Spirithouse glam.

The spirithouses in Cambodia had a distinct style all their own. I particularly favoured these rather glamorous models, painted entirely gold.

Still life at a Phnom Penh market.

Kep overgrown.

Though the presence of luxury Landrovers and sparkling new condos attest that Kep is on its way to becoming a hot destination again, for the moment the oceanside jungle still conceals ruins of the past. Rooms that once hosted cocktail parties and lavish dinners now shelter lizards and moths. The soil in the province is famously fertile; so fertile that even abandoned properties grow as lush as tended plantations. Banana palms cluster in shaded alcoves, jack-fruit trees burden their heavy fruit among exposed beams. On the other side of Cambodia, Angkorian ruins are held in the grip of strangler trees; that overgrowth is mirrored in this seaside paradise, as once elegant compounds are swallowed by the hungry forest.

Spirit houses of Kep.

The Cambodian town of Kep was once a glamorous seaside resort, its rocky coast edged by Modernist villas. The civil war struck the town particularly hard though, and many of the houses were deserted, to be overtaken by the forest's growth. Yet even though the houses seem abandoned, some betray their habitation through their well-tended spirit houses.

Mystery ice cream in Kep.

After a lunch in the seaside town of Kep, we were passed by a man on a bike. Our attention drawn by the clinging of his bell, we noticed that he had a blocky orange cooler strapped onto the back of his bike. We stopped him, and ordered one ice-cream each. Instead of the frozen popsicles we had been expecting, he took out a long white block, set it onto a small wooden cutting board, and sliced it neatly into sections. Sliding each one onto a bamboo skewer, he handed them to us.

As he chimed off on his way into town, we walked back to our guesthouse, taking licks of the ice cream as it melted in the afternoon heat. We had assumed it was just coconut ice cream, but we instantly detected a strange, subtle flavor. After a minute, we realized what it is: the infamous durian, which is currently in season. Though the fruit has a flavor most visitors find abhorrent, when mixed with the creamy ice cream, it offered just enough of an unusual, exotic flavor.

Vote at 'Best of Blogs'.

Just a quick note to mention that voting is open at The Best of Blog's, for which I was honored to be nominated. You don't have to vote for me, though- in addition to Primitive Culture, there are some other great blogs, like Prêt à Voyager and Places I've Never Been, which are both favorites of mine. To vote, just leave a comment with the blog of your choice at their website. Thanks!

River monsters of the Bayon.

The bas-reliefs that line the outer walls of Angkor's Bayon depict scenes from life under the Khmer empire. Many of the stories are of historical battles, of Khmer soldiers in combat against Cham armies. Other scenes are of everyday life: citizens gather at the market, men watch a cockfight, women groom their friends' hair. There are also some more unusual scenes tucked between the chatting old ladies and the armored elephants: an old man climbs a tree to hide from a hungry tiger; a parade of unusual circus animals march through town. This empire of stone is watched over by a host of river dwellers: lazy crocodiles and giant fish that seem to observe the procession of human history with only a passing interest.

Some of these creatures seem truly monstrous, like the crocodiles that wait for the victims of war...

... or the fish that swallowed a deer.

But in most cases, they seem merely indifferent to the lives of the humans around them.