First night in Siem Reap
By 7pm we had given up hope that our luggage would arrive so
we headed out to get another set of clothes.
There is a little laundry just up the road that does laundry for $1/kg
but between us we didn’t even have that, and I was getting sick of wearing the
same clothes even though I was washing them all out each night.
Siem Reap has certainly changed in the 3 years since our last
visit. There are now lights strung up
everywhere (though some of these are obviously still up from Khmer New Year (14th
-16th April), there are many many more mid/up market restaurants and
there are now at least 5 night markets (sadly all selling pretty much the same
stuff – mostly crap aimed at the tourists)
Original Night Markets
Next stop after dinner was the original night market and the
Baray Spa for a foot massage. I was
secretly hoping that Nita would still be there.
On each of our 3 previous visits to SR we have headed to this little open-air
foot massage place at the back of the old markets and she has been there. I was delighted to find her again and once
more got the BEST foot massage.
Nita (on my left) and Mau (who did a fabulous and very careful job on Tony's leg)
Day 17 Koh Ker
Over the course of three previous visits to Siem Reap we
have seen all the temples on the Grand
Circuit, the Small Circuit as well as Kbal Spean (River of 1000 Lingas) Beng
Melea (one of my favourite temples –
about 90 minutes out of town) and Phnom Kuleen (the mountain where the rock for
the Angkor Temps was mined). We’ve
re-visited Angkor Wat each time too.
This trip I really wanted to visit the temples at Koh
Ker. Suwan picked us up at 8am, we swung
past the Tanei to collect Lynn & Michael and headed out on the 2 ½ hour
drive to Koh Ker. It’s the height of the
dry season and as you’d expect everything was dry and dusty. When the rains finally arrive it will be a
very welcome time for the people who make their meagre living from farming.
Away from the tourist areas and out on the rural roads you see some amazing things.
The people living out in this part of Cambodia don't have electricity or running water but you can get mobile phone reception!
Khmer drive-through - sticky rice sellers on the road side
I cut his head off - but this little chap was getting a great view of the oncoming traffic!
Timber delivery
It was disappointing to see so much land cleared – the once
green forests have been de-nuded, the grand mahogany trees taken for timber and
replaced with acre upon acre of rubber or cashew trees (owned of course by
someone in power – or more likely the land has been sold to a Vietnamese
consortium by short-sighted government officials after a quick buck)
Koh Ker was the capital of Angkor for a short period in the
900’sAD and there are almost 200 ruins in the area. Unfortunately this area (like much of
Cambodia) was heavily mined during the KR years and only about a dozen temples
are actually accessible to tourists.
Tree roots at Prasat Pram
1000 year old carvings
The day of the triffids comes to Koh Ker (Prasat Pram)
Prasat Neang Khmau (Black Lady Temple)
Prasat Chen
We stopped for lunch at Angkor Thom (Big City Koh Ker) Tony
& Michael had wild boar, Lynn tried the deer but I checked out and went
with the beef. It was so nice not having
to fight with other visitors for photo ops etc – and by my reckoning the Koh
Ker temples probably saw about 25 visitors today including a bunch of guys from
Hong Kong on a dirt bike safari.
Stir fried wild boar
Very cute babies (and their mum looked in really good condition for a puppy who had 8 of these little ones)
Angkor Thom (Koh Ker)
Holding up the walls
Tony & Suwn on the way to the Pyramid
Suwan, Michael and I braved and conquered the 200+ stairs up
the central pyramid and were repaid with spectacular views over the whole area –
as far as Phnom Kuleen .
200+ stairs to climb the pyramid
Michael & Suwan at the top
Tony & Lynn 'supervised' from ground level
Next stop was the triple temples of Prasat Linga and finally
Prasat Banteay Pir Chean. Hot, tired,
sweaty and probably stinky, we headed back to town about 3.30pm having had a
wonderful day.
Prasat Linga
Prasat Banteay Pir Chean
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