The roads going from Siem Reap to Angkor Wat, except for one in the centre of town, seem to be red, dusty and partly pot-holed.

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The guide we hired is such an excellent person, I feel I must put down his name and contact details in case anyone is going to Siem Reap in the near future. His name is Ou-Panha and you can find him via this web site: www.angkoradventure.greatnow.com. He is an extremely well educated young man with a wife and young son. He has a wealth of information at his fingertips and being with him for three days, I learned an immense amount about Cambodia in general, and the temples in particular. I contacted him before we arrived in Cambodia and he met us at the airport and his driver drove us to a hotel he recommended. It is I think essentail to have a local guide when you visit the Angkor Wat complex and other sites in the area of Siem Reap. Panha also explained that you do not need malaria pills in the area, as there is no malaria in the area and has not been for some years now.

Another interesting tip from Panha is that you can buy visas for Vietnam from agents in Siem Reap for $35, much cheaper than the £35 I paid in the embassy in London. But to go back to my main story....

The reason I don't want to come back to earth as a pig is that Panha explained why we passed several pigs riding as passengers on motorcycles.

Yes, I noticed with surprise, coming towards our car, a motocycle and across the front of it, directly in front of the driver, was a supine pig, lying on its back, with its little feet in the air. The pig was alive, explained Panha. What a way to go!
The pigs are transported to the slaughter house in this way, to be killed, ready for somebody's stir fry. Of course Cambodia is the land of the motorbike and it is an efficient and cheap mode of transport.

Panha told me that sometimes buffalo are also transported in this way. If the buffalo is lazy and does not work well in the field, the farmer will get rid of it and for the buffalo, this is his last trip. How indignified!

Also here in Cambodia, people like to eat snake, expecially cobra, and relish the blood as a medicinal tonic. I was told that a lot of cobra in Cambodia have been killed and there are not many left in the jungle, for this reason.

People often keep crocodile too. Most farmers will have crocodile farms because this is a good way to raise money. The crocodile grow to quite a size until they are about 7 years old, or even to 10 years old. By the time they are 10 they are eating a lot of fish, and that it the time they are sold on for a lot of money.
Panha tols us about a grandfather who was out with his grandson, talking to his friends, and the child unfortunately fell into the crocodiles and that was that. The grandfather jumped in to save him and lost a leg.