Cambodia Angkor Temple Ruins

A little background information from Wikipedia about the area in Cambodia we visited:

Angkor (Khmer: "Capital City") is a region of Cambodia that served as the seat of the Khmer Empire, which flourished from approximately the 9th to 15th centuries. The Angkorian period began in AD 802, when the Khmer Hindu monarch Jayavarman II declared himself a "universal monarch" and "god-king", and lasted until the late 14th century, first falling under Ayutthayan suzerainty in 1351. A Khmer rebellion resulted in the 1431 sacking of Angkor by Ayutthaya.
The ruins of Angkor are located amid forests and farmland to the north of the Great Lake (Tonlé Sap) and south of the Kulen Hills, near modern-day Siem Reap city in Siem Reap Province. The temples of the Angkor area number over one thousand, ranging in scale from nondescript piles of brick rubble scattered through rice fields to the magnificent Angkor Wat, said to be the world's largest single religious monument. Many of the temples at Angkor have been restored, and together, they comprise the most significant site of Khmer architecture. 

This tomb raider failed to maintain a low profile.

 There are international organizations devoted to preserving and restoring these amazing temple sites.

We climbed some stairs as steep as these to see some views from the top. 

This view shows some of the scaffolding used to restore the ruins as well as parts before restoration. 

Our guide saved the most spectacular sites for the last day. Temples overgrown by the forest have a surreal appearance.  

This pictures gives you a idea of the size of some of the tree roots. 

At another place in Cambodia this girl waits for tourists with her pet snake hoping to make some money selling pictures.

In Cambodia we used American money. When we arrived in the country we found an ATM after we deplaned. To our surprise, it dispensed U.S. dollars, some of which we had to use to pay for our visa to enter the country. We continued to use U.S. dollars during our stay, although we would sometimes receive Cambodian money for change.

We thought the parts of Cambodia we visited seemed less prosperous than Vietnam. Unlike Vietnam and China, we saw children who appeared to be school age who were not in school. Also, unlike Vietnam and China, we saw many children, again young children who should have been in school, selling trinkets for "a dollar, a dollar." 

We found many American products in stores and most were less expensive than what the same think would cost in China. We also found a great hamburger and fries after our trek in the "jungle."