Koh Kong

Woke up this morning to the creepy mangrove trees outside. The hotel is a bit odd. Think tropical honeymoon meets Fawlty Towers. First trip of the day was to a local stupa. It has a legend attached to it and the locals visit it to leave offerings. It's not attributed to any particular spirit according to our guide but I read in our Lonely Planet there is still a lot of Animism locally so perhaps it could be something to do with the water, as it's in the sea and accessible via a platform. Who knows - I'm probably totally wrong. On a similar note our guide also mentioned that the shrines we see outside all houses and shops are actually to do with local gods (nothing at all to do with Buddhism. Which is not a big surprise but interesting). Next, a Buddhist temple including a garden of concrete statues depicting humans being tortured in 'hell'. I felt a little confused by the guide's explanation but I think that it's meant to remind us that we create hell in our own minds by torturing ourselves with the past/future rather than focusing on what is actually happening in the present moment. So it's not hell in the Christian sense of it as there is no such thing in the Buddhist religion. I guess in conclusion humans just like looking at gory shit no matter what they believe in. After hell we got to forget about that for a bit and enjoyed some beach time and a sea swim. Back at the hotel, we went for a walk into the mangroves but all the locals were there as it's bank holiday and it was a bit stressful on tiny wooden platforms battling human traffic in both directions so we didn't last long. Dinner was in the local town,a lot of which has been totally taken over and shut down by the Chinese. We've heard from a few locals now that this is what they're doing in several beach resorts with a mind to turn them into Chinese holiday destinations. I can't imagine how different it will be here in 15 years time.Read more