Today was a really long driving day. We set out after breakfast about 8.30 to see the Buddhist Temple at the top of the holy mountain. The road up the mountain is basically one way for cars - you drive up in the morning and then at midday they close the road going up - and it becomes a one way road going down. There has been a lot of flooding lately and the dirt road was in a shocking condition. So we bumped our way up there - it took about an hour. There were lots of beggars on the way to the temple.

The temple itself is on stilts with an amazing view of the countryside. We had to go barefoot - so a local boy was employed to guard our shoes at the base. Inside the temple is a giant reclining Buddha statute. I think Nicky said it was the largest in Cambodia. There was a holy man in the temple and he gave the three of us a blessing. We had to sit on the floor with him and he chanted away, all the time flinging water over us. Dean said later that he just zoned out. Then the holy man tied a piece of red string around our wrists. Nicky said that this and the prayer was for health and prosperity for us and our families in the new year. We left the red string on until New Years Day - so hopefully it does bring us all health and prosperity. It was very spiritual.

Once back at the base of the temple it appeared that the boy had delegated our shoe minding to someone else!! But all was good - our shoes were still there.

Next stop was at the river where there are carvings of 1,000 lingas. Linga is one of the three Hindu gods. I could see these carvings on the rocks in the river - but have to admit it wasnt mind blowing.

Then we wandered down to the waterfall. This was a long walk down - and of course a long walk back up!! The waterfall is huge! A massive drop - and tons of water - and this is the dry season. It was very beautiful. We had lunch on some rocks at the base - a picnic that the hotel had provided - enough food to feed 10 people! There were monks everywhere here. They had all travelled to see the temple. Two of them were fascinated with Dean and kept taking his photo. Nicky said they thought he was a movie star. Ha! He now continually reminds me of his supposed resemblance to Harrison Ford. It was after 12 and monks cannot eat after 12, but Nicky suggested I offer them a can of coke we had which they took.

After lunch we hung around for a while taking photos and admiring the falls. Then it was back onto the bumpy road for the trip back down the mountain.

Our next stop was to be Beng Melia - the temple featured in Tomb Raider. It was about a 2 hour drive from the top of the mountain. All the way there were villages of rural people. Most of these people are incredibly poor. A lot live in one room shacks built on stilts with a straw roof. Some are open on the sides. I cannot imagine how these people live during the rainy season. The biggest problem they have is with water contamination. It costs about $700 to build a well - and that provides water for a number of families for about 10 years. But of course these people often don't have that much money.

We saw some amazing sights. Live pigs strapped to motor bikes, huge carts filled with straw - with people sitting on the top of it all, the local bus which is an open trailer where everyone sits on the floor and hangs on. The roadside is just full of people, dogs, chickens and children. Some only babies. I am not sure how they all don't get run over by the dozens of bikes and cars traveling on the road.

Beng Melia temple was huge! But there has been no reconstruction here and it is basically a ruin. A path runs around the outside - it was built during the making of the film so they could transport cameras etc. Most people just walk around the path. But most people are not with Nicky!!

We climbed off the path and onto the temple itself and entered through an ancient door. From here we worked our way through the ruin, climbing over rocks and ledges. It was quite steep in places. The trees have also invaded this temple and gradually crumbled the walls. They are amazingly strong and I had a swing on one. Near the end I lost Nicky for a monent and looked up and saw him sitting way above me on a ledge. It was what had been the roof of the temple. Then we had to walk along a ledge back to the path. I could not stand up for ages. And inched myself along on my bum. I was quite scared. But eventually Nicky grabbed hold of my arm and yanked me up - and walk I did!!!

It was an amazing day!