Cambodian Government? Technically, Cambodia is a Constitutional Monarchy with almost all of the elected officials either being part of or closely affiliated with members of the royal family. What exists today is the result of what evidently a very bloody coup that occurred in 1999. In reality, the government is evidently a very oppressive, strong-armed dictatorship. This was corroborated by what few Cambodians would speak openly about it and 2 Europeans I met who are ex pats working in Phnom Penh.
Cambodia vs Kampuchea? My official world pocket atlas says that "Cambodia" is the English word for the country and that "kampuchea" is its "official local name". With no exceptions, the Cambodians I spoke to referred to it as Cambodia - of course this may have been because I was a westerner!? However, interestingly all Vietnamese and Thai refer to it as Kampuchea. When the Khmer Rouge were in power they referred to it only as Kampuchea. Btw - the Vietnamese, Thais and Lao all consider Cambodians almost "sub humans" probably because many believe that are "black Indians" (as in India)!? And of course, for centuries, there have been many wars between Indochinese countries and Cambodia.
Mixture of Tourist? 98% of the tourists I saw were Asians - about an equal mixture of Koreans and Japanese with some obvious presence of Chinese (mainland). The remainder for the most part were Aussies and Kiwis _ only a very few Europeans. I met no Americans!?
Money = "Reils" not "reals" as previously reported!
Angkor sites and restorations? The entire, massive Angkor area is a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Many parts of it have been "restored" and many more areas are constantly being restored. Each of these multi-year, multi-million-$ restoration projects are undertaken by various countries funded by both the sponsoring countries and UNESCO. As you tour the sites, guides note both the country involved and years of restoration activities of past, current and future projects.
Bacon? Yes - the perfect food was available daily on the breakfast buffet. Of course everyday it was served almost raw. But no problem - I just took it to the omelet cook who properly fried it up in his omelet skillet - giving me weird looks while doing so!?
Stupas are mausoleums where Buddhist deposit bone or cremation remains of their dead. Monks actually "live" or "reside" in many of these stupas and say/recite daily prayers for the souls of the stupa residents. Note the pagoda's 7-headed serpents' interlocking curled tail to the right whose bodies surrounds the pagoda!
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