The Cambodia trip happened on the 6th and 7th of Jan 2008. The 1 1/2 days I stayed in Cambodia were one of the most enjoyable I've had till now. Starting with the view of the Cambodian landscape from air till the end of our rounds of the temples we enjoyed the trip to the hilt. In a way it was also a place full of surprises.

We landed in Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, on the morning of Jan 6 and then took a taxi to Siem Reap which was our destination. Our taxi driver couldn't understand a word of English but we did manage to have some rudimentary conversation using signs and facial expressions. On the way we tasted some excellent tender coconut water and one of the tastiest chikus. The countryside reminded us of the Indian countryside. We stayed at the Preah Khan Hotel and at USD 25 a night the facilities were excellent - a spacious room with all necessary facilities, an excellent restaurant where we tasted some excellent Khmer food, then there was the swimming pool and sauna. The restaurant people were kind enough to suggest some khmer food and make them vegetarian for us.

The chikus we bought were supposed to be for the just in case scenario .. in case we couldn't get good food but we needn't have worried at all .. most of the places we had food it was excellent. The Khmer fried noodles, fried rice and Khmer noodles are worth trying and one shouldn't miss the pancakes .. they're the best I've tasted till now. If you're a vegetarian then you've to very carefully explain to them that you don't want meat in any form. In most of their dishes they use "yam", a fish paste. Similar to Thai cuisine lemon grass is used a lot.

Our "tuk tuk" driver cum tour guide for the first day was a 23 three year old, lively, friendly and talkative guy called Tonh. We chatted up enough for him to reveal details of the love of his life. You can see photos of the Preah Khan hotel and Tonh in the sub gallery "Siem Reap". If not for anything else we should be thankful to Tonh for taking us to the Jasmine Angkor hotel which is a must visit if you go to Angkor. For USD 7 you get a international buffet dinner with 20-25 varieties of dishes .. if you're a vegetarian there are quite a few options too. The best part of the dinner is the cultural program from 7:30pm-8:30pm where local artistes show case their traditional dance forms.

The first evening we witnessed the sunset at Phnom Bekheng and Angkor Wat lit up in the night. The sunset was not as amazing as told by lonely planet but Angkor Wat at night is fantastic. The second day we had Tonh's brother Kia as our driver cum tour guide. Kia was not as quick witted and funny as Tonh but was a good guide. We visited the Bayon, Preah Khan, Preah Neak Pean, Ta Prohm and Ta Som. All the temples have food courts and souvenir shops on the outside. We sampled the food outside the Bayon and it was excellent. If you stop by anywhere near a temple you'll be bombarded by kids who try to sell souvenirs to you or call you for food and drinks. What I found most surprising was the fact that they spoke excellent english but with their typical sing-song accent - "mistaaa I give you threee for one dollaaaa only". They're perhaps trained in what to say because if you ask them for more info on something you invite blank stares! Its perhaps better to buy from these kids rather than from souvenir shops because from what I get to understand the money they earn from the sales go to the kids and their family and we would be helping them in making a living.

A common architectural feature of the temples in Angkor are statues of the seven headed snake and people pulling it from both sides - a representation of the churning of the ocean for the elixir of life. Its sad in all the temples the statues are disfigured or missing .. probably a consequence of the Khmer Rouge regime.

We were lucky to get beautiful blue skies in most of the places we went to. The photos have been arranged in subgalleries inside this gallery. The subgalleries are ordered on the basis of when they were first visited but the photos within them are not necessarily chronologically ordered. As you travel in time you find that the descriptions in the subgalleries start reducing in size mainly due to my laziness and in part because I don't have the lonely planet guide at hand to help me with that .. maybe one day I'll get around to borrow the book again and fill in the gaps .. maybe. I hope the photos do portray atleast a bit of the awe that you experience when you visit the symbols of the Angkor empire.