Second day in Siem Reap

Saturday, 6 March

Up at 05H15, showered and washed my hair. We had home made sandwiches with the bread, marge, strawberry jam and cheese (Dylan made a table by turning a drawer taken from the chest of drawers upside down and we covered it with a plastic shopping bag so there wouldn't be crumbs everywhere). His Swiss army knife came in very handy. Went downstairs with the coffee ingredients. The girl didn't understand at first that I needed boiling water, but I got it eventually. The outside of the Ellis Brown packet is getting quite sticky from the spilt milk powder and I made a bit of a mess trying to pour milk from the small box Colin and Dylan had bought at the shop, so I spent a good few minutes mopping up the table with the tissues used in Cambodia instead of serviettes. Anyway, finally had a small cup of strong coffee (used too much Nescafe, will get it right next time) but really enjoyed it with the cigarette. Pon, our tuk tuk driver met us at 07H15. We had decided to go back to the Angkor Wat entrance to photograph it in the morning light, but the sunlight was on the back of the complex, so drove on to Banteay Srei, 30 km Northeast of Siem Reap. Dylan and Colin were chatting non stop - not what I needed right then! I gazed out at the scenery, especially the early morning light on the Angkor Wat moat and the beautiful reflection of the trees along the edges. I asked Pon to stop so we could take some beautiful photos. Pity we couldn't stop for longer, I'm starting to feel we're on a strict timetable, which was not really the idea with this trip.

Banteay Srei was so pretty and small. Built of fine grained rose-pink sandstone, it's the most elaborately decorated of all the Angkor monuments. The decorations consist of floral motifs and Ramayana scenes. It was built by two local dignatories, Yajnavaraha - trusted guru to the king and his brother. Rajendravarman I granted them the land and permission to consutruct a temple. It was consecrated in 967 to Shiva, but not actually completed until the reign of Jayavarman V. The temple laout is relatively simple - 3 enclosing walls, inner moat and row of 3 sanctually towers at the centre.

There was no shade, the sun was beating down and very hot already at 09H00, also rather difficult to take photos without including other tourists, so we didn't linger too long. We had all walked around on our own. Dylan found me in the temple and I said I was ready to, he said Colin was at the back and I asked whether we could all walk out the front again. He disappeared to the back of the complex and I waited for them, then walked out the front entrance and waited outside some more. Then I thought they'd got involved at the back, so walked through the complex again to the back - they were nowhere to be seen. I followed a path around the complex, in the sun and waited some more, now wondering whether they were inside again, looking for me!!! I decdided to walk back along the main path to the main visitors entrance, thinking I would just wait for them at the tuk tuk - no way was I going to walk into the temple again. By this time I was fuming mad with the two of them. Dylan came running over as I got to the entrance and I went off at him for coming back without me. Colin was also quick to explain that they thought I would make my own way back. This was clearly an example of failure to communicate!

We had told Pon which temples we want to see for the day and he decided in which order to visit them. Next we drove to Kbal Spean, a 30 min ride. Got there at about 11H00, did a 1,5 km walk up through jungle to the western section of the Kulen mountains. Kbal Spean was used by the Khmers as a hillside retreat in the middle 11th century when they carved sacred lingas and Hindu gods into the black bedrock of the rive3r, the water flowing through would thus be blessed by the carvings before reaching Angkor. It took 40 mins to get to the carvings and we were very sweaty when we got there, even though a lot of the walk was in shade, it was very humid. It was so nice and cool next to the river and waterfall, but once again we didn't stay too long, as there were other sites to visit.

Dylan found another friend - can't help himself from befriending everyone he meets - this time French Canadian Pierre, who believes in travelling alone, then the Russian couple we had seen at Phnom Krom. Photographed masses of butterflies feeing on something on the ground.

