Today we had hired ourselves a car to take us to a full day tour to the remote temple of Koh Ker and the other real jungle temple, Beng Melea for 60$ (which was a negotiated, very fair price).
We left at about 10 o'clock, and the drive to Koh Ker took about 2,5-3hrs, 'cause the last bit of the road was a dirt road, not in the best of conditions. BUT then again, it depends on what you compare it to..if you compare it to the "roads" of Nepal in the Himalayas last year f.ex, then this road was in exellent condition!! ;D
So we went first to Koh Ker. It was a temple complex, actually, containing tens of smaller sites located a little way apart from theirselves in the middle of the remote forest. Other sites were smaller, others bigger. We visited about ~10 or so before headed to the main temple site, where lay the Pyramid.
Many of the smaller sites were really nice, and atmospheric, and interesting. In most of them there wasn't much reconstruation work done, only some minor things and nothing on some. But that actually was part of their charm, to see them in their natural state of ruin.
Of course, if there's nothing done in time, they'll slowly crumble away and eventually disappear. There also weren't anyone else there, just us, so we had our private ruins to explore! =)
How nice was that?!
..Only at the main temple there was people cutting some trees and there were coupla vendors selling stuff and food. Explored the site throughout, it was great, though I kinda liked the smaller ones more, they had somewhat more "character", and you cannot climb on top the great pyramid on the main site, 'cause the wooden ladders they have there are not in such a shape that it'd be safe in any way. Steps missing and broken, etc. Pity, 'cause it'd have been fun to climb there and there would have been awesome sights from the top, I'm sure. But after looking the site through, we ate lunch at one of the vendors. Nice lemin grass pork, ok quality meat, but just no spices, so there wasn't much taste despite the lemongrass used. And rice from their own field, I'm sure. Ok lunch still. We ad spent about 3hrs or so at Koh Ker, so it was time to drive to see Beng Melea still before sunset and dark. Our driver drove a bit faster.
Along the drive from Koh Ker you could see a different kind of rural Cambodia, since it has more woods in here. And people live in a bit more primitive shacks they've made for themselves..
There was also very much open spaces in the woods, where the trees had been cut down and sent/sold to Thailand, Japan, etc. to make furnitures etc. from the wood. And everywhere there were (KULOTUSTULI?!) fires burning to make the land suitable for farming. In other words, to grow rice. A bit sad looking those areas.. :P
Arrived to Beng Melea around 4.30 pm, I think. As soon as we got to the road leading to the south entrance 4 girls accompanied us, showing us the site. Well, though I usually don't care about things like that at all, this time they turned out to be te best temple tour guides we've ever had :D There wasn't any other tourists there, either (read: awesome!), so we had this temple all to ourselves as well.
As soon as the first door appeared, two of the girls jumped off the "official" wooden trail and over a small drop to the front of the stone door and us after them. :D And into the temple ruins from the little stone/wood door we went (that door is in the cover picture of this blog). :D ..And yes, of course that was strictly forbidden!
..But what followed was the most fun temple tour ever; we climbed over big piles of fallen and crumbled rocks inside the temple, through half open, half collapsed doorways, in the labyrinth and dark corridors of the ancient temple! Saw a great gallery hall, which arch sealing still stands, saw libraries, statues & carvings of shivas, vishnus and apsaras around the place. Went through narrow passages around the temple and finally arrived to where we left, to the south gate. All sweaty from all the climbing and all, but damn it was fun! :D Also, 'cause naturally some of the stones we're loose in the piles, it made the whole adventure more interesting. Heh, felt like the real Indy inside there! ;))
And the thing that it was forbidden, too! ;) But what a once in a lifetime chance this was to see the Beng Melea jungle temple, literally from the _inside!
So at the end we decided to give to our guides 1$/girl for a salary. Haha, they asked for 2$ each, but we told them not to get too "greedy". ;D
Niina went the same tour with her duo, but the other way around.
And then we drove home, as it got dark on the way. The rural villages in the darkness looked very nice, since in very many shacks there was a fire burning at the yard (since many don't have electricity), very atmospheric!
An awesome day overall!! Tomorrow we have a 6hrs ride to Kratie ahead of us, so after packing& shower, it's good night!