Feeding frenzy

Back once again. Another day, another few hundred k's. So now I'm in Phnom Penh, hiding in the internet shop from the taxi driver who I thought was trying to get me to go to some rip-off place rather than where I actually wanted to go, but who now I think was actually being honest and whom I'm a bit ashamed to see again. Oh the joys of paranoia. To be fair, your correspondent was very nearly torn asunder on arrival at the bus garage and can claim some right to being frazzled: there's a screaming mob of taxi drivers all desperate to get your fare and blows are almost exchanged trying to get your luggage into their vehicle. One bonus though is the operation of market forces - within 5 seconds they had undercut each other from a dollar down to 500 riel, almost a 90% saving...
Went from Kompong Thom to see the hillside pagoda at Phnom Sontuk, stunning view over central Cambodia and some very attractive 16th-century reclining Buddhas carved into the rock; half-killing 980-step stairway to get there though, you have to suffer for your art here. Check the 'Kompong Thom' folder on my Ringo site to see pics if you want. The other lot of photos on there are of the place I went this morning, Sambor Prei Kuk - a group of temples a good 200-400 years older than the ones at Angkor: some are 1,300 years old and are incredibly well-preserved given their age, if not in the same league as their more famous successors. Worth the visit though.
Going to try out the Lonely Planet-recommended (I've resigned myself to my fate) walking tour of the city tomorrow, hopefully including the National Museum and Silver Pagoda, then the grim Khmer Rouge-related sites (Tuol Sleng and the Killing Fields) the day after. Haven't yet decided for definite on the itinerary after that but I think water will feature in some form or other. I'm being mysterious Lynne.
'Til next time.