Anchor Steam

Border crossing! After a few hours on a conveniently sized minibus, we reached the border town of Poipet. And we were: Pommies Phil, Chris, Michael, Matt, Trevor and Valerie, Aussie/Pom Chez, Americanadian Kimberly, Swiss Isabelle and German Sandra, all lead enthusiastically by Cambodian girl Alann.
In Cambodia we soon reached the spacious and cosy, yet expanding town of Siem Reap (meaning Thais defeated). Though formerly mostly a fishing town, with the small-ish (during dry season) and incredibly vast (during wet season) lake of Tonle Sap providing heaps of fish, the town now primarerly make its dollars from tourism. It's the gateway to the Angkor complex of temples and ruins, the most famous of which would be Angkor Wat.
As starts go, this woud be one of the earlier. 4:15 the bell tolled, with wheels rolling at 5:00 in order to get to Angkor Wat in time for the amittedly majestic sunrise. This day it was also indeed a test for my new camera and its supossedly sucky battery capacity. I did take half a gazillion photos, and by the afternoon I eventually had to switch batteries. Mind you, by that time we had ooh:ed and aah:ed at the 11:th century craftsmanship and engineering of Angkor Wat, Angkor Thom, Bayon, Taprohm, aka the Jungle Temple and Banteay Srei, aka the Ladies Temple due to its pinkish tint.
Our cicerone this long and hot day was the eversmiling Thida, and she told us about all the bas-reliefs and their stories concerning gods and demons, about hindu, animist and buddhist traditions** in the various temples and about khmer history.
Frequently depicted on the bas-reliefs and other stone-carvings, were the apsaras. Those were, according to legend (that has since been woven into history) incredibly beautiful women, graceful and smooth, that could easily seduce gods and demons alike. In the old carvings they were always portrayed topless and dancing, with intricate headgear and beautifully woven silk dresses. The tradition of temple dancers has remained into these days, and in Siem Reap it's easy to find apsara shows (albeit not topless at all) to be awed by while having a good piece of Khmer cuisine. It's impossible not to be impressed by the almost painfully slow, exquisite grace that these well-balanced dancers display. Plus, the fact that it's pretty much in the job description of an apsara dancer to be breathtakenly beautiful, the show is exceptionally easy on the eye.
*) Where parts of the first Lara Croft movie was shot, as all tour guide and - books repeatedly informed of in no uncertain terms
**) Or old charters, or something....