Lee n Tan

Well today we did it…..we booked Kedi for 9am and we made it!!

We started our morning of temples at Preah Khan. We started walking in and one of the local guys hanging around out the front started walking with us and telling us about the temple. We looked at one another and decided to let him carry on. We are so glad we did, we would have missed so much. The temple was a Buddhist Uni and City built in the late 12th Century (1191). The temple has the Hall of Dancers, also a unique round-columned 2 story building, the central sanctuary wall are pierced with inch round holes – we were told by our guide that these were filled with rubies but upon further reading they were presumed to have been for attaching large bronze plates as a covering to the stone.

Next we stopped at Neak Pean which was a bit disappointing as all the photos have water in the pond but now it is bone dry.

Ta Som was our last temple in the main Angkor area. As we got to the rear (as with all temples) we encountered the kids selling their wares but these guys had a different tact than asking you where you were from and then when you said Australia they reeled off everything. They started with G’day Mate, Cobber, Pal etc then they recited the Capital, Population, Prime Minister, Melbourne’s Population etc and they did not say anything of this slowly it was actually difficult to pick up everything fact they said because it was so quick. As I said before these guys didn’t ask where we were from they had a stick in their hand and started scratching the lines for tic tac toe in the dirt saying ‘you know this game?’ I started playing with one of the girls and once she put her x in the first square she gave me the rules – I win I don’t have to buy, she wins I do!!! We ended up finishing the game and she won but we had discussed that I wouldn’t buy. Along a bit further a boy had the same ploy except when I said I didn’t want to play he said I had to buy anyway!! Real cheeky little devil!!

We decided to go for a bit of a drive and head out to the Roulous Group of Temples. 3 in total but we only visited 2 – Preak Ko and Bakong. This group dates back to the 9th century.

We got back to Rosy’s a bit after 1pm, we had some lunch with Kedi, got changed then asked him to take us to the Lotus Hotel where all Rosy guests can use the pool for $5US a day. One of Kedi’s brothers came for the ride (there are 3 in all working outside Rosy), his name was Chad and he ended up picking us up. It was beautiful to be in a pool!!

We walked into town later on and had Mexican for dinner then walked home.

We made our pickup time 8.30am today but we still didn’t make it! We took off at 9am to a waterfall area called ‘Kbal Spean’ about 40km out of town. The carvings in the river bed date back to possibly the 11th to 12th century. Our trusty driver did not inform us of the 3km round trip to get to the carvings most of it was in the shade, but quite steep in parts. My foot held up quite well.

From here we back tracked to Banteay Srei or Citadel of the Women or as the locals call it the lady temple. That was beautiful and well worth the drive!! The carvings were exquisite and the temple was made from pink sandstone, very different to any other. Probably my favourite!! We had lunch at one of the stalls near this temple and we talked to a guy that sold knock off books (the sellers are everywhere around the temples). He sells the books for $1US, he has to pay the police $40US per month so they do not confiscate his books, he probably only sells 2-3 books a day if he is lucky and at the end of all this he still has to buy the books from somewhere and make a living. Very interesting conversation!!!

From this beautiful temple we made our way to the landmine museum – check out http://www.cambodialandminemuseum.org/ Aki Ra who was a former child soldier of the Khmer Rouge set up the landmine museum with the mines he has decommissioned throughout Cambodia since 1995. We watched a DVD of his story and it was very humbling. He goes out finding these mines with a stick in his hand just prodding the ground!!!! OMG!!

What we planned to be an easy day ended up being completely the opposite, by the time we got back it was around 4pm and we were buggered!

In the evening we took some other travellers – Philip & Cal out to the Night Market and dinner at the street stall. Not as good as the other night so a bit of a disappointment. We all went back to Rosy’s and played a couple of games of shit head, Mark & Maria (Irish Couple) joined us. Then we hit the hay ready for another day of temples.