April 6: Day 3 of The Angkor Temples (Including A Hike With The Lingas).
Day 3 - the final day of temple-hopping! Today is road-trip day; the places I am going are quite far from town. So, hop on the motorbike with me and let's go for a ride!
This is Banteay Srei which is known for its intricate carvings.
And there they are. I would think sandstone would just fall apart when carved like that, but this even stood the test of time.
Door guards?
Lots of door guards. Looks pretty neat, the red and the black.
You aren't allowed to just leave. You are forced to walk a really long guantlet of vendors hawking a bunch of junk. It's kind of funny, really, walking the strip and hearing the wave of, "Lady, you buy?", "Lady, cold drink?", "Lady, clothing?" Good for a laugh.
Video of Banteay Srei.
Going for a hike to get to Kbal Spean - the River of 1000 Lingas. It was a proper little hike, too. But these tree roots just baffle my mind! So cool!
There we go - the carvings and the lingas - a linga is a phallus. Yup. All of Angkor is pretty focused on reproduction.
The carvings are really cool - funny how today we are focused on keeping nature wild, but back in the day, if there was a good rock, you had to carve it up with art and messages - which today we revere. What will people find of us in the future?
Lingas, lingas everywhere!
I wonder if they got bored after a couple hundred...
You're supposed to come here to help with fertility. Hmm...
After a day of carving phalluses, they much have loved this rock.
If you knew how to sculpt rocks, what would you draw into the waterfall?
Video of Kbal Spean.
And our last stop on this tour is to the Roluos Group. It's a good thing, I am pretty tired of temples!
I did the red dirt and green jungle vegetation though - very neat.
Aah! More stairs! I have started taking the long way around things to avoid these... um, yeah, I was on Denali once, um.... shh..
Finally, after 3 days of temple touring, and the sun peaks out at last! Haha, blue skies! Makes the sandstone look very pretty.
In all the Hindu temples, this is the first cow I've seen. This group of temples is thought to be the oldest out of all of them, built in the 9th century.
I dig the red and the black - sandstone is very cool
Sunshine!! Hooray!
Across the way, there was a bunch of guys with chisels knocking out all of the temples in miniature! Who! Very cool.
Now that takes patience.
I wonder what you'd do with something like this? Garden piece?
