Cock River and other less phallic adventures

So again we started out fairly late. We secured a tuk tuk driver as we wanted to check out this weird temple river bed and another temple that are 50km from Siem Reip but still covered by our three day temple pass. It took about an hour and a half to drive to Kbal Spean or in translation "River of a thousand doodles". Actually the term traditionally used is "linga"which is basically a carved phallic shape symbolising fertility. The trip there was really dusty partly along a dry dirt road. But we observed some interesting country life along the way. Its weird here there are some petrol stations but you can also buy fuel for your motorbike basically anywhere along the road in old pepsi and jack daniels red labels bottles. We watched as this little boy no older than 4 ran out with the bottle and started to fill up the tank. Weird. But I digress again- back to the penis river. We had to walk 1.5 km's through the jungle and up a bit of a mountain to get to the river. The river bed is carved with 1000 of these phallic linga shapes. There are also some carvings of different deities both under the water and on rocks around.It was pretty cool and the jungle walk was beautiful. Tim got to check out some more fungus and interesting insects along the way and used all our camera battery photographing tree trunks.

After this we drove back towards Siem Riep and stopped at a temple called Banteay Srei or the "citadel of Women"". This is a temple dedicated to Shiva and although the temple itself is much smaller than most we have seen the carvings are by far the best. They are incredibly detailed and beautiful.

Now we have one day left in Siem Riep and we intend to chill out. Maybe some beers at a pub followed by fish foot massage! Then off to Bangkok on Friday and hopefully London here we come!