Day 179 Siam Reap Cambodia (Angkor Watt, Local Killing Fields and War Museum)

Thouer collected me at 5.30am and we made our way to Angkor Watt temple in time for sunrise. I'd read about the carvings at the temple and how no two faces are the same.

The sun was just waking up as I walked along the grand stone promenade that crosses the moat surrounding the temple.

Stood at the reflection pool a while.

Pretty soon the iconic images came into view and to think this marvel was built back in the 12th century.

Of course not everyone at the temple is quite so interested. Johnny and Murdo for example.

Then viited Bayon temple with buddah faces carved on all four sides of the many many towers.

After that even more temples including Ta Prohm which is engulfed by the jungle and where Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones were filmed.....step aside "Lara Croft" and "Indy"..."Prydey's here"in the feature film blockbuster "Search for the Tomb of The Golden Rucksack". Soon to be in all bins at Blockbuster priced twelve pence.

On a more serious note I then asked Theur (pronounced Tu) to then show me some history of the Pol Pot regime.

We arrived at this seemingly innocuous looking building until I got closer to the window .....

These are remains of innocent people killed in the nearby field under Pol Pots rule. Theuor told me how he lost his own father and talked me through the history boards at the memorial. Many innocent people were killed, often for simply being too educated.

The imagery was harrowing and Theuor pictured below took me across to the adjacent temple as I'd asked to learn a wee bit abiout buddism.

Theuor is a bhuddist and later became a Christian. He talked me through the huge paintings on the temple walls which tell the story of bhuddah from birth to death.

Then we went to the war museum to find out about the recent thirty years of war Cambodias people have endured. Our guide whose friends say has nine lives (shot twice, hit by mines four times and 60 percent blinded from a rocket launcher) told us and showed us the horrible weapons of war.

(trip wire mine)

I went back to the hostel a lot more informed on the cruelty of war than the sanatised distant version I've witnessed on television. An emotional day and I felt sorry for the suffering the Cambodian people have endured and the horror that is the millions of evil landmines that still leave a state of fear amongst the rural populations.