Stan and I, and about a total of 35 guests, stayed at the Four Seasons in Bangkok before leaving for Cambodia. The hotel is gorgeous, beautiful lobby and great rooms but the service was severely lacking. As we had to get up at 4:30 a.m. to start for Cambodia, the hotel was supposed to provide coffee and tea for us. The server arrived with a two-cup pot of coffee and one of tea for all 35 people. The planning was atrocious. There were also some other incidents of very poor planning.

Cambodia was primitive and wonderful. I would do it again next year if possible. The temples, carvings and people are very impressive. There were many children selling and begging at the temples and I was amazed at how many spoke English. I had a conversation with a ten-year old boy and learned all about his family. When I gave him a plastic bag with a few M&M's in it, he gave me a gift of a bag of dried green peas for snacking!

Although the poverty is great there seemed to be no malnutricion. Both children and adults from the countryside are very small while the town people are of a larger stature. All the people we saw were dressed according to the climate and there were not torn or ragged clothes as seen in many parts of the world. On the water village tour, the children were entertaining us with their dives off the boats into the lake and canal.

Home again and utterly enhausted!

Ardis and Stan