Leaving Siem reap & waterfalls


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July 11th 2014
Published: July 11th 2014
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So the time came on Tuesday to say goodbye to Siem reap :-(



We had a few new travel buddies, all ladies which was lovely. Camille Crome the USA, Evi fro Belgium and Carrie from the USA.



We were heading to Kampong Thom before getting back into Phnom Penh. Our first stop was the Phnom Kulen National Park. Phnom Kulen is considered by Khmers to be the most sacred mountain in Cambodia and is a popular place of pilgrimage during weekends and festivals. We had the opportunity to see the riverbed rock carvings better known as the 1,000 lingas.



The lingam (also, linga, ling, Shiva linga, Shiv ling, Sanskrit लिङ्गं, liṅgaṃ, meaning "mark", "sign", or "inference")is a representation of the Hindu deity Shiva used for worship in temples. In traditional Indian society, the linga is rather seen as a symbol of the energy and potentiality of the God.



The lingam is often represented alongside the yoni, a symbol of the goddess or of Shakti, female creative energy.The union of lingam and yoni represents the "indivisible two-in-oneness of male and female, the passive space and active time from which all life originates".

There is a sign which says not to walk on the carvings, so the naughty dog flaunted the rules lol.



The local king wanted to make the river a sacred or holy river so he commissioned the 1000 lingas to be carved in to the river bed. This meant the water that flowed over the lingas became holy and pure.



From there we took the mini bus to the village where we visited a reclining Buddha. There were some steps to climb (as usual) but there was a great view. Then we had a ten minute walk to the riverand waterfalls.



We decided to have lunch first as we were quite hungry and wanted to eat before hopping in the water (I know you are not supposed to do this but the stomach over rules common sense lol)



The river eventually flows into waterfalls (one of which is about 20 m/65 ft) so we enjoyed a refreshing swim in the stunning pools at the bottom. The main pool also contained the fish which nibble at your feet, but they only nibble if you keep still so swimming was fine. The waterfalls were quite powerful and we couldn't quite get to swim under them.



After taking the waters and drying off and climbing back up to the village we all piled back on the bus just in time before the rains arrived which pretty much stayed with us for the rest of the day.



We arrived at our accommodation and Kat and I and the boys opted for the guest house. It was clean and comfy but in the top floor so we had to negotiate 4 flights of stairs. The guest housed was being modernised so there was a lot of building work going on but it stopped around 6pm and didn't start again until 7am the next morning so didn't bother us. We were in one of the rooms which had been done up so it was modern, new and clean, although the bathroom did smell rather fusty.



For dinner we went to a local restaurant which had a limited menu but the food was nice. However after ordering we were told they had no beef and then were told they had no pork! So it was chicken or fish. Oh and the fridge was broken so no cold drinks but they did have ice. We joked about it all although a little frustrating, but I guess that is how things are over here.



It was an early night for us all and Kat and I watched a film with Ben stiller and Vince Vaughan called The Watch. A comedy about aliens and neighbourhood watch.



Xxx


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