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| SAW THIS GUY DRIVING ON THE SIDE OF THE HIGHWAY....THERE'S A MAN DRIVING A SMALL MOTORCYCLE UNDER THERE! IMPRESSIVE BIKE SKILLS. |
I had a really enjoyable day today. I decided to spend my last day in Siem Reap travelling 50 km north of the city into the jungle to see a temple called Banteay Srei and then a hike into Kbal Spen also known as the river of 1000 lingas.
The temple, Bantaey Srei, it is a 10th century temple dedicated to the god Shriva and in remarkable state of preservation. It is all carved out of pink sandstone and considered one of the finest carvings of the world. Every square inch is covered in extremely detailed 3 dimensional carvings. This was uncovered in the early 1900's and restoration started in 1924...it was the first temple restored by the process called anastylosis..this is were they document where everything belongs, take it entirely apart, lay a proper cement foundation and the put it all back together like a jigsaw puzzle...They had pictures of it there in it's original state and it was a mess....what a job that must have been.
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| 2000 YEAR OLD AMAZING CARVINGS |
Next, I went to Kbal Spen...a spectacular carved river bed deep in the jungle northeast of Angkor. It is only reachable through a 1500 meter hike up a mountain. The hike was so beautiful! I was surrounded by thick jungle growth complete with vines, huge boulders and the occasional peak out to stunning views. This lead me to a beautiful river bed carved with 1000's of lingas! Just what a single girl needs. Ha!....well there were other carvings as well...all really cool to see under the water and on the rocks poking out of the river.
I followed the river down and the carvings continued all the way to a really pretty waterfall. I took my shoes off and dipped my feet in to cool off...had I brought a bathing suit and towel I would have dived right it. It was a great escape from the noise of the city.
I followed the river down and the carvings continued all the way to a really pretty waterfall. I took my shoes off and dipped my feet in to cool off...had I brought a bathing suit and towel I would have dived right it. It was a great escape from the noise of the city.
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| A LITTLE TARZAN ACTION. |
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| STUNNING JUNGLE VIEW HALF WAY UP |
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| LINGA'S EVERYWHERE! |
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| REWARD AT THE TOP...IF YOU DON'T COUNT THE LINGAS. |
On the way back to town I stopped in at the Landmine museum.
Large parts of rural Cambodia are strictly off limits, I even had to be very careful not to step off the well beaten path on my hike in the jungle to Kbar Spen. The Cambodian Landmine Relief Center and Museum in on a rural road between Bantreay Srei temple and Siem Reap.
It was established by a man named Aki Ra. He was forced to be a child soldier of the Khmer rouge after his parents were killed by them in the mid 70's when he was just 5 years old. His duties as a soldier were to lay landmines and he spent years of his life laying 1000's of landmines all over Cambodia until he defected to the Vietnamese army. Since the mid-90's he has been using his skills he learned as a child soldier in a quest to clear his country of land mines. Cambodia is the most heavily landmined countries on earth, after 3 decades of war, and still has 6-7 million estimated landmines and UXO (unexploded ordinances) that continue to cause untold devastation. Landmines are extremely inhumane weapons of war designed to maim and not kill. They do, however, kill an estimated 35 people a month and there are over 40 000 amputees in Cambodia making it the highest per capita in the world...to put that in perspective that's 1 in every 275 people!
The landmines don't only cause death and dis membership but there is a huge problem with poverty and starvation in Cambodia mostly due to large amounts of rural farmable land completely unusable anymore as it is littered with landmines. The country is so poor there is little support for the victims once they are injured. You frequently see landmine victims with their missing limbs and burned faces begging in the streets. They are often children. A single landmine costs a measly $1 to lay but costs as much as $1000 by removal agency's to safely destroy and clear...at the current rate of progress it will take at least 100 years to clear all of Cambodia's landmines. A treaty to ban landmines was signed by over 100 countries but to this day countries like the USA, China and Russia refuse to sign and are still big producers.
Large parts of rural Cambodia are strictly off limits, I even had to be very careful not to step off the well beaten path on my hike in the jungle to Kbar Spen. The Cambodian Landmine Relief Center and Museum in on a rural road between Bantreay Srei temple and Siem Reap.
It was established by a man named Aki Ra. He was forced to be a child soldier of the Khmer rouge after his parents were killed by them in the mid 70's when he was just 5 years old. His duties as a soldier were to lay landmines and he spent years of his life laying 1000's of landmines all over Cambodia until he defected to the Vietnamese army. Since the mid-90's he has been using his skills he learned as a child soldier in a quest to clear his country of land mines. Cambodia is the most heavily landmined countries on earth, after 3 decades of war, and still has 6-7 million estimated landmines and UXO (unexploded ordinances) that continue to cause untold devastation. Landmines are extremely inhumane weapons of war designed to maim and not kill. They do, however, kill an estimated 35 people a month and there are over 40 000 amputees in Cambodia making it the highest per capita in the world...to put that in perspective that's 1 in every 275 people!
The landmines don't only cause death and dis membership but there is a huge problem with poverty and starvation in Cambodia mostly due to large amounts of rural farmable land completely unusable anymore as it is littered with landmines. The country is so poor there is little support for the victims once they are injured. You frequently see landmine victims with their missing limbs and burned faces begging in the streets. They are often children. A single landmine costs a measly $1 to lay but costs as much as $1000 by removal agency's to safely destroy and clear...at the current rate of progress it will take at least 100 years to clear all of Cambodia's landmines. A treaty to ban landmines was signed by over 100 countries but to this day countries like the USA, China and Russia refuse to sign and are still big producers.
