Cambodia Travelouges Part 3: Kbal Spean and Bantey Srei

While in Siem Reap, we were staying at a nice boutique hotel called "Indochine Pavillion". 
Thanks to a guide book in the hotel, we came to know of a place known as "The River of a Thousand Lingas", a.k.a. Kbal Spean. It sounded like an interesting place to see, once the more touristy temples like Angkor Wat & Bayon are already done. So we inquired at the reception and arranged for a visit to the place. The helpful staff also suggested to visit another temple called "Bantey Srei" on the way back.

Kbal Spean - The Bridge Head

KbalSpean translates to "Bridge Head", and is a natural constriction of the river Tonle Sap. The rocks on the river bed are carved with many Shiv-lingas, and other figures from Hindu mythology. Like most names in Siem Reap, "River of Thousand Lingas" does not mean that there are actually 1,000 of them, but mean that there are a "great many". The site is a bit of a way off from Siem Reap and the Angkor archeological park area, and requires a half-day trip by tuk-tuk or taxi. I opted for the taxi, as it is faster, and would save us some extra time to see other places too. We also got to know from tripadvisor that to reach the place one has to trek for about 40 minutes through the jungle. Some posts in tripadvisor forums actually discouraged tourists from going to Kbal Spean because of this trek, but for us, it was the icing on the cake (both me and my wife love a good trek, especially in when it's through an enchanting jungle path like this one). The trek is not too difficult, although at some places, the path is a bit rocky.

Starting off the trek.

Jungle path to reach Kbap Spean.

The trek leads you to a spot where the river is flowing over a number of large rocks, which are carved. The one most striking ones if the "Reclining Vishnu".

First sight of the river.

"Reclining Vishnu" in Kbal Spean.

The rocks on the bed of the river is also carved with lingas. These Lingas are supposed to signify fertility, and the people believe the Tonle Sap river is blessed with fertility due to these carvings.

This is why it's called "River of a Thousand Lingas"

On reaching the spot, we got a local guide who was hanging around there. The guy did not really push us to hire him, but offered to show us good spot for photos, and some difficult-to-find carvings.

You may miss this without a guide.

Another difficult-to-find carving hidden in the roots of a tree.

After exploring all the carvings in the river bed, there is a great spot where you can cool off under the waterfall. It's a welcome and refreshing break from the heat! Here it was useful that we had a guide with us, as he offered to hold our bags, and also click pictures for us, like the one below!

Fun spot to cool off! Careful of slippery rocks, though.

After exploring Kbal Spean, and paying our guide (he happily accepted 10 US dollars) our taxi driver took is for lunch at a nearby Cambodian restaurant. The food was not quite remarkable (not bad, either). What was interesting was the Cambodian version of spring-rolls. Unlike the deep-fried, oily variety, that is the norm in all Chinese restaurants in India,  these were very fresh & salad-y with a delicately thin steamed rice-paper & lettuce wrap.

Very fresh and green sprint rolls.

 

Bantey Srei - The Citadel of Women

I'm not really sure why this temple is translates to "The Citadel of Women". The temple is built of reddish-pink sandstone, and not as large as Angkor Wat or Bayon. But, what is really striking about it is the extremely detailed sculpture on the walls. The guidebook says that this temple is the most "Indian-inspired" of the Cambodian temples, and seeing it, I could agree that this is true.

Entrance to Bantry Srei

Close up of the entrance.

The carvings remind one of other temples in South India like the Shore Temple in TN, and Hampi, and Belur/Halebidu in Karnataka (both of which we also visited after this trip). It's almost as if a team of Indian temple sculptors landed in Cambodia, and decided "OK, let's show these folks what we can do!" 
Not a single inch is left un-carved here. It's really like there was a deliberate effort to fill in every last bit of space with carvings. There's carvings depicting Hindu gods, as well as scenes from epics like the Ramayana.

The detail is impressive.

Scene from Ramayan - Bali and Sugreeva's fight.

A lovely tree in a pond outside the temple, with red flowers scattered in the water.

They say that a picture is worth a thousand words, and a video maybe worth a million. So here's one each of Kbal Spean...


and Bantey Srei...