same same but different

when laura and i first got here we noticed that the tshirt range consists of lots of angkor and cambodia tshirts, and then one random one that says: "same same" and then on the back "but different". we didnt understand these tshirts and asked someone to explain them to us, but without much success. today as we wandered about more of angkor wat, we marvelled that we could ever have been confused - the market stalls are all same same but different, the food stalls same same but different, and i'm afraid after a while the temples, same same but different. which isnt to suggest that the temples arent amazing and completely worthwhile, just that without a particular interest in carving, religion, history, archeaology or the like, after a while its hard to remember which one you're looking at.... of course actually remembering to take the guide book with us may have assisted us in this struggle, but sadly we were without... nevertheless, it was still pretty amazing. riding around in a tuktuk was great, free airconditioning and only a slight feeling of looking like a colonial queen or an annoying american tourist. fortunately most of the white tourists appear to be french. remind me never to be come multilingual i'll just end up more perpetually annoyed.

in other noteworthy news, there was a triumph for my over organisation when laura ripped a chunk of skin off her toe walking into the internet cafe the othernight - did i have a bandaid? Check! did i have antiseptic? Check!

not much else to report today, about to go and look for some dinner... might have to try something other than amok tonight.... but first i need to investigate accomodation options for phnom penh. we still have another day here, but then its time to move on... the nice guest house people are organising a bus for us, we went with the flash toilet and airconditioning but, on the grounds that the relative cost to us is so small... i think its $10us for the 5 hr trip.

todays run in with adorable cambodian children with an acute sense of how to play the tourists involved two small children (the oldest maybe 80) who had themselves seated and posed on the path up to one of the temples, offering themselves up to tourist photographers... i quickly fought my inital urge to get snap happy and commented to laura that i had read about this, and if we wanted their photo we should prepared for them to demand cash.... so we made our way to the temple photographing strictly only ancient marvels... however on our return, the two had become 6 and had taken up a game of elastics. too adorable for words, laura decided the cost was indeed worth it... the kids are so attuned to us, they all know how to pose and smile, how to then quickly ask for cash, how to immediately divide into two smaller groups once you've handed over your dollar and suggest that you've infact only paid half the group... anyway. what can you do? saying no to small children has been one of the hardest parts... todays line from a postcard selling youth was 'you buy my postcards i go to school'.... you know its a line they've worked out from years of people looking at them with pity and asking if they go to school... its hard to gauge the relative poverty of the postcard selling children - are they making good money out of this or are they one step away from begging? is being a tuk tuk driver a good job? or being a massuer? hawking tshirts in the markets? the people seem pretty relaxed, and while the poverty compared to home is obvious, its hard to gauge just how acute it really is... while we've found most cambodians have a pretty good grasp of english, we havent yet found anyone we can probe about these issues.

ah well, better get accomodation hunting before its time to head out for yet more eating!