Rural Angkor

Siem Reap, Cambodia, has plenty of luxury hotels and upscale restaurants to accommodate well-heeled foreign tourists, but the town of 175,000 and the villages in the surrounding area deliver a distinctly rural experience.

You can still get all the fixin's for a feast at Siem Reap's Old Market.

The moto-remork (a.k.a. tuk-tuk)  provides inexpensive, reliable transportation for tourists and locals.

But the bicycle remains an important work-horse. 

Being soft foreign tourists, however, we hired an air-conditioned car to take us into the country for a peek at
the Beng Melea temple. 

Along the way, we stopped for a roadside snack called ja bamboo.

The vendor stuffs a combo of coconut sticky rice and black beans into bamboo sticks and then roasts them.
Just peel back the bamboo and voila! -- a sweet and savory, protein-packed snack that will provide hours of
fun for the kids. Two sticks for a dollar.

Restoration has been a slow-go at the Beng Melea temple. This is the main gate. You can get in
around the side, but it's a fairly rough experience.

After stumbling among the ruins, the reward is a fine lunch of wild boar, vegetables and rice in the
tidy nearby village

Back in town, you might like to end the day in reflection along the banks of the Siem Reap River.