After our arrival in Siem Reap, Matthew and Trish arrived from London, so now we were a motley crew of six. The reason Kelly, Steve, Matthew, and Trish were in this part of the world was to celebrate Kelly's something-th brithday on September 13th. It was a great day of temple trekking, massages, sophisticated cocktails at the Foreign Correspondants Club, dinner at the Khmer Kitchen, and finally cake (for us and the local kids). We later found out it was Trish's birthday a few days later. Good fun was had by all despite getting worked over by the kids that Helen and I would later call the "postcard mafia"

Instead of hiring tuk-tuks we decided to rent bikes to tour the Angkor ruins which are only 5 km north of town. It's a bit misleading because the Angkor complex is usually thought of as being a singular destination: Angkor Wat. In reality, Angkor refers to a period of time from the ninth through the twelfth century when the Khmers ruled almost all of South East Asia. There are about 200 temples spread all over northern Cambodia, the main cluster being in the area around Siem Reap, which was the heart of their civilization.

Angkor Wat is the largest singular temple, but it is not by any means the most spectacular. These are just a few pictures of several Angkor temples on the complex.

One afternoon we went to the Landmine Museum. The only crimes the children who live there committed were playing a little off the beaten track. Blown off legs and hands were the punishment they received. It's truly sickening. The founder of the museum is a fellow named Aki Ra who, as a child, was forced by the Khmer Rouge to actually plant mines. Now he diffuses them. "Professional" mine removal organisations are furious because their cost to remove a mine is over $1500 per UXO (unexploded ordanance) ­– Aki Ra does it with a regular garden trowel for less than 50 cents. It's estimated he's pulled over 50,000 mines out of the ground in Northern Cambodia so far, many of which are just heaped in a corner of the museum. The shocking part is he still going strong with many years of work ahead.

Most of the mines manufactured are Anti-Personnel mines and are designed specifically to maim people, thus causing a strain on an army's mobility and resources which in turn slows them down. In other words, they're specifically made blow parts off your body...that all. The Ottawa Treaty was created in 1999 to ban mines. It has been signed by 157 countries. Unfortunately, the Ottawa Treaty has not been recognized by 37 countries including the United States, China, and Russia...kinda scary huh? Another sad fact is that usually mines are laid in extremely poverty striken rural areas and statistically the people most affected by mines are those who were never directly involved with altercation in the first place. The man with no arms became more than a picture when we met him selling books near the old market.

Helen and I liked Siem Reap so much that after Kell and Steve left we came back for a month. But, you'll have to go a few more places first.