I heard you can't come to Cambodia without seeing Angkor Wat, the largest religious monument in the World and a masterpiece of ancient human engineering, art and spiritual design. So even though I am "templed out"; it's the heaviest part of the Cambodian rainy season (May thru October) and Siem Reap, where Angkor Wat  is located, is a hour away by air or 7+ hours by car, I find myself on Air Cambodia, from our port in Sihanoukville, with 40+ ship people traveling to Siem Reap for a quick visit! I'll probably never get here again!

On our 90 minute drive from the airport to the hotel, our driver was very informative and seemed to enjoy filling us in on his country and thanked us profusely for coming to visit. Cambodia has been hurting economically ever since 1975 with the awful civil war / genocide known as the Khmer Rouge, led by radical communist Pol Pot. He was over thrown in 1979 but reconstuction was slow until hid death in 1998 when the radical factions gradually disbanded. The UN stepped in 2007 to 2010 but growth remained slow and then Covid hit the country hard. Siem Reap is very dependent on tourism, unlike the capital city of Phnom Penh which relies on factory work, employing over 4M.

We had a quick break at the hotel this afternoon, before setting out to explore the city and try and catch sunset at Angkor Wat. The streets were very busy, with lots of activity. At night it really come alive! Based on the above, the booming downtown appearance was so unexpected, I thought it was going to be much smaller and more rural.  We saw very little that showed a depressed economy. There  are tons of neon lights, shops, bars, restaurants, hotels, spas and people!

We had a yummy Mexican Dinner at Maybe Later , a place highly recommended by other ship folk. It was so good!

Now off to sleep - because we have a 4:45 am sunrise pickup tomorrow!