Heather's alive, happy, and eating well in Asia. We discovered a lovely ice-cream shop in Siem Reap yesterday afternoon, called the Blue Pumpkin. It's more than just a ice-cream shop, but they really, really excel at delivering frosty treats to the sweating tourists. So we're in Cambodia, if that wasn't obvious. Siem Reap's claim to fame (at least in my ignorant Western knowledge) is being the jumping off point for Angkor Wat, which according the tour book I got ripped off buying, ís the largest religious monument in the world'. 'We've spent the last 3 days being driven around in a tuk-tuk, moving from one temple to the next, snapping photos, reading up on the history, being awe-struck, and attempting to dodge small children who are the savviest negotiators on the planet. ''Lady, you want t-shirt, I have t-shirt for you', echoes through the temple enclosure, in high-pitched, sing-song voices. They swarm you as you emerge from the tuk-tuk with offers of scarves, t-shirts, postcards, cold drinks, etc, etc, etc. My strategy yesterday got a little underhanded - when asked my name, I supplied the name Jennifer. As soon as you provide your name, you're in trouble, because you haven't given your name to the little girl who you first met, but you've actually given it to 5 little kids. And as you emerge from touring the temple a small herd of them stampede towards you yelling, in this case, 'Jennifer, I remember you. You promise to buy my cold drink. I have cold drink for you.' So my plan obviously back-fired. While they weren't screaming my name, they were headed right for me. And I'm a sucker, there's no other way to describe it. So the already over-flowing backpack is quickly getting filled up with Cambodian silk scarves.
Anyway, back to the ice cream. I had mango and caramel cashew nut yesterday, and creature of habit that I am, I may just order the same later this afternoon. Siem Reap is an interesting spot. It's as though extreme poverty and Western tourism have been shaken up in a blender and you're left with this disturbing yet fascinating combination that seems to work. There's obviously been a huge amount of investment in recent years, and large, up-scale hotels that cater to Western tourists are sprouting up everywhere, right beside modest shacks. I have mixed feelings about it - obviously tourism is driving money into the local economy and that's good, yet there's such a great divide between what is acceptable living conditions for a local person and me, as a spoiled Westerner, it's not really fair. But I'm not Angelina Jolie, so I don't have $5 million in pocket change to donate to the country. So I don't get too fussed when I know I've just paid too much for a scarf or the cleaning staff steal the money I stupidly left in the room, and eating ice cream is putting money into the economy too, isn't it?
Anyway, back to the ice cream. I had mango and caramel cashew nut yesterday, and creature of habit that I am, I may just order the same later this afternoon. Siem Reap is an interesting spot. It's as though extreme poverty and Western tourism have been shaken up in a blender and you're left with this disturbing yet fascinating combination that seems to work. There's obviously been a huge amount of investment in recent years, and large, up-scale hotels that cater to Western tourists are sprouting up everywhere, right beside modest shacks. I have mixed feelings about it - obviously tourism is driving money into the local economy and that's good, yet there's such a great divide between what is acceptable living conditions for a local person and me, as a spoiled Westerner, it's not really fair. But I'm not Angelina Jolie, so I don't have $5 million in pocket change to donate to the country. So I don't get too fussed when I know I've just paid too much for a scarf or the cleaning staff steal the money I stupidly left in the room, and eating ice cream is putting money into the economy too, isn't it?
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