The Thais are loathed for their patronizing attitudes towards their smaller neighbor, their unwillingness to acknowledge their cultural debt to Cambodia and the popularly held belief that Angkor belongs to Thailand. Most Khmers think of their Thai neighbors as cultural kidnappers who have aided and abetted Cambodia’s decline.

Cambodian attitudes towards the Vietnamese are awkward and ambivalent. Sure they generally loathe them too, but it is balanced with a begrudging respect for their hard work ethic and liberation’ from the Khmer Rouge regime in 1979. When “liberation” became occupation in the 1980s, most Khmers soon remembered why they didn’t like the Vietnamese after all. Many Cambodians feel the Vietnamese are colonizing their country and stealing their land, but better the devil you know. If most Cambodians had to choose who they mistrusted more, it would probably be the Thais – at least the Vietnamese understand the suffering of the Cambodian people, as they have suffered too.

At first glance, Cambodia appears to be a nation full of shiny, happy people, but look a little deeper and it soon becomes e country of contradictions. Light and dark, rich and poor, love and hate, life and death – all are visible on a journey through the kingdom, but most telling of all is the glorious past set against Cambodia’s tragic present.

Angkor is everywhere: it’s on the flag, it’s the national beer, it’s hotels and guesthouses, it’s cigarettes, it’s anything and everything. It’s a symbol of nationhood, of fierce pride, a fingers-up to the world that says no matter how bad things have become, you can’t forget the fact that we, the Cambodians, built Angkor Wat and it doesn’t come bigger than that. Jayavarman VII, Angkor’s greatest king, is nearly as omnipresent as his temples. The man that vanquished the occupying Chams and took the empire to its greatest glories is a national hero.

Contrast this with the abyss into which the nation was sucked during the hellish years of the Khmer Rouge, which left a people profoundly shocked, suffering inside, stoical on the outside. Pol Pot is a dirty word in Cambodia due to the death and suffering he inflicted on the country. Whenever you hear his name, it will be connected with stories of endless personal tragedy, of dead brothers, mothers and babies, from which most Cambodians have never had the chance to recover. Such suffering takes generations to heal and meanwhile the country is crippled by a short-term mentality that encourages people to live for today, not to think about tomorrow – because not so long ago there was no tomorrow. No-one has tasted justice, the whys and hows remain unanswered and the older generation must live with the shadow of this trauma stalking their everv wakina hour.

If Jayavarman VlI and Angkor are loved and Pol Pot despised, the mercurial Sihanouk, the last of the god-kings who was ultimately shown his human side, is somewhere in between. Many Cambodians love him as the father of the nation, and to them his portrait is ubiquitous, but to others he is the man who failed the nation by his association with the Khmer Rouge. In many ways, his contradictions are those of contemporary Cambodia. Understand him and what he has had to survive and you will understand much of Cambodia.

For the majority of the population still living in the countryside, these constants carry on as they have: several generations sharing the same roof, the same rice and the same religion. But during the dark decades of the 1970s and 1980s, this routine was ripped apart by war and ideology, as the peasants were dragged from all they held dear to fight a bloody civil war and later forced into slavery. Angkor, the Khmer Rouge organization, took over as the moral and social beacon in the lives of the people and families were forced apart, children turned against parents, brothers against sister. The bond of trust was broken and is only slowly being rebuilt today.

Faith is another rock in the lives of many older Cambodians, and Buddhism has helped them to rebuild their shattered lives after waking from the nightmare that was the Khmer Rouge. Most Cambodian houses contain a small shrine to pray for luck and the wats are thronging with the faithful come Buddhist Day.
 

Cambodian Girls

Food is more important to Cambodians than to most, as they have tasted what it is like to be without. Famine stalked the country in the late 1970s, and even today, malnutrition and food shortages are common during times of drought. Rice is a Khmer staple served with every meal and many a Cambodian driver cannot go on without his or her daily fix. For country folk, still the majority of the Cambodian population, we must not forget their fields. Farmers are attached to their land, their very survival dependent on it, and the harvest cycle dictates the rhythm of rural life.

