to say goodbye to Ton, our tuk-tuk driver, but all good things come to an end, and he'll be taking us to the airport the day after for our transfer to Singapore - we finally sorted out our plans today and we're going for some developed world sanity now that Thailand is not an option.