Small, pink hued and featuring the most exquisite and detailed carvings, Banteay Srey is considered by many to be one of the loveliest of all the Angkorian temples. Just under 40 kilometres from Siem Reap, the ‘Citadel of the Women’ was beautifully restored by French archaeologists who described it as a “precious gem” and a … read the full post

Cambodian food does get a bit of a bad rap compared to its neighbours, for numerous reasons of varying soundness, and it can seem incongruous therefore to even associate the words “posh”, “Khmer” and “nosh” (a bit like trying to think of snazzy Welsh food), but associate them you can, and the rewards for doing … read the full post

What can one say about Chong Kneas, if one really had to be polite about it. It’s a sort of port and long canal about 12 kilometres from Siem Reap, flanked by scrubby green-brown banks to the west side of which you can see the edges of part of the floating forest that makes the … read the full post

It is such an iconic and ubiquitous symbol of Cambodia that naturally I don’t have a single photo of a person wearing one (unless you count a picture of my husband who sports it as a sort of dangerously abbreviated loin cloth, but I can’t put that up because children or the sensitive might be … read the full post

Being born French is nature’s way of fondly ruffling your hair and gently patting you on the bum before letting you off to play in the world safe in the knowledge that you’re one of the favoured. Because while it’s possible that the French may indeed have the most terrifying children’s books in the world, … read the full post

Celestial nymphs born from the Churning of the Sea of Milk, thousands of Apsaras gracefully adorn the walls of Angkor’s temples flying through the air or dancing in Indra’s Heavens, smiling quietly to themselves. Devatas are the more earthly semi-divine Goddesses, whose features are carved into the walls as they stand, sporting imperial impressions and … read the full post

Cambodia’s a very flat country inland. There are mountains along the border with Thailand, Laos and Vietnam – well, hills really but I’m not going to quibble – and even more along the southwest coastline, but inland all you’ll see is great expanses of flatness broken only by the stubble of sugar palms in the … read the full post

There appear to be people in Siem Reap who are seriously worried that the world might one day run out of markets. It’s the only rational justification I can think of for the gay abandon with which these temples of trade are being chucked up in every spare square metre of space that can be … read the full post

We’re fast approaching the time of year when long stretches of hot, soggy sunshine are interspersed with hour to two hour bursts of hot, wet rain, and it’s therefore time to look at the idea of ‘strategic stranding’. To be honest, the rain is not actually that big a deal unless in taking shelter you … read the full post

I’m not American, which you can tell by the fact that I eat burgers with a knife and fork (frankly, the concept of having to unhinge your jaw in order to put food in your mouth seems freakish and bizarre), have an almost disturbing neurosis about “proper” spelling, and get very twitchy when someone asks … read the full post