Wanderlust Wanderings: Temple Day Two

We tuktuk'd out to a retreat centre outside of town for yoga and breakfast and finally met another Coloradoan! She was teaching yoga at the retreat for a month during her 7 months of traveling. Anyhow, it was nice to see outside of the tourist bubble of downtown Siem Reap and I already sense the poverty here. Much more so than most parts of Thailand of course and even Laos though possibly comparable to rural parts of Vietnam.
Typical home (stilted for rainy season):

We've noticed a trend that most busses and tuktuks like to fill up gas after picking you up. Here's the fancy gas station:

Next we supported a local business that employs blind people as masseuses. I realize, especially in these communities, there is almost no work for blind people as they can't drive, cook, etc but there sense of touch is certainly needed for massage therapy! And a one hour four hands (2 people) massage for $10? Not bad! Even with the children running around the room. The other interesting thing about Cambodia is that, atleast in this area so far, the main currency is US dollars. You can pull it out of an ATM, it's printed on the menus (and no riels, the local currency) and even the kids hounding you at the temples with postcards want 'one dolla, just one dolla'. I wonder the financial implications but that's beyond me. Convenient? Yes. Weird? Yes.

Then it was back to the temples. In a sudden and surprising downpour. So we were washed out of a few temples but still able to explore many lesser known temples. The clouds blocked a sunset view over Angkor Wat but it was still impressive!