In pictures... Cambodia

The riverfront in the capital Phnom Penh may look peaceful...

.... but it's a buzzing city where everyone is always on the go...

... sometimes at a gentle pace...

... and sometimes a bit more quickly.

Easily the best time of day to be up and about is at sunrise...

... when the city's residents take the chance to do all sorts of exercises...

... and sometimes even a falang (foreigner) is brave enough
to join in the spontaneous dancing.

And yes, if you look closely, that is indeed an elephant in
 the background, "on it's way to work". But at least when he gets there...

... health and safety still comes first. 

Of course the recent history of Cambodia is heart-rending - the horrors of the
 Khmer Rouge, as well as the American and Vietnamese 'interventions ,cannot
 easily be described. But most of the memorials don't need words.

So after emotional visits to the Killing Fields,
we decided it may help to have a go at meditation class.
(John seemed to really enjoy it,
but I think it just made my knees ache.) 

After travelling upcountry by bus to a town called
 Battambang, we took a bicycle tour into the
countryside to meet farmworkers and see their skills.
This was us trying to make a rice pancake...

... and here's some we (ahem) made earlier.

Often we had a fascinated audience...

... but the real show was the amazing skills
of all the local people.

While in Battambang, and as John lay ill in bed recovering from a dodgy
rice pancake, new friend Joanna and I took a ride on the 'Bamboo Train'.
It's a hilarious motor-driven contraption on the local railway line.... 

... that hurtles you through the countryside at breakneck speed.

On journey onwards then required an all-day boat ride down the river delta....

... which meant we got to see life on the river at sunrise...

... including the morning laundry.

Our boat provided an interesting ride...

... although the 'on-board facilities' weren't up to much.
(Just don't ask what lurks behind that door.)

We were equally a source of fascination to the local villagers,
as they were to us. Some lived on the riverbank...

... while others lived on the river itself.

And when you live on the river, you learn from a young age.

Our final destination was Siem Riep, the base to explore the
 astonishing complex of temples at Angkor.

Some, like Ta Prohm, have long ago surrendered
to the jungle and are wonderfully atmospheric...

... and many are just vast - and very, very steep.

The stoneworkers' skill and ambition was breathtaking...

...and they even found time to add a few gargoyles.

Cambodia - truly a spiritual place.