I don‘t think I can get bored of temples. Today I went to see the sunrise on top of the temple Phnom Bakheng on a mountain. There were maybe only 5 other people there and I could see Angkor Wat from above. It was beautiful. Very peaceful. The other temples I saw today…breathtaking. Every single one in a different kind of way. One had very intense red and light blue-green spots on the walls, the next one was in the middle of this large water reservoir that looked like a mirror with pink lotus flowers everywhere and one had so much engraved details preserved like no other temple I‘ve seen before, it felt unreal.

The afternoon I just spend in the shadows at his one water reservoir that I fell in love with yesterday (and that‘s a bit closer to my hostel). At sunset a lot of small kids approached me, each holding self-made key chains and asking for 1$. I didn‘t know what to do, I felt very awful. The key chains were actually very well made, they were like origami animals out of colorful paper. It broke my heart saying no. Part of me feels like I just should have bought one but I am also feeling very conflicted. Later I saw them close to a bigger tourist group with an older lady holding already 3 of those key chains, surrounded by kids and more and more kids coming from somewhere asking her to buy more. The smallest kid looked like it was 3 years old maybe? I don‘t know how to feel about it. I don‘t want to support that this is encouraged. But also these kids didn‘t choose any of this. They just see white people that try not to look at them and saying no when they say that it‘s money for school. I saw in the distance two mums distributing the key chains to the kids. One was holding a baby. It is better than begging I guess but is it really? I also feel like these key chains would have no problem selling successfully if the mums were selling them in a small stall in a good spot.