Siem Reap Countryside

We started off our morning a little hectic today.  Seila was meeting us at the hotel at 5AM and Jaimin accidentally set the alarm for the wrong time.  At 4:45AM it went off and we panicked.  Surprisingly we got ready and were out the door in a little over 15 minutes.

We hiked up about 30 minutes to Sras Srang to see the sunrise...gotta love being put to work right after you get up!  Anyway we made it up to the temple and our clothes were drenched in sweat...but the sunrise was gorgeous.

I asked Seila to take us to the countryside so we could see the real Cambodia and he did not disappoint.  He took us to the country, complete with rice fields and solid dirt roads.  As we approached a few kids on the road they smiled and waved HI to us...when does that ever happen in NY?  I has Seila ask them if I could take a picture of them and they lined up.  I took the shot and showed it to them and they started laughing!   I couldn't understand what they were saying and they couldn't understand what I was saying, but we could understand each others laughter and that's a wonderful thing.  This could have been the first time they saw a picture of themselves and it made me really happy to be the one to show them.  And as we made our way down the first road we kept meeting more and more kids, all smiling and waving hello.  Even the adults were so friendly and happy to see us.  They had no problem with me snapping their pictures.  I usually have problems asking strangers if I can take their pictures, but these people in the countryside made me feel so comfortable.  We stopped by a little area where kids were playing ball and brought them some lollipops....needless to say they were ecstatic.   They were all so very sweet!

We passed by a family that was stomping on something so we asked Seila what was going on.  They were harvesting the rice they had cut.  This isn't done by a machine in Cambodia...they take the stalks of rice and put them on the ground and stomp/roll their feet on the stalks so the rice falls off.  They invited us to try along so Jaimin and I jumped in, it was fun!!   We also ran into a bunch of kids cutting the stalks of rice that had fully ripened and they let us join in.  They don't use a machine to do this either.  They use a machete!!  I cut 2 stalks and was so slow compared to the kids. :)

Next stop was Bateay Srei which was a Shiva temple that was made from sandstone.  The details on this temple were amazing and we saw alot of familiar Hindu Gods on the temple.  Then we made our way to Kbal Spean.   I was not prepared for what was about to happen.  We hiked up 1 1/2 km of rough terrain on the slopes of Kulen Hills, and I mean rocks and crazy tree roots to get to get to a waterfall.   The water flows through areas and rocks where there are carvings of Shiva, Bramha, and Vishnu and therefore the water is considered very holy.  Seila explained that people come up to the waterfall to wash away their sins and ask for forgiveness.  We are supposed to first wash our hands with the water, then our face, then our hair.  We also drank the water from the stream because it is supposed to be natural healing water. 

We continued onto 3 more temples to finish off the temples on our list in Siem Reap.  It was exhausting, but totally worth it.  We're both sad that tomorrow will be our last day in this wonderful city.  We're flying to Da Nang, Vietnam tomorrow so we can make our way to Hoi An, Vietnam by late afternoon.