Stone Giants

Photo by Walter Mason

"Below these bruised and battered countenances...stands a causeway. On either side of it are seated fifty-four stone giants, twenty feet tall as they squat, restraining or, as though taking part in a tug-of-war, pulling at, the long stone serpent with a multiple fan-shaped head, which forms the balustrade. The two opposing teams are recruited, one from the gods, the other from devils, whose sullen, ferocious expressions contrast with the benevolent, calm-eyed determination of their antagonists."

Osbert Sitwell, Escape With Me! (1939)

Monday Blogcrawl

My Cambodia book now stands at a ridiculous number of words, but is still entirely unpolished and nowhere near finished. My publisher is going to hate me. Here is some Cambodia-related info from the web this past week:

2 million passengers have now visited Siem Reap airport

• Horrible fire at the Siem Reap night market kills eight. May they rest in peace.
• Beng Mealea Temple, one of the lesser-known temples at Angkor.
• A Buffalo at Siem Reap. In fact, Cambodians normally keep cows, and buffalo are reasonably uncommon.
• Will there ever be justice for the victims of the Khmer Rouge?
• There's still very little mental health care available in Cambodia.
• Quite a few people are beginning to question the point of bringing the increasingly elderly members of the Khmer Rouge to court.
• Cambodian Government decides on $3.1 billion in spending.
• A garment training institute to be built in Cambodia. And as job opportunities improve for Cambodians, the low-paying garment industry finds a labour shortage.
• Sam Rainsy's removal from the voter list means that next year's elections in Cambodia will probably not be fair.
• The most gorgeous hyperlapse movie of Phnom Penh.