Siem Reap - Day 3

Day 3 was a much more relaxing day. We took a 2-hour drive through rural Cambodia to see the temple of Beng Mealea. That trip took up our entire morning. Then after lunch and E's nap, we took a boat ride to Kampong Pluk fishing village.

On our drive to the temple, we drove through a market and saw quite a few villages and communities along the way. Most of the homes are on stilts, to keep dry during the heavy rainy season. It was certainly a unique drive, and I'm glad we were able to see the beautiful countryside.

Beng Mealea is called the Indiana Jones temple because it's overgrown by jungles. The movie “Two brothers” was filmed here and is apparently famous because of the tigers walking on the roof of the temple. It was built as a Hindu temple, but there are some carvings depicting buddhist motifs. It's built mainly of sandstone and is completely unrestored - trees and thick brush thrive throughout the entire complex, and many of its stones are just lying in great heaps. It's literally located in the middle of the jungle. The history of the temple is unknown, but experts suspect that it was built during the 12th century.

As you can see in the pictures below, parts of the temple have completely collapsed. You really have to be careful where you walk - but yet people still climb everywhere and anywhere they want: on rooftops, through hidden walkways, on walls, through fallen pillars and structures, etc. And I'm not going to lie, we did too. But at least we had an experienced tour guide with us leading the way.

Because this temple is so far away from the other temples of Angkor, and the road to get there is in poor condition, it's not well known among tourists (YET!). It was truly a spectacular site, and one of our favorite temples. It was quiet, and cool despite the terribly hot weather because of it's surroundings.

As incredible as it is to see the temple in it's original unrestored state, it also completely breaks my heart. So much detail and history hidden among the piles of stones.






After our afternoon break back at the hotel, we took a boat ride to Kampong Pluk fishing village.

Kampong Pluk is a stilted village on the floodplain. During the dry season (when we were visiting) the 6-metre stilted homes tower above the low water line, exposing the various livestock of the villagers, including chicken, pigs and dogs. Among the villagers, fishing and shrimp harvesting is the primary source of income.

We actually didn't like this experience at all. We felt like it was nothing more than a tourist trap, as we were constantly approached by begging women and children. The children would do anything to get your attention - the girl below was trying to get us to touch or hold her snake for money. The woman on the right was using her baby to try and get us to give her money (while she sent her older 3 or 4-year old onto the boat to beg in our faces). And actually, there were tons of women out on the lake with babies - using those poor innocent children as bait. It was just heartbreaking. I know when you go to a poor country, you obviously have to expect the begging portion. But this fishing village experience was beyond overwhelming.

After 2-nonstop days of temple hopping, it was nice to have more of a quiet day. E was able to take a long nap and get some swim time in before we left for the fishing village. And Joe and I were able to find some yummy grilled sandwiches at the market across the street AND U.S. chips and candybars!!!... which was a nice break from all of the previous Vietnamese and recent Khmer food we had been eating for the past several days. You better believe I enjoyed every single bite of my Simply Caramel Milkyway, and I even took a couple home with me too. ;)