Temples and Floating Village

​We start our tour a little later this Tuesday morning with a visit to the city park where hundreds of fruit bats (literally) hang out. It’s amazing even considering most of them are asleep. Gho Vanda leads us a few blocks through the city of Siem Reap to a small temple. There are vendors outside selling flowers made into bracelets and also stems of lotus flowers. Some bracelets are purchased by the group and each of us are given a lotus flower to use as our offering at the alter.

​Our next stop is for a lunch of traditional foods. Gho Vanda tells us we will stop later for a dessert treat. Sure enough, a little later our driver pulls over to one of several roadside stands selling sticky rice which has been cooked in bamboo sticks. We watch the process for a bit and Gho Vanda buys some sticks. The drive gives Gho Vanda a chance to tell us a little about his background, including that he left his village and went to a Bhuddist monastery for a few years in order to further his education. A couple of years later he returned when a school was built.

The driver continues on to Kompong Kleang. A dirt road runs through a village with stilt houses lining each side. The bottom floors are easily eight feet above road level which gives us an idea of how high the river which runs parallel can rise in the wet season. Some of the houses look okay while others look like shacks. There’s no evidence of indoor plumbing. The people primarily make their livelihood from fishing and we stop to see the small fish being smoked in front of some of the homes. Just bite size, but there are hundreds on the smoker.

​We continue down the dirt road in the van to a very small dock on the river. Above us is the village pagoda/temple with a huge Buddha statue. We climb into a small boat and begin our trip up river to Kunlisip Lake. Boats ladened with snails or other products pass by us. Periodically the boatman must stop the motor and remove plastic bags and other garbage from the propeller. Later we ask Gho Vanda where the garbage comes from and he answers that unfortunately it primarily comes from the 7,500 people that live in the village. Although some NGO’s have tried to clean up the river and lake, through lack of education the people of Kampong Kleang just continue to trash the environment.

​Farm fields begin to appear on the river banks and the river gives way to Tonle Sap Lake. Our boatman navigates to a portion of the village floating on the lake. There are houseboats and even a floating school. After we have a look and the boatman has time to make a few adjustments to the motor (not reassuring to us) the boat turns down river and returns to the dock.

​The boat ride has taken longer than expected and as soon as we are on the paved road our driver is dashing down the bumpy road. Gho Vanda says we are being introduced to the “dancing roads”. He pulls out the bamboo sticky rice for us to try (and I think to keep us entertained during the 45 minutes of dancing road).

We arrive at Banteay Srei Temple 20 minutes before it closes for the evening. The beautiful red sandstone temple has only a handful of visitors and the sun is low in the sky. This makes our visit very special. The 10th Century buildings are quite small, especially compared to Angkor Wat and Angkor Thom. The limestone allowed for deep carvings which remain very visible today. The statues of monkey guards at the entrances are something we have not seen in the other temples. Overall, Banteay Srei Temple is quite a gem and we are very happy we have seen it.

A 15 minute drive takes us to Wooden Villa Homestay and Restaurant, which is run by a French chef. We sit poolside and enjoy our Cambodian meal along with traditional Cambodian music.

​We have a great deal to reflect on from today’s experiences.