But for the young generation of teenagers brought up in a post-conflict, post-communist period of relative freedom, it’s a different story – arguably thanks to their steady diet of MTV and steamy soaps. Like other parts of Asia before it, Cambodia is experiencing its very own ’60s swing, w the younger generation stands up for a different lifestyle than the one their parents had to wallow. This is creating plenty of feisty friction in the cities, as rebellious teens dress as they like, date who they want and hit the town until all hours. But few actually live on their own; they still come home to ma and pa at the end of the day and the arguments start again, particularly about marriage and settling down, as the older generations don’t like to see the younger generation living the single life.

Cambodia is a country undergoing rapid change, but for now the traditionalists are just about holding their own, although the onslaught of karaoke is proving hard to resist. Cambodia is set for major demo- graphic changes in the next couple of decades. Currently, just 15% of the population lives in urban areas, which contrasts starkly with the country’s more-developed neighbors like Malaysia and Thailand. Increasing numbers of young people are likely to migrate to the cities in search of opportunity, changing forever the face of contemporary Cambodian society. However, for now, Cambodian society remains much more traditional than in Thailand and Vietnam, and visitors need to keep this in mind.

Getting to grips with face is the key to success in Asia, and Cambodia is no exception. Having “big face” is synonymous with prestige, and prestige is particularly important in Cambodia. All families, even poor ones, are expected to have big wedding parties and throw their money around like it is water in order to gain face. This is often ruinously expensive, but far less detrimental than “losing’ face”.

Getting angry and showing It by shouting or becoming abusive is impolite; It is also unlikely to accomplish much. Getting angry means loss of face and makes all Asians uncomfortable – take a deep breath and keep your cool. If things aren’t being done as they should, remember chat there is a shortage of skilled people in the country because the majority of educated Cambodians either fled the country or were killed between 1975 and 1979.

Visiting Khmer

A small token of gratitude in the form of a gift is always appreciated when visiting someone. Before entering a Khmer home, always remove your shoes if the home owners do so first. This applies to some guesthouses and restaurants as well – if there is a pile of shoes at the doorway, take yours off as well.

Visiting Pagodas

The Khmers are easy-going and may choose not to point out improper behavior to their foreign guests, but it is important to dress and act with the utmost respect when visiting wats or other religious sites. This is all the more important given the vital role Buddhism has played in the lives of many Cambodians in the aftermath of the Khmer Rouge holocaust. Proper etiquette in Cambodian pagodas is mostly a matter of common sense.

Unlike in Thailand, a woman may accept something from a lok song (monk), but must be extremely careful not to touch him in the process. A few other tips:

• Don’t wear shorts or tank tops.
• Take off your hat when entering the grounds of a wat.
• Take off your shoes before going into the vihara (temple sanctuary).
• If you sit down in front of the Buddha, sit with feet to the side rather than in the lotus position.
• Bow slightly in the presence of elderly or senior monks.
• Putting a small sum of money in the donation box will be much appreciated by residents at the temple and visiting Khmers.
• Never point your finger – or, nirvana forbid, the soles of your feet – towards a monk or a Buddha figure.

On formal occasions such as religious festivals and family celebrations, women often wear a hoi (a type of shirt) during the day. At night they change into single-color silk dresses called phamuong, which are deco- rated along the hems. If the celebration is a wedding, the colors of such garments are dictated by the day of the week on which the wedding falls. The women of Cambodia are generally modest in their dress, although this is fast changing in the bigger towns and cities.

Travelers crossing the border from liberal Thai islands such as Ko Pha Ngan or Ko Chang should remember they have crossed back in time as far as traditions are concerned, end ‘that wandering around the temples of Angkor bare-chested (men) or scantily clad (women) will not be appreciated by Khmers. Nude bathing is a definite no-no!

