Banteay Srei - Citadel of the women

All that we can think first about was lunch at Banteay Srei Parvis Café after the tiring hiking (my previous write up on Kbal Spean). This restaurant was at the entrance of Banteay Srei Temple. They had many choices of Khmer food in their menu but we were too tired to even think what we should order. We ended up ordering fried rice, surprisingly. The portion of a plate of fried rice was too big for a person to finish up, so we took away my portion of food. Our lunch cost us $ 14 which is for 2 plates of fried rice, 1 water bottle and 1 can of soya beans drink. After our lunch we continued our tour to Banteay Srei Temple.

The main entrance

 

This temple was primarily dedicated to Lord Shiva and it was originally called as Tribhuvanamaheswara which means “great lord of the threefold world”. Now, it is called as “The Lady Temple” by the locals. The temple is so beautifully built with huge red sandstones and the carvings are very in detailed. This is a must visit place by art and architecture lovers as the Khmer architecture and sculptural art is such an amazing thing to experience directly than just seeing through the internet.

 

At the back of the temple

 

 

The best time to visit this temple is in the morning and do not go during the noon if you cannot take the afternoon sun above your head, that is what we went through. Also, it is better to visit early if you want to explore and capture photographs without being disturbed by other visitors. The temple is small and the crowd is big, so we have to be patiently waited to capture good photographs. Whatever said and done, I feel that noon is a good time to visit the temple because the lighting for photographing was too good and we got a few good photos.

The next day trip is to visit the Angkor Temples.

Kbal Spean – River of Thousand Lingas

Our ride to Kbal Spean was not as fascinating as what we imagined but we only saw dried trees, dried up lake and damaged crops because it was dry season. My bad, I did not really emphasis on the weather thinking that we could survive the heat since Malaysia that time was at 40°Celsius but never knew that a lake can dry up at Siem Reap. The lake we passed by was the Srah Srang which also known as “The Royal Bath”. I did not click picture of the lake because it was all mud sand with buffaloes roaming around. We were worried about the rivers in Kbal Spean and we did not have any high expectation.

The drive took us an hour journey to reach the destination. Please note that there is no toilet uphill. Also, wear a proper sport or hiking attire and a good sport shoes on. Do ensure that you carry a backpack with water bottles, towels and emergency kit just in case. If you want to know the place in detail, you may get a tour guide to explain what you see because what you see may not be explainable just by looking. We were all geared up to hike 1500 meters uphill to witness the Rivers of Thousand Lingas. 

At the entrance of Kbal Spean

The hiking was about almost an hour with few pit stops of taking photographs passing through the forest. There were wooden staircase towards the top of the hill and the nearer the site, the steeper the trail went on. Those who cannot do hiking or less stamina are advised not to visit this place because the hiking pathway is not consistent with huge rocks on the way and not solid ground. Bringing kids here obviously is adventurous but parents have to be extra conscious on kid’s safety.

Do watch where you are walking and what you are stepping on because you do not want to trip and fall down here. Even the staircases here are quite rotten, so be careful with your steps.

When we were at 100 meters to reach the site, sadly we did not hear any sound of running water and we understood river got dried up too but yet anxious to see what is stored up there. As doubted, we could not find the river but the markings of the water level are visible. The river was drying up completely. Nevertheless, we were astonished with the beautiful carvings on the rocks and the carvings were mainly on the Hindu’s Trimurti, Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. The carvings was clear but it would be astonishing to witness the carvings along with the waterfalls and running water. 

River water seems to be drying up completely

This place is also called as Sahasralinga in Sanskrit which means "1000 erected penises". 

This valley is actually below the riverbed and water will flow on the lingas

It was said that the locals used to come here to shower to get the blessing of the holy water. My mother always said that we should sprinkle some holy water on us from the river or sea where ever there are but unfortunately we were not that lucky here.

Be careful  when walking at this place because you would not know where the carvings are and these are Hindu gods who are being worshiped by the Hindus. You would not want to step it wrongly and it is my personal belief as a Hindu. Do not criticize anything over there, no spitting, no urinating and no misbehaving as a respect to this place.

Reclining Lord Vishnu sleeping on serpent Ananta with Goddess Lakshmi at his feet and Lord Brahma on lotus at the side

Most of the carvings are not so clear as the sand had covered the carvings. I expected to see more carvings but felt that we left out some because the sand had covered them fully.

We will go back here again during the wet season so we can witness the beauty of the nature with the waterfalls. We headed our way down from that hill as soon as we finished exploring the place and it was obviously faster than hiking up.