Originally Posted by uncertaintraveler

I strongly suggest you don't book a guide for the temples through your hotel. It may be useful to do so, if only to have some sort of security that you aren't going to be taken for a ride (no pun intended), but the hotel takes a huge cut of the guide's fee (almost 50%)! It seems to me that the best way to spread your money around the local economy is to go with a local hotel, and a local guide you can pick up on the streets. All guides basically read from the same script anyway...