Named in honour of the then-king, the town was hacked out of the jungle in the late 1950s to create the country’s first and only deep-water port; the USA provided the money for NH4 linking Sihanoukville to Phnom Penh. During the 1960s, it experienced a mini tourism boom and some large hotels were constructed, but Kep remained the most popular beach resort. With the over- throw of Sihanouk in 1970, the town’s name was changed to Kompong Som and didn’t revert back to Sihanoukville until 1993. Cambodians refer to the town by both names – royalists preferring to use Sihanoukville, and old-guard former communists choosing Kompong Som.

The big attractions around here are the four beaches ringing the headland. None of them qualify as the region’s finest, but on weekdays it is still possible to have stretches of the beach to yourself. However, as traveller numbers increase, this seclusion is unlikely to last. Sihanoukville is extremely popular on weekends with well-to-do Khmers heading south from Phnom Penh. Beyond the immediate beaches sur- rounding the town are the virtually empty beaches of Ream National Park and Otres, and a dozen more islands that see less than 0.1% of the visitors received by their counterparts in Thailand.

The battle continues for the heart and soul of Sihanoukville. Some Cambodian businessmen and their associates from neighbouring countries want to turn the town into a concrete Casino town of mega resorts, while some expats from nearby Pattaya want to turn it into a sort of sex, sea and sun go-go resort. On the other side, younger expats are hoping to make a new Ko Pha Ngan on Cambodia’s southern coast with the birth of Serendipity Beach, while other investors rub their hands and hope for a Ko Sarnui gold rush and pleasant garden bungalows set among swaying palms. Whoever wins out in the end, it’s certain that Sihanoukville is evolving fast. Like Siem Reap, this is another place in Cambodia that doesn’t stay still

Just around a small headland at the southern end of Occheuteal Beach is Otres Beach, a seemingly infinite strip of empty white sand. Government officials are eagerly dividing up land behind the beach, but for now there are still no bungalows and fewer visitors make it here than to other beaches around town. To get to Otres Beach, follow the road behind Occheuteal Beach before branching left then right around a small headland or follow Ph Omoouy east out of town from Psar Leu for about 7km: both are rough tracks.

Sokha Beach is perhaps the prettiest and most popular beach at Sihanoukville, but it has been privatized with the opening of the huge Sokha Beach Resort. Guests get to enjoy the privacy, but for everyone else, the small slither of beach at the eastern end isn’t enough.

Victory Beach was the original backpacker beach and remains a favorite with budget travelers due lo its proximity to Sihanoukville’s most popular guesthouses. It’s arguably the least appealing of all the beaches, as the port is located at its northern end – hardly making for the perfect tropical moment – and the beach itself is narrow and scruffy. South from here, around a small headland, is another small stretch of sand, usually also known as Victory Beach, but also signposted as Lamherkay Beach, after the old hotel near here.

Further south on the western tip of Sihanoukville’s headland is tiny Koh Pos Beach, which has been taken over by Treasure Island Restaurant. This is a nice, shady beach, but with rough waters. Finally, there is Independence Beach running southeast from here – it’s a good stretch of clean sand, but lacks shade and facilities. Above the northern end of the beach is the old Indepandance Hotel, soon to reopen its doors as a four-star hotel after extensive renovations.

DIVING
The marine life off the coast of Sihanoukville isn’t as impressive as that of Thailand or Indonesia, thanks in part to dynamite fishing. However, further afield around the islands of Koh Tang and Koh Prim and nearby reefs, there are some interesting dive sites, although most remain relatively unexplored. Unfortunately, this area can’t be reached in a day using the slow fishing boats and so requires an overnight trip, which pushes up the costs.
There are currently three dive operators in Sihanoukville. In theory, they  are open 9am to 12pm and 2pm to 5pm, but in practice hours are completely random.

Claude
Tel 012 824570 – Add:Chez Claude
Claude has been exploring the waters of Sihanoukville for more than a decade now, and specicialises in longer trips to distant reefs.

