Where there is beauty in Cambodia there is generally ugliness not far away...so today when we visited the ruined temples around Koh Ker near the Thai border you were confronted by stunningly empty temples and palaces, slowly being pulled aprt by the magnificent trees that are part of the reason for their beauty.
The beautiful stilted homes sit in one of the most landmine happy areas of the world, left as a parting shot by the retreating Khmer Rouge. Whilst the temple areas have been systematically cleared, some only in the last few years, red markers by the sides of the road remind you that straying off the tourist path is not too sensible and bring home to you just how difficult life is for poor people who have no alternative but to burn the forests down and subsistence farm...
The roads and temples are owned by Vietnamese and Korean big business...charging locals and tourists alike $2.50 to use a road...most of them in pretty bad shape. But all this adds to the fascination of the place.
Tomorrow we get the boat to Battembang.
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