Sambor Prei Kuk

From Phnom Penh we hired a van to take us west, stopping for the night in a smallish town, well off the tourist trail, called Kamphong Thom. En route we climbed a holy mountain (the only slight hill in a country that thus far is as flat as a pancake). The views from the top were beautiful, as were the temples and the 850 steps up gave us all a good work out. Well, most of us. Mike was not feeling quite so lively and persuaded the van driver (against his better judgement) to drive him to the top. We then all jumped in for the descent, which was positively perilous as the brakes were awful and the incline very steep. We had a precarious moment when the brakes suddenly failed and we went careering around a corner but fortunately the driver got things under control again.

The following morning we headed to some Pre Angkorian ruins called Sambor Prei Kuk. These are about 1200 years old and consist of more than a hundred brick temples situated in the middle of the jungle. They are wonderfully atmospheric; during our morning there we saw perhaps 5 other tourists, so these are rather off the beaten track but we all loved them. You were able to clamber over all of the ruins so the kids played at Indiana Jones and we all played hide and seek endlessly.

We then drove on towards Siem Reap, the base for visiting Angkor Wat.