Another Day in the land of Angkor

Trip Start Sep 23, 2004
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Trip End Dec 24, 2004


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Flag of Cambodia  ,
Wednesday, December 8, 2004

Day 12 , Basically the same schedule as yesterday, visiting yet more unique temples in teh Angkor Wat area. The city of Siem Reap, meaning defeat Thai, is a small city due south of the famous Angkor Wat temple complexes. Angkor Wat being the largest of all the temples is followed by a bunch of smaller temples all in the surrounding area. Most tourists spend between 2-3 days here visiting the major temples. For me, I thought that I might need more time since I usually take my time to savor each temple in detail. Therefore, I am spending a total of 4 and half days here. Today my driver first dropped off at the temple of Pre Rup followed by Kbal Spean. Kbal Spean is in a completely natural setting completely surrounded by trees and mountains. It took us a good 2 hours driving on some bumpy dirt road to get there. We passed by some unbelievable villages where most of the villagers are still living in straw houses with dirt floors. Lots of palm trees and coconut trees enroute. I saw some locals selling palm sugar wrapped in palm leaves and they taste like maple sugar with some strong cane odor
Ruined temple
Ruined temple
. Kbal Spean turned out toe just a river bed filled with ruins of sculptures. There was a waterfall at the end of the long trail but wasn't all that impressive. The climb up the hill was a major pain because of the dirt trail on a steep hill. It sure was nice to make it down to civilization (sort of) once again.
The afternoon is just more temple hopping. I saw Banteay Srei, Banteay Samre, East Mebon, Neak Pean, Ta Som and finally Banteay Prei. Seeing so many temples in such a short time makes it difficult to absorbe the uniqueness of each temple. The Two temples that really stood out would be Banteay Srei and Neak Pean. Banteay Srei is a smaller temple first "rediscovered" by the French explorers back in the early 1900's. The temple at the time was in complete ruins but through restoration and lots of efforts, the temple has been put back in its original form stone by stone. The special thing about this temple is its detailed carving on each stone. The detail on each carving represents a full story about the Hindu religion. The other special temple for me is Neak Pean. Instead of the usual rectangular towers and walls, this temple has symmetrically aligned pools with a temple in the center. According to the description in the book, the pools are suppose to have medicinal purposes, curing all illnesses. As I looked at the water today, its filled with varities of aquatic lifes and quite murky. I did not dare to touch or drink the water knowing the fact that it might be filled with all those deadly parasites that I couldn't pronounce back in medical school.
My driver was nice enough to drop me off at teh Bayon temple after sunset to see the spectacular illuminated night view, it sure was pretty.
Siem Reap hotels Slideshow

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