OK, this is going to be long. Go grab a coffee!

Dara was back as our guide today. The agenda for the day was to visit some far off temples, less frequented by visitors. The itinerary for the day was:

  • Kbal Spean
  • Bantey Srei
  • Beng Mealea
  • Rolous group of temples (Lo Lai, Preah Ko, Bakheng)

Part 1: Kbal Spean

At 8AM, we drove out of Siem Reap towards Kbal Spean and the drive was our first taste of the Cambodian countryside – absolutely lovely! There were rice fields with houses on stilts and water buffalo in the fields. The houses are built on stilts to provide shade in the hot Cambodian afternoons and to protect the houses from floods. It was picture perfect. The highways seemed to be well maintained. We later learned that the highways most frequented by tourists are maintained (often with support from more developed countries) whereas the others are left out. After 45 minutes of driving, we drove past the Bantey Srei temple and then the road became a dirt road and as the car sped, there was red dust flying everywhere. At this point we were approximately 100 kms from the Thai border, which was pretty exciting!

After 30 minutes of driving on this dust road, we arrived at Kabal Spean. It is located on the top of the Kulen hills, where the Siem Reap river originates.The stones for the temples of Cambodia came from these hills; cut into slabs, transported downriver and then a combination of elephants and workers hauled them to the construction sites. Even at this remote spot, there was someone sitting (utterly bored) to check our passes.

Kabal Spean has 1000+ Shivlings and also a few carvings of other Hindu gods. The reason for having these Shivlings at such a location was: The river Ganga flows from Kailash Parvat, the abode of Lord Shiva, thereby making the water of the river holy. Since it was practically impossible to get the water of the Ganga to Cambodia, the king built these Shivlings so that the water could touch the Shivlings first, thereby becoming holy and then flow to the Khmer cities.

The hike up to Kabal Spean is on a muddy path through the forest. At many points, we just had to figure out how to climb up, which although was a lot of fun, hurt my already injured knee. Along the way, Dara and I talked a lot, mostly about his life: Growing up in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge regime, memories of his father (a teacher who was killed by the Khmer Rouge), his days in the post-KR army, and then how he became a tour guide and now runs his own guesthouse in Siem Reap.

We saw jungle vine which is very strong. It is the same vine that was used to pull the stones to build the temples. Once we got to the top, we saw the Shivlings and many are on the riverbed. There is also a stone slab with a carving of Lord Vishnu and Godess Laxmi by his side. We walked around taking pictures. There is a fascinating natural bridge that was formed over the river, so it looks as if the river is flowing and then suddenly disappears beneath the earth, and then further along it re-appears. There are even more Shivlings down below. We met a German/Indian couple from Singapore and so we spent some time talking about each others’ travels.

On the way down, Dara and I talked more about our respective lives.

“Dara: I could not afford a roof for my guesthouse at one point. People stayed at five-star hotels. My guesthouse was 1000-star.”

From Kbal Spean, we drove back on the dirt road to Bantey Srei.

Part 2: Bantey Srei

Bantey Srei is unlike most of the temples that we had seen so far.

  • It is made of pink stone, instead of the gray/bluish sandstone of other temples.
  • The architecture is closer to that of temples in India.
  • The size of the complex is much smaller and so are the buildings.
  • Almost every wall has carvings on it, to a point where it felt as if they were forced
  • The doors are so small that the people had to bend forward to enter the building. (All these buildings are now off limits)

Walking around the complex, even in the heat (it was near noonish) we could not take our eyes off the beautiful carvings on the walls (mostly depicting scenes from the Mahabharatha). It was all so fascinating! There is a pool in front of the temple and the views of the entire complex in front of the pool are fabulous!

However, it was sad to learn that no country has picked up restoration efforts at this lovely complex.

Outside the temple, we met Ponheary (Dara’s sister) and talked to her for a while. We also met a couple from the RTP-area and spoke to them for a while as well. I bought a book from one of the street vendors. Dara asked us if we were hungry and since we were not, off we went to our next destination – Beng Maelea!

Part 3: Bang Malea

Bang Maelea is usually not on the list of most people who visit the temples in Cambodia. And for good reason: Getting to Beng Maelea is neither easy nor cheap. It is more than an hour away from Siem Reap (and Bantey Srei) and the road is not paved for some parts (especially if you go from Bantey Srei).

The road to Beng Maelea took us through a lot of rice fields and mango plantations and we saw many vacation homes of people from the cities. Nice houses. It reminded us of houses in smaller towns and villages in India. The road was, of course, a dirt road. Initially it did not have stones, but later the entire road had large stones. As we got onto that road, Dara even mentioned that in case we have a flat tire not to worry, since there is a spare one. We replied. Great, but we hope something does not go wrong. The dirt road was mostly empty and we passed fruit orchards on one side and empty fields (and a view of the Kulen hills) on the other side. And almost 80% of the way into the road – BAM!!

