Angkor

Although my worldly experience is limited to but a region of South Asia, New Zealand, and New Caledonia (soon to be remedied!) the temples at Angkor Wat were without a doubt the most amazing thing I have ever seen, surpassing the ruins at Hampi and the Taj Mahal for wonder. These ruins immerse one in a surreality usually only discovered in the imagination, or an especially well-realised video game. Traversing the paths cut eons ago, I amused myself pondering how life would have been, living in such a splendour at the height of its power. The prolific carvings are amazing – especially Bayon, which has faces of Brahma carved into every projection, and Ta Phrom, where the figs moved in when humankind moved out. My three day ticket only saw two days of use (one day = 20USD, 3 days = 40USD), as I felt I was in temple overload by the second day. The stupendous immensity of the ruins meant that, despite their wonder, I had seen enough of them in two days of exploring. It would take a learned architect to see a great architectural difference between the less well-known temples.


Amok is my favourite thing about Cambodia, closely followed by the aforementioned ruins of Angkor. The dish is a superb concoction consisting of a strong lemongrass base with turmeric and Thai Ginseng, as well as the local Ngor leaves. On the last day in Siem Reap, instead of scouring more temples, I took a course in Khmer-style cooking at Le Tigre du Papier (12 USD, 3 hours). This course involved making one appetizer, a main, and a dessert. Obviously, Amok was to be my main dish, with a banana flower salad for an appetizer and steamed pumpkin custard as the dessert. Apart from the dishes tasting amazing, I also learnt some great presentation tricks: the salad was served on the shell of the banana flower, while the Amok was served in a banana leaf basket. I've also learnt to make tomato flowers, rudimentary carrot roses, and chilli orchids. After the lessons of this year, I don't think I'll ever have a boring meal at home, or a boring dinner party! Sadly, our time in Cambodia had come to an end – back to Thailand to relax on a beach in Koh Samui!