In sumatra or other: Siem Reap or other

Ignore the fact I've already done that shit pun in the blog title please...

Singapor to Siem Reap took just over 2 hours which would've been a lovely little flight if I hadn't sat next to a lady called Jennifer. Jennifer was in her thirties and from Nashville (she had the drawl and everything). She was also a mother whose son was at university. Apparently she was married at 16. Anyway about an hour in (just as I was getting to a really good part of my book) she decided to start trying to make small talk. After the customary "where are you from" 's and such had been got out the way I quickly discovered that she was a Jehovah's Witness. Not only that but she was determined that my lack of any religious belief was an obstacle that could be overcome with dogged persistence. Tedious. To give her credit she did provide one moment of unintentional light relief when the subject of America came up. I said I'd love to go to Yellowstone before it explodes (unlikely to happen any time soon...) to which she replied "oh not you too". Confused I asked her to explain what was so strange about thinking that at some point in the future a volcano such as Yellowstone might explode. This was met by a sigh of relief and the comment "oh phew, I thought you were one of those people who think the whole world is about to explode". Needless to say I enquired as to who the hell thinks that's about to happen. Apparently it turns out her daughter is part of a group of people who firmly believe it will happen in the near future due to the level of our sins. I'm not sure my comment that "English scientists have proved that it won't last beyond 2018" really helped her thoughts on the matter come to think of it...

After that delight I arrived at Siem Reap and got met by my guide for the next few days whose name I simply can't understand but he seems really nice. Either way this 3-wheeler turned out to be his and so we set off to the hotel. It's about 30+ degrees here right now so it was nice to have a bit of breeze going past. The dust from the vehicles in front was less pleasing though.

Having settled into my hotel I decided I'd head to the reception to see if there were any half day trips that they would recommend. As I left my room I looked outside to see some unknown local standing in my shoes laughing. When he saw me his laughing intensified so I went out and tried his trainers on. I didn't get very far as they must have been about a size 5.

After he finally got out of my shoes and headed off I went back in to the reception and discovered that there was a floating village on a nearby lake which was worth a look. Having been dropped off I got a boat to myself and a driver who was just fantastic, I think he was called Loin but he didn't know how to spell it. He spoke quite good English and we ended up just messing around mostly. Below is the trip in photos:

Setting off down the river to the lake. It's the dry season right now, normally the water would be up by those houses on the left.