EcoSea Dive
Tel 012 654104 – Add: Ph Ekareach
One of the newer outfits offering Professional Association of Diving Instructors (PADI) courses, fun dives and snorkelling.

Scuba Nation Diving Center
Tel 012 604680 – Add: Weather Station Hill
The first Professional Assosiation of Diving Instructors (PADI) centre to open in Cambodia. The multilingual instructor; offer classes in English, Dutch, French and German.

MASSAGE
There are lots of dodgy massage parlours in Sihanoukville, but or a legitimate venue, head to Seeing Hands Massage 3 (Tel 012 794016 – Add: Ph Ekareach -  per hr US$3). Massages are administered by trained blind masseurs. It raises money to assist Cambodia’s visually impaired community.

OTHER ATTRACTIONS
Kbal Chhay Waterfall is a popular excursion for Khmers visiting Sihanoukville, as it was used as a major location for the filming of the popular movie Pos Keng Kong (The Giant Snake; 2000), the most successful Cambodia made Film in the post-civil war era. The multiple falls are attractive, but not as spectacular or isolated as those near Krong Koh Kong. There is also a litter problem here that rather detracts from the natural beauty. Anyone who has seen or is planning to see the falls at Krong Koh Kong can probably give Kbal Chhay a miss. For anyone who has seen Pos Keng Kong, it’s a must. The falls are located about 17km from the centre of Sihanoukville. The turn-off is signposted on the left from NH4, about 9km out of town. It costs around US$4 for a re- turn trip by motor, but it’s easy enough to navigate yourself on a rented motorcycle.

Just 2km north of the main port is a fishing port, which offers good photo opportunities at sunrise or sunset. Another 20km up the coast is the small Fishing town of Stung Hau, where the rusting remains of Cambodia’s communist navy lie abandoned

Romduol’s Restaurant
Main 3000-5000r
The menu here is uncannily like that of Mealy Chenda, as it was set up by a former employee of the guesthouse. Located just across the road, dishes are competitively priced in riel rather than US dollars, and it fills up most nights.

Sam’s Restaurant
Mains US$1-3
One of the original guesthouses in town continues life as a small family-run restaurant. The menu strikes a nice balance between Khmer and Western food and it is a friendly place to hang out.

La Paillotte
Mains USS3-7
Bringing a touch of class to an otherwise budget backyard, this new restaurant is set under a giant thatched roof at the end of a winding path. The accent is predominantly French, with a good range of local seafood soaked in sauces. Out the front is a laid-back liar with a pool table.

Snake House
Tel: 012 673805 – Mains US$2-5
‘Unique’ is a used and abused term in tourism circles, but for once it is justified at this restaurant, near the guesthouse of the same name (opposite). The tables are set amid a flourishing reptile house with snakes from all over the world. The food, well, that’s incidental when there’s a python to your left, a cobra to your right and snakes right underneath your plate… yes, the glass-topped tables include snakes inside.

With the Angkor Brewery located on the outskirts of town, draught beer is very cheap – it starts at US$0.50 at some of the budget restaurants on Weather Station Hill. Melting Pot, Romduol’s Restaurant and Mealy Chenda Restaurant  all pull a drinking crowd into the evening, but for the real action it is better to hit a dedicated bar.

Pet’s Place
Tel: 012 472325 – Add: Weather Station Hill
A long-running bar that has moved all over town; it’s come to rest here and is one of the most popular places in the old backpacker quarter. Cheap drink and a pool table should keep it that way and there are rooms for rent (US$2 to US$5) for those that like the place so much they want to stay.

Corner Bar
Add: Weather Station Hill
It does what the sign says and straddles the busiest corner in this part of town. A hot spot for catching English Premier League action, it stays open later than most on the hill.

Angkor Arms
Add: Ph Ekareach – www.angkorarms.com
Probably the oldest bar in town, this place sells itself as a traditional British pub with darts and draught beer. There is air-con on the inside and a large outdoor area for those who want a drink au naturel. Happy hour is from 5pm to 7pm, and it’s open late.

