Hi All,
I'm in Siem Reap in Cambodia at the moment and have another day here before moving on towards Thailand. I went to Angkor Wat and other temples yesterday, the day before yesterday and yet again today. They are absolutely amazing, especially the ones still overgrown by the jungle like Ta Prohm & Preah Khan (the Temple I'm sure they based some of the Tomb Raider games on). While I didn't run into Lara Croft, there are some pretty good substitutes (read well endowed & wearing short pants) wandering around through the temple complex.
Bayon, with it's multitude of carved faces on each tower, was fascinating. Angkor Wat is the biggest temple in the area, surrounded by moats and massive walls carved with detailed scenes from it's past history. Climbing the steep narrow & badly eroded stairs right up to the top (4th) level of Angkor Wat provides a great view of the surrounding countryside and allows you to take in more of the massive scale of the temple.
Preah Khan is definitely my favourite temple, vast & wildly overgrown. It's less visited by tourist too, so you can explore in solitude & sort of feel like you have just discovered it in the jungle. I visited it a number of times, in sun & rain.
Took the 'Fast boat' up the Tonle Sap lake/river/floodplain to get to Siem reap (running out of typing time here) which broke down and made for a very long day after being transferred to a smaller & much slower boat, sitting on the roof and watching the countryside go by (did I mention the place is in flood? - water to the horizon in all directions in some places due to the monsoon).
Took another smaller boat from Siem Reap to Battambong, travelling above the flooded roadway, which made an interesting canal through the water covered countryside.
Visited a temple in the middle of a minefield too - quite careful to make sure I didn't walk off the cleared path - there are soooo many people missing arms/ legs/faces/parents it’s quite shocking. The Killing fields weren't quite such nice places, or the 15 meter glass pyramid filled with skulls, or the s21 torture camp, but they had to be seen to be believed - and to give you some better perspective on Cambodia.
Still, a very interesting country, with nice people (if incredibly poor) and the worst roads I've ever come across. The main highway is basically a boggy 4wd track - average road speed is under 20kmh - and it gets much worse off the main road.
Anyway, I'm having fun, food & company is good, my water filter is getting a workout (even on the local bottled water, which has a very chlorine-y chemical taste) and I'm off to breakfast now - gotta go!
