Day 34 Siem Reap

Easy morning with a decent breakfast at the hotel. We met Savy for a 30 min drive to Banteay Srei – the citadel of women. An enchanting temple,  small compared with the others we have seen but in pretty good shape considering all the war that has gone on in this area. Built of red sandstone in the 10th century and dedicated to the Hindu God Shiva. This is the most Indian of all the temples in Angkor. We continued on to Banteay Samre,  built under Suryavarman II and Yasovarman II in the early 12th century, also a Hindu temple built in the Angkor Wat style. Named after the Samré, an ancient people of Indochina, the temple uses the same materials as the Banteay Srei. Not much info given to us about this place but it is a well preserved complex.

Next stop Ton Le Sap Lake, the largest fresh water lake in South East Asia. The lake’s size varies considerably over the course of a year from an area of around 965 sq miles  at the end of the dry season in late April to an area of up to 6,178 sq miles in the rainy season. We took a boat ride out to the middle of the lake to see the floating villages, and yes, people live on the lake all year, Vietnamese in one area and Cambodians in another.  However in the height of the rainy season they move to the outskirts of the lake to avoid the dangers of monsoon rains. It is currently the dry season and the water level is extremely  low and very polluted.  It seems to be used as an open sewer with all the locals just dumping their trash into the lake. We were very careful not to fall in or get wet but the local kids were swimming and fishing in it!

Back early afternoon to the hotel, dropped off some laundry locally and caught a tuk tuk into Pub Street for a late lunch at The Red Piano.