Being primarily agrarian, the Cambodian landscape is interspersed with lush lime-green paddy fields, punctuated by swaying palm trees.

Paddy fields cover the landscape like a chequered quilt, with the monsoon inundated patches reflecting the clouds above. Unfortunately, the eye is a better camera than my SONY.	The airport at Siem-Reap, modeled after Thai wats.	In a bid to make the country tourist friendly, the government has been pulling all stops. This included the quickest visa service I ever received in any country (10 minutes to get an electronic visa online for the 3 of us, 5 more minutes at the airport from exiting the aircraft to hopping onto a taxi!)

An orchestra of water lilies greet us just outside the airport	Poverty has its simplifying moments. Irrigation ditches run all along the roads out of town, and are swollen with water during the monsoons, providing the local kids instances of pure joie-de-vivre.	Even the farmers happily posed for us.

Memories of Indian villages swarm in.

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