Feb 22 - We checked out about eight-ish, and went out to meet our driver, Rouehn. He had a Mitsubishi Pajero 4x4, which looked in pretty good condition. "I'm glad you start late,' he said. "I just got back from Preah Vihear last night, so at least I had a chance to see my kids this morning!" The guy works about 25 days a month, pretty much full time, and reckoned he'd driven about 40,000km in the last year. That may not sound like a lot compared to long distance lorry drivers, but much of that distance was on roads that were really semi-impassable dirt tracks - as we were about to discover.

Our first stop was Beng Melea - about 80km out of Siem Reap. This site is enormous, and the jungle has hardly been cut back at all - Spung trees have sprouted up throughout the ruins, wrapping the towers of the temple in huge green embraces. Some of these trees can be as much as fifty metres high, and so the whole temple is covered in dappled green sunlight. There's a sort of wooden bridge winding through the ruins (which was built for the movie Two Brothers), but aside from that it's pretty untouched, apart from some minor restoration work, and you can climb the walls and ramparts over piles of fallen stone. As with the other temples near Sitem Reap, it's built from a combination of brick, laterite (which is a sort of formed clay), and sandstone, and some of the collapsed walls give perfect cross-sections which show how all the materials were put together. The sandstone carvings, particularly on the lintels of archways and windows, are fantastically elaborate, and normally display scenes from Hindu or Buddhist mythology, as well as depicting the life and times of whichever Angkorian king had sponsored the construction.

One of the local village kids, Nuol, showed us around. He didn't speak much English, but clambered around the site showing us some of the best views, and some bits of spectacular carving - lots of ornate gods, demons and mythical creatures. One particular view from the Northern wall was particularly amazing; you got the strange impression that you could see the jungle 'eating' the temple - almost pulsing at a pace just slightly too slow to see. There were a couple of other people here, but probably only four or five - when they were out of sight, it felt like stepping back in time. The bird life also seemed to be a lot mor prolific than in more developed areas, and we sat in the silence for a good long while, just taking it all in.

On the way out, we noticed a couple of blue signs that had been erected outside the gate. These are pretty common in Cambodia, and show that a minefield has been identified and cleared, with a bit of information on each project. Two fields right on the edge of Beng Melea had only been identified in early 2007, and had only been cleared a couple of months previously! It really brings home how recent peace is here... We met up with our driver back at the entrance, and had lunch at one of the stalls opposite. I'm not quite sure what we ate, but it was pretty good, and we then set off for the temples of Koh Ker.

Once we left Beng Melea, we were on a toll road most of the way, and then dirt roads, where we started to see a lot of evidence of logging - there are whole areas of forest being chopped out illegally, and there doesn't appear to be an awful lot of tree planting going on. There are signs and placards everywhere telling people not to cut down trees, but our driver had a view on it; "It's all the same people - they come in the day, put up the sign, and say 'Don't cut the tree or you go to jail'. Then they come back at night with a tractor and pick them up. Corruption, it's a problem, and this all starts at the top. We say in Cambodia that if you have a house, and the roof leaks, all the floors will be flooded, and it's the same here - our roof is leaking." Whatever the situation is, it's happening pretty fast, and appears to be totally out of control.

After a few hours bouncing around on dirt roads, we stopped in the village of Sayong, to try and find a guest house before continuing to the temples of Koh Ker. There were only two likely looking places, and our guide stopped at one. "This place is OK. Big beds, but bathroom is out the back - all right for you?" The rooms actually looked OK, although the partitions didn't quite reach the ceiling! They were on the second floor, and you had to climb a preciptous set of stone stairs to get up there. We then went out back to use the loo. "What the hell is that?" said Cheryl. It wasn't really a question. Oinker the spotted pig was tethered outside the door to the longdrop - rolling happily in the mud. It looked up at us and snuffled in a friendly-ish sort of way. The grandfather of the house came wandering over, and scratched is affectionately behind the ears. He rabbited away for a minute of two in Cambodian, but I still have no idea whether the pig was a pet, dinner or (as we suspect) both. After agreeing a rate for the night (something like $3 for us and our driver), we set off for Koh Ker.

The Koh Ker temples are the site of the Khmer captial prior to Angkor. There were a whole set of sites (thirty-ish), of which we visited about ten. The main monument is Prasat Thom, which is an enormous carved sandstone pyramid - still in pretty good nick considering no restoration work was ever undertaken here. The whole site was covered with flags and banners, and a large Cambodian flag was flying from the top. It was the first time we'd seen a temple decorated, and our driver found out that the king had been to visit for a religious ceremony of some sort, the day before. There were a couple of German visitors here, but otherwise we had the whole complex to ourselves again. The smaller temples were also interesting - again carved from sandstone and laterite, although different temples seems to have weathered away to different colours. After a couple of hours meandering through the forests, we headed back to Sayong, with Roeuhn correcting my Cambodia pronounciation as we practiced phrases from the Lonely Planet's language guide.

Back at Sayong, we checked into the guesthouse. One of the family kids (a grandson, I guess) was fascinated with us, and kept crawling up the steps to have a look. I took a couple of photos of him, and showed them to him on the camera - he was amazed. He wandered off and back again - this time playing with an old syringe. I don't where it was from, but suddenly got the impression that this guesthouse may not just have been a spot for tourists. This was reinforced as a couple more guests arrived - local army officers with their lady 'friends'.

We found a little restaurant where we could eat, and Roeuhn asked us what we'd like. "How about chicken?" A bit of negotiation ensued, and about five minutes later we saw the owner's daughter wandering back from the neighbour with a live chicken dangling from her hand. It disappeared into the kitchen, followed by a loud chopping sound!A bout thirty minutes later, we were presented with chicken soup and 'fried chicken'. We're used to making chicken soup from the bony bits, and fried chicken from the more conventional parts - in Cambodia, this seems to happen the other way around - legs & wings were floating in the soup (which was delicious, made with herbs, pineapple and tomatoes), and the 'fried chicken' was chopped up bits of gristle, feet and ribcage, with liver and gizzards thrown in for good measure. Not for the first time, we contemplated vegitarianism, but went through the food instead, and it was actually not bad. We chatted to our driver about life in Cambodia, had a couple of warm beers, paid $10 for the meal and drinks (which Roeuhn thought was exorbitant), and then headed back to the guesthouse.

We noticed as we left that although the restaurant was a grubby little spot, with no refrigeration, all the furniture was hardwood. The tables were huge and some must have weighed of the order of a hundred kilos (we lifted one up to estimate, and it took two of us to do it). The seats on some tables were cheap plastic outdoor chairs, and on others were solid stools made of polished mahogony, which would cost a fortune in Europe. All the other setups on the way back were furnished in pretty much the same way. It goes to show that hardwood is considered pretty much a free resource here, as all people need to do to get some it to cut down a tree, but at this rate, there won't be any left in a few years time...

The party had hotted up a bit at the Koh Ker hotel. We were really dusty after a day on the dirt roads, so decided to go for a shower. The ablutions were a concrete trough filled with water, a slab with a drain in it, and a sort of plastic pot that you use to pour water over yourself. It was great - we were so mucky, it was just an absolute pleasure to to be clean again. We clambered out, over Oinker the pig (snoring quietly on the floor) and went to bed with the fan on. We opened a window to get some fresh air (dust!) and could hear the karaoke bars blazing in the distance - Cambodians are big fans of karaoke - but at least it drowned out the noise of the other guests. The revellers quietened down at about midnight, and we then had at least an hour's peaceful sleep before a time-zone-dysfunctional rooter started crowing in the tree next to our window! Where's a shotgun when you really need one?!