Dusk til Dawn
Add: Ph Sopheakmongkol
Right next door to Angkor Arms, this place is located on the rooftop of a townhouse, up a rickety staircase. The name gives away its hardcore opening hours and it is usually the last place in town to close. Just mind the stairs on the way home.

Blue Storm
Add: Ph Ekareach – Entry free
This is the only real nightclub in town. It can be pretty quiet on weekdays, but it tends to be crammed at the weekends when young Khmers make for the beach. With DJs, VJs and slightly more-pricey drink than elsewhere in town, don’t come here expecting conversation.

Down on Serendipity Beach there are a couple of popular bars, including 24-hour Unkle Bob’s that rocks on into the night. There’s also the ever-popular Eden, with an inviting bar to prop up and some horizontal deckchairs for taking things slowly.

The temples of Angkor are the heart and soul of the Kingdom of Cambodia, a source of inspiration and national pride to all Khmers as they struggle to rebuild their lives after years of terror and trauma. Today, the temples are a point of pilgrimage for ails Cambodians, and no traveler to the region will want to miss their extravagant beauty.

It is easy to spend as long as a week at Angkor, seeing the temples at a leisurely pace, returning to the principal attractions several times to see them at different times of day, and taking in newly emerging sites further a field. However, many travelers feel that four or five days is the ideal length of time to spend at Angkor. This is just about long enough to fit in all the highlights of the Angkor area, but even with only two days at your disposal you can pack in a lot (providing you make some early starts). One day at Angkor? Sacrilege! Don’t even consider it.

HIGHLIGHTS

Must see temple of Angkor activities:

• Stare in awe at the mother of all temples, Angkor Wat
• Succumb to the enigmatic smiles of the 216 giant faces of the Bayon, Angkor’s strangest temple
• Experience nature running riot at the mysterious ruin of Ta Prohm, the original Tomb Raider temple
• Marvel at the exquisite carvings adorning the tiny temple of Banteay Srei, the finest seen at Angkor
• Venture into the jungles of Cambodia to discover the River of a Thousand Lingas at Kbal Spean

There is much about Angkor Wat that is unique among the temples of Angkor. The most significant point is that the temple is oriented towards the west. West is symbolically the direction of death, which once led a large number of scholars to conclude that Angkor Wat must have existed primarily as a tomb. This idea was supported by the fact that the magnificent bas-reliefs of the temple were designed to be viewed in an anticlockwise direction, a practice that has precedents in ancient Hindu funerary rites. Vishnu, however, is also frequently associated with the west, and it is now commently accepted that Angkor Wat most likely served both as a temple and a mausoleum for Suryavarman II.

Apsara

Angkor Wat is famous for its beguiling apsara (heavenly nymphs). There are more than 3000 carved into the walls of the temple, each of them unique, and there are more than 30 different hairstyles for budding stylists to check out. Many of these exquisite apsara were damaged during Indian efforts to clean the temples with chemicals during the 1980s, the ultimate bad acid trip, but they are now being restored by the teams of the German Apsara Conservation Project (GACP; www.gacp-angkor.de). The organization operates a small information booth in the northwest corner of Angkor Wat, near the wat, where beautiful black-and-white postcards and images of Angkor are available.

SYMBOLISM
Visitors to Angkor Wat are struck by its imposing grandeur and, at close quarters, its fascinating decorative flourishes and extensive bas-reliefs; however, a scholar at the time of its construction would have reveled in its multilayered levels of meaning in much the same way as a contemporary literary scholar might delight in James Joyce’s Ulysses.

David Chandler, drawing on the research of Eleanor Moron, points out in his book History of Cambodia that the spatial dimensions of Angkor Wat parallel the lengths of the four ages (Yuga) of classical Hindu thought. Thus the visitor to Angkor Wat who walks the causeway to the lain entrance and through the courtyards to the final main tower, which once contained a statue of Vishnu, is metaphorically traveling back to lie First age of the creation of the universe.