We pulled over to the side and the right hand side rear wheel had blasted! I’ve never seen a tire blast like that. Hong, our driver, quickly put the spare one on and we were off. Luckily, the road after that was not as bad. We then reached the post where we had to pay $5 each (for Heena and myself only. Dara/Hong did not need a ticket) to enter the area. This is separate from the $40 we paid to enter the Angkor complex. It turns out different companies mange these complexes and hence the extra cost.

The temple is down to a rubble. Initially we thought it collapsed due to negligence and the Khmer Rouge stupidity, but it turns out that the actual reason was pillagers! They broke the temple foundations with the
hope of finding priceless artifacts, but instead found themselves buried in the rubble. Good riddance, ya! It has recently been de-mined, but we saw workers still looking for mines around the temple.When it was still standing (and the idiot pillagers had not looted it) it was a temple dedicated to Lord Vishnu.

When we got to Beng Maelea, there was a sugarcane juice vendor outside the temple – just like India! We got 2 glasses of fresh sugarcase juice from him. I know you’re thinking we were crazy to drink juice off the street, and that too in a remote part of Asia, but it was worth it :) We walked along a road, across the moat (all temples have moats) and finally reached the temple. It finally dawned on us how ruined this temple is. There is no real way to even enter the temple anymore. There is a wooden walkway built and that’s the only way to enter the temple (in reality the wooden walkway is “over” the roof of the collapsed structure). There were security guards around who ensure that you do not stray off the path and blow yourself up by stepping on an unfound mine. As soon as you get to the temple, a guard will accompany you (regardless of whether you have a guide with you or not) and lead the way. They are mostly poor villagers who make some money from this job (and tips). So our guard led the way. The wooden plank is build on the top of the temple (or whatever remains of it), but you can hardly tell. It was slightly weird and we really felt we were walking in a ruin. Suddenly, the plank ended. And we thought, oh that’s it! We felt disappointed that we drove this far, burst a car tire, skipped lunch and paid so much money for a 5 minute walk on a wooden plank, in a temple we could make no sense of?!? Oh man!

Then suddenly, Dara jumped into a window, and asked us to do the same. “There is a way from here!”, he said! Instantly we were excited since we knew this would be fun! So we clibmed through the window and the guide and Dara guided us through a pile of rocks (up and down the pile) and into the center of the temple (more like the northern part of the center). It was amazing and a lot of fun. We exited the temple from the north side and walked around the front of the temple (facing east). Amidst the growth of trees and pile of rocks it was hard to tell this was the entrance. But the classic depiction of “samudra manthan” told us it was. All in all, we must have spent over an hour at this temple. It was awesome, and we felt it was totally worth the time and money. I highly recommend a visit to this temple.

Part 4: The Rolous Group

After Beng Maelea, we then drove towards Siem Reap (different road, not the tyre blasting road). Our next desitnation was the Roulous group of temples.

The road was quite good and we mentioned it to Dara. He said: “This road is Japanese style until Siem Reap. Then it is Cambodian style”.

Along the way, I asked Dara a lot of questions about life in Cambodia and how it must have been during the Angkor era, after Angkor era and how it is now in terms of everyday life, infrastructure, education etc.

The first temple that we went to was Lo Lai. It has a modern monastery next to it, that is still in use. This temple is not restored and there were holdings put in place to prevent the buildings from falling down. On the walls were inscriptions in Sanskrit (but written in Khmer script). As we exited the temple, there was a group of orphans asking for donations for their orphanage. They were all smiling and very courteous. However, we later learned that the people who manage these orphanages make the children stand out to get donations and pocket the money many times. Sad.

Our next stop was Preah Ko: This was mostly built by the king for his ancestors (parents/in-laws). It was very beautiful and we loved it.

Lastly, we went to Bakheng. It was almost time for sunset and as the light made the stone shine gold. It was simply so beautiful. We climbed up this temple and admired the beauty. It is one of the sunset spots but we did not want to hang around for it. We were tired (so was Dara – according to Heena he was tired of answering my questions). So we drove back.

At the hotel we said our final goodbye’s to Dara and Hong. Dara thanked us for our time and interest in the temples and for coming to his country. I was so impressed by this man and his love for his country and its’ heritage.

In the evening we went to Currywalla for dinner. We were hungry and wanted some real food that would fill our tummy (for me this usually means paneer – haha). We had a meal of Samosa, Mattar Paneer, a Veg. Thali and coke (Coke never tasted better). We then walked around the “night market”. It was nothing close to the Chiang Mai night market and everyone sells exactly the same stuff – and its all of mediocre to cheap quality. The three days of touring was catching up with us and we decided to go back to the hotel and relax.

This post is a part of the Thailand, Laos and Cambodia 2007 itinerary