Dealing With Touts At Angkor Wat

(This is from my own personal experience, something that doesn't apply to everyone, but one that newcomers may learn from.) They're your regular touts except that they're younger, from 8 to 14 years old. They're extremely friendly and articulate in English by Cambodian (even Asian) standards, and almost always have that winning smile and very charming demeanor. They show off their counterfeit travel guide books, cheap postcard prints, bottled water or whatever else they can easily lug around practically in your face, single-mindedly closing in on a deal. I am only excited about getting inside Angkor Wat. I want to get there fast, maybe check out the nooks and crannies of this exquisite monument normal guided tourists don't see. I say to one of the touts, "Maybe later." To them, apparently, this constitutes a promise. After an hour or two on foot inside the temples, I proceed to my rented car, dying to go back to my hotel and a nice comfortable bar for an ice-cold beer. The tout suddenly appears out of nowhere, shoving back in my face the goods I said "Maybe later" to. I said I'm not buying, that I have a similar book or I've seen the place myself and I don't need the book, and so on and so forth. The tout "reminds" me of my "promise." I say I only said maybe. The tout says, "Maybe is a promise!" I stand firm on my decision, not to be outwitted or coerced or intimidated by a tout and a child at that. "Sorry, I'm not buying," I say in all finality. Inside my rented car I can still hear the child saying, "Liar! Liar! Liar! Your mother is a %*$#@!" Lesson learned: Don't say "Maybe" when you mean, "No, not really." It might prove helpful even outside Cambodia.