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I was starting to sleep later. Just in time to get up at 3am for Angkor Wat. But how do you miss sunrise at one of the world’s greatest locations? But that’s tomorrow. Today we’re going hiking, to Kbal Span (head bridge). It’s claim to fame is it’s the headwaters of the river into the Angkor Wat area and the Khmer back in the day carved lingas in the riverbed (which have something to do with the God Shiva) to purify the water. Me, I prefer more modern purification methods, but you do what you can with what you’ve got.
It was a very bumpy ride out to the mountain. But interesting to see how people live along the way. The rice paddies are beautiful (golden green and soft). We ran across some examples of the tractors people now use to pull carts or work in the rice fields instead of water buffalo. Bros said the people call them Chinese buffaloes. It’s a 1500m hike up the mountain and about a 700m elevation gain. The first rest stop was after 200m and we already lost people. A couple of them decided (and rightly so) that that was far enough. At 400m we decided to go on ahead with two other hardy folks (Linda and Priscilla) after helping the rest up the rocks and realizing it was going to be slow going with the rest of the group.
I led the parade figuring out where the path was. Although that wasn’t particularly hard for the most part. The trail was pretty well marked. It was steep in places and rocky and root covered. So you had to watch your step. And of course it was hot and muggy. But all that exercise over the last few years paid off and it wasn’t a problem. The area was kind of pretty and not the overgrown mossy bramble type of forest that we find in Oregon.
About half way up we came upon a crude rope swing. We stopped for pictures and some video. It was kind of fun. But sitting on a thin strip of wood is not too pleasant after a short time. We came across some interesting mushrooms too. Very brightly colored some of them. But other than that, just a nice walk through the jungle. Sweating like a sprinkler as well.
The end result was not that impressive. At least initially. It was just a small waterfall with some carvings. The carvings are “lingas” which are theoretically phallic but pretty much just look like blobs. We waited around for the rest of the folks to make it. And for those for whom the hike up was quite a chore, the payoff was not good. If you were thinking to yourself, this is a major effort for me but I’m going to stick it out and see these amazing lingas, well, not so much.
But, as it turns out, there’s a path along the river to another waterfall. The hardy among us decided to check it out. This was much more interesting. There were more carvings along the way that were easier to see and more of them, and interesting light. The waterfall is much bigger and more pretty. There was a group of 7 or 8 locals playing in it and taking pictures. Definitely a spot they come to cool off. It looked like fun and frankly we were already wet enough it probably wouldn’t have mattered but we didn’t go in.
We came back down the way we came up. It was much faster in that direction. We got to the bottom and stopped in the local market for some shade and some water. It turned out they had ice cream so we had some of that too. Then it was a wait for the stragglers. While we waited, Anna, the Philadelphia lady, berated the kids that were hanging out there selling shirts about not being in school. While she had a point, it wasn’t coming across as kindly advice and we decided to wait out in the parking lot instead.
Some of the elderly folk looked a little worse for wear but made it out on their own. Mickey barely made it out alive. It was the worst experience of her life to hear her describe it (and we heard about it for the rest of the trip). The bus driver essentially carried her down, in his dress shoes, and carrying 5 or 6 umbrellas to boot. But then again, he’s not in his 70’s.
We had lunch at an interesting place. It appeared to be someone’s house. At least people were living there. They had a big garden of dragon fruit (the plants look a lot like aloe vera) and the yard was filled with other plants and sculptures. They used old tires as planters, which Marion, the re-use queen, liked very much.
Lunch, of course, like all our meals, followed a consistent pattern which we would come to expect. A small salad to start – something kind of cole-slaw-ish with a bit of meat in it. Then soup. Then 2 or 3 entrees with rice, followed by ‘seasonal fruit’. The seasonal fruit became a running joke. What’s for dessert? Seasonal fruit. What season is it? Watermelon, dragon fruit and pineapple. But the fruit sure was good.
The last stop was Banteay Srei temple. This was a smaller temple but it’s known for its beautiful carvings. It had very interesting buildings, darker brown than the sandstone ones and not black like Bayon. It was covered in moss and lichen which made it more colorful and interesting. I really liked it. It was later in the day than we were usually out and the rain clouds were forming. It started to rain briefly and caused me to panic about my camera. But I was prepared with ample plastic covering. As it turned out the rain only lasted a minute or so and wasn’t heavy. (We were VERY lucky with the weather the whole trip actually. Except for one afternoon, we were never rained on more than a few drops. It rained heavily at night sometimes which was just fine with us.)
Then it was back to the hotel for the now standard afternoon nap. We had dinner at a restaurant in town. But just 6 of us made it. It had been a long day for most. I mentioned to Marion something about the cool water in the shower and she said “no it’s not, are you turning it the right way?” Well, I had tried both directions initially and it had actually gotten colder when I turned it towards what should have been hot. But I just hadn’t let it run long enough. And lo and behold, hot water. I’m sure glad I hadn’t complained to the hotel staff.
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