Siem Reap 1

Today we went up a mountain to Phnom Kulen, which is near Siem Reap. It's full of rich historical and religious significance which, in the true spirit of this blog's name, I don't understand any of and can't pass on any information to you.

Here's a wiki page though.  

The first big thing we're looking at here is a large reclining Buddha, which can be found among other holy sites on the mountain. Here are some nice stairs leading up there:

Happy Buddha. There's a reverse angle on wikipedia up there if you want to see his body.

Nice view from the Buddha

Another shrine thing

Here in this river you can see carvings all over the river bottom. Pretty cool.

 The main event was the waterfalls, where we spent several hours swimming, getting eaten by little fishes (free fish massage!), climbing on rocks, and sunning ourselves. It was an astoundingly beautiful place.

I and two other tour members followed our guide on a slippery climb right up under the falls, around behind the water, and back down, slipping underneath fallen rocks to return to the pool. Pretty crazy.

There I am on the left with a fellow tourist clambering up beneath the falls!

We also did jump off a rock into the pool; generally the pool wasn't deep enough, but in one spot it was ok...as long as you didn't jump a couple feet too far right or left! The jump was only about 10 feet up, but still fun--I did a lot of climbing around on rocks, capturing some stray childhood essence I suppose. 

I like this artsy angle.

Christian getting nibbled by fishies

After this we had lunch at a little restaurant there on the mountain and then drove back to the hostel. Our driver was...not a cautious fellow, as was evidenced in his climbing up rocks at the falls, but driving up the hill hadn't been too bad--going back down it was like he thought our van was an off-road rally car. Gravity certainly helped speed our passage. We made it down upright and in one piece, though being in the back was quite a bumpy experience. 

Now...as maybe possibly some of you might be aware, the real star of Siem Reap is the temple complex and surroundings of Angkor Wat. We'll be doing that tomorrow via tuk tuk. 

Until next time!