The waterfall at Kbal Spean was a highlight of this trip. We hiked through a rocky path in the jungle among many different trees, carefully labeled in English, Latin and the deocrative Cambodian script. It was a hike of 1800m, signposted with the distance to destination every 200m. There were carvings of gods in the bedrocks, reclining Buddhas, and lingas, the symbols of sexual organs and also of power. So beautiful, nature, religion and art together.
The temple of Banteai Srei is nearby, the only Hindu temple, the "Temple of Women". I didn't see that many women there. The guide told us that there used to be a matriarchy in the 11C AD, but they still had a king and "the wife was very important". He then proceeded to tell us stories of male gods killing demons and each other. He couldn't really elaborate on the subject. Very delicate, small and intricate carvings in pink sandstone.
Yesterday we woke up at 4.30 to go to the sunrise at Angkor Wat. Not that colourful today. There were many reliefs of Apsara dancers, very beautiful, their breasts shiny from so many tourists' hands. This level of delicate detail in carving reminds me of Alhambra. The entrances have statues of guarding lions, sinuous and almost sensual.
Today we went to see the sunrise again, it feels easy to wake up at 4 when you have a good afternoon nap for a couple of hours.
We then went to see the temples in Roluos, where there were adjacent buddhist temples with orange-robed monks, some of them as young as 7. Loley was one of them, Bakong another. Loley is smaller but you can wander around and see how the monks live. There were fish, fish heads and rice lied out to dry in the sun, flies buzzing around and calfs running past to the field, the tourist toilet at 10m. At Bakong it's a tall, terraced temple and the monks are on the side, I photographed one chatting to a pretty young tourist girl. Spiritual chat I'm sure.
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