Lower levels:
Arrival
Phnom Penh
Temples
Battambang

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In very ancient times, Naga, the divine serpents, were the first inhabitants of the Khmer territory. Cambodia was then named Kok Thlok or "the land with a tree", for only a holy mountain with a tree on top used to emerge from the water.

The legend says that once upon a time, a Hundu prince, called Preah Tong, was chased away by his father from India. The prince soon reached Kok Thlok island where he saw and fell in love with Soma, a female serpent from the "lunar" dynasty. Her father, the King of the Naga, approved their wedding and, wishing to honour his daughter, he drank the water surrounding the holy mountain and offered the couple the newly-born territory.

So was formed the kingdom of cambodia.

Sideline in the Vietnam war - secretly carped bombed by American warplanes attempting to rout Communist training camps and bombed somewhat less precisely when sorties crossed or turned back from the border with Vietnam carrying excess payloads. Cambodia had its share of tragedy in the hands of foreign aggressors.

What came after, on April 17th 1975 just a fortnight before the war in Vietnam collapsed with the taking of Saigon by the North Vietnamese forces, was worse - far worse. The Khmer Rouge, assumed power and immediately embarked on four years of repression of anything but a peasant lifestyle. At their head, Pol Pot oversaw a genocide of near Hitler proportions - though upon his own people as opposed to an ethnic minority. All intellectuals, military leaders and opposition politicians were summarily executed.

The capital Phnom Penh, and every other major town was emptied by Pol Pots Khmer Rouge fighters. Everyone - young, old, infirm and sick were sent into the fields to toil in a massive experiment in establishing a co-operative agrarian state.

Today the country is populated by a generation of largely illiterate and extremely poor farmers who are often maimed or killed by landmines exposed by wet season rains.

Cambodia's legacy of 25 years or war is a people still ruled by ex Khmer Rouge soldiers, the obligatory corruption at the top and intransigence from abroad. Prostitution and child trafficking remain huge problems, along with land mine clearance and poverty and famine are ever present.

Yet everywhere we visited in this pitiful country, we were greeted by smiles and waves - children running into the streets shouting "hallo" and "goodbye" - no problems with theft of even the threat of it and (apart from attempts to overcharge) we were treated as VIPs by all.

This is a sad and very poor country. But despite this, the ever welcoming people made our tour unforgettable.

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