After breakfast we took a taxi to Phnom Kulen mountain. There is a water fall there and also some other interesting touring spots. First we took a little stop to see how they make palm sugar - which is kind of like making gur, but from palm not sugar cane. It was yum!
Then we went to Banteay Srey temple. This is famous for the fact that women were in charge here. There were beautiful carvings here (little more beautiful than the other temples). A good stop.
All the way to the mountain, I took small naps. The cold was getting to me. The first stop after we reached the mountain was the river that had more than 1000 shivling. Wow! What an amazing sight. The water was flowing on them (just like we pour water over shivlings in India), so the size had decreased over time. Very beautiful to see.
Then we climbed up a bunch of beautiful stairs to see the sleeping Buddha - a monolith. Another wow! Just beautiful. The general area was also pretty - green and flowers. Very peaceful and it smelled great there.
Then the walk to the waterfall. The first one was small, kind of cute. But that led to the main one, which still needed some walking. The climb down to the waterfall was a little challenging since the wooden stairs were a little scary, some were missing, and all I could think of was - I have to come up these stairs!! The climb down was very rewarding! The waterfalls were beautiful, amazing and just full of water. So many people were playing in the fresh water. Just a lovely place to be on a hot, humid, summer day like today. Sadly, I was not in my swim suit :-(
We skipped lunch so we could see the last temple of our tour - Banteay Sam Re. This was a nice peaceful stop after all the days touring. There were not many people there, the layout was slightly different.I was drenched in sweat by now, but we saw it all.
On the way back, stopped again at the local market, Phar Le. Did not really buy anything because I did not need anything and then Sam was walking too fast to see if I wanted to buy anything. We were back at the hotel by 4:30 pm. Took a nap and then we went for dinner - Curry wala - another Indian restaurant (Sam was looking for chole bhature). The food was terrible.
The last thing to do here was to get the fish massage. This is uniquely Cambodian thing. You put your feet in a tank of water of fish and they clean up and eat all the "stuff" on your feet.It is ticklish, relaxing and therapeutic at the same time. Really enjoyed it. For $1 I got the massage and a coke!! Who can beat that?
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