Phnom Kulen 1/22

We left in the morning for Phnom Kulen, a holy mountain/national park about 30 km from Siem Reap. The first part of the drive was great – we drove through what they call the Angkor park, where all the temples are. The road was great, the views, too. We were stopped once before entering the park and had to show our tickets for Kulen. Once we turned off the main road, here it was again – a bumpy, dusty red dirt road for miles and miles to the top of the mountain. When we got there, I was surprised that so many cars actually made it. There are at least three separate sights in Kulen. First we went to the river to see the submerged Hindu temple, which according to some guide I overheard, was built in year 802. As we walked along the river, we saw a number of reliefs, and what they call “linga”, representations of Shiva. Then we walked to a spring hidden below a circle of white sand. From there we went to the next site – Preah Ang Thom temple with an 8 meter statue of reclining Buddha carved into a huge stone boulder. We had to climb a lot of steps to get there. The third site is the waterfall – 22 meters high, lovely and refreshing. As we were climbing down to see it, I heard somebody speak Polish. It was a group of 8 people from Torun travelling through SE Asia. We had a nice chat. Above the waterfall is a little tourist village with a couple of restaurants and picnic huts overlooking the river. We had lunch in one of the restaurants and since Pierre knows the owner, he came to join us for a while. And then back to Siem Reap. I really have to say that I don’t like SR at all. The center is a haphazard collection of old and new houses, mostly new hotels, paved and unpaved streets and lots of shops, stalls and mostly cheap and unattractive restaurants that chiefly cater to the backpacker tourists. It’s crowded, dirty and ugly. The good hotels are at a safe distance from the center, closer to Angkor park. My hotel is a little villa close to the center. The best part is that it has a garden with lots of fruit trees so we get a basket of fresh fruit in the room every day – mangosteens, lychees, mangos and small, fat bananas. I have to admit that the Buddha statue in the garden gets the first pick, and we get what's left. No complaints, though.