What can three volunteers in Sisaphon do to liven up a dull Saturday? Hop on their motos and ride 71km on a very bumpy road north of Sisaphon to Banteay Chhmar. Well, that's exactly what we did!
Corine, Debbie and I drove north for a good couple of hours, through the districts of Svay Chek and Tmour Puok to reach the Ankorian temple ruins of Banteay Chhmar (Narrow Fortress).
The temple is probably as old as other famous Khmer temples from the Angkorian area, but lesser-known. It was a city surrounded by a large moat and a 900m-long wall, and its bas-reliefs were believed to rival that of the Bayon, 150km away, in the Angkor Wat complex near Siam Reap (which I have yet to visit!).
At the center of this temple was one of the largest Buddhist monasteries of the Angkor period. However, now little remains. Banteay Chhmar is slowly being smothered by trees and the most impressive pieces stolen or sold to Thailand.
It was an exhillerating moto ride up to see the temples and we stopped off in Thmour Puok district to visit another VSO volunteer working in the Health sector. She showed us round the 'hospital' where we accidently walked in on a woman in labour (she later gave birth to a healthy boy!) and saw a thankfully empty A&E department. I'm sure she has a much tougher job than us in Education. She has to witness people dying from illness and disease daily, which wouldn't even reach a hospital in the west because of our vaccination programmes.
It was an interesting day all in all. I wish I could've taken photos while driving my moto because the sights we passed on the way home were 'some-ing else!'
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