What do Cambodia and India have in common? Hinduism. That ancient polytheistic religion which spawned not only the architectural style of Angkor Watt but also countless other temples across South East Asia. During one of our temple inspections our local tour guide, a devout young Hindu himself pointed out some intricate carvings of the Karma Sutra on one of the exterior walls of a temple and commented that people weren’t so shy about sex then. In today’s equivalent it would be like going to see your pastor for sex education! Amazing, especially given that illiteracy was almost 100% a millenium ago when the temple was built and temple carvings were the only real form of mass communication.

If you ever do find yourself in that part of the world, do yourself a favour and skip all the boring forts and palaces for a day. Grab a hindu tour guide and pay a visit to these living breathing architectural wonders. When you are there, make him explain some of the wonderfully rich depictions of gods and legends on its walls to you. Now if only Michaelangelo had been a Hindu.

But unlike Cambodia, India is a different economic story. It is a like a multinational company firing on all cylinders - rich in resources (natural and otherwise), infrastructure and political will. Like China, this is a country which is not just happy to sit on its natural wealth and watch the world go by. It is out there to make money and deadly serious about it. It has also been enjoying a great run recently because investors are rewarding it for not being too dependant on the US for its economic growth and hence not as exposed to negative consumer sentiment which is being weighed down by the sub-prime debacle (you can read more about it in the report here-taken from Bill Cara’s website.)