Cambodia

The chocolate colored waters of the Tonle Sap River, one of the Indochina's richest sources of freshwater fish. Along the river's margins, fishing villages and pagodas melt into landscape. Fishermen are slinging their nets in the river in search of that day's catch. Little has changed along the crucial lifeline of Cambodia despite a turbulent history of more then seven decades of French colonial rule, an experiment with independence that culminated in a fierce restructuring …

…A 16th-century treasure is supposed to be hidden below the larger ridge, which is topped by the scattered ruins of a large vihara (sanctuary) and Buddha statue, blown up by the Khmer Rouge in 1977. Surrounding the ruins are some still-intact smaller viharas, stupas and Buddhas. At the base of the ridge is a memorial to victims of Pol Pot, containing the bones of people buried in the 100 or so mass graves found in the area.