While I was there

The ruined Prasat Tani at Wat Tani in the village of the same name

Even though my trip to Kampot and Kep at the weekend was purely business, I took the opportunity to veer off the main track to poke my nose around for anything interesting, as I always do, and benefited from my explorations. On the way down to Kampot by car, we stopped at Wat Tani, on the edge of the town of the same name, as I had never previously seen the prasat that sits in front of the rebuilt vihara. It's ruined and there are no carvings, and the light was poor as it was getting dark, but I was happy to see the 11th century laterite temple nonetheless. On the way back from inspecting the new Nataya Resort and after my visit to the ghost-like railway station at Koh Touch, I called into a trio of pagodas in the hope of unearthing something interesting. At Wat Rokar, the attractive wat had a low ceiling with the usual colourful wall paintings. At Wat Roluos there was a hive of painting activity on-going, both inside and out, about fifty metres from where the foundations of the old vihara stood. And at Wat Kampot, which was another visually pleasing-on-the-eye pagoda, I spent 20 minutes playing volleyball with two schoolboys, Omar and Kien, before their teacher scolded them for missing the start of their class. I was in the dog-house. Also on my travels I noticed an interesting wall painting in the grounds of Wat Kompong Tralach, which also houses a genocide memorial. The final batch of photos from the hotels I visited will follow.

The blackened laterite walls of Prasat Tani is due to old age rather than fire

The photogenic Wat Rokar with its low ceiling

One of the popular scenes you can see on the ceiling of pagodas around the country. This is at Wat Rokar.

The smell of fresh paint was overwhelming at Wat Roluos

The large Buddha and the wall & ceiling paintings at Wat Roluos

The painters were practising their artistic skills on this wall; eyes being a problem for some

A lovely older pagoda at Wat Kampot

My volleyball colleagues, Kien and Omar, who were scolded for missing class

A giant and other naked people on a wall at Wat Kompong Tralach