So we're still talking Angkor Wat, right, the place where I was one week ago. That Sunday, the tuktuk driver took me to see my first tempel. It looked enormously impressive. Back then it did. By now, I've become someting of a tempel-experienced person. Now I can say this tempel had very nice defined sculpture work which hasn't eroded yet. For the rest, it's quite a small one, actually. Kings used to build tempels for themselves, or their father or mother. I suppose this one was built for a mother-in-law.
It was beautiful though, so she must have been a kind lady.
Inside the tempel complex it's mostly quiet and peaceful. When you walk out, you're bombarded by little kids and women selling all kinds of books, postcards and memorabilia that you don't want or need. The kids can be very persistant. One girl followed me around for five minutes trying to get me to buy a bracelet for a dollar. Two bracelets for a dollar. Five bracelets for a dollar! I kept saying 'no, thank you', but that didn't discourage her. And I don't know the answer to the dilemma that giving them money makes them continue doing it, but that not giving them money doesn't really help either. She told me that 'with money I can go to school', which - of course - is a good line that almost made me sway. Instead I made my way back to the tuktuk and we rushed off.
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