The next stop was 12 km Northeast of Siem Reap, 30 mins away, the temple Banteay Samre. Got to the complex at 12H00, I wanted to see the temple before eating - just don't feel like eating in this heat and for some strange reason all their food is always hot, right throughout the day! An icecream would have gone down a dream, but sadly not available at the roadside eateries. We all have the usual noodles and beef, pork and chicken respectively. I'm so hot again after eating the meal in 40 deg C heat! the Coke is very welcome though - I'm living on water and fizzy drinks, too scared to have anything else. I'm desperately missing my Liquifruit grapejuice. The usual souvenir vendors try and convince us to buy dresses, T-shirts and scarves. They really are very sweet when they're not trying to sell you stuff. Mara, the eldest is 22 (looks 16) and other two girls sitting at our table were 16 and 8. Mara didn't know where Africa or South Africa are, so we showed her on a map in Colin's pocket diary. She wanted to know how long the flight was, she's obviously never been on a plane. The 8 year old pulled out a 5 kroner coin, asking whether we could change it. We said we couldn't as that was not from our country. Mara also pulled out 20 Norwegian kroner and Colin said it was worth $2.50. Mara didn't want to believe that Dylan is 30, so he showed her his passport. Mara says she went to school, but her family is very poor, so she now sells souvenirs. I asked her when her birthday was and she said they didn't celebrate birthdays as they couldn't afford gifts. I asked whether she has family or friends in Phnom Penh and she said no. Dylan said she should try and go to a city and get a bettr job, even it proved to be difficult. But I think she can't even comprehend ever being able to do that, so girls like her invariably live in one village all their lives, scraping a living and have too many children, or they make it to a city and often end up in the sex trade. Her mother had 9 children, her one sister already has 3 children, another has 2. She says she has 20 nieces.

It is very very, very hot by the time we walk across the road to Banteay Samre. Even though it's 40 deg C plus, it's quite pleasant walking around the site, as there aren't many tourists brave enough for this temperature, just a few backpackers. No inscriptions have been found to date the temple which was named after the Samres, a tride who lived in the vicinity of Phnom Khulen. The style of architecture places its construction in the middle of the 12th century, around the same time as Angkor Wat. Tales from teh Ramayana are depictred on various carvings, the sieve of Lanka, fight between Rama and Ravana and Rama mounted on Hanuman.

We move onto to East Mebon, which is a temple erected in 953 for Rajendravarman, designed by a Buddhist architect and consecrated to Shiva. The temple would only have been accessible by boat - the terraces were landing stages, now it's marooned in rice fields. The elephant statues were placed as guardians and all face outwards. Steep steps lead up to a terrace with the elephant statues. We don't hand around after East Mebon as it's so hot.

Drive to Pre Rup, the last temple of the day, get there at 15H30. Pre Rup means "turning the body" cremation ritual. It was consecrated to Shiva around 962, this state temple of Rajendravarman II was built primarily of laterite and brick (laterite being like solid koffieklip with holes like we have in Durbanville!). We take the obligatory photos and find some shade on the terrace to soak up the atmosphere, not too many tourists thank goodness.

We get back to Bun Nath at 16H00, have a refreshing shower, wash clothes, incl sweat soaked cargo shorts. Dylan and Colin have a beer downstairs, so I have the room to myself. Dress in sarong and vest - just the right clothes for this temperature. Start writing the journal in the foyer under the fan, about 4 days behind. Have to check some facts with Dylan. They come down after a shower and get onto the Internet. I log onto Facebook and start replying to people, as well as replying on Hotmail and get very confused about where to find messages to the different people. I had decided to create a journal on Facebook rather than send lots of emails and also because I didn't have everyone's email address. I also find I can't get onto Ning.com to correspond with my old schoolfriends because I had changed the Hotmail address to my work address and now the website can't verify my authority. So I askDylan to help me start the blog on Facebook and he keeps telling me to load my photos and write captions, which is what he does instead of writing a story. I say I don't want to load hundreds of photos, I want to write a story about the trip for everyone to read and will include a few photos. We have quite a row and Colin steps in and suggests that I start a blog on blogspot. At first I was negative because that meant registering on yet another system, but he registered it for me very quickly and uploaded a photo and I could see that it would work fine. Just typed an intial 2 paragraphs, replied to another 2 messages on Facebook, chatted to Illona and Michael Sparks on Facebook and then we go for supper later at 20H00, Dylan is clearly6 dead on his feet after only getting 3 hours of sleep the night before. Stop at the supermarket on the way to check out the sction and decide to go back after supper. Back to the usual eating place for stir fried meals, beer and Coke for me. Buy some water, ham for sandwiches for breakfast, a packet of plastic spoons and a Stainless steel mug for me for coffee. I am determined to find a way of having a good cup of coffee in the mornings! Have another shower back at Bun Nath at 22H00 as I'm soaked again. Dylan and Colin start watching the WP/Sharks rugby match on Supersport, but Dylan only stays awake for 5 mins.