the dreaded lurgy strikes!

Shadow puppets

too far?

Bantey Srei

Poor Leesi's a little anxious about Lobie, as we haven't heard from Dimitra, our house sitter. We did some email-very cheap and fast-I negotiated Snail dates to perform at the Australian Tennis Open. Seems like a different planet!

sunset...

On the way home from the temples we drove our bikes into a carnival compound. The sun was setting and the local lads played football. Little kids laughed with glee on an old rusty ride with ambulances and battered army helicopters...and also on a toy train...

Police!

Preah Khan

Preah Khan

pie nepple!

We replenish our energy with new batteries and pineapple chunks on skewers

Battery change

At 35 km/hour we could almost feel the wind in our hair! At various temples, stewards would wave us down and change our battery. Around Angkor moat, over the giant causeway, through the elephantine arches and down the jungley boulevard to the Bayon, scattering families of monkeys as they groom and play on the roadside lawns.

January 3rd

Lees and I decide to hire electric motor bikes from a pharmacy in Siem Reap. The government has outlawed foreigners from hiring and riding motos around Angkor-maybe there's been too many hoons or too many accidents- anyway baraing have few options for independant travel around the temples. Sitting up right, accelerating cautiously we join the flow of traffic out of Siem Reap. We soon get the hang of it and pull into HQ - our first bikes are too slow!

...after dinner crickets

"Poo the leh oh to ee"

That night...

As we ate pancakes filled with shallots and onions and bean sprouts and grilled fish and green mango salad, lightning lit the brooding sky. Eventually, to the frogs delight, a rain shower pitter pattered the waters of the surrounding swamp.

Monkey business

In October 2005 Amrita Performing Arts, a dance/theatre company that are preserving and renewing Cambodia's ancient cultural heritage came to the Melbourne International Festival to perform "Weyreap's Battle". The show was a huge success and a handful of lucky Australians promptly booked a place to the FREE performance workshop held by members of Amrita. Lees learnt to dance like an apsara and I took to monkey moves like it was second nature!
Here we are learning to stretch our fingers in a particularly awkward gesture...

Take 2

Same same @Srah Srang

All the kids come to draw. One mum looks very young

...on the way to Banteay Kdei