Photos from the field

Three young girls at Wat Ka Koh, armed with their fishing net and bucket

The tiny Prasat Yeay Peau is snuggled up to the vihara of Wat Tonle Bati

Whilst I'm penning my Tonle Bati field trip report, here's a couple of photos from my visit: the top picture was taken at Wat Ka Koh and these three girls had just finished fishing for small fish and anything else that they could catch in their net, in a flooded field next to the pagoda. Their bucket was half-full of tiny fish, crabs and an eel and they were moving to another pond nearby to continue their daily routine. The bottom picture is of the prasat known as Yeay Peau, which sits adjacent to the main vihara of the pagoda at Tonle Bati. The temple was built in the late 12th century and is dedicated to the mother of the king. There's a tale that suggests the king was so taken by his mother's beauty that he wanted to marry her, after he'd lived away for a long time and returned and failed to recognise her. Yeay Peau is the considerably smaller sister temple to Ta Prohm, retains some worn-looking carvings on its two doorframes and a couple of headless statues inside the sanctuary.

A couple of things I forgot to mention whilst I was blogging about my Tuol Sleng visit - there's also a forensic photo exhibition at the museum, in Block D, which focuses on the skulls found buried at the site. Its in one of the rooms on the first floor. The price of entry into the museum was $2. The other footnote was that Nean Yin and Sokhyn Em from DC-Cam are currently researching a new book to be called the History of Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum and will be out sometime in 2008.