Cambodia

I spent nearly 2 weeks exploring Cambodia. I'll spare you the details of city names and get directly to the highlights.

(1) Ankor is the most amazing archeological site. There is a collection of ancient stone temples with amazing carvings. The most famous is Ankor Wat, but there's probably a hundred spread in tens of square kilometers (and even more in farther places in SE Asia). One of the temples I liked most was Ta Phrom: trees grow over the ruins. Aparently parts of Tomb Raider were filmed here (or in a replica).

(2) The beaches and islands in the south were worth the visit, although a walk in the jungle of a national park gave me my first intimate encounter with a leech, a little one - cute bastard :)

(3) The countriside is beautiful but people are very poor. Most of the country appears to be covered in rice paddys. Riding a "bamboo" train is an interesting way to get around. It opperates on the same tracks as the regular train (which

runs only once a week). The bamboo train is actually put together on the spot when someone needs it: wheels, chasis, engine. When it's time to turn around, they actually pick up the chasis and engine and turn them around.

(4) Historic sites and memorials from the Kmer Rouge years are sobering. The stories are not sanitized like they would probably be in similar exhibits in the States. Displays are graphic. Former prisons still have some dry blood splatered in the ceiling... It seems everyone in the country has horror stories from these years.

I hope to return and explore more of Cambodia before the summer is over. For now, I return to Thailand. I'll keep updating these stories when I get more pictures developed...