We are up later today, with a long drive, almost 3 hours, ahead of us to Koh Ker. Again, a main 7-level tower that is reminscent of Mayan architecture. We stop en route for sticky rice, being cooked over a roadside fire in a piece of bamboo. You must eat it before it gets cold so Savuth shows us how it's done. There is a whole row of these stands, not seen anywhere else, they've cornered the market.
At a small village, we stop at market to look for socks for me (I guess I forgot!) - and Ted gets to try the local speciality, deep fried crickets, and announces it's good. We buy bananas and rambutans to sustain us en route.
We see an amazing thing today A couple are riding their motorbike with two kids, little boy and small girl, and mother is holding an IV pole to which the baby is attached! I guess they can't afford to stay at the hospital any longer but the child's hand is securely fastened to the IV with bandages. It's sad to see such needy people in this country.
We really get to see life in the rural agricultural countryside, rice predominant but fertile flat land, lots of people with a skinny cow grazing, a few water buffalo. Long axled tractors spread the load and we are amazed at the amount of stuff they haul, including the family on top. School is not an option for a lot of these kids.
After our first temple/wat visit, we stop at the village where deer meat stew is (surreptitiously) on offer and the coconuts are cool and refreshing.
Savuth knows all the best viewpoints, parking spots away from the main entrances, and time to arrive before the crowd. So we are off to Beng Melea, which was high on Ted's list of places to see. It's a small site, very overgrown withe enormous tree roots, very atmospheric and photogenic too. It's a high spots for statues of lingas, the important fertility symbol of the male organ! They are everywhere, it's important in Hindu temples I guess.
We are back tired at 5pm and I hit the shower then the cool bed for a rest, but Ted is off again, exploring in town, which is a 5 minute walk across the river. He has found a retaurant just up our road. It's nicely set up, seems to host tour buses, but has an airy, garden like setting with a reflecting pool and very good food, a mix of Khmer and Western, plenty of choice of non spicy for me. Ted's Amoy Fish Curry comes nicely presented in its own little square banana leaf box. With dessert and 2 or 3 half litres of beer, the bill is $35. Everything here, of course, I quote is US dollars....and our poor wee dollar is shrinking every day we are away...
We have been taking malaria meds most of this trip. Haven't seen any but the restaurant had pic coils burning under every table, and we have rain forecast as a maybe some days now, so the season is approaching. Savuth says they don't have malaria here.
No comments:
Post a Comment