The Temples of Angkor

It's been a while since I last updated, owing to the fact that Blogspot is banned in Myanmar, due to the government's hatred of writers. Even in recent years a number of bloggers visiting Myanmar have been imprisoned after writing even slightly negative comments about the government, or writing information the government didn't want people to know about. Of course, I was never going to have either of those problems, but that's been the reason for my absence for the last three weeks. It's a crying shame, really, because Myanmar is an amazing country. Some people say it's like the rest of Asia was 75 years ago, largely due to the lack of tourists and (to a degree) international influence. I really want to decorate this blog with photos and written accounts, but hurrying through three weeks' backlog while I'm still travelling cannot do Myanmar justice. I've decided to wait until I'm back in Australia to post the missing chapter of Myanmar, so I hope you'll continue to look forward to it then.

For now I've landed in Cambodia, a land where fish eat your feet.


Already we've beheld the wonder of Angkor Wat, as well as many of the other Temples of Angkor. Some of them, like the steep temple-mountain of Pre Rup, offer magnificent views of the surrounding landscape. Others are ruins buried in jungle overgrowth. My favourite was of the latter, and is called Ta Phrom. It was one of the most incredible places I've been, with trees growing on top of ancient stone ruins, and their roots - twisting fat tentacles - splitting through the stone and making whole walls crumble. Not long after we arrived, dark storm clouds grumbled over. Suddenly the jungle was acry with animals, squawking in anticipation; the wind picked up, scraping leaves across stone and echoing through the dark passages. It was utterly eerie and I can't properly describe how haunting it was. Then it started raining and we sat in the ruins and just watched, overcome by the beauty and power of nature.


This morning we visited an ancient monastic complex called Ta Som. The most memorable point here was less the enormous tree that had consumed the eastern entrance (though that was very cool) but the swarms of kids trying to sell us postcards. All right, 10 for one dollar, I heard you the first three dozen times. One girl drew a Naughts and Crosses grid in the dirt and asked, "Do you know?" Kid, I was a master at this game before you were even born. So we played. The first two games we tied, so I played with another girl. All right, I thought, out of the kindness of my heart I'll let her win.

Big mistake. As soon as I make the wrong move, she pounces on the opportunity and announces: "If I win, you buy postcards from me!"

"No way!" I said, escaping before another move was played.

Still, the girl followed me around, saying, "I beat you, so you buy my postcards!"

"We didn't finish the game," I protested.

"You didn't buy my postcards!"

"That's right!!"

After it was clear to her that I wasn't interested in buying anything, she started on Kym. "Your friend lost to me, so you buy my postcards!"


I still haven't quite worked out how that's supposed to work, but hey, if Kym has to pay every time I intentionally lose a game of Naughts and Crosses, let's just say all her friends are going to be receiving a lot of postcards soon. :D