Gripping tightly to the scooters metal rails we zipped through traffic towards the rickety, wooden bridge somewhere in the Cambodean jungle.
Literally bouncing, my backside came clear of the seat on more than one occasion on the uneven dust-red tracks.
I worried frequently about landmines, so many of the locals had lost limbs, and I urged my driver to stay on the road.
Every so often, the rich emerald mix opened out to reveal vast plains of cordoned rice paddies. Wallowing monochrome waterbuffalloes could be seen chest-deep in the khaki pools. This could have been primordial Lincolnshire.
The Cambodian guy at the helm on this mission was called, "Bun." Oh how I chortled when he told me as I left the airport. Could there be a more apt name for a food explorer??
Back on the bike and villages of one line flashed by. Outdoor clay stoves like termite mounds could be seen with every house. Some were bearing massive woks on top.
Onwards we rode, topwards the jungle temple of Pra Tom.
When the chrome exhaust pipe finally stopped spluttering an underwater-like silence suddenly gripped me. We were alone.
Gradually, the warbled sing-song of courting birds became audible in the high canopy.
Amongst the trees a huge stone-cut face of ambiguosly smiling expression watched me. I had entered its towering grey walls. For an instant I wnet cold. "Its just the thick stone slabs forming a shade,"I assured myself.
Through the tower and a long sandy pathway led towards the Temple itself which remained hidden at this time. The air was staganant with the heat of a thousand years and as butterflies fluttered quickly across the path I could feel the baking heat all around. "Goooo Backkkkk" I heard the trees whisper in their leafy tops.
"Were there boobie traps?" I pondered, looking at a narrowing path leading up to a discernable entrance.
A stone beam perched precariously on a lone frame lay ahead. The bones of the past were appearing. As I approached I could see the gnarly roots of a tree I entwined in the ancient doorway.
I proceeded through the gateway and into another time.
What lay ahead you would struggle to dream up.
Before me lay countless corridoors marked with ornaate carvings and texts. Above me were bulbous towers of grey, black and green with pretty white lichen splodges.
Jolted flagstones formed an undulating ground of tectonic plates during an earthquake. The outer walls were a bendy wave boundary around crooked, topsy turvy inner structures.
Trees, vines and creepers had firmly taken residence. Spiders, lizards and scorpions lay quietly all around me - waiting.
Nature had impregnated mans greatyest work until they had become inseperable.
Cautiously pacing, I noticed the smell of incense channelled through the dark corridoors. It whisped past me invisably until shafts of light betrayed its presence.
Suddenly the outline of a figure became visable ahead. Out of the smoke came a strange orange glow.
Holding my bottle of water tightly I prepared to defend myself against this creature.
I stood motionless.
A soft voice came from the mist......."Sosiday"
A smiling Monk with long orange drapes came forward. I was relieved.
I explained that I was on a mission to find a new species and he seemed interested in my quest. He offered his services and I pondered if I might need a Buddhist monk on my travels.
There was a moment of realisation in our meeting. I knew from my brief moment with the monk that I wanted to be an archeologist.
well......maybe a food archeologist.
