Word: phnom
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...Buddhists co-opted Phnom Kulen as a holy site of their own after the Hindu heyday. A 10-minute car ride up the mountain brings tourists to Preah Ang Tho, a 16th century Buddhist monastery notable for the giant reclining Buddha carved into the top of a 20-m boulder. Climb the rickety wooden staircase to a landing that surrounds the 17-m-long Buddha, where monks and believers bow, burn incense and leave fruit...
...last major site on Phnom Kulen takes a bit of perseverance and imagination to enjoy. From the base of Preah Ang Tho, hire a motorbike driver for a challenging ride deep into the jungle wilderness (cost: about $10). He'll take you to a clearing that was home, about 1,000 years ago, to an Angkorian Period pottery factory. Shards of jars and fragments of sculptures are everywhere, seemingly untouched by archaeologists. Instead, amateurs, in the form of residents from nearby villages, have tried putting pieces together, standing them up against dead trees...
...Mindful of the pillaging of Angkor Wat, the locals in and around this magical Cambodian mountain want to keep the hordes away. Some Siem Reap guesthouse managers warn that Phnom Kulen is riddled with land mines, even though the paths are well worn and thousands of Khmer visit every year without incident. Motorbike drivers, too, routinely discourage travelers by insisting it's too far, too expensive and there's not enough to do for the effort. They're partly right; it's too bum-numbingly far on a motorbike and, at about $150 for a day trip in a four...
...difficult to even find an Internet connection, they harrumph?but that is precisely the point. Everything else to do in Cambodia requires hiking and studying and getting up early; Sihanoukville is for the lazy or those suffering from temple overload. The four-hour, $3 bus trip from Phnom Penh is the most strenuous part...
...peninsula, named after the revered King, is used primarily by local Khmer families and expatriates living in Phnom Penh. Most foreigners pass through en route to the ferries leading to and from the Thai resorts of Ko Chang, staying here as briefly as possible and sniffing at the less famous beaches. This is misguided arrogance?for which the small club of Sihanoukville fans are grateful...