Angkor Day 1: Banteay Srei, Kbal Spean & Banteay Samre

Edit to last nights post, we made some friends with some of the other girls in our dorm and went out for dinner, street pancakes (banana & chocolate) and had a drink (G&T) before returning to the hostel as we all had earlyish starts. 

We started at 8:30 and drove to pick up our 7 day Angkor pass (US$60) then headed out to Banteay Srei. This is also known as the woman's temple, it's carved from red sandstone and dedicated to Shiva (Hindu goddess of destruction). While not much remains the carvings that remain were beautifully ornate and detailed. Parts show Hindu gods and deamons as well as the infamous monkey king from Ramayana, others show dancers and fine floral patterns.

We then jumped back on the toktok and headed further out to Kbal Spean, a mountain river with a carved riverbed showing Shiva and other gods/royalty as well as circular carvings all the way down the river to the baby waterfall. The walk to the top was signposted as 1500m, it wasn't an easy climb as some areas are very steep and the path is littered with rocks and tree roots. But you'll be breathing heavily even at a steady pace, granted it was quite warm around 12-1pm. All in all a lovely spot, well worth the walk. 

After eating lunch with our driver we set off again this time heading for Banteay Samre another Hindu based temple, most likely dedicated to Vishnu. Built around the same time as the Angkor Wat it shares similar architecture but on a comparatively smaller scale. We were shown a new area by one of the tour operators (manning a shrine) of an area that had been damaged under one of the inner towers. They're completely hollow and this one had bats living inside, the robbers had knocked in some ornamental pillars that acted as a screen. 

One of the gateways and the ornate carvings ontop 

The inner courtyard and pillars

Some of the detailing on the sides of the gateway

HaNoi to Siem Riep

After a lazy breakfast of Pho and packing up our gear, we headed out to find an early lunch at 4 mountains restaurant  (recommended by the hostel). We split a wheat noodle with beef and a glass noodle with crab, both were very tasty and filling. The place itself was nice and comparatively quiet, rather easy to loose yourself in thought as motorcycles pass by. 

After that we did a final check of our room and then checked out and awaited our ride to the airport. The flight to Siem Riep was essentially uneventful, it's similar to Europe where you can get on a plane and in 1-2hrs be in another country. Although I will say that the Siem Reip international airport is a very beautiful building (traditional rooftops and the like, I'll grab a picture on the way home) built so you can admire as you walk across the tarmac.

Our driver was lovely ad delivered us safely to our hostel (Siem Riep Hostel). 

View from our dorm window

He will also be available as our driver for the next 5 days. So we're going to shower, eat dinner and then plan out our day tomorrow since we start at 8:30 sharp :)