Chinese tourists pack into ruins of Angkor

On the day of our visit, the largest number of tourists at the world heritage site appeared to be from China, based on how local tour guide after tour guide spoke only in Chinese to their respective groups. We also noticed many independent Chinese travelers, such as young couples and students.

Later during our stay in Siem Reap town, we found more Chinese tourists at a night market for knickknacks, a restaurant serving local food and on boats along an estuary, where a floating village is the star attraction. Some smiled and waved at us as our boats crossed paths on our journey to an open lake.

For someone like me, who doesn't know how to swim, such gestures can be comforting.

China's links with Cambodia go back a long time.

French scholar Claude Jacques writes in his book on Angkor that "more descriptive evidence" of the early years of the Khmer Empire, eventually one of Southeast Asia's most powerful, were found in the accounts of the Chinese who began to trade with the principal country (of the Khmer civilization) they then called Funan.

We missed a view of the sunrise over Angkor Wat, thanks to relentless rain earlier this month in Siem Reap.

Our hired car and tuk-tuk (three-wheeled vehicle) waded through water in parts of the town.

But as a result, we caught another great sight - children swimming in a submerged street.