Exploring Siem Reap 暹粒

1．The next day, in order to maximize the time we have in hand, we decided just to engage the same tour guide and drive ourselves to travel north about 70 km out of Siem Reap city to explore other key temples like Banteay Srei, Phnom Kulen, Kbal Spean, River of the thousand Lingas and Beng Mealea.

2． After a simple breakfast and also filling up the tank for the Pajero, we first went to a nearby hotel to buy admission ticket for Phnom Kulen, then heading to see the beautiful pink temple Banteay Srei "the Citadel of women (women place)". It is an exquisite miniature pink sandstone fairy palace of many delicate beautiful carvings in the heart of an immense and mysterious forest. It was built at a time when the Khmer Empire was gaining significant power and territory in 967 by a Hindu Brahman counselor under powerful king Rajendravarman and Jayavarman V. Visitors can see some of the finest classical Khmer art, walls densely covered with some of the prettiest, deep and intricate carving of any Angkorian temples. It is really worth the extra efforts to travel out of the city about 38 km to visit this reputable pretty Pink Temple - especially for ladies since it is called the Women Place and in the ancient time, only high ranking lady officials were allowed to visit this temple.

3. Our next destination is Phnom Kulen to see the famous River of the Thousand Linga, located about 50 km from Siem Reap including 20 km of rough drive up the mountain. As vehicles are only allowed to drive up before 12 pm, so we have to time ourselves to leave sufficient time to drive from Benteay Srei to Phnom Kulen. Phnom Kulen is well known as a sacred place of the Khmer people and the main attractions of this resort are the river of the thousand linga (representative of the god Shiva who is one of the 3 primary gods of the Hindu trinity), waterfall and the temple of the reclining Buddha. This is the place where the 500-year “Age of Angkor” began. It is the mountain on which Jayavarman II initiated the royal “god of the king” linga cult in 802 AD, declaring a unified and independent Khmer Empire under a single ruler and beginning what would later known as the Angkor period. Visit to Phnom Kulen required a separate entrance fee of US$20 per person, plus car toll charge.

4。 You can see a lot of very delicate carvings of linga on the river bed, small to large. The locals say water flows over the linga is holy and in ancient time kings would come every year to bath in the water for 3 days to be blessed and could become great rulers; for commoners, also do the same just to hope for more babies. The water is really crystal clear, clean and cold, so we took off our shoes and enjoy the holy water for good luck. Thereafter, we visited the giant reclining Buddha “wrapping” around a huge tree. In recent year, the resort has become a place for worship, as well as a historical and cultural spot for local and tourists. We spent the entire morning at these places till lunch.

5。 We took a little longer to get to our final stop Beng Mealea for the day due to rain and held up by the fallen branches blocking the road (few locals pull their resources together and used parang to chop off the branches) when coming down from Phnom Kulen. Beng Mealea, located 6.5 km from Phnom Kulen and some 63 km east from Siem Reap city. It is a sprawling jungle temple covering over 1 sq km. It is largely overrun by vegetation and less touristy. There were less than 10 visitors (including 2 Chinese from mainland China) when we were there, giving it an adventurous and lost temple feel. Trees growing from the broken towers and galleries offer some of the best “tree in temple” shots aside from Ta Prohm. Constructed in a distinctly Angkor Wat style under the same king that built Angkor Wat, Beng Mealea preceded and may have served as a prototyped of sorts for Angkor Wat. Though there are some lintel and doorway carvings, there are no bas-reliefs and the carvings are relatively sparse. Visit to the temple needs an extra US$5 entrance fee. Believe it would be a great place to visit once the collapsed towers and walls are restored.

6. It stared to drizzle when we left Beng Mealea, and we were indeed lucky in the sense that it only poured when we arrived at our guesthouse.

7. Before visiting Siem Reap, I cant imagine Angkor Wat, the many temples and sites can be so impressive and so stunningly nice and beautiful and historically and culturally rich. All the Kings especially J7 and S2 were so foresightedly smart and brilliant.....the culture and history left behind are so enriching and greater than any other attractions:-) To visit one of the 7 wonders of the world, I am thankful to the timing, opportunity and company 天时地利人和.