Cambodia - Angkor Wat

Taking advantage of Hong Kong's convenient location in the middle of East Asia we booked a weekend trip to Angkor Wat. I was overwhelmed by the beauty of its temples. One bigger and more beautiful than the other. Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat or Ta Prohm - all of them are amazing. Angkor Wat translates to City Temple.
It is the best known temple and the emblem of Angkor. You will find it on the national flag and the Cambodian money bills. Angkor Thom is known for its statues and buddha faces. The temple was built by Hindus and that's why you will find plenty of Shiva illustrations. The best way to enter it is through the south gate. Most of the statues there are still in good shape. Angkor Wat is still actively used by buddhist monks. We actually met a group of young monks taking photos in the temple just like all the other tourists. Ta Prohm is almost sunken into the jungle. I was told that all temples looked like that before they startet to excavate them. Ta Prohm was one of the sets for the Tomb Raider movie. The locals tend to call it Tomb Raider temple for this reason.
From November into February/March it is the peak season because it is not as hot then. If you don't have a problem with that I would recommend to go in the low season. The temples are less packed then. If it rains it usually rains in the afternoon. And it will be one heavy patch of rain. We also went there in April and we didn't see any rain at all.
As for the hotel it is probably best to choose one in the center of Siem Reap otherwise you will have to take a tuk tuk every time to get into the city. Siem Reap has a small city centre with an old market and a street called Bar Street (you can imagine what you will find here). After an evening with drinks you usually don't pay much more than 10 US dollar as a beer comes as cheap as 0,75 US$.
My idea of Cambodia was that of a completely underdeveloped country. I read in a newspaper that 35 % of the population lives on less than 50 Cents per day. But it doesn't feel like this. Of course people are poor but they are cheery and friendly and most of them speak English incredibly well. There is also a public school system available and for the booming tourism industry there are apparently no limits. You will still find people living in wooden shacks without access to clean water. But on the other hand there are cool restaurants and bars and heaps of new cars. A middle class has been established that lives well off the tourism. Unfortunately the whole country is so corrupt that there is not much left over for the poor. The tickets for the temples are handled by a private Vietnamese company. It only has to pay the Cambodian government a small amount of what it actually gets for the tickets. I was told that the contract was signed during the war when the Vietnamese helped the government against the Khmer Rouge.