Love of my life :)

No its not a girl. Its wanderlust!
The prospect of travel always cheers me up and unlocks an almost infinite amount of energy and enthusiasm. An important part of travel is the planning phase and I do it with great relish.
With a few days left for the Cambodia trip and no more language classes to attend, the planning is reaching a crescendo. Its like making a sculpture - a rough stone and an idea at first. With time the general shape begins to emerge as small bits are chipped off. And finally the complete work - ending in either a masterpiece or a dull one. The idea of Cambodia had its origin in a boring ANN class back in the colorful days of fall. As the winter comes to an end, we get ready to embark on a new trip. This time its a new team - Dima, Ivan and I. In Ivan, I found the classical backpacker and we enjoyed a fabulous, almost unbelievable trip to the remote mountain monastery of Guinsa and the limestone caves of Danyang. Dima had been to Thailand but his limit is yet to be tested. I hope this trip will have plenty of opportunities for that! :) This is my first major trip since Berlin and with a country as exotic and fascinating as Cambodia, my hopes are quite high.
But after half a year in trouble free Korea, this one promises to be an high octane adventure. The magnificent temples of Angkor, the 'Pearl of Asia' Phnom Penh, and the white sand beaches of Sihanoukville. Interestingly, this is also a country that had witnessed one of the worst genocides of the 20th century. And after the Holocaust monuments of Germany, it is another opportunity to witness the remnants of disastrous consequences of misguided ideas.
Till a few months back, my only knowledge of Cambodia was confined to the Angkor Wat and Pol Pot. However, in the last few weeks, I have had a chance to read and learn a lot about it. The social condition of Cambodia, the bombing of Cambodia during the Vietnam war,the landmines, the rise of Pol Pot, the reign of terror, the genocide, the history of the Khmer empire, the Indian connection, the bas relief on the temples, the influence of religion on architecture and its culmination into the crown jewels of Khmer art on stone - the Angkor Wat and the Bayon.
Right now, I'm engaged in an optimisation problem. The constraints are the age old ones of time and money, and the cost function is maximizing the enjoyable experience!
These include checking for suitable accommodation, transportation and drawing up the itinerary. My resources include a large number of forums on the net, Lonely Planet and a brilliantly illustrated book on Khmer Architecture.
With 4 days to take off, I delve deeper into the labyrinth of information, trying to pick out the ones relevant for us. Expectations are very high and on a windy Sunday afternoon, I'm sitting in front of my computer with Mountain Dew (which has replaces Whiskey as my drink of choice!), scanning the available resources and listening to Hariharan :)

A glimpse of what we might expect: A few pics from the sites that I used for my research.
The classic view of Angkor Wat followed by an ariel view