Siem Reap, the base to explore Angkor Wat.

We flew from the little brand new Sihanoukville airport to Siem Reap on an MA60 aircraft, a Chinese made turbopropeller, a small airplane which happened to have had many crashes in the past; the flight was flawless though, although I couldn't help feeling like a guinea pig when I found out later on.
Siem Reap is something like a grand city, with wider avenues and many nice grand hotels.It's not a big town though, although there are loads of tourists, in all kinds: backpackers, older wealthier tourists, culture travelers, ... If you've been previously in Phnom Penh or Sihanoukville it feels like a nice place to hang out for a while. And it is. There are enough things to see and do to escape the ubiquitous backpackers.
We were not lucky with the weather since it was cloudy for the first five days, of which one we visited the South East Rolous site: Preah Ko, Bakong and Lolei. Amazing site, even if there were badly ransacked. I felt like when I visited the Pyramids in Cairo. They are the oldest of the Khmer buildings and were built in the 9th century ad.
We tried our luck the day before and went to see Angkor Wat at sunset, although with a grey sky we could not get a fair view. I prepared myself for the big day when the sun is out.
Cambodia is infested with NGO's. They are everywhere and I have never met so many Western guys "working" in the charity sector in a country. Phnom Penh is full of them, and many go to the coast - Kep, the islands - to make the most of their luck. They eat Western food in expensive restaurants and some have SUV's. I guess not all of them make a profit of the charity industry - although I have not found any information to confirm this as yet -.and some do invest money in schools, hospitality business. But they do get their piece. Siem Reap is very international and many basic goods are imported, in fact most of them, and not from China or Thailand, but from far away countries such as Germany, UK or US. There is a price Cambodia has to pay to keep up his tourism industry.
We saw a fantastic show, The Cambodia Circus, where some young kids from disadvantaged families and some abandoned played amazing acrobats to represent the story of a young girl who suffered the Khmer times to become eventually a teacher for traumatised children. And what a show, in an hour and a half I laughed, I cried and couldn't stop clapping my hands. It was possibly the best show I've ever seen, such a display of creativity, emotions and colourfulness that make me feel I was inside a Disney movie..