Visiting Phnom Penh at the moment and on the look out for Khmer temples in the southern part of the Kingdom of Cambodia.
Today we visited the Royal Palace and while sitting in the shade taking a break, we overheard a local tour guide who was with some Asian customers saying:
"This is a replica of Angkor Wat..." One second later turning around and pointing to the vendor on the side and saying "This is where you can buy drinks...Angkor Beer...Coke...Sprite...hehehe"
It caused us a good laugh and I was happy to have a much better tour guide myself :-)
The tourists bought some drinks and then went back to the model of Angkor Wat but their guide stood motionless next to them, without saying or explaining anything!
Hence I always come back making my initial point "what's in a tour guide"
29 May 2012
21 May 2012
Mysterious Beng Mealea

And Beng Mealea is a spectacular site!
Visiting it requires a day trip from Angkor Wat as it is about 70 km northeast of the main temples. We combined the trip here with another site - Koh Ker, to keep cost down. However, this was a huge mistake because both sites deserve to be visited separately.
Beng Mealea dates back to the 11th or 12th century and is completely taken over by nature. It is the most natural and peaceful site I had been to in all my days in Angkor and around. To some visitors this might just be a pile of rubble though, but for me and my guide it was so mysterious that we even kept our voices down and for long stretches of walking through the ruins we did not talk at all. Even the click of the camera sounds like a loud noise here.
There are literally piles of stones everywhere and we walked on a wooden walkway and elevated platforms throughout the temple because it is quite difficult to keep one's balance when stepping over the huge rocks.
My fear of snakes kept me on the lookout at all times as this was the one temple with long stretches without any tourists or any other sound. Even local children appeared without a sound through the cracks of the walls or suddenly appearing in one of the many windows and doors. They kept watching us as we walked through the temple and the whole scene was almost surreal.
I agreed with my guide that this temple with all the roots holding a firm grip of the walls and towers has something meditative. I would not have been surprised at all if we had suddenly spotted a Yogi or a monk sitting quietly in meditation pose. And maybe they were there but out of sight for us.
Beng Mealea is a photographers dream and though there were not many tourists around, people with their professional cameras kept crawling out of hidden spots.
Needless to say that my guide was correct in saying this was his favourite temple. It is a very special place which deserves to be explored in detail and with a lot of time available.
14 May 2012
A hike up to the River of a thousand Lingas
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Rainforest at Kbal Spean site |
Kbal Spean did not rank very high on my list of places to visit in Angkor, though I had read about it. The reason why it was more of a 2nd or 3rd tier to visit was merely because I had no real idea what was there to see. It was not a temple ruin like the ones I had visited over the past few days. I also had no idea if there was any water in the river or if the area was even attractive at all.
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Monolithic rocks and roots |
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1000 lingas |
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The birth of Brahma |
Once we reached the top we came to the river Ruisey and its spectacularly carved riverbed, which is covered with lingas and images of Hindu deities. A small sandstone bridge spans the riverbed and allows crossing the river as well as providing a great view onto the carvings. Unfortunately some of the carvings were hacked out and I got different explanations as to why faces of gods were missing.
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Lingas in form of a mandala |
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Lingas everywhere |
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Waterfall in a serene setting |
08 May 2012
A trip to the Citadel of the Women
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Visiting villages along the way |
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Farmers working in the rice fields |
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Professional visitor facilities |
Nowadays the paved road leads to a huge parking area and a very well managed visitor center. It was actually a bit of a shock for me, since I expected more tourists but not this many and not this professional-run tourist machine around it.
It quickly became clear that we cannot avoid other tourists on this visit, but again, thanks to my excellent guide, was I able to view and visit the temple in an almost secluded moment.
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Banteay Srei temple site |
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Library with scenes from Ramayana |
Most tourist groups are just pushed right through the inner area of the temple. It is like a fast moving machine. They come and go in no time and just take a few snapshots. The tour guides almost have no time to explain anything, so with a little patience we were able to enjoy the whole temple on our own.
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Pediments at the east entry tower |
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Temple guardians |
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