Phnom Bakheng

Ok, so I nipped up Phnom Bakheng which is on top of a hill meaning lovely sunset shots and I’m starting to realise that I have seen only a tiny bit of this place. The map below shows the scale – if the moat in my picture in the previous days post is the moat surrounding Angkor Wat, you can then deduce scale of the whole site itself, it’s huge.

So today I had another dip into Angkor but without really diving in, I think I’ll save that for later in the week when I’ll make a sunrise til sunset tour, but for now I’m happy just skirting about the edges. I still haven’t figured out why the place was deserted, but I’m still looking – the picture below is a picture from the top of Phnom Bakhreng, you might be able to see a lake in the distance, that lake apparently grows in size by a multitude of three in the rainy season. Apparently fish like this as it means loads of goodies in the water, so that body of water is the best in the world for its fish yield. Can you believe that I was pondering that at sunset from the top of Phnom Bakhreng, I’m turning into a nerd for gods sakes.

Upon getting back into town I get a facebook message from an old buddy that lives in Siem Reap. She is the ‘Honorary British Consul’ which is as cool as it gets, she is the one that deals with James Bond when he comes to town – hey, that’s me right now I guess, but Sasha and I have managed to bypass each other since I’ve been here so apparently she asked every honky in town to grab any bloke with an excess of curly barnet and point them in her direction. We managed to meet up at the Siem Reap photographic exhibition at the FCC centre by the river.

Now the FCC centre is cool. I mean Siem Reap is a mass of contradictions, but walking into the FCC centre is like walking into a party on a yacht – well dressed people, chic – no sweatiness at all, perhaps a little Paris Super Cool Culture pervading this little bit of Indochine. I recommend this place just to relax and take a deep deep breath.

Anyhow I retired early due to the fact that I have work to do. I have a 512k connection in my hotel room, the National Geographic channel is on in the background with some programme about people that survived horrendous accidents and the swimming pool outside is illuminated with underwater lights, the chitter chatter of some French people keeps the insects from having a monopoly around the poolside. I feel better.