Friday, December 21, 2007

Last day in Siem Reap

My goal for today was to do nothing. I was sick of temples, and I was one day away from the end of my holiday. I had a few must do items for the day: souvenir shopping, food, and a massage. I went to Artisans D'Angkor, which started as an internationally-supported non-profit organization & eventually made enough money to support itself. The site is a school where they take impoverished youth, teach them certain skills (such as carving, painting, and chiseling), and then provide jobs. The course length is 1 year in length, and the students learn how to carve wood, shape sandstone, and paint. There were a group of deaf and/or mute girls that were learning how to paint Angkor souvenirs while we visited. When I walked through their store, I was shocked by the prices, but impressed by the beauty of their work. I decided that cost wasn't as important, and that I would buy sandstone carvings from the school instead of the markets in town. $300 & 40 pounds later, I lugged my things back to the guesthouse.

In the middle of the afternoon, James & I were looking for something to do. He mentioned that he saw a sign for a casino, and wanted to go check it out. I obliged since I didn't have any better ideas, so we headed to the fanciest hotel in town. I had some personal reservations about going to the casino - I was on a backpacking trip and gambling with more money than people make in a week or month seemed preposterous. However, I went with James and had a good time. We taught me how to play roulette, and each wager was $.20 so even I could handle a bit of the gambling. I made $15 at the end of the day, and James was up $5. We met the Prime Minister's helicopter pilot, who was in the casino with a bunch of the government cronies.

After an hour massage & dinner, the day had come to a perfect close. Tomorrow I'd be headed back to Thailand.

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