Monk at Angkor

Like the other temple-mountains of Angkor, Angkor Wat also replicates the spatial universe in miniature. The central tower is Mt Meru, with its surrounding smaller peaks, bounded in turn by continents (the lower courtyards) and the oceans (the moat). The seven-headed naga becomes a symbolic rainbow bridge for man to reach the abode of the gods.

ARCHITECTURAL LAYOUT
Angkor Wat is surrounded by a moat, 190m wide, which forms a giant retangle measuring 1.5km by 1.3km. It makes the moats around European castles look like kid’s play. From the west, a sandstone causeway crosses the moat; the holes in the paving stones held wooden pegs that were used to lift and position the stones during construction. The pegs were then sawn off and have since rotted away. The sandstone blocks from which Angkor Wat was built were quarried more than 50km away (from the district of Svay Leu at the eastern foot of PhnomKulen) and floated down the Stung Siem Reap (Siem Reap River) on rafts. The logistics of such an operation are mind-blowing, consuming the labor of thousands – an unbelievable feat given the lack of cranes and trucks that we take for granted in contemporary construction projects.

The rectangular outer wall, which measures 1025m by 800m, has a gate on each side, but the main entrance, a 235m-wide porch richly decorated with carvings and sculptures, is on the western side. In the gate tower to the right as you approach is a statue of Vishnu, 3.25m in height and hewn from a single block of sandstone. Vishnu’s eight arms hold a mace, a spear, a disk, a conch and other items. You may even see locks of hair lying about. These are an offering by both young women and men preparing to get married or by people who seek to give thanks for their good fortune.

The central temple complex consists of three storeys, each made of laterite, which enclose a square surrounded by intricately interlinked galleries. The Gallery of a Thousand Buddhas used to house hundreds of Buddha images before the war, but many of these were removed or stolen, leaving the broken remnants we see today.

The corners of the second and third storeys are marked by towers, each topped with pointed cupolas (domed structures). Rising 31m above the third level and 55m above the ground is the central tower, which gives the whole ensemble its sublime unity.

At one time, the central sanctuary of Angkor Wat held a gold statue of Vishnu mounted on a garuda (a mythical half-man, half-bird creature) that represented the deified god-king Suryavarmari II. The stairs to the upper level are immensely steep, because reaching the kingdom of the gods was no easy task; modern-day visitors should exercise due care and caution when clambering up or down, as the stairs have claimed victims before.

Once at the central tower, the pilgrimage is complete: soak up the breeze, take in the views and then find a quiet corner in which to contemplate the symmetry and symbolism of this Everest of temples.

Angkor Wat

BAS-RELIEFS
Stretching around the outside of the central temple complex is an 800m long series of intricate and astonishing bas-reliefs. The carvings were once sheltered by the cloister’s wooden roof, which long ago rotted away (except for one original beam in the western half of the north gallery; he other roofed sections are reconstructions). The following is a brief description of the epic events depicted on the panels in the gallery of bas-reliefs. They are described in the order in which you’ll come to them if you begin on the western side and keep the bas-reliefs to your left. The majority of the bas-reliefs were completed in the 12th century, but in the 16th century several new reliefs were added to unfinished panels.

(A)    Battle of Kurukshetra
The southern portion of the west gallery depicts a battle-scene from the Hindu Mahabharata epic, in which the Kauravas (coming from the north) and the Pandavas (coming from the south) advance upon each other, meeting in furious battle. Infantry are shown on the lowest tier, with officers on elephant-back and chiefs on the second and third tier. Some of the more interesting details (from left to right) include: a dead chief lying on a pile of arrows and surrounded by his grieving parents and troops; a warrior on an elephant who, by putting down his weapon, has accepted defeat; and a mortally wounded officer, falling from his carriage into the arms of his soldiers. Over the centuries, some sections have been polished (by the millions of hands that fall upon them) to look like black marble. The portico at the southwestern corner is decorated with sculptures representing subjects taken from the Ramayana.

