Siem Reap: day three of temples

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Early start, with the car we had booked arriving at 7:30am. Had breakfast again though since it was free.

First stop was Banteay Sambre, which consists of a central temple with four wings, hall and two libraries. It is all within a moat, which the guidebook claimed was dry but which was far from it!

Frpm there it was a drive to Banteay Srei, which was overcrowded with tourists but definitely one of the more spectacular ones as far as the carvings go. Apparently it has some of the finest stone carvings seen anywhere in the world and I don't doubt it. However, the temple itself was quite small in comparison. The restoration work, which was well documented in the visitors centre to the temple (even Angkor Wat doesn't have a visitors centre!) was itself quite amazing and also apparently one of the first using a specific method which they then used to restore other temples. Afterwards we looked around the shops around the visitors centre, Melody bought some clothes and we had a cool drink.

Then it was onto Kbal Spean, a carved riverbed also referred to as the River of a Thousand Lingas. It was 2km uphill and in the middle of the day, so I decided not to do the walk (I know, lazy, but in mid 30 degree heat walking up rocks in thongs... I was lazy) but Melody went on ahead and I chilled and had a coconut. Unfortunately the conservation centre was closed which I had hoped to look at while she was up the hill. No such luck!

We then grabbed some lunch at one of the food stalls to avoid our driver taking us to a more expensive, out of the way restaurant before beginning the longer drive to Beng Mealea. We didn't get there until mid afternoon in the end.

This temple has not been restored at all and nature has been left to do its thing, resulting in moss on bricks piled up on the ground, and vines and trees throughout. Hidden away among the rubble and hanging vines were some lovely carvings and sandstone blocks. A lot of it is see able from a boardwalk that they have constructed to help visitors get around, but we also were lucky enough to be allowed to climb into some areas, with one of the caretakers showing us where we were allowed to rock hop and climb our way through. Her English was fairly limited but she was able to point out the interesting carvings as well as tell us what we were looking at was.

Long drive back (napped) to Siem Reap and our guesthouse. After a shower and change I went to dump my washing off (guesthouse more expensive and had bad online reviews about washing service) and went off to bus bus ticket for following evening.

Quick browse at the night markets before meeting up with some of the guys from Carpets for Communities for dinner. Long story, but I helped out at two markets in Canberra a few weeks back selling hand made, eco friendly rugs. They're trying to set up a presence in the ACT at the moment (if anyone would like to buy or see a carpet let me know!) and since I have helped out they offered to let me see what the project is doing in Cambodia (which i do tomorrow). The short story is that it is about immediate intervention to help children at risk by empowering mothers to make rugs, which are then sold in Australia. They also help them to set up their own micro enterprises. Anyway, had dinner with Kylie, Rob, Dick and Marko, followed by ice creams before heading back to the guesthouse.

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