Kuala Selangor Nature Park 28-29 Jul 2007

Kuala Selangor Nature Park - Great place for bird watching as well as to see silver leaf monkey. Of course not forgetting the famous Ijok beggar chicken nearby.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/1078.

Phnom Kulen & Beng Melea 14 Jul 2007

Continued from: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2007/07/kbal-spean-13-july-2007_22.html

Phnom Kulen is the original capital of the Khmer Empire before Angkor Wat. It is 50 km from Siem Reap and is only acessable by motor vehicle (not tuk-tuk). Before the construction of road, the people used to hike up the hill to pray to Buddha located at the top of the hill (360m). Our proposal to hike up the hill was ditched when told that it would take 3 hours to hike up the trail. At the hilltop, there are hundreds of linga stands in the Seim Reap River, a waterfall and a pagoda. Entrance fee to Phnom Kulen is steep at USD20 pax.

Beng Melea is a sprawling jungle temple over 1 sq km. It is located 63 km from Seim Reap and it takes over 1 hr to reach there by car. The temple is overrun by vegetation thus giving it a 'lost temple ' feel. A nice place to photograph trees growing from the broken towers and galleries. Wooden planks and ladders have been put up to assist tourists to climb over the ruins. A local showed us the right trail through the ruins - which involved lots of risky climbing and scrambling over stacks of tumbled granite blocks, some as high as 20m and ducking through openings. It was fun... a nice departure from the standard temple fare. Our taxi driver Mr Chhon Chhoub (+855012822128 hp) is a very informative person well versed in world affairs also.








For more photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/798.

Kbal Spean 13 Jul 2007

Continued from: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2007/07/siem-reap-july-2007.html

Aka 'The river of 1000 lingas' is situated in Phnom Kulen National Park outside Seim Reap. It takes about 2 hours to travel by tuk-tuk from Siem Reap. The last 45 minutes is on laterite road filled with pot holes. From the parking area, one needs to trek 45 minutes uphill through the woods to reach there. The trail is wide and clear. Along the way, we see very 'ancient' trees with thick long vines twisted into many shapes. There are also carvings of Buddha and Buddhist images in the riverbed and rocks.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/770.

Next: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2007/07/phnom-kulen-beng-melea-14-july-2007.html

Siem Reap 10 Jul 2007

Spent 7 days in Siem Reap and find that it a highly touristy place and USD is the king currency. Siem Reap Angkor Visitors Guide book which is available freely in hotels is a very comprehensive and accurate book. Surprisingly, it is well written in good English. Visited 17 temples and nearly got “templed out”. Luckily, our itinerary included interesting hiking trips to Phnom Bakheng and Kbal Spean as well as an outstation trip to Phnom Kulen and Beng Melea. In my opinion, the best temples are Angkor Thom, Angkor Wat and Ta Phrom.

I like to highlight a frightening experience with the Lolei temple (part of the Roluos Gp) comprising 4 brick towers on a double laterite platform. While taking a snapshot of a brick tower against the sky I experienced a weird feeling of bricks moving and collapsing on me. This was also experienced by my friend. Later, we comforted ourselves and attributed the optical illusion to the white clouds moving fast backwards against the blue sky.

For the photographs, please refer to http://happytrekker.shutterfly.com/pictures/797.

Next: http://happyotrekker.blogspot.com/2007/07/kbal-spean-13-july-2007_22.html