(B)    Army of Suryavarman II
The remarkable western section of the south gallery depicts a triumphal battle-march of Suryavarman II’s army. In the southwestern corner about 2m from the floor’s Suryavarman II on an elephant, wearing the royal tiara and armed with a battle-axe; he is shaded by 15 umbrellas and fanned by legions of servants. Further on is a procession of well-armed soldiers and officers on horseback; among them are bold and warlike chiefs on elephants. Just before the end of this panel is the rather disorderly Thai mercenary army, with their long headdresses and ragged marching, at that time allied with the Khmers in their conflict with the Chams. The Khmer troops have square breastplates and are armed with spears; the Thais wear skirts and carry tridents.

The rectangular holes seen in this stretch were treated when, long ago, pieces of the scene – reputed to possess magical powers – were removed. Part of this panel was damaged by an artillery shell in 1971.

(C)    Heaven & Hell
The eastern half of the south gallery, the ceiling of which was restored in the 1930s, depicts the punishments and rewards of the 37 heavens and 32 hells. On the left the upper and middle tiers show fine gentlemen and ladies proceeding towards 18-armed Yama (the judge of the dead) seated on a bull; below him are his assistants, Dharma and Sitragupta. On the lower tier is the road to hell, along which the wicked are dragged by devils. To Yama’s right, the tableau is divided into two parts by a horizontal line of garuda (half-man, half-bird creatures): above, the elect dwell in beautiful mansions, served by women, children and attendants; below, the condemned suffer horrible tortures.

(D)     Churning of the Ocean of Milk
The southern section of the east gallery is decorated by the most famous of the bas-relief scenes at Angkor Wat, the Churning of the Ocean of Milk. This brilliantly executed carving depicts 88 asura (devils; on the left), and 92 deva (gods) with crested helmets, churning up the sea to extract the elixir of immortality, which both sides covet. The demons hold the head of the serpent and the gods hold its tail. At the centre of the sea, the serpent is coiled around Mt Mandala, which in the tug of war between the demons and the gods turns and churns up the water. Vishnu, incarnated as a huge turtle, lends his shell to serve as the base and pivot of Mt Mandala. Brahma, Shiva, Hanuman (the monkey god) and Lakshmi (the goddess of beauty) all make appearances, while overhead a host of heavenly female spirits sing and dance in encouragement. Luckily for us the gods won through, as the apsara (heavenly nymphs) above were too much for the hot-blooded devils to take.

(E)     Elephant Gate
This -gate, which has no stairs leading to it, was used by the king and others for mounting and dismounting elephants directly from the gallery. North of the gate is a Khmer inscription recording the erection of a nearby stupa in the 18th century.

(F)     Vishnu Conquers the Demons
The northern section of the east gallery .shows a furious and desperate encounter between Vishnu, riding on garuda and innumerable danava (demons). Needless to say, he slays all comers. This gallery was only completed at a later date, most likely in the 16th century, and the carving is notably inferior to the original work from the 12th century.

(G)     Krishna & the Demon King
The eastern section of the north gallery shows Vishnu incarnated as Krishna riding a garuda. He confronts a burning walled city, the residence of Bana, the demon king. The garuda puts out the fire and Bana is captured. In the final scene Krishna kneels before Shiva and asks that Bana’s life be spared.

(H)     Battle of the Gods & the Demons
The western section of the north gallery depicts the battle between the 21 gods of the Brahmanic pantheon with various demons. The gods are feared with their traditional attributes and mounts. Vishnu, for example, has four arms and is seated on a garuda, while Shiva rides a sacred goose.

(I)     Battle of Lanka
The northern half of the west gallery shows scenes from the Ramayana. In the Battle of Lanka, Rama (on the shoulders of Hanuman), along with his army of monkeys, battles 10-headed Ravana, seducer of Rama’s beautiful wife Sita. Ravana rides a chariot drawn by monsters and commands an army of giants.