This is my virtual version of a back flap on a dust jacket for books.

What a wonderful country Cambodia is! We met some of the friendliest people of all my trips so far. And the food! We can only recommend to stay AND to eat at the Angkor Village in Siem Reap (we hope it is still there after all these years since our visit). The hotel is build like the traditional wooden structures for monks in a temple but it offers you all the comfort of a luxury hotel. The service is excellent and the chef learned how to cook at the royal palace. No wonder that eating there was quite an experience! Siem Reap is of course just entering mass tourism and in a few years (or sooner) it might all be different.

While we were somewhat annoyed first by the many street vendors in and in front of the temples, they can actually be quite entertaining when visiting the temples. Not by what they know about the past or the ruins, but by what they tell you about their culture and everyday life. We've met many children who have to bribe the local police for being allowed to sell their items in front of a temple or who go to school by bicycle on a dirt road every day - 25km one way - and then try to earn a dollar as a tour guide.

We have also learned that Cambodians are extremely clean and well dressed. This is not the place for shorts and beer belly filled muscle shirts - and especially not for those German men, who believe that underwear with pink elephants printed on them can be worn as proper shorts!

Especially for the temples on the outskirts, it is a good idea to pack small presents and lots of small dollar bills. While it is below their dignity to beg, it gives you the opportunity to buy drinks, food or other items from them, or accept them as your tour guide and help them in this way.

Well, here is one of the 1600 pictures we took in three days, in addition to the 200+ digital ones, of which you can see some on these web pages. Remember, this was back in 2000 and we used rolls of film, which had to be carried, stored properly and then developed. In today’s times we shoot 1000+ pictures in one day without and trouble. Besides the equipment, another thing has changed today. That is the mass tourism and hotel industry around Angkor Wat. When we visited we could still take pictures without any tourists running into every shot. At most temples we didn't even have other tourists around. And hotels were relatively rare, while today they are built right in front of the temple.