Kampot

Having enough temples I headed back to Phnom Penh, making it through Battambang this time. This town was cheap, nice and quiet, with French mansions along the river bank. There's plenty of peaceful countryside around, with some mountains standing among rice fields. The mountains are important and sacred to Khmer, since most of the country is plain. Many of the mountains have wats (monasteries) on their top. During the Khmer Rouge some caves in the mountains were used to throw in the bodies of their victims, these days the bones and skulls were collected and presented to visitors with a request for donation. It's not easy.
Coming back to Phnom Penh I still hadn't enough stamina for sight seeing in the capital and after a couple of days left for the south. The town of Kampot is a quiet place on the river, again the French boulevards with shattered overgrown yellow buildings - after seeing plenty of these places in Lao and in Cambodia, it still has its charming effect. The town is near Bokor mountain. Only the French would think of an idea to bring elephants and cut a road right through the thick jungle bushes, all around the slopes, to the plain uphill where they built a 3-storey hotel-casino watching all the Gulf of Thailand, a church, and some mansions. All that is left of the buildings is just the outside. There're remaints of a big cannon platform just above the church, made in China and served the KR to exchange compliments with the Vietnamese who took the opposite hill, with the hotel... The wind is wild up there, going through the empty rooms with a wail... It's a ghost place, the spookiness comes with a beatiful scenery and this makes it a one of a kind experience. All the forest covering Bokor mountain is declared as national park, and there supposed to be plenty of wildlife, but I've just seen birds, many though.

Siem Reap

After spending an afternoon in Kratie, I moved east to the beatiful forested hills of Mondulkiri. The capital of the province, Sen Menorom, is really a village, with a lot of interconnecting trails going around the hills. The weather can be quite chilly in early morning and becomes hot in daytime.

Very quiet place, it's probably just before the tourist boom will hit it, because the scenery around is amazing. The hills are either covered by grass or by jungle, with lots of waterfalls, some of them quite difficult to reach. The road to Boo Sra waterfall, 40 kms northeast of town, is ok most of the way, ang gets pretty bad towards the end. It's worth the journey, though. The waterfall has two levels, and is very impressive. It's possible to walk above the top, between the floors, and go down to the bottom. Jungle is all around, birds are pretty rare to spot, but big butterflies are in abundance, so are dragonflies, red ants and those cool little bugs that slide on the water.

After enjoying few days biking around the hills I took a bus to the capital, Phnom Penh. After several weeks in countryside the noise came as a surprise. The most common question is 'You want motorbike, sir? ' coming from hundreds of bored moto drivers. But, on the afternoon I got also something like 'You want shooting, sir? Not far away, near the Killing Fields.' I decided to leave it for some other time. I decided to get some Angkor stuff and took off. Stopped on the way in Kompong Thom. There's a complex of ancient Khmer ruins near the town, called Sambor Prei Kuk. There's not much left of the red brick temples to see, but it's located in a forest, so it's a nice walk. Next day I arrived to Siem Reap, a village that has grown out of proportions with hotels and restaurants, thanks to its location near the Angkor temples. The Angkor park is a very busy place, but still beatiful. Just need to get up early, come to Bayon temple around 6 a.m. and be greeted by all these smiling faces...