Another day off

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On Saturday I decided to have another day off for a bit more sight-seeing. I had read in the Cambodia guide book about a Buddhist temple built at the bottom of a limestone outcrop containing many caves, so I decided to make that the focus of a day trip. The temple is called Wat Kiri Sela and is just outside a town called Kompong Trach.

After asking around I learnt that get a bus to Kompong Trach I would first need to get to another town called Angk Ta Saom. This town is on the main route from the capital Phnom Penh to the coastal resorts in southern Cambodia, and the buses that travel that route make a rest stop at Angk Ta Saom. I was told that a bus should arrive at about 9am so the orphanage director booked a tuk tuk to collect me from the centre at 8am. By ten past 8 it still hadn't arrived so I decided to set off walking to the main tuk tuk gathering place. As I was walking along, a tuk tuk pulled up beside me and asked if I needed a tuk tuk! The one I had booked had been negotiated at 3 dollars but this guy was asking 5 dollars so I negotiated him down to 3 and got in. He then proceeded to go to the centre and it quickly became obvious that this was the one who was supposed to be picking me up and he was obviously trying to make a few extra dollars on the side!

The tuk tuk driver dropped me at the Angk Ta Saom rest stop at about 8:45 and at 9:15 a bus heading to Kompong Trach pulled in for its rest stop. I got on board and it left just after 9:30 taking an hour to get to Kompong Trach. It was a bit early for lunch but I had missed breakfast having left quite early so I went into the local market and decided to try some bobor, a rice porridge with meat which is apparently eaten at any time of day. It was fairly pleasant and only cost 2000 real (about 30p) so was pretty good value.

I then set off to find Wat Kiri Sela. Since I didn't have much idea which direction it was, I decided to take a moto - this is basically a motor bike taxi where you ride pillion. The driver didn't seem too sure about where it was but he spoke to a friend and then we set off. We rode about 4 or 5 miles then he dropped me off at a large entrance and said this was it. There was no sign of a large limestone outcrop but I set off walking up the drive anyway. Five minutes later the moto driver rode back up to me and indicated that I should get back on the bike. Apparently he had realised that this wasn't the right place and had come to make ammends. We rode back to the main road and then rode for another 2 or 3 miles down a muddy track. This definitely seemed more likely as were riding through incredibly flat country which was mostly rice paddies and up ahead we could see a group of wooded hills sticking up from the surrounding paddy fields. I was really enjoying this type of scenery as it typified for me what I had imagined a classical south east Asian landscape to be like. Eventually we arrived at the temple.

After paying the one dollar entrance fee I walked up to look at the temple first. This was quite small and plain by Buddhist standards, but had some very gory wall paintings around the inside telling some kind of story. It had been raining on and off the whole day so far, and had yesterday as well, so I stayed in the temple until the current shower abated then walked over towards the cave entrance. I had brought a head torch with me today in preparation.

After walking through the main cave I came into the centre of the limestone outcrop which was open to the sky. It looked quite amazing - the guidebook called it a 'hidden valley' but basically the limestone hill was hollow in the middle and the only way into this hollow was through the caves. There ae caves all over the place - over 100 according to the guidebook, and I wandered int and around quite a few of the large ones.

It was only when I left that I realised how close to the centre of Kompong Trach it actually was. I decided to start walking back the way the moto driver had brought me but I must have made a wrong turn and within half an hour I emerged onto the main road through the middle of Kompong Trach. Just in case anyone else reading this intends to visit this unusual place, walk along Kompong Trach main road until you see a prominent blue sign saying 'Kompong Trach Resort' or something similar and head down that dirt road. Look out for the limestone outcrop and just keep heading towards it.

After about 20 minutes a bus came along. On the way here the bus had been half empty but this one looked pretty full. Luckily there was one free seat - next time I must make a point of booking a ticket in advance, especially when it is the last bus of the day as I think this might have been. Back in Angk Ta Saom it had started pouring with rain again - it's actually been raining here steadily for two days now - so I went into a noodle stall for a bit of late lunch until the rain eased off, then found a tuk tuk to take me back to Takeo.

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Photos

Wat Kiri Sela
One of the paintings in the temple

Hidden valley
Inside the limestone outcrop

The limestone outcrops
view from Kompong Trach

Cave
Inside one of the caves

Wat Kiri Sela
Entrance to the temple and cave site